The ‘‘Concerto pour flûte, harpe, orchestre à cordes et percussion’’ is the orchestral version of the piece written in 1992 for flute, electric harp and percussion called ‘‘Le grand stellaire’’. The score is a commissioned work for harpist Martine Flaissier and flutist Henry Vaudé, founders of the Controverse ensemble, which was formed around Joël Garnier’s ‘‘blue harp’’.
In the early stages of the creation of ‘‘Le grand stellaire’’, the amplified harp appeared to me as a sort of messenger whose mission it was to unveil latent emotions, obscured till now by the limited voice of the traditional harp.
As I was composing the piece, I felt the excitement of writing for a brand new instrument, liberated from its confidentiality and now shining brilliantly; I started to discover a new musical space, comparable to a sky studded with new stars which, after thousands of light-years, one lucky night decide to let us see how they radiate.
According to the book of Genesis, God created the ‘‘great luminary’’ then the ‘‘small’’ on the fourth day of the Creation; it is with reference to such poetic material that I chose to call ‘‘Le grand stellaire’’ a piece that I consider to be an invitation to travel to the heavens and which divides itself into three parts: ‘‘Débridé’’ (Unbridled), ‘‘En éveil’’ (Awake) and ‘‘Éclatant’’ (Brilliant).
In 1994 already, I had worked at developing the harmonic dimension of the piece by adding a string quartet to it; as a result of this continuing preoccupation, I later on extended these parts to a full string orchestra. However, I believe that each version keeps a musical pertinence of its own.
(the string orchestra can be replaced by a string quintet 2.1.1.1)
composed in: 1991-2003 (revised in 2014)
duration: 15’
publisher: Jobert
discography: Trio Controverse, 2003 (TRITON, « Harpe bleue », TRI 331127)
(trio version, without the strings)
in the repertoire of Anne-Cécile Cuniot, Patricia Nagle, Henry Vaudé and Thomas Prévost (fl.), Martine Flaissier and Marion Lenart (harp), Philippe Charneux, Philippe Limoge, Stéphane Mazeau, Thierry Miroglio et Francis Petit (percussion), the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, the Orchestre Colonne, Mark Foster, Tomás Garrido, Kirill Karabits and Yannis Pouspourikas (cond.)
Thomas Prévost (flute), Martine Flaissier (harp), Francis Petit (percussion)
the Radio-France Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Karabits, cond.
premiere concert, Paris, Maison de la Radio, 5.02.2004, for Festival Présences
Martine Flaissier is playing a Camac "Blue Harp" (details : www.camac-harps.com)
sound recording : Radio-France for France-Musique