piano and orchestra

To American conductor Mario di Bonaventura

I wrote this concerto in two phases: the first three movements in 1985-1986, and the last two in 1987 (the final copy was finished in January 1988). My evolution in the 1980s was influenced by the rhythmic conception of African Sub-Saharan musics, the metric and rhythmic conceptions of 14th-century proportional musics, and the new science of dynamic systems and fractal geometric configurations. I did not seek acoustic and musical illusions, which are so important to me, as an end in themselves, but they certainly underly my esthetic considerations. I like musical forms that are less “processes” than “objects”; music as time suspended, as an object in an imaginary space, music as a construction which, in spite of its development in time, is present at all times in our imagination. Abolish the notion of time, suspend time, confine us to the present moment, this is my supreme intention as a composer.

[English translation: Claire Cavanagh, ii-11]