“With Michael Wollny, I meet someone for whom music is also an expression of an immediate sense of life.”
On January 18, Genesis by Bernd Franke will premiere with Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and pianist Michael Wollny, conducted by Alan Gilbert.
The work is inspired by Franke’s understanding of beauty in music. He says, “For me, there always has to be some ‘sound’, there are a lot of clusters and noises in Genesis, the question is simply in what context you place them.”
The piano concerto consists of five movements: Prolog, Landscapes, Mirrors, Mirrors in the Mirror, Epilog. The movements are often connected by transitions as the development of the musical form plays an important role for this concerto. It is the idea of transitions between different aggregate states that intertwines one movement with another.
The concerto owes its unusual form to the exchange of the composer with the soloist. Franke says that composing for renowned jazz pianist Michael Wollny was an opportunity to try something new. “Michael Wollny was a great challenge for me, a soloist who needs space for his own developments and doesn't come from the sphere of New Music.”
Genesis was commissioned by Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. The collaboration between the orchestra and the composer dates back to 1984.
A second performance of the concerto follows the next day, January 19. For more information, see the website of Gewandhausorchester.
