This recording, by three members of the faculty at the soundSCAPE Festival in Maccagno, Italy, features works commissioned by the festival in 2012 by Oberlin Conservatory faculty composer Josh Levine, alongside canonic works by Webern, Rzewski, and Aperghis.
| # | Audio | Title/Composer(s) | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Time | 60:25 | ||
| 01 | Breathing Ritual (Inflorescence V) [2012] | Breathing Ritual (Inflorescence V) [2012] | 10:07 |
| 02 | Transparency I [2004] | Transparency I [2004] | 8:04 |
Four Songs, Op. 12 [1915-17]Anton Webern (1883-1945) |
|||
| 03 | Der Tag is vergangen | Der Tag is vergangen | 1:29 |
| 04 | Die geheimnisvolle Flöte | Die geheimnisvolle Flöte | 1:32 |
| 05 | Schien mir’s, als ich sah’ die Sonne | Schien mir’s, als ich sah’ die Sonne | 1:19 |
| 06 | Gleich und Gleich | Gleich und Gleich | 0:56 |
| 07 | Curb Weight Surgical Field [2010] | Curb Weight Surgical Field [2010] | 6:04 |
| 08 | Piano Piece No. 4 [1977] | Piano Piece No. 4 [1977] | 7:00 |
| 09 | from Récitations [1978]: No. 9 | from Récitations [1978]: No. 9 | 4:50 |
| 10 | from Récitations [1978]: No. 10b | from Récitations [1978]: No. 10b | 5:08 |
Notebook, Bedside [2003, rev. 2012]Richard Carrick |
|||
| 11 | I. | I. | 1:55 |
| 12 | II. | II. | 1:50 |
| 13 | III. | III. | 3:58 |
| 14 | IV.–V. | IV.–V. | 6:13 |
This recording, by three members of the faculty at the soundSCAPE Festival in Maccagno, Italy (soprano Tony Arnold, pianist Thomas Rosenkranz, and percussionist Aiyun Huang), features works commissioned by the festival in 2012 by Oberlin Conservatory faculty composer Josh Levine, alongside canonic works by Webern, Rzewski, and Aperghis. Rounding out the program are works written for the musicians by Richard Carrick and Mark Applebaum. These pieces are linked together by introspection and a finely considered approach to investing meaning with an economy of materials.
soundSCAPE facilitates the exchange of new music, ideas, and culture between musicians of tomorrow’s generation, providing an international platform for performances of new music. Now in its eighth season, the festival attracts composers and performers from around the world for two weeks of inspiring concerts, lectures, master classes, and workshops. Established in 2005, Nathanael May is its Executive Director.
Celebrated as a “luminary in the world of chamber music and art song” (Huffington Post), Tony Arnold is internationally acclaimed as a leading proponent of contemporary music in concert and recording as a “convincing, mesmerizing soprano” (Los Angeles Times) who “has a broader gift for conveying the poetry and nuance behind outwardly daunting contemporary scores” (Boston Globe). Her unique blend of vocal virtuosity and communicative warmth, combined with wide-ranging skills in education and leadership were recognized with the 2015 Brandeis Creative Arts Award, given in appreciation of “excellence in the arts and the lives and works of distinguished, active American artists.” Arnold’s extensive chamber music repertory includes major works written for her voice by Georges Aperghis, George Crumb, Brett Dean, Jason Eckardt, Gabriela Lena Frank, Josh Levine, George Lewis, Philippe Manoury, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Christopher Theofanidis, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, John Zorn, and numerous others. She is a member of the intrepid International Contemporary Ensemble and enjoys regular guest appearances with leading ensembles, presenters, and festivals worldwide.
With more than 30 discs to her credit, Arnold has recorded a broad segment of the modern vocal repertory with esteemed chamber music colleagues. Her recording of George Crumb’s iconic Ancient Voices of Children (Bridge) received a 2006 Grammy nomination. She is a first prize laureate of both the Gaudeamus International and the Louise D. McMahon competitions. A graduate of Oberlin College and Northwestern University, Arnold was twice a fellow of the Aspen Music Festival as both a conduc- tor and singer. She currently is on the faculties of the Peabody Conservatory and the Tanglewood Music Center.
Aiyun Huang enjoys a musical life as soloist, chamber musician, conductor, producer, researcher and teacher. Her past highlights include performances at the Weill Recital Hall, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra’s Green Umbrella Series, LACMA Concert Series, Holland Festival, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Agora Festival in Paris, Banff Arts Festival, 7ème Biennale d’Art Contemporaine de Lyon, Vancouver New Music Festival, CBC Radio, La Jolla Summerfest, Scotia Festival, Cool Drummings, Montreal New Music Festival, Centro Nacional Di Las Artes in Mexico City, and National Concert Hall and Theater in Taipei.
Thomas Rosenkranz enjoys a musical life as a soloist, chamber musician, and artist teacher. Since winning the Classical Fellowship Award from the American Pianists Association, his concert career has taken him to four continents. His repertoire extends from the works of J.S. Bach to premieres of works written exclusively for him, often including improvisation into his performances.
http://www.bgsu.edu/musical-arts/faculty-and-staff/thomas-rosenkranz.htmlThe soundSCAPE festival, held annually in Maccagno, Italy, brings together scholars, performers, and composers for two weeks of lectures, masterclasses, workshops, and concerts. This program of seven works is titled “Inflorescence” and refers both to the arresting opening composition, Josh Levine’s Breathing Ritual (Inflorescence V), as well as the burgeoning of color and variety characteristic of today’s new music scene. Levine describes the aforementioned work (for voice, percussion, and piano) as the last in a series that develops freely but coherently and draws on a variety of found musical sources. His Transparency (PartI) is scored for bass drum, four triangles, and sandpaper; it is dominated by an almost ritualistic, slow series of rhythmic figures for the drum, each separated by silence sufficient to allow the contemplation of the instrument’s complex resonance—a sounding space that, in Levine’s words, tries “to teach the instrument to transform its body, to speak or even sing”. By contrast, Webern’s Op. 12 songs sound positively traditional—in the best sense of the word—in this context. Mark Applebaum’s Curb Weight Surgical Field is an etude in sound, where the voice (who produces tongue clicks, whistling, kissing sounds, and so on) seems to animate or color a complex series of sounds produced in the piano’s upper range (both conventionally, through striking the keys, and with a variety of inside-the-instrument efforts); though the work sounds a little old-fashioned (and not in the best sense of the word), a surprising timbre sometimes makes the whole enterprise worthwhile. In Rzewski’s punishing Piano Piece 4 the performer executes a number of virtuosic techniques to transform the piano into what the notes describe as “a huge sonic gong”. Georges Aperghis’s Recitations for Solo Voice, from 1978, partakes of a sonic terrain similar to works such as Berio’s Sequenza for voice, but holds up remarkably well to my 2014 ears. Although the recorded sound is sometimes too dry and the piano, in particular, sometimes sounds much too brittle (especially in Levine’s Breathing Ritual), these are expert performances of some very exciting and unusual new music. Singly and in combination, Arnold, Huang, and Rosenkranz are some of the best new music performers around, and their commitment to this repertory makes for readings that are unusually vivid and subtle.
- HASKINS, May 2014
(English translation follows)
SoundSCAPE est un festival italien de musique contemporaine qui fêtera ses 10 ans en 2014. Pendant deux semaines, chaque été, des musiciens et des compositeurs participent à des cours de maître, des lectures et des concerts. Ce disque, mettant en vedette les musiciens invités du festival qui forment l’ensemble à géométrie variable Musicians from soundSCAPE, explore de nouveaux terrains sonores pour trio de voix, piano et percussions. Les musiciens de l’édition 2013 du festival comprenaient la soprano Tony Arnold, le pianiste Thomas Rosenkranz et la percussionniste Aiyun Huang, cette dernière étant à la fois directrice du département de percussions et directrice de l’ensemble de percussions de l’Université McGill, à Montréal.
Les œuvres enregistrées sur ce disque, dont la qualité sonore est exceptionnelle, nécessitent une virtuosité de la part de chacun des instrumentistes; et ils sont à la hauteur. L’ensemble exécute avec succès les œuvres de Josh Levine (Breathing Ritual et Transparency), Anton Webern (Four Songs Op. 12), Mark Applebaum (Curb Weight Surgical Field), Frederic Rzewski (Piano Piece No. 4), Georges Aperghis (Récitations No. 9 & 10b) et Richard Carrick (Notebook, Bedside).
Nous avouons un certain faible pour les pièces de Josh Levine présentées sur ce disque, mais cet album est conseillé en son entièreté aux auditeurs curieux d’entendre un petit ensemble de chambre à la maîtrise redoutable de ses instruments. La musique en est fort agréable et la qualité de l’enregistrement montre qu’une grande attention a été apportée à la production.
soundSCAPE is an Italian festival of contemporary music that celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2014. For two weeks every summer, performers and composers participate in master classes, lectures and concerts. This disc, which spotlights the festival musicians who form the ensemble of variable instrumentation, Musicians from soundSCAPE, explores new sonic terrain for the trio of voice, piano, and percussion. The musicians of the 2013 [sic] edition of the festival are soprano Tony Arnold, pianist Thomas Rosenkranz, and percussionist Aiyun Huang, who is the director of both the percussion department and the percussion ensemble at McGill University in Montreal.
The works on this exceptionally well-recorded disc require virtuosity of each of the performers, and they are up to the task. The ensemble successfully performs works by Josh Levine (Breathing Ritual and Transparency), Anton Webern (Four Songs Op. 12), Mark Applebaum (Curb Weight Surgical Field), Frederic Rzewski (Piano Piece No. 4), Georges Aperghis (Récitations No. 9 & 10b) and Richard Carrick (Notebook, Bedside).
We admit to a certain weakness for the pieces by Josh Levine presented on this disc, but the entire album is recommended to listeners curious to hear a small chamber ensemble with formidable mastery of their instruments. The music is most agreeable and the recording quality demonstrates the great care given to the production.
New Focus Recordings is an artist led collective label featuring releases in contemporary creative music of many stripes, as well as new approaches to older repertoire. The label was founded by guitarist Dan Lippel, composer Peter Gilbert in 2004, and composer/engineer Ryan Streber in 2004, formed …Read More …
Listen to full streaming tracks while you browse the site. New tracks enabled for streaming every month. Click on the button to open up the radio player.
