Jarrell, Michael: Un temps de silence

"It's not really a concerto as such, but it's more like one than other pieces," the composer has teasingly confided. "Certainly, there is none of traditional division of roles between the soloist and the accompaniment. The flute is constantly having to impose itself. The orchestra is not there to bring it out, but as its own autonomous role. In that sense, ...un temps de silence... is closer to my Piano Concerto than to ...prismes / incidence..., where everything came from the violin". As the title of this new work suggests, the music is moving in the direction of evaporation. Jarrell's own comments back this up: "I wanted to make it possible to hear different types of silence, and the only way you can perceive them is by varying the contexts. The sort of silence you have after a single chord is not the same as after a flurry of notes." Several temporal ideas are pitted against one another. The first of these is very rhythmic, and emerges from the orchestra before being taken up by the flute. Another corresponds to "moments that stand outside time, that slip towards silence". Fiendishly difficult writing demands increasing virtuosity from the soloist.