The world premiere of Moritz Eggert’s “Si dolce è’l tormento” for baritone and orchestra, based on the madrigal of the same name by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), will be given on 11 April 2017 at the Stadttheater Gießen. The performers will be Grga Peroš (baritone) and the Philharmonisches Orchester Gießen (Gießen Philharmonic Orchestra), conducted by the composer himself.
“’Si dolce è’l tormento’ is one of the most beautiful songs of Monteverdi; however, essentially only the melody and harmonisation of it have been handed sown to us. I originally wanted to simply make an instrumentation of the piece because the song seemed appropriate for an orchestral programme on the subject of ‘love’. But then I fell so much in love with this composition by my great colleague that a very independent version arose from it - similar to a remix, but going still beyond that. Thus the vocal range is for a deeper voice; the melody is transposed through several keys and tempi and the harmonisation is a completely different one. This is, incidentally, completely congruent with the performance practice of that time, in which variation and improvisation played a more important role, also in notated music.
Moritz Eggert’s “I won’t find another you” for piano and orchestra will be given its German premiere at the same concert. This piano concerto, composed in 2013, was commissioned by the Musikkollegium Zürcher Oberland (Zurich Oberland Music Collegium) and is based on a popular song written by Eggert, both the text and the music. The pianist Moritz Ernst will accompany the Philharmonisches Orchester Gießen (Gießen Philharmonic Orchestra) at the piano in the performance of this work.