A Tribute to George Crumb
Χωρίς Τίτλο
A concert dedicated to George Crumb, the sui generis American composer with a host of faithful fans around the world, including Greece. Music for a Summer Evening (1974) comprises the third part of Makrokosmos, a four-part cycle in which Crumb, mirroring Béla Bartók’s Microcosmos, explores the potential of which he calls ‘extended piano’ (prepared, amplified piano, and other unusual techniques). The piece’s orchestration—for two pianos and an array of percussion—is also descended from Bartók (specifically, from the composer’s Sonata for two pianos and percussion of 1937), though this 40-minute ‘cosmic myth’ also calls to mind the typically optimistic American avant-garde of the era: the experimental cinema of Stan Brakhage, for example. Extended technique also feature in the concert’s most recent work, Otherworldly Resonances (2003), a hypnotic passacaglia of sorts for two amplified pianos. The last item in the programme, Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale, 1971) is perhaps Crumb’s best-known work, “a sort of oceanic counterpart to the birdsong in Messiaen’s oeuvre” (according to Michael Walls) inspired by recordings of the Megaptera Novaeangliae whale. The piece also features unexpected performance techniques (the flautist, for instance, sings through her flute), while all three musicians wear masks symbolizing “the powerful impersonal forces of nature”.
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Parnassos Literary Society
- 30/06/2009 at 21:00
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