PERFORMANCES

Donaueschinger Musiktage 2016: SWR Symphonieorchester, Alejo Pérez (Conductor), Mike Svoboda (Trombone); 16.10.2016; world premiere
Wien Moden 2016: ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Cornelius Meister (Conductor), Mike Svoboda (Trombone); 03.11.2016

 

PROGRAM NOTE

„My Trombone Concerto was composed in 2015/16. I wrote it for Mike Svoboda; the sonic beauty of his playing, his great musicality and the clear rationality of his thinking had already impressed me at our first meeting in Basel. I decided to refrain from drawing on Mike’s explorations of newer playing techniques and instead focus on the instrument’s historical vocabulary.

As in many of my pieces, I worked here with contrasting sections: a tonal harmonic quotation (with some quartertone shadings) at the start, an expressive middle section based on emotionally-charged speech melodies (leading to a drawn-out climax), and a songlike ending whose melody consists of very small microtonal steps.

There is also a meta-level – removed from the immediate expressivity of the music – in the form of recollections of Armin Köhler, who was a trombonist himself and commissioned me to write the piece.“
(Georg Friedrich Haas)

PRESS QUOTES

 „It makes you tremble to hear the orchestra become a somehow liquid body“ (ZEIT)
„a particularly powerful contribution to this year’s Donaueschingen Festival“ (Neue Züricher  Zeitung)
 „a compact work with a distinctive aura“ (Der Standard)

WORK INFORMATION

Trombone concerto (2016)
2.picc.2.ca.2.bcl.2.cbsn – 4.3.3.1 – timp.2perc.hp – strings (12.10.8.8.6)
Commissioner: SWR, Wien Modern, Wiener Konzerthaus, ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Sinfonieorchester Basel, supported by Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung
Duration: 25:00