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Programme Note

SOLO IN SCENA (1980) for cello solo.
A characteristic of SOLO IN SCÉNA is the straightforwardness, perhaps even bluntness, with which each motive is presented, like an object. As if the musician is saying to us: “Thus it appears now and thus now” - fluctuations from instant to instant, as a juggler showing us constantly shimmering, constantly new moments and movements, without the act ever actually becoming an orientation in time.
Shifts of emphasis and accentuation within otherwise unchanged sequences of motifs play a major role in realizing this shimmering effect, and make SOLO IN SCÉNA a characteristic work of the late 1970´s. Despite the above-mentioned tendency to a lack of direction the piece establishes a form with its centre of gravity towards the end. A simple, repeated – but thanks to the constant shifts in accented notes – constantly changing melody moves as if in concentric circles, until the turning point when the pizzicato notes muffle and bring to an end the melancholy Kehraus.
Finally repeating the same note, gradually sliding upwards, this eternally fluctuating process reveals that not even the individual note remains the same.
SOLO IN SCENA can be seen as a continuation of SOLO INTIMO (1953) and the two pieces are often played together under the title “CELLO SONATA NO. 2 - In due tempi”.
Per Nørgård