Output details

ponte de la pietà -

passacaglia per violino e doppia orchestra

This passacaglia for violin and double orchestra was commissioned by NTR ZaterdagMatinee (Dutch Radio) with support from the Performing Art Fund NL. Written for violinist Pekka Kuusisto and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, it was premiered on 8 May 2010 in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. This submission includes a DVD comprising the performance and a documentary film about its composition.

The work is part of the cycle La Serenissima, a series of works dedicated to ‘the city of Venice and its ‘shadows’’. The overarching shape of the passacaglia is modelled after the symmetrical architecture of the 'Ponte de la Pietà'. Seen from the water, this footbridge’s balustrade comprises eleven segments. The passacaglia consists of the same number of sections (rehearsal marks A to K). In ponte de la pietà the bridge of the violin is metaphorically magnified and projected underneath the actual footbridge. The term passacaglia originates from the Spanish word pasar (to walk): over the duration of this composition, the soloist ‘walks’ over the bridge of the instrument, and back again.

Summarizing: after the orchestral introduction which introduces the bass theme (A), the violin enters (B), and the solo melody is played in its entirety on the low G-string. In the next section (C) the melody is repeated an octave higher on the D-string, in the following section an octave higher on the A-string, etc. At the highest point of the bridge we hear the melody in harmonics, before heading downwards. In the penultimate passage (J), arriving back on the G string, the music transforms into the slow movement of Autumn from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. At this crucial moment, it is revealed that the bass line of the passacaglia quoted that same violin concerto all along: SuperCollider was used to ensure a seamless morphing process between Rijnvos’s material and Vivaldi’s.