Hot

A member of the 1950’s Darmstadt School Franco Donatoni was one of the most important composers and pedagogues of the 20th Century. Plagued for years by crises of confidence and creativity, Donatoni took several self-imposed hiatuses. Philosophically opposed to music that was purely a manifestation of a composer’s ego, Donatoni fell into a state of nihilistic existentialism.

“I dragged myself around in that difficult state, time passed and I could see no way out of my crisis. I was 28 years old by then; a difficult age because it is the fourth seven-year period; if you look at the twenty-eighth book of Psalms you will see that it is the alchemistic chapter which talks about the transmutation of metals, and I have often observed that this is an age of crisis for many young people”. -- Franco Donatoni

Donatoni wrote his “imaginary-Jazz” Hot in 1989 while he was enjoying one of the most prolific compositional periods of his life. Concentrating on chamber works for unusual instrumentation he wrote music of tremendous rhythmic invention and continuous motific evolution. The result is an ever-changing intellectual improvisation of daunting technical demands for the solo saxophone, as well as the accompanying ensemble.