Ivan Tcherepnin

Le Viola et le vient (1978)

Le va et le vient is a suite de ballet which might well one day return to the stage as a ballet. Originally commissioned by Merce Cunningham and performed under the title Set, Hold, Clear and Squelch for oboe and electrics, the piece was transcribed for orchestra and first performed in 1978 under its current title at the International Music Festival in Lucerne. He (Ivan Tcherepnin) conducts the first performance of Le Va et Le Vient himself. What I felt during the concert confirmed my first impression during the dress rehearsal: this composition evokes a strange and fascinating feeling. Evolving slowly and quietly, whithout any change of tempo, the music creates successive images of a tropical garden, a palace of steel and the tones of a Tibetian orchestra. An impression equally of tremendous space beneath one. (Claude Pascal, Le Figaro)