Symphonic Movement for Organ and Orchestra

„I composed the Symphonic Movement for Organ and Orchestra in 2013 while I was composer in residence for the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra. It was also my first concerto for organ and orchestra. The one-movement form is freely through-composed, and covers a number of clearly profiled but structurally interlinked parts. The longish introduction, which might have associations with the portal of a cathedral, features chordal blocks and harmonic progressions and passages that have a certain role in the later compositional development, especially at the end of the formal arch. The B-A-C-H mode is also discreetly incorporated. In the following, mainly polyphonic part, the idea of the passacaglia is suffused with the idea of the fugue. In the continuation of the composition the following can be perceived: a section with a varied citation of the sequence Dies irae, dies illa, in the organ, music of a toccata nature based on a motif that recalls that of the beginning of the organ Chorale in A minor by César Franck, and a chorale in divided strings founded on motifs of the Easter sequence Victimae Paschali laudes. The verses are divided by shorter or longer organ-orchestral sections. The work is a synthesis of different systems of composition, ranging from extended tonality, bi- and poly-tonality to the occasional departure into cluster structures. The composition was first performed in 2015 in a concert of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Aleksandar Kalajdžić within the framework of the 28th Music Biennial, with Ljerka Očić playing the organ.“ (Davorin Kempf)