Transfigurations (2022)
(Concerto for solo recorder and string orchestra)

Leaving aside the spiritual opaqueness (or in plain English: mumbo-jumbo) often involved when defining the word Transfiguration, we are left with a simple explanation: a figure or character in transit, undergoing several changes en route. Which also defines music, where a recognizable theme is being hauled through the “wringer” of development. Which is the case in the present piece, or pieces, to be precise. The first bars in each of the two movements are almost identical, but the journeys – or transits, however thematically related - are different - but not dramatically so, they´re two sides of the same coin. Another sort of transit is afoot in the piece, the relay run of the various recorders, from tenor to soprano to alto to sopranino and back again. It's not a virtuosic solo concerto in the classical sense, recorder and strings are mutually interwoven, but make no mistake: the solo part does stand out from the crowd (politely put).

Poul Ruders, September 2022