• Poul Ruders
  • Concertino (2008)

  • Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)
  • 0.0.0+cbcl.0+cbn/1010/pf/vn.vc.db
  • btbn
  • 14 min

Programme Note

Concertino for virtuoso solo bass trombone and eight instruments is written for Stefan Schulz, bass trombonist with the Berlin Philharmonic, and Århus Sinfonietta .

It´s a short piece in three movements, approximately 15 minutes all together, and the title of each movement should give the audience a slight ´whiff´ of the character of the music in question.

The first movement is called Bossa Nova, literally new trend, a well known and much loved and highly sensual rhythmic pattern purportedly invented in Brazil in 1958 by Joao Gilberto.

In my piece the bossa nova takes it time to appear in its pure shape; I patiently build up the right corporeal feeling of the samba-based cool swing. And, lo-and-behold, when we reach the solo-cadenza, it´s all there. But only for a short while…

When a slow, tonal(D-flat major)canon appears under the label Ernster Gesang, it´s hardly surprising, that a certain Song Cycle by Johannes Brahms has been humming gently in the far recesses of my mind when composing this little bel canto.
Whereas Hector Berlioz has absolutely nothing to do with the third and last movement, in spite of the title Idée Fixe., i.e. the specific sort of leit motif known from his famous programmatic works.

The idée fixe in my piece is more like a ´bee-in-the-bonnet´. The movement is a Rondo, the recurring ritornello persistently popping up again and again in the underlying accompaniment like a…well… idée fixe…

- Poul Ruders, November 2008

Scores

Score preview