commissioned by the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra within the framework of “Oeuvre Suisse”, premiered by the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Yaron Deutsch / Maurizio Grandinetti (e-guits), Steven Sloane, January 27, 2016, KKL, Lucerne, Switzerland
SPUREN leads the listener back into the early 1940s, an extremely difficult, uprooting time in Germany not only for my family but also the entire world. This composition is dedicated to my father; his sister, my aunt; and to my grandparents, who fled from East Prussia back to their native country, Switzerland, in the early autumn of 1944. I have listened to many anecdotes about their escape, the separation of the family, the packing, and the setting off, and certainly, I have heard their grief for their lost childhood.
The composition SPUREN and its ever-growing sonic swells and soaring e-guitar sounds that surround the audience indicate the approaching enemy and the unavoidable fate of fleeing and abandoning one’s home and native city. SPUREN also tells of the imagery of the lost homeland – partly clear and partly distorted or increasingly blurred – emerging from the depths of one’s memory.
Listen: https://oeuvressuisses.ch/en/works/#werk_ele_24