I Will Come Back

Robert Groslot eschews the atonal excesses of modernism, deliberately pushing for accessibility to the listener and playing pleasure for the performer, but he never succumbs to the cinematic banality of postmodern music. In the compositions to which this recording is devoted, an extra dimension emerges: Groslot’s literary imagination and the intuitive fusing of linguistic and musical grammar which transpire in the chamber opera I will come back and the Six Poems by William Butler Yeats.

In I will come back, writer and librettist Van Dis chronicles his mother, who, after a lifetime of silence, suddenly starts talking to her literary son. The son is allowed to become his mother’s biographer, but on one condition: he must grant her a gentle death. The book is a monument of rawness, intensity but also embarrassment.

Groslot’s musical idiom is accessible, but there is a tense and discomforting atmosphere between the two characters that is reflected in the use of dissonance and chromaticism.

Robert Groslot: “In 2009 I discovered my voice as a composer, and developed an idiom in which texture and tonality were sufficiently balanced to allow me to get a good handle on two variables that are near and dear to me: intuition and improvisation. I try to stay as close to the language as possible in the vocal line. This implies that I mainly compose syllabically (one note per syllable) and avoid melismatic figures (multiple notes per syllable). I also respect the rhythm and dynamics of a text as much as possible in the musical rhythm. I avoid Eastern influences. I am a European thinker. I am something of a conservative.”

Artists
Vlaams Radiokoor | choir
Héloïse Mas | mezzo soprano
Thomas Oliemans | baritone
Brussels Philharmonic | soloists
Robert Groslot | conductor