Sofia Gubaidulina

In tempus praesens -Konzert für Violine und Orchester

The Concerto 'In tempus praesens,' commissioned by the Paul Sacher Foundation is Sofia Gubaidulina's second violin concerto after the great Violin Concerto 'Offertorium' of 1980, played by Gidon Kremer all over the world, a work which can already be designated as a repertory work of contemporary music. Before Gubaidulina begins composing, she allows the impulse for a work to mature for a long time, conceiving it within the context of her religious-philosophical world-view. This was also the case with the Violin Concerto 'In tempus praesens.' Various phenomena play a special role for Gubaidulina in this work. First of all, the numbers three and one are of central importance to her, derived from the sacred trinity. 'But this 'one' carries an infinite, multidimensional world within itself, as well as an infinite number of characteristics,' the composer explains. Thus the large unison at the transition from the fourth to the fifth part of the work - for Gubaidulina a metaphor for the present ('tempus praesens') - simultaneously stands for variety in unity.