More excerpts from this year's HCMF, with a Pick'n'Mix selection from two different concerts (both given in St Paul's Hall on Sunday, 20th November) where the performers' carefully chosen and presented programmes are considerately ignored and a completely different context is given for the works involved because ... err ... pass.
From the same Klangforum Wien concert that Rebecca Saunders' Skin (broadcast in last week's H&N) was performed in, there is Eva REITER's Noch sind wir ein Wort and Reinhard FUCHS' MANIA. Having been at this concert, I shall be intrigued to hear how the Reiter piece comes off over the airwaves - it's a piece for the whole (twenty strong) ensemble, all playing plastic didgeridoo-like tubes; fascinating Live, how the mics will pick up the nuances of the piece without over-highlighting them will be interesting. The Fuchs is a more "conventional" piece, which I shall be grateful to hear again, because I cannot remember anything about it other than a general sense that it was a brisk, vigorous, and enjoyable piece.
A couple of works from the concert given by the Trombone Unit, Hanover (from which we heard Xenakis' Keren at the end of last week's H&N0 also feature: Anders HILLBORG's Hautposaune for Trombone and tape, played by Lars Karlin, and Georg Friederich HAAS' Octet. Both works new to me.
And finally, from Musikfabrik's concert (with Saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, as featured in the photograph on the H&N website) given on Friday 18th Nov, Swiss composer Michael WERTMULLER's half-hour long: antagonisme contrôlé. A work of which the composer says is
about bringing together two opposing worlds, which is clearly marked out by the orchestration. Here is the Jazz world, represented by Brötzmann, (Marino) Pliakas, [e-bass] and (Dirk) Rothbrust. [drumset] Opposing them, you find a strictly constructed New Music, embodied in an ensemble by Musikfabrik. I have now tried to pour these two worlds into one mould - in doing so, there should be no kind of "crossover". Rather, each world should preserve its own character and value. This means that, for example, some ensemble parts are at times very strictly and precisely composed, using serialism technique. At the same time, there are also passages in which it is played absurdly fast and it becomes very difficult to tell whether it is improvised or whether each note is painstakingly and precisely played.
... which (even allowing for the vagaries of a translation into English) sounds as if the composer isn't aware of what many other Musicians have been doing over the past twenty/thirty years - not to mention the assumptions embedded here (are Jazz and "New Music" really "two opposing worlds"? Are "improvised" and "painstaking and precisely played" notes opposites? Probably a lot wiser to ignore the composer's words and hear what the Music has to say for itself.
From the same Klangforum Wien concert that Rebecca Saunders' Skin (broadcast in last week's H&N) was performed in, there is Eva REITER's Noch sind wir ein Wort and Reinhard FUCHS' MANIA. Having been at this concert, I shall be intrigued to hear how the Reiter piece comes off over the airwaves - it's a piece for the whole (twenty strong) ensemble, all playing plastic didgeridoo-like tubes; fascinating Live, how the mics will pick up the nuances of the piece without over-highlighting them will be interesting. The Fuchs is a more "conventional" piece, which I shall be grateful to hear again, because I cannot remember anything about it other than a general sense that it was a brisk, vigorous, and enjoyable piece.
A couple of works from the concert given by the Trombone Unit, Hanover (from which we heard Xenakis' Keren at the end of last week's H&N0 also feature: Anders HILLBORG's Hautposaune for Trombone and tape, played by Lars Karlin, and Georg Friederich HAAS' Octet. Both works new to me.
And finally, from Musikfabrik's concert (with Saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, as featured in the photograph on the H&N website) given on Friday 18th Nov, Swiss composer Michael WERTMULLER's half-hour long: antagonisme contrôlé. A work of which the composer says is
about bringing together two opposing worlds, which is clearly marked out by the orchestration. Here is the Jazz world, represented by Brötzmann, (Marino) Pliakas, [e-bass] and (Dirk) Rothbrust. [drumset] Opposing them, you find a strictly constructed New Music, embodied in an ensemble by Musikfabrik. I have now tried to pour these two worlds into one mould - in doing so, there should be no kind of "crossover". Rather, each world should preserve its own character and value. This means that, for example, some ensemble parts are at times very strictly and precisely composed, using serialism technique. At the same time, there are also passages in which it is played absurdly fast and it becomes very difficult to tell whether it is improvised or whether each note is painstakingly and precisely played.
... which (even allowing for the vagaries of a translation into English) sounds as if the composer isn't aware of what many other Musicians have been doing over the past twenty/thirty years - not to mention the assumptions embedded here (are Jazz and "New Music" really "two opposing worlds"? Are "improvised" and "painstaking and precisely played" notes opposites? Probably a lot wiser to ignore the composer's words and hear what the Music has to say for itself.
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