Staud - Donum for violoncello

As its title suggests, this piece is a small gift to Pierre Boulez for his 90th birthday. The material is based on my music for cello and orchestra, Segue (2006-2008), focusing on short sections from it like a burning lens.

My Donum is also an attempt to thank Pierre – not only for the support he accorded to my music, but also above all for his fascinating oeuvre, those numberless milestones he has left in the musical landscape of the 20th and 21st centuries. As various and protean as they may be, his works move, provoke and inspire me anew every time I become involved with them. They also reinforce my conviction that intellect and emotion, mental acuity and musical variegation, economy and imagination – indeed, clarity and complexity, too – need not be contradictory, but that they can amalgamate wonderfully on a superior level without losing their radicality. In addition – this, too, I learned from Pierre – through the arduous work of composition, they can ultimately be mutually dependent.

Johannes Maria Staud

Translated by Grant Chorley