2003
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Trumpet solo and Symphony orchestra
22 minutes
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His Pop Concerto for trumpet and orchestra was composed in 1999 and written for trumpeter Petar Obradović who gave a premier performance of the piece with the Symphony Orchestra of the Croatian Radio and Television, under the baton of Kuljerić himself on FEB 27 2003 at the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb.
Program notes
The work consists of three different and divergent movements. The first movement displays agile and energetic motion lapsing into the repetition of simple and short motifs witch generate minor changes of intervals continuously. The second movement draws on a major solo cantilena which gets melodic feedback from the orchestra. The third movement is marked by the trumpet part which is then joined by three swift passages on the clarinet. The music is created around a rapid succession of sequences, a jam-session bursting with short and sparkling, seemingly improvised tonal sketches.
« I had been influenced by the compositional poetics termed - music as an objective statement - for quite a while, which means that even at the times when music was romantic, I always insisted on its objective features. This unveils some influences exerted by the modernists, Avant-gardists, Stravinsky, ...well, something contrary to the XX century tradition. I think that mere compliance with aesthetics and the terror of aestheticians in those days might have been a necessity and imperative, but since each period has some rules and demands of its own, nothing can last forever. It seems to me that we live in times when all aesthetics has been exhausted and the best aesthetics is the one originating from within, which is my need to create a work. If there is no need, a reason to create a work, then it seems to me that the work does not function, it is empty. »
(Igor Kuljerić 1999, interview with Borko Špoljarić)