EMTO, In Tragically Optimistic Memory by D de Williencourt, cello concerto
Reference EFA 101
Concerto opus 16, for cello and string orchestra.
Version for cello and piano
1) Prelude, Allegro Moderato to listen : Prelude and Allegro Moderato.mp3
2) Lamentoso to listen : Lamentoso.mp3
3) Gigue to listen : Gigue.mp3
Duration : 26.00 mns
E. M. T. O. In Tragically Optimistic Memory
When I am crushed, my ashes will still hold you in my arms. Memory of the permanence of the present time. So that the spirit lives. So that the memory lives.
The writing of a cello concerto became clear to me during my tours with string orchestras. Since the baroque and classical eras, few composers have written for this formation, whereas the dialogue between the string quintet and the solo instrument allows for a true research of sonorities, timbres, dynamics and intertwined modes.
I pay tribute, by a brief allusion, to 4 composers: Monteverdi - Lasciatemi morire, Haydn - concerto in D, Dutilleux - Tout un monde lointain, and a jazz standard - Douces. This concerto is dedicated to my brother Antoine, who became severely multi-handicapped after his birth. He made us understand that in spite of the vicissitudes of life, one must know how to remain tragically optimistic. Like the dawn which, each day, erases the night.
Commissioned by the Festival du Vexin on the proposal of its artistic director and pianist Dimitris Saroglou, the premiere took place on October 7, 2012 with the Chamber Orchestra of the Garde Républicaine conducted by Sébastien Billard and the author. Premieres in Sevastopol (Ukraine) 2012, Moscow (Russia) - Geological Museum, with the orchestra Musica Viva, dir. A. Rudin, 05/13, Vienna (Austria) 04/14, Yerevan (Armenia) 06/14, Vilnius (Lithuania) 04/15, Istanbul (Turkey) 10/15, concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris on 28 October 2015...
I performed a version for cello and piano premiered during a recital at the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud in Aix en Provence on October 13, 2015, with Olivier Lechardeur at the piano, to pay tribute to this house where I started learning the cello between 1967 and 1977.
