“Inquietus (Latin: restlessness, restless) was born in the course of 2008 from an idea I had been working on for some time. I had wanted to write a short orchestral piece in which the texture, i.e. “the sound” of the piece was the main subject. In the end I decided to use a very large orchestral line-up: 16 woodwinds, 12 brass, 8 percussionists, harp and piano, as well as 60 strings (96 musicians in total). Swelling and fading chords alternate with very soft passages with a static character. Halfway through, a short acceleration takes place, in which the ideas from the beginning return, but in reverse order. The piece is both the counterpart and the mirror of Invitation to a Beheading. Inquietus has the same slow tempo, but the music has a completely different character. If Invitation to a Beheading is a kind of funeral march, then Inquietus can be seen as a sort of calm before the storm.
Inquietus was written at the request of the Residentieorkest The Hague on behalf of the Fonds voor de Podiumkunsten.”

– Theo Verbey