Up in the Clouds at the Queen Elisabeth Competition

Written by Heather Kurzbauer
Published: May 25, 2015 at 8:58 PM [UTC]

Aussi peu que les nuages roughly translated 'as ethereal as the clouds,' the 2015 commissioned work for violin and orchestra marks a breakthrough in Queen Elisabeth Competition history: instead of performing a work written by the winner of the most recent composition competition, finalists will perform a piece specially commissioned by the QEC's Executive Board. written in memory of one of the contest's greatest supporters, Count Jean Pierre de Launoit by Swiss composer Michael Jarrell.

Inspired by the idea that all of us are passing like clouds, Jarrell strives to create an immaterial world of sound and color. The chance to experience twelve different performances on six consecutive nights will be one of the high points of Jarrell's distinguished career. Three movements combine in a composition without breaks that challenges the young artists to choose an opening tempo that suits the solo violinists temperament as sixteenth notes fly by with force and energy, "there are thousands of types of clouds, they open a window on our souls and can move as swiftly as life passes."

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