Laurent Petitgirard leads the Oldenburgische Staatsorchester in the world premiere of his new orchestral work called États d’âme on July 12, 2015.

“I have always been disturbed by the “vocal” dimension of the saxophone. Throughout the many years of writing that both my operas needed, I have often caught myself thinking that a concerto for saxophone and orchestra would be a natural work to write as the culmination of a lyric work.

After having spent three years devoting myself to the writing of my second opera Guru, I accepted the request of the Orchestre de Douai and of Michel Supéra to whom my work is dedicated.

I did not want the soloist to play two or three different saxophones. Indeed, I have thought that the constraint about the limits of the saxophone’s tessitura should be considered an additional stimulus and should enable me to tighten the musical language and to define the cyclic aspect I wanted to incorporate into this work in a better way.

Some sections, notably in the first movement, resemble the concept of the concerto grosso by mixing the soloist with the three flutes or the three clarinets.”

Laurent Petitgirard