Michael Torke

Michael Torke’s “Last Summer”: Music for Solo Violin and String Orchestra

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Last Summer by American composer Michael Torke (b. 1961) is a reflection on the passage of time. Its quietly noble descending bass line is set in sixths, a rich interval Brahms used in his most nostalgic works. (For example, listen to the opening of the autumnal Intermezzo in A Major, Op. 118). This excerpt is part of a collection of twelve meditative pieces for violin and string orchestra, composed in 2025, simply …

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Michael Torke’s “Last Year”: Music for Solo Violin and String Orchestra

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Last Year by American composer Michael Torke (b. 1961) suggests the beautiful melancholy of a cold, overcast winter day. The solo violin’s contemplative melody emerges over frigid, unrelenting pizzicati. As the music develops, the concertmaster picks up the melody and enters into a duet with the soloist. To my ears, there are echoes of the music of Tchaikovsky at its loneliest and most brooding. This is part of a collection of twelve meditative …

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Michael Torke’s “Run”: A Shifting Musical Panorama

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Run is a brief and exhilarating orchestral showpiece written by American composer Michael Torke in 1992. The work is filled with boundless energy and forward motion. It evokes a bright, gradually shifting landscape. The work is launched into motion with string flourishes and the crack of the woodblock. The short, repeating motif takes shape through a pulse-driven additive process reminiscent of the music of Steve Reich. Here is the composer’s program note: Run …

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Michael Torke’s “Last Month”: New Music for Solo Violin and String Orchestra

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Last Month, the newest installment of American composer Michael Torke’s Last was released earlier this week. Scored for solo violin and string orchestra, the collection of twelve meditative pieces can be performed separately, or as a whole. The titles evoke memories and the passage of time. (Last Fall, Last Year, Last Month, Last Sunday, etc.) Torke comments that they “are almost like second movements of violin concertos.” His program notes for Last are as follows: The Stoics recommend …

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Michael Torke’s “Last Fall”: New Music for Solo Violin and String Orchestra

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American composer Michael Torke (b. 1961) has just completed a new concerto for solo violin and string orchestra simply titled Last. Last is a collection of twelve meditative pieces that can be performed separately, or as a whole. The titles evoke memories and the passage of time. (Last Fall, Last Year, Last Month, Last Sunday, etc.) Torke comments that they “are almost like second movements of violin concertos.” His program notes for Last are as follows: The Stoics recommend …

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Michael Torke’s “Javelin”: A Glistening “Sonic Olympiad”

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In August of 1996, Gramophone magazine hailed American composer Michael Torke (b. 1961) for writing “some of the most optimistic, joyful and thoroughly uplifting music to appear in recent years.” Two months earlier, the New York Times described Torke as “a master orchestrator whose shimmering timbral palette makes him the Ravel of his generation.” We hear all of this in Torke’s glistening 1994 overture, Javelin. Described as a “sonic olympiad,” the work was …

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Michael Torke’s “December”: Feelings, Impressions, and Memories

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Setting aside its evocative title, we can appreciate December, a 1995 work for string orchestra by American composer Michael Torke (b. 1961), as pure music. Developing from a single spirited motive seed, heard in the opening measures, December unfolds as a spirited contrapuntal conversation. At moments, its shifting bass line forms an ostinato, one of the oldest musical devices. We are reminded of the lush English string orchestra music of Vaughan Williams, Finzi, and Tippett. …

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