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“As fast as possible” begins this short duo for violin and claves. Muted violin sounds flash by. A web of arpeggios rises, played so delicately and fragilely that the notes only just start to respond. The claves measure the pulse. Their clattering follows the tempo of the violin, while conversely the violin follows the raging pulse of the claves.
The sound material of this ” volatile requiem ” is as reduced as it is suggestive. Georges Aperghis dedicated it to the clarinettist Serge Daval in 1998. It is a memento mori in which the bright ticking of the claves marks the passing of time, while the violin intonates a dance of death with breathy air sounds. It is no coincidence that the claves recall the dry tones of bones struck together. Requiem furtif evokes strong images. This music of transience has nothing to do with the Christian Mass for the dead. The ghostly duo does not comfort with the promise of eternal life. It plays on the edge of nothingness. The thin and repeatedly perforated texture only inadequately conceals the silence, and above all only for a short time. This duo is “fleeting” because it is so short “like a gust of wind”, comments George Aperghis. Time passes, “like an hourglass that empties”.

Martina Seeber, extract of the programme booklet of “Musikfabrik im WDR 69”