Concerto pour trompette, d'après Cyrano de Bergerac

The writing of this Trumpet Concerto was born from a kind of challenge. I was tempted by the idea of applying to the string orchestra and in a concertante form what I had experimented a year earlier with my piece Masques for solo violin and cello. I was guided by the desire to start from a slightly archaic modal simplicity to gradually introduce a counterpoint and richer, even loaded, harmonies, while preserving, as much as possible, the unity of the style. The main thread of the concerto is a very long, ample theme, which proceeds in ascending stages. Thanks to modal fluctuations, it reaches peaks of intensity on several occasions before finally getting lost in the bass of the instrument. In contrast to this very slow tempo, the theme of the central rhythmic part is announced by violent punctuations, stinging like whiplashes. Its nervousness, its stubborn agitation, which focuses on certain poles in an almost obsessive way, creates an effect of contrast. After an explosive climax, the first theme reappears, mixed with the second, which gradually fades away, while the tempo slows down to extinction. Karol Beffa