Concertino for Bass Trombone

CONCERTINO for virtuoso solo bass trombone and eight instruments was written for Stefan Schulz, bass trombonist with the Berlin Philharmonic, and Aarhus Sinfonietta. It is a short piece in three movements, approximately 15 minutes all together, and the title of each movement should give the audience a slight whiff of the character of the music in question. The first movement is called BOSSA NOVA, literally new trend, a well known and much loved and highly sensual rhythmic pattern, purportedly invented in Brazil in 1958 by Joao Gilberto. In my piece the bossa nova takes its time to appear in its pure shape; I patiently build up the right corporeal feeling of the samba-based cool swing. And, lo-andbehold, when we reach the solo cadenza, it is all there. But only for a short while ... When a slow, tonal (D-flat major) canon appears under the label ERNSTER GESANG, it is hardly surprising that a certain song cycle by Johannes Brahms (yes, 'Vier Ernster Gesdnge') had been humming gently in the far recesses of my mind when composing this little be/ canto. Whereas Hector Berlioz has absolutely nothing to do with the third and last movement, in spite of the title IDEE FIXE., i.e. the specific sort of leitmotif known from his famous programmatic works. The idie .fixe in my piece is more like a 'bee-in-the-bonnet'. The movement is a rondo, the recurring ritornello persistently popping up again and again in the underlying accompaniment like a ... well ... idie .fixe .. .