îles englouties

Beschreibung
"The title of the work »îles englouties« alludes to two pieces that have become particularly important for me over the years. It is easy to guess the first reference—Debussy’s famous tenth Prélude from the first book which he named »La cathedrale engloutie«. In my piece one can find some of Debussy’s chords and melodies, sunken in the sound of bells and in between the rapid gestures of my music. Yet they stay stay recognizeable and will once in a while come to the surface.

In 2015 I begun to write a series of «island»-pieces. The first work in this series was my piano concerto «Las Islas Aguadas». I then re-orchestrated a great part of the concerto’s material and thus «L’isola morta» for symphonic orchestra originated. «îles englouties» roots in the piano concerto as well. Yet, enmashed in Debussy’s music, it forms a completely new work on its own.

In the final movement, another impressionistic piano work is being cited. As in my previous »island«-pieces, allusions to the Spanish tradition are made. In the present piece I took a very short section of Albeniz’s musical monument «Iberia» and merged it with Debussy’s chorus of «La cathedral engloutie» and lots of bell-like chords to a mountainous glorification of an iridescent soundscape."
Christoph Renhart [2020]