The flight of the 2nd Bumblebee was written during several months'
work on two larger orchestral pieces - a peripheral project that lent
variation to my other writing. The piece was originally written for two
pianos and takes its inspiration from Witold Lutosławski’s Paganini
Variations, a highly original transformation of the 24th Caprice for
solo violin by Niccolò Paganini. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the
well-known Flight of the Bumblebee as part of his opera The Tale of Tsar
Saltan, and I have taken the liberty to borrow the main theme from it -
my sincere thanks and apologies to Rimsky-Korsakov! Following the
presentation of the original and second themes, the development section
witnesses the two engaging in intense battle! The piece is three minutes
of busy, buzzing music, with the chromatic fragment of the original
theme a constant presence.
I hope you enjoy playing it!
Patrick Raab, percussionist at the Royal Danish Orchestra
The
second flight of the bumblebee is first of all a very funny to piece to
perform. The mix of the original melody from Nikolaj Rimskij-Korsakov
and the new theme composed by Broström, complement each other very well
and the result speaks for it self.