Par SORENSEN BENT . When it comes to titles, almost all the works I have composed have found their title before or at the same moment I started them. That is why it was also surprising - not to say transgressive - for me that my work for 9 instruments for Ensemble MidtVest was completely untitled until the last bar. Then it dawned on me that the titlelessness was a natural result of the music's volatility. It was - and is - as if the music was constantly escaping from itself. The beginning of the work is definitely an escape into a new chapter, and that feeling runs through the entire work. In a longer section, the music flies towards a Barcarole, where the piano has a soloist role, and this is probably a result of my recurring dream of Venice - the gondolas in the swaying rhythms of the canals. Hence the Italian title, 'Fuggitivo' - fugitive. The work was composed for and commissioned by Ensemble MidtVest with support from the Danish Arts Foundation. / Date parution : 2023-10-31/ Répertoire / Orchestre

Par CASABLANCAS BENET. Shade and Darkness, lasting some 12:30 minutes, was co-commissioned by the Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical and the Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada. The work is inspired by Turner's famous painting of the same name, subtitled 'The Night Before the Flood', although this does not imply any programmatic or even less descriptive intention, beyond the composer's admiration for the painter, and for the richness of tones and chiaroscuro, subtlety in the treatment of pictorial matter, and the dynamism and emotional force present in his work, to whose depth John Ruskin alludes: 'Nuance is in Turner, first of all, a beautiful aid to the great impression to be conveyed, but it is neither the source nor the essence of that impression; it is little more than a visible melody... preparing the feelings for the reading of the mysteries of God.' The score, generous in expressive contrasts, explores the ductility and richness of possibilities of the strings, with a very diversified use of textures, densities and colours. The formal arrangement describes a wide ternary arc, consisting of two slow and often static sections - not without ominous foreboding - and a more lively central part, punctuated by occasional turbulence and dazzling flashes of timbre, culminating in a powerful climactic process. In the final bars the four voices of the classical quartet fleetingly emerge, as a tribute to Günter Pichler, founder and member of the Alban Berg Quartet, to whom the score is dedicated, and who conducted the premiere of the work in front of the Joven Orquesta Nacional de España on 24 and 25 June 2014 at the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid and in the Patio de los Mármoles del Hospital Real in Granada. / Date parution : 2022-03-15/ Répertoire / Petit Orchestre

Symphonic Etudes. Par SHCHEDRIN RODION. Many of Rodion Shchedrin’s compositions are distinguished by deeply Slavonic feeling and thrilling virtuoso displays. Even though Shchedrin has won recognition all over the world for his work, he remains an essentially Russian composer who has not broken off his ties to Russian musical folk traditions and poetry. It is thus not surprising to learn of his profound admiration for his compatriot Shostakovich (Shchedrin writes: “He is like a God to me.”) The “dialogues” in this one-movement orchestral piece give expression to this admiration; they describe and offer a musical commentary on the character of Shostakovich’s music and of the man himself. / Études et exercices / Répertoire / Orchestre