Trois pieces brèves pour violon seul

Programme notes

(Dixit Casteels) For a long time, I held back from composing, despite the encouragement of my private teacher, the composer Marcel Quinet. I was so overwhelmed by the existing masterworks, feeling that my entire life would not suffice to study them, and I questioned my right to add anything meaningful to the repertoire. My creative turning point arrived in July 1979 when I attended the Académie Internationale d’été de Nice and conducted an orchestra for the very first time. In Nice, I met the Japanese violinist Wakako Kusumi, who later studied at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles. I wrote this violin piece for her during the 1981 Christmas break. Following a four-hand piano recital I gave with pianist Eugène Galand, I agreed to let Kusumi perform my piece for solo violin, but on one condition: she was not to reveal the name of the composer. The piece received warm applause from the audience—and thus, my first opus was born.

The completed work features three movements: the first has a tempo marking of crotchet = 80; the second is marked Allegretto grazioso; and the third, Presto assai. A fourth movement, marked Calmo quasi in Lontananza, was indicated but appears never to have been written.

Completion of the composition 

20-I-1980