Dirk Brossé

War Concerto

This War Concerto recounts the story of a young boy of barely seven years old who witnessed both his parents being murdered, during the Balkan Wars in the nineties. Boris was old enough to comprehend that his parents, lying there motionless, would never move again, that his mother would never again comfort him while running her fingers through his hair and that his father would never again take him by the hand for a walk through the village. The now utterly ruined village… What is to happen to Boris and so many other children seems of no concern to the infantrymen. All dolled up like potential war heroes and frenzied like a pack of wild beasts, they anxiously wait to receive their orders, from a leader who, later, will deny everything in court, uttering something akin to 'Wir haben es nicht gewusst'… . As a result of the harrowing images of Boris and the Balkan Wars, the War Concerto, a musical protest against the insanity of war, came into being. An extremely sensitive clarinet makes its way through a penetrating and rather overwhelming orchestral score, towards a brighter future… recalling the child's ordeal.