Christian Jost

Sepulchral City

In this trio, as in most of his compositions, Jost has pictures and associations with true incidents, films and novels in his mind. What inspired him to write this piece was Joseph Conrad's novel 'Heart of Darkness' in which the protagonist Marlow says about the city of Brussels: 'In a few hours I arrived in a city that always make me think of a whited sepulchre.'In 'Sepulchral City', a work commissioned to mark the tenth anniversary of the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, however, the title refers to Jerusalem, the city of white tombs. The topic of Jost's trio is a travel into the soul and living spirit of a city, with no physical movement being needed to find the heart of impenetrable darkness: It lies within the city walls.In this respect, 'Sepulchral City' equals a compositionally unfolded funeral bell. Even the animated middle section rather has insisting than progressive power. At the end, the only thing to do is to inhale and exhale.