Der Höllenfranz: Hämmerklavier XVI- Moritz Eggert/ Jochen Kuhn 2003/04
This piece was commissioned by the Eclat Festival and premiered by Moritz Eggert
in Stuttgart in february 2004. Sonsoles Alonso premiered it in The Netherlands
in november of the same year.
In this piece of Music Theater for prepared piano, the pianist becomes almost
an 'übermensch' who has to manage the use of an incredible amount of 'preparations'
in a musical way, to support the showing of the silent movie.
Tullius Rooms - Marko Ciciliani 1999/2000 for piano, electronics, and soundscapes
From Antiquity up through the Renaissance, there are reports of people who had the ability to retain unimaginable amounts of information. These people accomplished such feats of recollection by means of a particular technique — the ars memorativa — which worked in the following way. One created a personal, imaginary building, all of the different spatial divisions of which one came to know well. In order to remember a particular subject, one would place various virtual objects in the rooms of the building. These objects would symbolically represent information. To recall something later, one would imagine oneself walking through that particular part of the building which housed the objects pertaining to the subject at hand and would then "decode" them. The idea of a fictitious building which, although uninhabited, is still "imbued," serves as the inspiration for this piece and as a metaphor for its formal organization. The form consists of 126 sections that were derived by means of a magic square. The architectural metaphor lends itself well to the piece and its sections, in that although the physical characteristics of individual rooms may greatly differ, together the rooms form an edifice. A second aspect in the piece is derived from architecture, in that the acoustic characteristics of the hall in which this piece is performed play an important musical role, as do those of the piano and the musician’s body. These last two are also utilized as "architectural" entities unto themselves. Furthermore, artificial and remote acoustics are brought in by means of electronics and soundscapes.
Tullius Rooms is a diverse musical landscape of piano sound, electronic material, singing, whistling and percussive or "performance" actions.
Image de Moreau - Louis Andriessen 1999
The commission from Carnegie Hall to write a short piano work fitted with a
request to write a piece for a ‘Toccata-project’ of the Dutch pianist Ivo Janssen.
The toccata form was developed by Frescobaldi and Sweelinck,
but became fashionable again in the early 1920s. This was the starting point
for Image de Moreau, but the piece soon turns towards French late-Romanticism,
the time and spirit of painters like Redon and Gustave Moreau. The paintings
of Moreau combine large areas of abstraction with very sharp figurative details,
faces and objects, opening up unexpected emotion feelings.
II - Petros Ovsepyan 1999
The performer's hands, torso and gestures are critical part of the music in
this work.
The element of timing is extremely crucial, using two types of silences: 'active',
where the performer must at all times keep the sense of 'inner pulse, and 'vacuum',
where all sense of time is lost (analogous to 'floating in space').
The inner energy of the performer is also inmensely important. When the physical
presence of sound stops, it must continue with the inner energy of the performer.
Visual elements are inherent to the music (There is no 'acting' in this piece).
Mr. Ovsepyan is an american/armenian composer based in Berlin.
Sofferte onde Serene (with tape) - Luigi Nono 1976
Luigi Nono composed "…sofferte onde serene…" for piano
and tape in 1976. Dedicated to "Maurizio and Marilisa Pollini", Nono poetically
explores and reinvents the sound of the piano, particularly its percussive character.
Luigi Nono: Über elektronische Musik Die Musik hat für ihre Klangverwirklichung
immer jene, in verschiedener Weise bestimmten Mittel, die aus einer bestimmten
historischen Situation in der Entwicklung der technisch-sprachlich-strukturellen
Möglichkeiten folgen, verwendet. Natürlich geben diese neuen Möglichkeiten den
Anstoß zu neuen Konzepten. Dies geschieht auch heute, besonders im Zusammenhang
mit den elektronischen Mitteln. Die neue elektronische Dimension ist heute wirklich
im lebendigen zeitgenössischen Musikleben, mit den verschiedenen Möglichkeiten
der Verwendung und Entwicklung, die immer noch vor sich gehen, eine vollendete
Tatsache. Die jüngste Geschichte der elektronischen Praxis faßt sich in der
sich aus ihr ergebenden Musik zusammen.
Weshalb besteht man auf der Bezeichnung "experimentelle Musik"? Vielleicht aus
einer faulen Unterordnung unter ästhetische Kategorien, die heute eine Verzögerung,
wenn nicht sogar einen offenen Widerstand gegen das Verständnis der neuen schöpferisch-gestalterischen
Fähigkeiten des Menschen darstellen? Oder vielleicht auf Grund eines falschen
Humanismus, der die angebliche heutige technische Materialität verachtet?
(Luigi Nono 1961) zitiert nach Jürg Stenzl (Hrsg.): Luigi Nono - Texte, Studien
zu seiner Musik. Zürich und Freiburg 1975, S. 149
Luigi Nono: .....sofferte onde serene... (1976) (13´38) Während sich meine Freundschaft
mit Maurizio Pollini wie auch meine staunende Kenntnis seines Klavierspiels
vertiefen, hat ein harter Todeswind das "unendliche Lächeln der Wellen" in meiner
und Pollinis Familie hinweggefegt. Diese gemeinsame Erfahrung hat uns in der
Trauer des unendlichen Lächelns der ".....durchlittenen heiteren Wellen..."
einander noch näher gebracht. Die Widmung: "Für Maurizio und Marilisa Pollini"meint
auch das.
In mein Heim auf der Guidecca in Venedig dringen fortwährend Klänge verschiedener
Glocken, sie kommen mit unterschiedlicher Resonanz, unterschiedlichen Bedeutungen,
Tag und Nacht, durch den Nebel und in der Sonne. Es sind Lebenszeichen über
der Lagune, über dem Meer. Aufforderungen zur Arbeit, zum Nachdenken, Warnungen.
Und das Leben geht dabei weiter in der durchlittenen und heiteren Notwendigkeit
des "Gleichgewichts im tiefen Inneren", wie Kafka sagt.
Pollini: Klavier live, erweitert sich mit Pollini: Klavier auf Tonband bearbeitet
und komponiert. Weder kontra-stierend noch kontra-punktierend. Pollinis im Studio
hergestellte Aufnahmen, vor allem Einsätze, sein außerordentlich artikulierter
Anschlag, verschiedene Intervallfelder, sind später auf dem Tonband verarbeitet
worden, ebenfalls im Studio di Fonologia der RAI in Mailand mit Hilfe von Marino
Zuccheri. Daraus ergeben sich zwei Klangebenen, die oft verschmelzen und dabei
die mechanische Fremdheit des Tonbandes aufheben. Zwischen ihnen beiden sind
die Beziehungen in der Klangbildung untersucht worden; darunter auch die Verwendung
des Vibrierens der Pedalschläge - vielleicht besondere Anklänge "im tiefen Inneren".
Es sind nicht "Episoden", die sich in der Abfolge erschöpfen, sondern "Erinnerungen"
und "Gegenwärtigkeiten", die sich überlagern, die sich indes als Erinnerungen,
als Gegenwarten, mit den "heiteren Wellen" vermischen. Luigi Nono (deutsche
Übersetzung: Catherine Stenzl)
holds degrees in Classical Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of
Madrid and the Manhattan School of Music (Master's Degree) in New York.
She also studied privately with Vitalij Margulis in Freiburg
(Germany) and with Philip Kawin in New York.
At the Conservatory of Amsterdam she followed the course "Contemporary Music
through Non-Western Techniques" focusing on rhythmic complexity.
She has participated in masterclasses given by Lazar Berman, Nicolas Hodges,
Karl-Ulrich Schnabbel and Ronald Farren-Price.
While in New York, Sonsoles developed an interest in
contemporary and improvised music which was influenced by her teachers Anthony
de Mare (20th-century piano literature) and Morton Feldman's disciple Nils Vigeland
(20th-century analysis).
She moved to Amsterdam in 1996 and continued to specialize in the interpretation
of contemporary music as a soloist and as a member of various ensembles.
She enjoys working with many composers, both young and established from which
she often commissions new pieces.
She collaborates with established performers as well and often does projects
which involve other disciplines and/or cross-overs between music styles. (Live)
electronics is also a main focus. Recently she performed the concert series
P.A.T with singer Jannie Pranger, a program of solo piano and solo voice with
electronics.
She has been heard at numerous international festivals including Traces of Voices,
Gaudeamus Music Week, Spazio Musica (Italy) and Darmstadt (Germany). The coming
months she has been invited to perform during the Randspiele Festival in Berlin
and other concerts in Germany, the US and Spain.
Many of her performances have been broadcasted on radio and television, including the Concertzender, Radio Noord Holland, RNE (Radio Nacional de España) and TVE (Television Española).
From a review in the Brabants Dagblad: "The highest
point of the evening was Luigi Nono's "Sofferte onde Serene," played formidably
by pianist Sonsoles Alonso... ...Alonso brought forth with thunder the most
deep and profound caverns of the piano."