États d’alerte is for two percussionists, playing mainly marimba, and a symphonic orchestra. These two soloists are like characters placed in the situation of fugitives trying to escape from perilous situations. It is a kind of mini-muiscal theater, without words or visible actions, based exclusively on sound as a means of evocation. The score, composed from a process of generative musical grammar that I developped a few years ago, will more often oppose the soloists to the orchestra than it will combine them. The orchestra is there to represent a "reality" that these two "fugitives" have to flee, creating music atmospheres sometimes approaching a certain burlesque mode. The tragic-comic figure of Buster Keaton was often present to my mind when I wrote this work.

États d’alerte was commissioned by the Orchestre de la Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Sarrebruck and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg for the percussions duet KrausFrink and will have its world premiere on 21 May 2017 in Sarrebruck conducted by Peter Rundel.

Concert info

Have a look at the score