Manfred Trojahn – René Char Cycle

Festival d'Aix en Provence, France 

Originally, the 2014 Festival d’Aix-en-Provence asked Manfred Trojahn to compose two works. However, the composer proved so enthusiastic about the French language and its literature that he decided to compose an entire cycle in honor of the author René Char. The cycle consists of three compositions – one of the composition commissions being supported by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. The first work, L’Éternité à Lourmarin, is based on one of Char’s poems dedicated to his friend Albert Camus who died in an accident near Lourmarin. The second text is based on a piece of prose specifically written for the French soprano Sabine Devieilhe. The third work in the cycle is an orchestral piece already written in 2012. For the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence Trojahn plans to extend this to include a kind of prologue also dealing with a Char poem, one marked by a mystical, powerful aura.

July 12-14, 2014
Aix en Provence, France 

Further Information:
www.festival-aix.com