Up to 3 – Festival 33,7

Alexander Müllenbach (*LU, 1949)
Capriccio (1994) violin solo – 4’
The Capriccio (per Niccolò Paganini) was written in 1994 at the instigation of the Russian violinist Elena Denissova, who ordered the work for a CD project with Capriccios by living composers. Already during the first meeting, I heard in my inner self how the piece began to develop out of the beginning of Paganini’s Capriccio N° 13 in A minor (…). The composition process was really quick; in just one day, (…) the piece was finished. Several violinists subsequently played the Capriccio, including Benjamin Schmid and the famous Ruggiero Ricci, who learned it by heart at the age of 80. (Etablissement public Salle de Concerts, translated by Jil Hamm for United instruments of Lucilin)

Claude Lenners (*LU, 1956)
Zenit (1990) for flute, violin and saxophone – 5’
Zenit was written in 1990 during Claude Lenners’ stay at the Villa Medici in Rome. The nervous writing, the juxtaposition of voices and the proximity of the tessituras create a kind of tension between the three instruments (flute, violin and saxophone) and finally reach the “Zenit”.

Marco Pütz (*LU, 1958)
Salome’s Dance (2012) for saxophone and violin – 6’
Dedicated to Mélina Zéléniuc
“The piece evoked the different aspects of Salome’s seductive dance; the play was ingenious, its dialogues full of freshness charmed by their fantasy” (Hilda van Heel 30.10.2013, translated by Jil Hamm for United Instruments of Lucilin)

Alexander Müllenbach (*LU, 1949)
Gesang des schwarzen Vogels (2002) clarinet solo – 3’
The song signifies a kind of contrast to Messiaen’s phrase “Abîmes des oiseaux”. The blackbird is a bird of doom and terror. The form is a kind of ritornello, where the opening theme returns several times in an obsessive manner. Great dynamic, figural and ambitorial contrasts characterise the sound.

Anne Castex (*FR, 1993)
De l’un à l’autre (2019) for flute, clarinet and saxophone (2019) – 5‘
D’un son
De l’unique au complexe
Du seul au multiple
De l’uni au bariolé
De l’entente au démêlé
De l’un détente à l’un tension
De l’autre brumeux à l’autre distinct
Aux autres

Garth Knox (*IRL, 1956)
No pitch, no problem (2018) violin solo – 3’
No pitch, no problem is a study in noise. How to enjoy sounds without worrying about ‘right’ notes and ‘wrong’ ones, and how to give them meaning.

With: André Pons-Valdès (violin), Winnie Cheng (violin), Sophie Deshayes (flute), Max Mausen (clarinet), Olivier Sliepen (saxophone)