Jean-François Michel

Prelude, Romance, Bacchanale

Prelude, Romance, Bacchanale for trombone and piano is technically in the ''upper intermediate level'' and is laid out in three different sequences that follow each other. These stimulate the soloist's imagination, musical expression and stylistic knowledge. In the solemnly moving Prélude , with a strictly vertical harmonic structure on the piano, the simple and gripping trombone part is sublimated. The Romance demands a sensitive sense of lyricism and timbre. Three quarters of this sequence are played with a soft mute; it begins with poignant, cadenza-like passages (ritenuto, a tempo or poco rubato) before a calm, swaying rhythm sets in, over which the poetic voice of the open trombone rises pianissimo. The Bacchanale follows abruptly with a devilish fugato (always in a confidentially quiet leggiero dynamic), which is interrupted by a bitonal section. The volume only rises fortissimo during the last thirty bars until the finale. The precisely supporting piano part corresponds to the same level of difficulty.