Vorstellung
Five Short Metamorphoses Op.30, by Brian Richard Earl, was commissioned in 2009 by Daniele Morandini, at the time 1st trombonist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, later 1st trombone of the La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy. It is inspired by “Adrogué”, a poem by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, in which the poet revisits, in his imagination, his childhood home (Adrougé is the name of the country village where the Villa was to be found, now a suburb of Buenos Aires), seeing it in a nostalgic and sensual mood, only to realise that “this world of dust and jasmine flowers”, with “those coloured window glasses that have the child discover the beauty of an all red universe, or an all green one”, now exists only in his memory, and bitterly laments; “I don’t understand how time passes, I who am time and blood and agony”.
The piece recalls the spirit of the poem by elaborating an apparently naïve scheme of melodies and melodic fragments five times over, each time with more development, expression and complexity, up to the virtuoso finale.