Staar, René: Gemini A5

A reversal of usual clichés reveals an innovative facet of the treatment of the piccolo in the Gemini Duo written for the exceptional philharmonic piccolo player Günter Federsel. The piccolo is deprived of its customary tendency to soar in its brightest, highest range, which overrides everything else, and sometimes even becomes a secondary voice beneath violin flageolettes. Its traditional characterizations are only used as a means of contrast in this piece, whose dynamics are basically determined by the piano. Formally, the composer works with an ever-changing refrain and contrasting episodes that caricature traditional piccolo playing as a kind of reminiscence. This piece becomes a kind of mini-epic, whose division into episodes and a refrain gives it an individual formal character.