Thierry Escaich: Concerto pour violon et orchestre (2009)
Thierry Escaich
born 8 May 1965 in Nogent-sur-Marne, France
First performance:
8 October 2009 at the Auditorium Maurice Ravel in Lyon by David Grimal (violon) and the Orchestre national de Lyon conducted by Christian Arming
CD recording:
David Grimal 2009, live recording of the premiere
The spirit of the passacaglia dominates this violin concerto, says the informative booklet accompanying the CD release of this violin concerto by organist and composer Thierry Estaich.
Passacaglia is originally a Spanish dance, the word is composed of pasar and calle (to go across the street). Typical is the constant repetition of an ostinato bass over which variations are
played.
Strict and free variations characterise this violin concerto. Escaich is also a much respected improviser on the organ. He is one of the young French composers who want to overcome the phase
of serial music without tonally abandoning the extended sound world of modernism. Thus, this violin concerto reflects the rigour and relentlessness of the basic motif in the orchestra and the
freedom of soloistic playing in the violin part.
The Violin Concerto from 2009, which lasts about 20 minutes, is composed in one run, but nevertheless reveals four characteristic sections, namely a strict dark march at the beginning, then a
painful scherzo, a phase of expectation and "no-mans-land" (Thierry Estaich) and, as a finale, the actual passacaglia. These sections "are linked by transitional periods characterised by a
certain suspension of time and in which the thematic material is shaped and deformed" (Thierry Escaich).
Further information
on the genesis of this concerto can be found in diary notes published by Thierry Escaich in the magazine L' Express and available on the internet.
The recording of the premiere can be heard here.
Listening companion:
March
Right at the beginning, a sombre march motif takes us on a journey into a conflictual world. It insists darkly on the augmented fourth and repeating notes. It will change again and again in the course of the concerto and finally become the passacaglia theme. The solo violin immediately counters this strict rhythm with an ascending scale (2nd motif), but has to start again and again from the beginning and the bottom like Sisyphus with his boulder. The strings of the orchestra support the solo violin, but an immediately emerging fanfare motif (3rd motif) interferes and suppresses any success of a liberation. A brief lightening of the mood in harps and flutes and solo violin remains an episode, the dominant first march theme returns.
Scherzo
Caught in the relentless threat to its existence, the solo violin escapes into a frantic Vivace, pursued by offshoots of the fanfare motif. The violin seeks new energy in desperately stressful progressions and fierce accents. But the march motif reappears, and only slowly does the second scale motif reappear, until the mood lightens enigmatically (in sounds of flute, harp and celesta). The scale motif also appears briefly, until a simple chorale-like melody promises peace and hope. The violin still searches uncertainly for its way. But soon the violin is bubbling frantically again. Only slowly and ponderously (in double stops!) does the violin ascend its scales. Underground orchestral attacks accumulate and gain the upper hand; the throbbing, threatening march motif also asserts itself, the orchestra explodes and demonstrates its power.
No man's Land
The violin has no choice but to escape into a "no man's land". Contours dissolve, waiting for something new, vibrations in the orchestra and renewed searching movements in the solo violin up to
the highest registers.
Harp chords form and become an accompanying foundation for the violin searching for a melody.
Passacaglia
Harp chords develop and become an accompanying foundation for the violin, which is searching for a melody. Then the passaglia begins, which builds on the march motif of the beginning, but now comes across as quite conciliatory. The violin finds a melody, but is then threateningly cornered again until it takes over the passacaglia theme in pizzicato. The variations on this path of the passacaglia begin, this "pasar" on the "calle" of life. The music becomes more playful, without being able to strip away the conflictual nature of existence. Episodes take turns, sometimes light-footed, sometimes melancholy, sometimes wailing, sometimes inquiring, sometimes hurrying, sometimes accelerating, sometimes introducing the scale motif, always interrupted by the orchestra or driven to new energy. Constantly stressfully moving forward, until abruptly a drumbeat breaks everything up and stops the passacaglia.