Manfred Trojahn, who celebrates his 60th birthday on 22 October, has composed an orchestral work for the Bach Week in Ansbach 2009. sentimento del tempo will be contrasted with Johann Sebastian Bach’s 4th Brandenburg Concerto in a concert given by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.
The “encounter” between a new composition by Manfred Trojahn and Bach’s 4th Brandenburg Concerto firstly brings to mind questions about scoring, for the performance practice of Bach’s works over the last century has a chequered history. For a long time, the concerto, which is scored for two solo recorders and a violin and string orchestra with basso continuo, was performed on modern instruments. “My very first performance in a concerto was in 1967 in Braunschweig as flautist in this very 4th Brandenburg Concerto, and I naturally played a transverse flute”, recalls Manfred Trojahn. “Even in the 1980s things were such, that views about what constituted an original sound were extremely personal, and resisted objective analysis. This is ultimately a – resolutely ‘modern’ – contribution to the individualisation of our time.” The performance in Ansbach with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra will naturally use historic or early instruments which bring with them certain implications for the new composition, particularly with regard to intonation, and influenced Trojahn whilst composing. “With my previous work Ariosi, which was premiered by the Camerata Salzburg with Roger Norrington, this very particular sound played a special role and was very attractive for me.”
Manfred Trojahn’s sentimento del tempo. musik für violine solo, zwei flöten und streicher. ansbachisches konzert 2009 will form an addition to the playful and concertante gestures of Bach’s concerto in several respects. He explicitly leaves open the question of using recorders or transverse flutes. The instruments are used for their tone colours, not as concertante solo instruments as in Bach. “They are allocated specific tasks which they take over as wind instruments within an orchestral sound, though I see this piece as one for violin solo, a string orchestra and two flutes. These are orchestral, rather than solo parts; in other words, there is not the division into concertino and orchestra as there is with Bach. Furthermore, it is very important to me to form a contrast to Bach’s extremely energetic work in this concert.” In sentimento del tempo, Trojahn has composed a calm, one-movement work which doesn’t present playful, concertante virtuosity, but instead, places expressivity in the foreground.
Marie Luise Maintz
from: [t]akte 1/2009