• Mauricio Kagel
  • Das Konzert (2001)
    (for solo flute, harp, percussion and strings)

  • Henry Litolff’s Verlag GmbH & Co. KG (World)

für Flöte, Harfe, Schlagzeug und Streicher

  • fl + perc/hp/str
  • Flute
  • 23 min

Programme Note

Those moments when you are not working at your desk, but simply trying to organize ideas and material for a future work in your mind, are probably among the most exciting moments of a composer's life. In contrast to sitting in front of a sheet of paper with the disconcerting empty staves, there is no limit to the imagination. Possible and impossible variants buzz around in my head, invention and idealization need not take into account the reality of performance practice. But it is precisely at this time that I gradually begin to suspect what is to be avoided in the future piece and what requirements I should set myself. It was no different during the creation of “Das Konzert”, a work commissioned by the Kunststiftung NRW.

In contrast to the usual structure in individual movements, I set out to write a single-movement opus, albeit with frequent changes of tempo and mood. Furthermore, I did not want to write an apotheosis of soloistic virtuosity, as is often revealed in instrumental cadenzas. Two anti-cadenzas of sparse tones seemed to me more suitable to do justice to the basic gesture and resolute expressive will of the piece, and only in a dialog between equal partners; harp, percussion and strings should not take on a subordinate, merely accompanying function. Finally, the architecture of the work should be based on basic tempi, each time carried by music of a different character.

One could compare this composition to a confusing labyrinth: Similar to a wandering observer who repeatedly realizes that the liberating doors at the end of the corridors are nothing more than painted trompe-l'oeil, the listener will find signposts here, musical aerial images that incorporate reality and deception at the same time, thus giving the illusion of unambiguity.

M.K.
(Translation by Edition Peters)

Media

Discography

Das Konzert - Phantasiestück - Pan

Das Konzert - Phantasiestück - Pan
  • Label
    Naxos
  • Conductor
    Patrick Gallois / Robert H P Platz
  • Ensemble
    Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä / Ensemble Contrasts
  • Soloist
    Paulo Álvares (piano)
  • Released
    3rd April 2012