Engaging with the past does not necessarily mean nostalgia or conservatism. That would only be the case if tradition and progress were seen as opposites, if the past were viewed solely as sediment rather than potential, if the history of music (and all history?) were interpreted as linear progress, as a continuous development from lower to higher, i.e. as an arrow, rather than as a network linking ideas, materials and archetypes across the centuries.
Like "Sept Variations" and "Sept Nouvelles Variations" before it, Sei Variazioni – now forming a series of works spanning almost 30 years – works with elements, moments and materials from compositions of the past. Unlike the two earlier cycles of variations, however, the latest work does not refer to any instrumental works, but exclusively to operas, which – again unlike before – all originate from the same composer, namely Giacomo Puccini. This is not an unambitious undertaking, given the immense popularity of his operas and the objections to them that still persist in contemporary music.
Sei Variazioni is by no means an attempt to interpret, explain or even parody these works. In six sections of 4-6 minutes each, material consisting mostly of just a few bars from six different Puccini operas is used and 'varied' in the literal sense of the word. Thus, although it is virtually omnipresent, it is also confronted with material by me and complemented and enriched by it. These are not mini-operas or any kind of singerless concentrate or even a potpourri, but something new composed of familiar elements that repeatedly become recognisable. Elements that are far apart in the respective opera come into close proximity. Simultaneities of structures that actually occur far apart give rise to new characters. The unknown is derived from the familiar. It is like looking through a microscope. Intervening in the musical material and continuing it. A play with popularity and pathos. Identification and at the same time a view from a distance. Puccini characters are transformed into something else, only to return to themselves, mostly in lost pianissimo islands, in fading conclusions. They are then no quotations, but moments that have come into their own, emerging from a strangely familiar context. Moments of longing, of radiance, of heartbreaks.