Mascarade

In Mascarade, I have combined a number of scattered motifs from my opera Vipern in a virtuoso concert piece. The slow introduction with its pallid-iridescent string textures overlaid by aggressive wind arabesques conjures up much of the gloomy underlying atmosphere of the opera. The gesticulating and eruptive driving force of the fast second section is reminiscent of a Baroque dance – it is however a ‘dance on the volcano’: mask-like, distorted and threatening. Christian Jost