mahaberio

Ed,
I'm actually going to start working on the Zimmermann right after my recital is over with. I'm very excited about it.

Wish me luck,
Matthew

ecarroll

Matthew,

Excellent. It's not at all extreme and it's fun. By the way, I saw Zimmerman's opera Die Soldaten at the Salzburg Festival once (Rotterdam was in town) and it was life changing for me.

Best,
EC

ecarroll

To follow up on an earlier comment, these are pieces being performed by my students at McGill this year:

Sir Harrison Birtwistle: The Silkhouse Tattoo (Canadian premiere)
Christian Wolff: Pulse (Canadian premiere)
George Antheil: Sonata
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Aries
Robert Erickson: Kryl
Petr Eben: Okna
Henri Tomasi: Semaine Saint a Cuzco
Gregorian Variations
Nocturne
H.K. Gruber: Exposed Throat
Luciano Berio: Sequenza X
Toru Takemitsu: Paths
Maurcio Kagel: FanFanfaren
Charles Ives: Unanswered Question
Georg Enescu: Legende
Somei Satoh: Hikari
Blake Watkins: Death of an Eagle
Andre Jolivet: 2nd Concerto
Robert Smalley: Echos III
Giacinto Scelsi: Quattro Pezzi
Messiaen/Milhaud/Poulenc: Vocalises
Ned Rorem: Cries and Whispers

The list isn't comprehensive yet as more pieces will be added over the 1st term and student composers aren't listed (I hope there will be many!). I'm also excluding music commonly played (Haydn, etc., although Enescu is certainly found on that list)

Cheers,
EC

mahaberio

Ed,
I'm not familiar with the Birtwistle piece mentioned. Could you tell us a bit about it?

ecarroll

Matthew,

Silkhouse Tattoo is for 2 trumpets and 3 sidedrums (1 player) and was written for John Wallace and myself. The two trumpets are stationed at 12:00/6:00 or at 3:00/9:00 for each of the 4 movements (with walking/playing in-between). The drummer stays in the middle and acts as the fulcrum. Silkhouse was first performed at the ITG conference in Richmond to a generally unappreciative crowd and the "official" premiere was given two nights later on the London Sinfonietta series at the South Bank (Queen Elizabeth Hall). The London concert was everything Richmond was not. . .a large and wildly appreciative audience (you could hear a pin drop) and terrific reviews in the London press.

I've performed it on two other occasions: at Syracuse University (with my pal Jason Price) and at the Disney Hall (REDCAT) in LA (with my student Dan Rosenboom). I'm pretty sure that Mark O'Keefe has played it in Ireland or Scotland and these might be the only performances to date (?)

It's difficult to sort out (lots of micro tones and Harry's notation is notorious) and wonderfully effective.

Cheers,
EC

mahaberio

An ITG crowd unappreciative of a great new piece by a world-renowned composer?! Shocking...

noonan

Ed:

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Could you recommend any recordings of other pieces by Takemitsu that you particularly recommend? I've decided to dig into Paths but I'd like to get a little bit of context first.

Thanks again,
Carl