Danny Elfman: Percussion Concerto, Wunderkammer

Release May 17, 2024

CD Edition

Wunderkammer is a commission from the UK's National Youth Orchestra recorded with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

Percussion has always been an important part of my life. From my travels in West Africa at 18, when I started collecting and learning to play “balafons” (a kind of African version of the marimba), through the years I spent playing in Indonesian Gamelan ensembles in my 20s, to building my own strange metal and wood percussion sets in my early years of theater performance, it has always been an obsession for me.

Shortly after premiering my first violin concerto, I had a chance encounter with percussionist Colin Currie in London. We decided it would be a lot of fun to create a piece together. I was excited to dive into the challenge of another concerto and, at the same time, return to my roots with wood and metal, mallets, sticks, and hands. I also knew that Colin was an extraordinary musician with whom it would be great to collaborate.
Furthermore, I was aware that there were far fewer concertos for percussion than for piano, violin, cello, etc., and that meant there were far fewer models to guide me, which made the idea of a percussion concerto much more appealing.