Last post

Last Post (1975)

first performance: 1975, Amsterdam
Fusion Moderne consisting of Harry Sparnaay (bassclarinet) en Polo de Haas
(piano)
The composition is based on an interview in The Observer with the Italian violinist Alfredo Campoli. He relates how he gave concerts as a child prodigy for the injured of the First World War.
Soldiers were dying in front of him, while he was playing the ‘Ave Maria’. The words of the interview (both the bassclarinet player and the pianist have to use their voices throughout the whole piece) are placed in a highly dramatic musical context. The exaggeration puts everything into perspective. Drama with an ironic footnote.

text: Italian-born Campoli still winces when he reminisces about his hundred concerts for wounded soldiers in the First World War. He was eleven years old. ‘Oh my God. They died in front of me. I remember two died before I finished the Ave Maria’.