Sofia Gubaidulina - In Tempus Praesens

In tempus praesens, concerto for violin & orchestra (2007) Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin London Symphony Orchestra Valery Gergiev Just like many 20th-century creators, the problem of time concerns me to the greatest extent possible. I am concerned with how time changes in connection with the changing psychological conditions of man, how it elapses in nature, in the world, in society, in dreams, in art. Art is always situated between sleep and reality, between wisdom and folly, between the statics and dynamics of everything that exists. In ordinary life we never have present time, only the perpetual transition from the past to the future. And only in sleep, in the religious experience and in art are we able to experience lasting present time. I think that musical form serves this very function: during its course it undergoes many events. A few of these turn out to be most important. (I call these architectonic nodes of form.) And they can make a kind of