Gravitations [CF:524-08586]

Each of the five movements of Gravitations may be played separately. According to their ability, performers will decide which of the extreme high register passages they need to octaviate. Encore (#4) was commissioned by Herve Corre to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Flaneries musicales de Reims festival (2009). I was asked to write a short piece for the occasion and I immediately thought of the clarinet, a wide-ranging, very expressive, versatile instrument I particularly like. I was further inspired by the fact that the piece would be premiered by Florent Heau, whose commitment to new music and off-the-beaten-track repertoire I had long known. Hence the idea to build Encore on what seems (to me) to be the core characteristics of the instrument: the rhythmic sway, the volubility, the almost feline agility, leaping from one register to another - all packed in minimum time with (I hope) maximum contagious energy. --Karol Beffa