Concerto for String Orchestra in F Minor Homage to Bartok: III. Rondo (Allegro Vivace)

This album doesn't include another "completion" of Beethoven's projected Tenth Symphony in E flat major (1822-1827), but a "homage" work (Symphony No. 4 Homage To Beethoven, 2003), which although being based entirely on his sketches for that barely begun composition (as much as we may decipher them), comes nonetheless from a Postmodern point of view. Besides the extraordinary scholarly work by Barry Cooper, Sieghard Brandenburg and others on Beethoven's sketches and compositional methods, and also besides Dr. Cooper's hypothetical completion of the first movement of the Tenth (1988), no one could ever venture to think about reaching Beethoven's level of imagination and surprising creative solutions. Therefore, and taking into account the relatively small amount of developed sketches left by him at that early stage of the elaboration for such a project, a Postmodern approach was even more justified for someone obviously exposed to the music of Prokofiev, Shostakovitch, Bartok and others. Of course, it's not the rough Postmodernism of Luciano Berio from his "Rendering" (a composition based on Schubert's "Tenth" Symphony sketches), but a tentative of reconciling the Classical terse and driven forms and the intensely emotional, almost Romantic esthetic (epitomized by Beethoven) with the harmonic liberties and the linear approach of Modern music. So it's not about Beethoven's Tenth, but his "tent", his influence or shelter of esthetic and human principles.

Despite their Romanian influences, other works in this album show much of Beethoven's spirit, too. Symphonies No. 5 in A flat major "Pastoral" (2009) and No. 6 in D major (2012), inspired by ancient Romanian myths and rituals, combine powerful, clear forms and developments with a harmonic system based on the traditional scales of their themes, in a general striving from mystery, melancholy or darkness to light and exuberant joy.

The dual Violin Concerto in D minor (2002), tragic and frenetic, and the Concerto for Strings Orchestra in F minor (2011), developing Bartok's Romanian Dances op. 18, pay homage to another great influence, Bela Bartok. The "bonus track" is the first arrangement for full orchestra of Beethoven's Grand Fugue in B flat major op. 133, the famous and formidable composition that "will always be modern" (Stravinsky) and, although almost abstract in its level of generalization, perhaps by its superhuman power it may call somehow for greater forces than the original string quartet.