Martinsson, Rolf
Bridge - Study score (A4)
10866In stock
Bridge - Piano excerpt incl. sue (A4)
11055In stock
Web comment by the composer:
"Bridge, Trumpet Concerto No. 1 was commissioned by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (GSO) with the support of Rikskonserter. The work received a successful premiere in Gothenburg's Konserthus in April 1999 under the direction of Neeme Järvi and with Håkan Hardenberger as soloist. Shortly afterwards the GSO undertook a tour to England with a performance of the work in Birmingham.Since then, Bridge has been performed four times by the Detroit Symphony (DSO), on a tour of Scotland with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and on tour in Germany with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leif Segerstam acclaimed performance at the Philharmonie in Berlin.Bridge was selected for the Nordic Music Days in Finland 2000 to represent Sweden in the orchestral genre and the piece was awarded the ASCAP AWARD for the performances with the DSO in the USA in the fall of 2002, a CD recording of the piece was released at BIS
Bridge consists of three major parts linked together with a lyrical and a dramatic cadence in the solo trumpet part. The solo part initially meets the various instrument groups in short duels. After this introduction, the development of longer symphonic forms begins. The first large part has its starting point in a melodic name cipher from Håkan Hardenberger's name and the music undulates through large orchestral culminations. After this moderately moving part follows a slow part with many sonorous shadings such as playing on water-filled wine glasses, so-called musical glasses. The closing part is extremely fast and virtuosic, which places very high demands on both soloist and orchestra. The harmonic tonal material is based to some extent on stackings of thirds, which is why in some parts of the work you can experience how the music sometimes balances in tonal border areas, while other parts stack a tighter consonance through connections between fourths, tritones and fifths. The melodic tonal material has several starting points such as dim scale, chromaticism, broken thirds stacked chords etc.
Håkan Hardenberger's absolutely brilliant playing gives me as a composer a fantastic space to realize my musical ideas. He has an amazing ability to "color" his playing and adapt the timbre to different musical characters. Important have been the conversations we had about the work as a whole as well as about the detailed design of the articulation in the solo part. I want to meet the person I am composing for in a kind of musical dialogue. It is important to me that the final form emerges from the details during the course of writing, that the spontaneous choice is given the opportunity to follow the inspiration of the moment. This represents a way of working that appeals to me a lot."
Rolf Martinsson
Sound samples:
Håkan Hardenberger, solo
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, cond. Neeme Järvi
BIS-CD-1208
