Donaueschinger Musiktage 1999
EÖTVÖS o HILARIO o MOCHIZUKI o PRUDENCIO
o TABORDA
World Premiere Recordings
col legno WWE 20075
2CDs [135.30]
Crotchet
CD 1
Eötvös, Peter
(*1944)
As I crossed a bridge of dreams (1999)
Klangtheater nach "Lady Sarashina"
(Tagebuch einer japanischen Hofdame aus dem Jahre 1008)
Claire Bloom, recitation o Mike Svoboda, trombone
Gérard Buquet, tuba o Klaus Burger, sousaphone
Members of the Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart:
Christine Schmeling, mezzosoprano o Stephanie Field, alto
Matthias Horn, baritone o Thea Brejzek: Regie VARIANTI
Manfred Schreier: music director
Hilario, Alan
(*1967)
Early 70´s, three scenes in Brooklyn Street, Cubao (1999)
for solo accordeon, small ensemble and silent cinefilm
Sven Hermann, accordeon
(Ensemble) VARIANTI o Manfred Schreier, director
CD 2
Taborda,
Tato (*1960)
Estratos (1999)
for native instruments
Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos nativos, La Paz
Cergio Prudencio, director
Prudencio, Cergio
(*1955)
Cantos Crepusculares (1999)
Cantos de Tierra (1990)
for native instruments
Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos nativos, La Paz
Cergio Prudencio, director
Mochizuki, Misato
(*1969)
Camera Lucida (1999)
Dominic Donato, Diamond Marimba
Gregory Hesselink, adapted viola (tenorviolin/-cello)
SWR-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Sylvain Cambreling, director
My attention to this important new release was caught by seeing the names
of Misato Mochizuki and Peter Eötvös.
Eötvös used to be a familiar figure, conducting regularly
in London. He was encountered by S&H at Amsterdam recently during
the
Gaudeamus
Week, where he was in charge of the Kirill Kondrashin
Conductors Masterclass and Competition in contemporary music, and his
compositions have been regularly reviewed in
Seen&Heard, MusicWeb and elsewhere:
April00
November00
In his As I crossed a bridge of dreams, the famous English
film and theatre actress Claire Bloom recites fragments from the 1008
diary of a Japanese court lady in English translation (Penguin Classics,
1975) with perfect diction, her delivery leaving you hanging on her
every next word. Eötvös deploys electronic manipulation with an
unusual group of supporting brass soloists, the chamber ensemble Varianti
and members of the Neuen Vocalisten Stuttgart for Lady Sarashina's evocative
tales of a talking cat and her erotic musings about a man with whom she believed
there had been mutual attraction. Unique, accessible and haunting - delicious.
The young Japanese composer Misato Mochizuki, now resident in Paris,
has attracted the attention of Seen&Heard several times already,
first for a brilliant solo oboe piece given at
Eclat
2000 in Stuttgart. Au bleu bois integrates all the extended
oboe techniques developed in recent years so that they feel entirely natural.
Nor did her All that is including me for violin, clarinet & bass
flute disappoint in Amsterdam - it confirmed my good impression of her
imaginative assimilation of oriental roots into a contemporary language.
Mochizuki was picked out
for
mention also by John Warnaby, who at Witten found that
Chimera
underlined the consistency of her output. We look forward to hearing
her Chimera very shortly, in Eclat 2001 at Stuttgart.
Mochizuki's major score for large orchestra, Camera Lucida (20 mins),
is inspired by consideration of light and the world of photography, with
'filtration, expansion & contraction - - cutting a movement or note into
ribbons - - reflection on temporal development of musical parameters a central
theme'. I found it strange and elusive first time - it gets under your skin
on repetition, as do two extraordinary works for native South American
instruments by two composers, Tato Taborda and Cergio Prudencio,
who were both inspired by the sonic possibilities of the Orquesta
Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos, La Paz. You will have heard nothing
like any of these works, which explore possibilities far from those which
are dominant in the UK contemporary music scene.
The work by Alan Hilario, directed by Manfred Schreier as is
the Eötvös, is perhaps the hardest to digest, a multi-media
creation (a feature of the festival in the most recent times) which cannot
be fully appreciated in sound alone. Hilario explores connections between
film and music, with a dauntingly intellectual explanatory essay. No matter,
this souvenir of Donaueschinger Musiktage 1999
shows a lively openness to contemporary influences and preoccupations
which makes us keen to visit this long established and pioneering festival
and share the experience with readers of S&H
and MusicWeb.
Peter Grahame Woolf
