The Romanian Gabriel Mălăncioiu has composed a concerto for piccolo and orchestra for a concert with the Zurich Youth Symphony Orchestra and especially for Haika Lübcke. It is still a rarity for a work to be written for this instrument.
"During my 25 years in the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, I have never experienced a single solo concert for piccolo. But the instrument is on the rise. In my opinion, this development is due to the fact that flute students can now learn the piccolo as a minor subject, instrument making has improved and piccoloists also perform as soloists. More and more composers are writing explicitly for this instrument.
Whilst researching for my CD project 'Piccolo Legends', I came across the work 'Hommage à Marsyas' by Gabriel Mălăncioiu. I really liked these three short pieces, which combine archaic music with natural sounds. I wanted to interpret it as well as possible and asked the composer questions. After listening to my recording, he not only wrote the new solo work 'Vogelino' and dedicated it to me. He asked me if he could also write a piccolo concerto for me. I was flabbergasted. As I said, it is a great rarity for such a composition to be written and then a concerto dedicated to me - I was touched. I was allowed to make requests for the instrumentation and, of course, a large orchestra including cor anglais and bass clarinet should not be missing.
'Piccolored life' was written in the winter of 2023/24 - I was thrilled. Now I had to think about the performance and went to my colleague David Bruchez-Lalli. He was also impressed. It will be something special for the musicians in the Zurich Youth Symphony Orchestra to work on the world premiere with him. It's still a few months before the concert, but I'm already fine-tuning the sound colours. And I'm delighted that Gabriel Mălăncioiu will be coming to Zurich from Timișoara especially for the concert."
Recorded by Katharine Jackson
