Encounter with Otto Sauter



The composer and the trumpeter. Two masters of their craft, two creators, two music conspirators. If one were to say that the two had grown up in two different cultural circles, that would probably not be an incorrect assertion in view of the fact that music, as is well known, lends vibrations.



Mikis Theodorakis - a long-lived legend, a charismatic personality, who has been infused with melodies since his childhood. He breathed life into an extraordinary work. For decades he followed this determination to devote himself body and soul to music emphatically and at the same time with the utmost discipline - several times, as is well known, to the death. He delivered hundreds of songs from soundlessness, but also symphonic works with an inherent drama.



Otto Sauter, the gifted musician, was captivated by the music, but also by the personality of the composer Theodorakis a few years ago. He listened, he noticed. And that may mean something for someone whose fine ear has already heard a lot and made a difference. It was not only the breath of Theodorakis' music that attracted Sauter as its interpreter, but at the same time he was surprised by the phenomenon that these melodies were able to touch something very special within himself. Perhaps because of the magic of that unmistakable rhythmic emphasis.



The composer and the musician made an appointment for a joint project: the Rhapsody for Trumpet. Both artists were convinced from the moment of their first conversation that the musical material of the Theodorakis songs would be made to sound in a congenial way by Sauter's trumpet - by what both men's life plans may be based on: to move at the limit of the perceptible, to cross it. To discipline emphasis and in the same breath to let the soul of the music speak in its detachedness.



With the rhapsody in mind, Mikis Theodorakis and Otto Sauter set out on their journey...



I.K.