Contrasts - Music for Orchestra

CONTRASTS – MUSIC FOR ORCHESTRA was created in 2002, commissioned by the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra (Germany), where it premiered the same year under the direction of Thomas Kalb with the score later published by the Bim publishing house in Switzerland. The work was also featured at the opening of the Moscow Autumn Festival in November 2004 in the performance of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra with conductor Mark Gorenstein, and in February 2008 also performed in Turku, Finland, under the baton of Petri Sakari. Foreign music critics have pointed out „the brilliant mastery of orchestration, the richness of timbre nuances, the plasticity of timbral modulations and the vividness of juxtaposition. [These are] contrasts in timbre, in tempo, as well as textural, dynamical, imagerial, thematic contrasts... In some magical and unattainable fashion, Minchev has managed to furnish the overall form, with the sense of completeness / wholeness resulting from the use of the compositional arch – the mysterious bell pealing from afar in the opening and closure of the work ... ”. (Kultura, Moscow, November 11-17, 2004); "... a moving composition, more precisely – a brilliant one... What should a composer do to make his music less difficult for the listener to comprehend? Minchev had an excellent recipe... ” (Turun Sonomat, Turku, March 1, 2008). And here are the author's own words, as featured in the program annotation for the premiere concert in Heidelberg: "When I received an invitation from Maestro Thomas Kalb to write a symphonic piece especially for the new concert season of the Heidelberg Philharmonic, I set out to create a work which was at the same time virtuosic and full of bravura, but also a pronouncedly emotional and poetic one. It utilizes different and always shifting dynamics, tempo and character – in some places aggressive and calm at other moments – with powerful climaxes, followed by frozen soundlessness. I employed the capabilities – dynamics, timbre, and colour – of the modern symphony orchestra, exploiting the devices of various modern schools of composition, but not beyond the context of musical traditions. I tried to weave carefully and delicately into the symphonic texture elements of the art of jazz, chamber music, virtuoso performances by individual soloists and entire orchestral groups, and perhaps something almost elusive, some tiny "code" from the past, the ancient history and the culture of my native country. It was because of all these things that I have called my piece Contrasts. In short: I tried to write a "firework music" with a lot of colour and tempo nuances, dynamics and character – a small curtsy to the wonderful ensemble of the Heidelberg Philharmonic and the exquisite Heidelberg audience. "