©1998 by Peter Swinnen

Altough written for two soloists (mezzo soprano and accordeon) and orchestra, "le journal intime" is not a concerto, but more a "Sinfonia Concertante". This clearly comes out of the text. In fact, the subject of this text, written specially for this symphony by the Luxemburg poet Jean Portante, deals with the impossibility of "the Hand" (the mezzo) to write into "the Page" (the accordeon), because "the Brains" (the orchestra) don't like it. Hence a very special relationship between both soloists and the orchestra. The last one dominates everything. The mezzo is somewhat like a "porte parole" of the Brains: "she says what the orchestra thinks". The accordeon, at one hand is separated from all the others, but at the same time is also dependent of (and conditioned by) the orchestra. In short: "Wanting to tell something, but being unable to, because of not being allowed to".

And that's exactly the reason why I felt the need to write "le journal intime" as a symphony in the good old sonata form. Besides of course the cyclic structure of the text. It ends with "another morning coming up", which made the choice for the re-exposition of a classical sonata form almost evident: "l' histoire se répète".

Happy listening,

Peter Swinnen