René Staar

These three short pieces were written as preliminary studies for a concertante work for flute and string orchestra for the principal flutist of the Vienna Philharmonic, Wolfgang Schulz. The work consi...

The basic idea of the work is simple: the musical letters of the name Sigrid Wiesmann in two different harmonized shapes and their respective forms (retrograde, inversion, inversion retrograde) are pl...

Shortly after René Staar returned to Europe from a tour of Latin America in 1981, he was asked to write a piece for the Vienna Chamber Orchestra for Joseph Haydn’s 250th birthday in 1982. A spontaneou...

This was the composer's first large piano cycle, and was written as a preliminary study for the melodrama Just an Accident? op. 9 for 2 vocalists, jazz combo and orchestra. In these studies, the compo...

L'homme sans avenir [Man without future] was created at the request of the piano duo Harald Ossberger and Christos Marantos as a reaction to the situation of a generation that is neglected by politics...

The music critic, an indispensable figure in the history of music between instinctive cosmopolitan curiosity, modern nature, and also an acquired know-it-all attitude, is now a dying species. Asked to...

Piano arrangement of the 12th miniature from the 2nd volume of the Violin Method op. 26 II. Structurally, the piece mimics the snake's movements and also simulates the grasping of an imaginary prey.

Das Erlebnis einer 'Bise' (eines den Genfer See mit Eiskristallen überziehenden kalten Windes herunter vom Mont Blanc) in sternenklarer Weihnachtsnacht wurde zum initialen Impuls dieser kleinen Kompos...

Ständchen is the German word for "Serenade," which is related to the word "Stehen," which means "Standing." Therefore, I invented the word "Sitzchen," which would mean "to serenade from a sitting posi...

This piece sketches the development of two individuals into a mutually complementary married couple, through phases of seeking, personification, courtship, dialogue, and approach, up to fusion and uni...

Der Teufel aus Strawinskijs Histoire du Soldat entsteigt dem Genfer See und verwandelt sich in einen Engel, um einen verführerischen Walzer zu tanzen. Diese Vision wurde zur Inspiration für dieses kur...

Two tandems (that of saxophone and trumpet, and that of the two trombones) define the development of the perspectives in manifold processes of change. All in all, the cycle of "Perspectives" is part o...

A compilation of nine miniatures written for the first volume of a violin school (op. 26 I), and which exists in a total of five different versions. From a "Dance of Koldunian warlocks" to a "Night mu...

Fantasies and dreams about thirst, lakes, rivers and other waters, and the addictions to alcohol and pleasure (A parody of elements from the Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss Jr.) Written for a perf...

The poem [Once upon Epiph'ny Eve] by Pushkin’s contemporary Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky (1783-1852) refers to the post-Christmas custom of young girls wishing to interpret their future from various s...

The poem [Once upon Epiph'ny Eve] by Pushkin’s contemporary Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky (1783-1852) refers to the post-Christmas custom of young girls wishing to interpret their future from various s...

The Duo A4 for violin and clarinet (written for the Vienna Philharmonic’s principal clarinettist, Ernst Ottensamer) is the shortest of the Gemini series to date with a duration of just over one minute...

A reversal of usual clichés reveals an innovative facet of the treatment of the piccolo in the Gemini Duo written for the exceptional philharmonic piccolo player Günter Federsel. The piccolo is depriv...

In his Duo A6 for violin and trombone the composer seems to revert once more to the march-like character of Duo A4. This character, however, is now intensified into something grotesque and absurd thro...

The Duo A7 for violin and tenor saxophone thrives on the tension between two-part and tripartite divisions of different units. Relations and time units are used purposefully together with tension and...