Fantasy for Viola and Piano

Score and one (viola) part

I composed the Fantasie for viola and piano in February and March 1994 as homage to Bartók and Ravel, these two very opposite kinds of heroes and pioneers of the Early Modern era. For me, this time is the most aesthetically interesting and productive in recent music history – from Stravinsky’s Firebird to Ravel’s piano concert. I believe these aesthetics ended prematurely during the twelve-tone revolution: in the long run, the New Music alienated itself from its listeners, just as modern lyrics no longer have many readers. Fortunately, anything is possible in postmodernism, even a piece like this one, which acts as if Schönberg never existed. While the serious first theme is based on Bartók and the third dazzling theme on Ravel, the wistful second theme sounds almost late romanticist – but how else is the idea of longing supposed to sound? And as I sometimes find Bartók too melancholy, he doesn’t have the last word in the fantasy piece either. After some elegiac, dramatic, mournful passages, the piece ends with the same wild happiness I simply associate with music and life. The fantasy premiered on 20/6/94 at the Young Composers’ Forum in Hamburg, with Hanno Felthaus doing a wonderful job on the viola. Luckily, there is a recording of it, and it can be heard on my website. That’s roughly how I imagine the piece to be!
I am always delighted to receive recordings and comments: mail@soerensieg.de.

number of pages: 
32
Price: 
19,90 Euro