Jarrell:
Paysages avec figures absentes Nachlese IV (2009), for violin and orchestra
Sechs Augenblicke (2022), for orchestra
Un long fracas somptueux de rapide celeste (1998), for percussion and orchestra

The music of Michael Jarrell has been said to ‘examine states of dream and unreality, searching for a moment of truth’– a truth which is often found in the lowest sonorities and slowest tempi, a place where time stands still. His works are often interrelated, not only by a certain sensitivity or a distinctive tone, but also by the recurrence of particular features that he reworks in different contexts. The present disc combines three orchestral works composed over a period of almost a quarter of a century. In Paysages avec figures absentes,played here by solo violinist Ilya Gringolts, the composer wished to find a new approach to writing for violin within an ensemble. Premiered a few months before this recording by the Orchestre des Pays de la Loire and Pascal Rophé, the Sechs Augeblicke for orchestra suggest a concentration or implosion of sound matter within musical fragments, as a sort of reference to Schubert. Finally, the guiding idea of Un long fracas somptueux de rapide céleste with solo percussionist Florent Jodelet is a short, powerful ‘initial explosion’ that recurs, like a punctuation mark, throughout the piece, more or less regularly, in different forms.