DiesIrae

Christian Jost's DiesIrae follows the centuries-long tradition of sacred music, despite it avoiding any kind of liturgical reference. The virtuoso trombone soloist at the world première in 2001, Mike Svoboda, a composer himself, wrote in a letter to Jost: 'A trombone player can count himself lucky when the composer captures the instrument's character. And I am very thankful to you that you managed to do just that in my case with DiesIrae. The work draws a wide arc – in a surprisingly differentiated and rhythmically clearly balanced manner. It is exactly the notes subdivided into extremely fast notes, yet played in a slow tempo that arouse the "double time" feeling of the jazz in me.'

The trombone's alternating between fast repetitions and rhythmically melodic phrases conveys the energy of the work. According to Jost, 'it embodies one of the most powerful human energies'. Whether religious or not, the combination of real things and myth, existing in the belief, forms the inspiration and releases the tension found in DiesIrae.