orchestra

Commission: OSM, with support from the CCA

Premiere: April 11, 2007, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM); Kent Nagano, conductor • Concert, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier — Place des Arts, Montréal (Québec)

For this concerto I drew my inspiration from two composers being performed this evening: Beethoven and Rossini. The one offers a deeply thought-out music, and the other a lighter and more approachable music.

These two composers stirred me the desire to create a piece all in dualities, particularly between the harmonic and melodic aspects, between the behaviours of the instrument groups, between the material and its treatment and, finally, through a conception of discourse that alternates between action and introspection.

For the piece I asked myself a number of questions concerning our perception of the music of the past and its impact in our everyday life: what is entertainment music, today? The waltz? Folk music? Rap? Techno-rave? Can we still propose a music that is filled with emotion without descending into cheap pathos?

The musical reflection probably does more to raise questions that to provide answers. One thing is sure, though: I’ve tried to find a middle ground and to unite these two opposing universes in a music that is simply human and that endeavours above all to communicate the pleasure that I get from music.