Kurt Schwertsik: new Divertimento for Hardenberger
(November 2007)
Kurt Schwertsik’s new work for Håkan Hardenberger, a Divertimento for trumpet and orchestra, is premiered on 19 December at the Essen Philharmonie with the Tonkünstler-Orchester conducted by Kristjan Järvi. The Austrian premiere follows at the Musikverein in Vienna on 29 March and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra presents the UK premiere in the 2008/09 season, all with Hardenberger as soloist.
Schwertsik remembers a surfeit of divertimenti during his youth in Vienna, but he has finally succumbed with a work that in characteristic fashion subverts expectations and is not as simple as it appears. The score is headed by a quote from the close of Italo Calvino’s Il cavaliere inesistente (The non-existent knight) which heralds an unknown future: it may be a Golden Age or a time when beloved castles and gardens are destroyed. For the composer the illusory Golden Age was the 1920s and the music of this era subtly infuses the five movements of the Divertimento.
Compagnie Masquerade, Schwertisk’s mixing of Mozart with commedia dell’arte, has just been released on CD by the Wiener Mozartisten (Gramola 98791). Future plans include a full-evening ballet based on Kafka’s America for the Landestheater in Linz for the 2009/10 season: the composer is writing a linked orchestral work for the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra for premiere in October 2008.
> Further information on Work: Divertimento Macchiato
Photo: Karl Kleemayr
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