Catalogue

The eponymous piece, written for its current performer Jakob Kullberg, derives its title from the composer’s belief that creating a work of art calls for friction on both the conceptual and purely personal level. The other two concertos on VARIOUS FORMS OF FRICTION, released in PORTRAITS series, are Motions, Stases for piano and large ensemble (with Małgorzata Walentynowicz as soloist) and Open/Close for bass clarinet and large ensemble (soloist: Michele Marelli). The soloists perform here with Ensemble OMN under Szymon Bywalec.

This is by no means a piece about the centuries-long Polish-German conflict. It is, instead, a tale of impossible love, of tragic conflict between personal happiness and the common good.

Music history abounds in paradoxes. Take the Rhodes piano, for instance. Commissioned by the US army as an easy-to-transport instrument for military bands, it reached the wide audience thanks to The Doors, the band that remains an icon of rock-music pacifism.