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About this Piece

Contrasts and virtuosity are the main characteristics of this concerto, composed between 1997-98. The idea of 'pitch concentrations' which are asymmetrically placed in time gives the work its title. By definition an axis is "the central stem, core or main skeletal support of an organism"; here those axes have been conceived as the structural support of the whole work.

On the other hand, I've been interested in searching for the multiple possible relationships between the soloist and the ensemble, relationships that go from a radical opposition in a "concertante fashion" to total integration.

The piece has four sections with a clear instrumentation and registral identity. In each section, a complex gesticulation is built by the contrast between two or more basic musical materials. Articulations such as pizzicatos, Bartók pizzicatos, and different bow attacks have here a leading role. Axle-Asimétrica I was composed in Gothenburg in 1998 with financial support from the Swedish Artists Council.

- Víctor Varela