After all this time, a work from over 30 years ago—one that wasn't particularly well-regarded back then—has resurfaced...
The lyrics on this album are actually quite clear, so I wanted to check exactly what was being sung. I couldn't quite make them out on my own, but then I found it on Spotify!
Sorrow for letting someone else define you know who are at every age. what impression am I making? I see me as other people see me. There is no going back,I can't feeling now. I am not the same, I am growing up again. I am not the same, I am growing up again. There is no going back,I can't feeling now. I had to fantasize. I was a princess,Mum and Dad were queen and king. I ought to have what feelings? I see me as other people see me. I had to fantasize. Just to survive I was a famous artist. Everybody took me seriously. Even those who didn't were not close to me I had to fantasize. Just to survive.
It's finally given me the opportunity to start selling the electronicaCDs I've purchased in the past.
I started a new job (company) last December, so I can't take my time listening to music like I did during the two years I wasn't working.
Even in this environment, these labels' releases keep me listening closely and pique my interest, and I'm sure they will continue to give me new sensations.
To be continued with Kairos's release next time...
Speaking of piano concertos, I haven't really checked out any contemporary works, but
This one is commissioned by Alexandre Thraud,
First, let's start with the explanations from the three composers themselves.
I look forward to seeing more masterpieces in the future, just like the violin concerto.
・Cara Bali Concerto by Thierry Pécou (born in France in 1965)
ティエリー・ペクーは次のように述べている。「20世紀後半の作曲家にとって、バリ島への旅は、19世紀末の作曲家にとってのバイロイト巡礼に相当するものだったように、私にはよく思えます。 例えば、バリ音楽のパーカッシブで催眠的な要素が、アメリカのミニマル・ミュージックの作曲家のサウンドスケープにどれほど影響を与えたかはよく知られています。 私自身は、まだバリ島への旅を経験していません…私がインドネシアのガムランに辿り着いたのは、インドの偉大な叙事詩『マハーバーラタ』に基づくオペラ『Until the Lions』のスコアを豊かにするために、東南アジアの様々な伝統から音楽の基盤を創造したいという願望からでした。その後、新しいピアノ協奏曲を作曲する中で、ガムランは詩的かつ形式的な源泉として再び私の心に刻まれました。民族音楽学者マイケル・テンツァーによるバリ島のガムラン・ゴング・クビャールに関する著書に触発され、カナダの作曲家コリン・マクフィーの足跡を辿ることで、西洋的なアプローチとは全く相反する働きを持つように見えるこの音楽の素材とメカニズムに没頭することができました。
Thierry Pécou notes: "It has often seemed to me that, for the composers of the second half of the 20th century, journeying to Bali was something of an equivalent to the pilgrimage to Bayreuth for those at the end of the 19th. It is well known, for example, how much the percussive and hypnotic elements of elements of Balinese music influenced the soundscapes of the American minimalist composers. For my part, I've not yet made the journey to Bali...It was the desire to create a musical bedrock from different Southeast Asian traditons to enrich the score of opera Until the Lions〔based on the great Indian epic the Mahabharata〕that led me to the Indonesian gamelan. Later, when writing my new piano concerto, the gamelan lodged itself in my mind once again as a poetic and formal source. Inspired by ethnomusicologist Michael Tenzer's book on the Balinese gamelan gong kebyar and following in the footsteps of Canadian composer Colin McPhee, I was able to immerse myself in the matter and machanisms of this music that would seem to function in a way that is utterly contrary to our western approach.
As well as the percussive character of the piano, evoking the metallophones and gongs that make up a gamelan ensemble, I was inspired by the overarching principles governing gamelan music, such as "colotomy" 〔the basic temporal cycle punctuated by the low gong on which every composition rests〕, the organisation of the musical edifice by layers and registers, the the virtuoso play of intertwined parts, and the harmonic constraction derived from the unique seven-note pelog mode.
The two substantial movements that make up the Concerto are driven by the piano's material that articulates all the rhythmic complexities of the figurations inspired by gamelan music. "Cara Bali" might be translated as "Bali Style", and the direct reference to gong kebyar is often explict. For all that, my aim was not to imitate the imitable, but to establish associations in the mind that might point towards other words of sound and poetry. A sort of imaginary detour, or change of scenery, in a project that, very happily, has brought me together again with my trusty accomplice Alexandre Tharaud, the dedicatee and first performer of my two preceding concertos."
RAMON LAZKANO notes:"This concert is first and foremost the fruit of great friendship ,that between Alexandre Tharaud and myself, and of our love for instrument , the piano, and all its familiar characteristics as well as ita more covert modes of enchantment. For Alexandre, I wanted to explore the keybord anew, to call upon dexterity, to run across the keys or hover soundlessly above them, to skim over them with emphatic signing sounds or to get to their very bottom in order to extract the hidden resonances buried in deepest recesses off the case, to open my arms wide as so to enfold the instrument in an enomous hug and thereby take possession of the full range of its frequencies, and to make it sing a rare, elusive song, crowned by two cadenzas.
Mare marginis - a desert sea between two plains, one visible, the other invisible, and more specifically the waterless sea that is the liminal area demarcating the visible from the invisible side of the moon - is the metaphor that I have chosen to attempt to reconcile the multiple associations that the idea of a concerto evokes in my memory.
The solist manifests itself as a satellite orbiting around an orchestra that performs as an echo chamber, like the sonic aura of an inner emanation; it is the orginator of a diffused music, an acoustic space in which the listener tries to discern famillar signs through the virtuosity, the musical interplays, the visual spectacle.
In this concert for piano, I have sought to evoke various pieces from my pianistic youth that contain nocturnal references [Chopin, Bartok, Debussy] and which led me to the heart of a desert terrain full of polyphonic mirages and inharmonic cases.
Imagining a portal between the overt as well as covert aspects of this space, where the solist is the dominant character, awoke in me a soundworld that might tentatively exist between two luminous states,finding a connecting pathway through which would represent a kind of liberation. "
・Luz de lejos by Alex Nante (born in Argentina in 1992)
ALEX NANTEは次のように述べている。
「このコンサートは、光をテーマにした私のオーケストラ・サイクルの一部です。「Luz de lejos（遠方からの光）」では、ピアノは、オーケストラとそれが象徴する光に近づいたり遠ざかったりする段階を経て、ある人物を体現しているように見ることができます。オーケストラとピアノの対照的な音色を統一することの難しさが、このアイデアの着想の源となっています。この両者を融合させようとする試みは、時にロマンティックな側面を帯びており、特に第4楽章では、ピアノとハープの親密な二重奏が際立っています。
ALEX NANTE notes: "This concert forms part of my orchestral cycle on light. In Luz de lejos〔Light from afar〕the piano can be seen as embodying a character passing through stages of getting closer to, as well as further away from,the orchestra and the light it represents. The difficulty of unifying the contrasting timbres of orchestra and the piano is what inspired this idea. The attempt to bring them together has at times a romantic aspect, and this is particularly prominent in the fourth movement, which consists of an intimate duet between the piano and the harp.
The concerto comprises the following movements: Ⅰ.Prelude;Ⅱ.Toccata 1;Ⅲ.Annunciation-Game;Ⅳ.Love song;Ⅴ.Toccata2;Ⅵ.Light from afar The general form of work reveals a symmetrical structure.Movements Ⅰand Ⅵ are share a calm and meditative atmosphere, with similar melodic material. MovementⅡandⅤare energetic, mercurial toccatas. The start of the third movement, Annonciation, presents a duet for piano and horn, while the fourth movement, Love song is a duet for piano and harp. The second part of the third movement, Game, is the axis of the work. It consists of a rapid scherzo in two sections, the second being a palindrome of the first, underlining the symmetrical quality of the piece.
Alexandre Tharaud's playing was an inspiration for me throughout the composition of the piece. From first baroque-style Toccata to the supple, crystalline atmosphere of Annunciation and the vigorous and powerful sounds of ToccataⅡ, my intention in this work was to explore particular interpretative facets that he possesses. I was lucky enough to be able to work with him during the creative process - exchanges that most definitely influnented the work.
I would like to thank Alexandre for this collaboration which has profoundly enriched my writing style, as well as conductor Emilia Hoving for her excellent work and to both commisioners of the piece: the Orchestre National de Lille and the Beethoven Orchester Bonn."
Iurii Iushkevich, Ich Johanna Zimmer, Johannes Noa Frenkel, Josefina / Alfina Reuben Willcox, Sven Hedmann / Pastor Rinnat Moriah, Eva-Lisa Ensemble Modern Jaan Bossier, clarinet / bass clarinet / double bass clarinet Andrew Digby, trombone Hermann Kretzschmar, sampler / celesta Rainer Römer, percussion Simon Klavžar, percussion Steffen Ahrens, electric guitar Stefan Hussong, accordion / toy piano Megumi Kasakawa, viola / stroh violin Eva Böcker, cello Pierre Dekker, double bass Johannes Kalitzke, conductor The Pain Points Within … Johannes Kalitzke on His Opera
Opera requires a certain level of mental space, and classical music is so long that it's impossible to watch it for 40 years. I thought I'd try to watch it for up to 120 minutes, but I've only listened to condensed works by BERG and contemporary works.
I started to get interested in KALITZKE's work because there were many performances of his work on KAIROS CDs, and I checked out this opera that was about 1 hour and 38 minutes long.
Even though I couldn't understand the story because of the language barrier, this opera for five soloists and chamber ensembles such as electronica and electric guitar is full of music (can I call it tones?) that I recognize and remember now.
I couldn't understand it without understanding PLOT, so I got it from the Kairos website and checked it using automatic translation.
Other contemporary operas that interest me include works by several Japanese composers (Dai Fujikura, Toshio Hosokawa, Akira Nishimura). I don't know how many years it will take, but I would like to memorize them in parallel with other genres of music.
