Mozart and Salieri

“Alexander Pushkin’s ‘Mozart and Salieri’ is an exploration of the nature of artistic creation and as such it was a wonderful source of inspiration for me to set this highly dramatic (and fictitious) story to music. Naturally, in a symphonic poem, there are no singers to narrate a text. So I was very excited to experiment with the vast spectrum of possibilities a large scale symphony orchestra can provide, with all of its distinctive instruments and their unique colours and characteristics. As a consequence, the orchestra can effectively narrate this Pushkin’s ‘Little Tragedy’, without words, but through the abstract language of music. The music however does not follow the story strictly but is merely inspired by its events. Both main characters are easily distinguished by their very own themes which, although at first separately introduced to the listener, become more and more connected and intertwined as the work progresses. From the standpoint of Pushkin’s storytelling, these could also represent two ways of seeing art: craftsmanship and genius. Apart from both main characters, the role of the Blind Violinist (in the play without text) is introduced by the solo violin. The accompanying piano represents Mozart when playing to Salieri.”