«A poetic beauty»

I can’t find the words to express my gratitude to the extraordinary people who made my Violin Concerto possible: I owe its existence entirely to the vision, talent and generosity of Gustavo Gimeno and Patricia Kopatchinskaja. In November 2016, thanks to the foresight of Gustavo, Patricia and I had a magical, and extremely fortunate, first meeting in Valencia – the kind of meeting where feelings of trust, friendship, and mutual understanding were evident from the very first moment. Soon after that, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg – who certainly know how to make a composer very happy! – set in motion a concerto commission, joined by several other orchestras.

The three years it took me to write this concerto were a unique and marvellous experience. By the end of the first year the initial sketch was complete and a mysterious, lonely time followed. A unique and very necessary dialogue opened up between the concerto and myself, that allowed me to retouch overlooked aspects, to get rid of everything unnecessary and, finally, to focus on filing away the work’s rough edges. It was exciting to see the concerto transforming itself – like some great elastic animal – into something different; my initial idea was too obvious, and I am happy that the music was able to alert me to this. The concerto encouraged me to face things that I had never done before, and seemed to be telling me: «don’t try to please a conservative public, or the institutionalized avant-garde, just write what you hear, and dare to fail.» An uncontrollable energy emerged from nowhere, a poetic beauty, of a kind I had never consciously aimed toward, rose to the music’s surface.

Gradually, I have begun to understand this Violin Concerto as a portrait of Kopatchinskaja. Like every portrait, it includes traces of its creator inextricably intermingled with uniquely personal reflections on its subject. One of the most exhilarating experiences of my creative life, it has expanded and, I hope, enhanced my perspectives as an artist.