September 12 2005
The newly discovered cello concerto will have its premiere on October 9th
2005 with Franck Ollu and the Orchestra Communale di Bologna in the Teatro
Massimo. It is in collaboration with Angelica which produces festivals and
concerts of new music in Italy.
The concerto is a rhapsodic work from 1946 in the free chromatic style-
lyric and densely passionate.
for tickets and reservations please contact Teatro Communale 39 199107070
or Susanna von Canon canon@xs4all.nl
complete program:
BALLATA PER VIOLONCELLO E ORCHESTRA (1946) PRIMA ASSOLUTA
per violoncello e orchestra
musica di Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988)
OU BIEN SUNYATTA (2004) PRIMA ITALIANA
per kora, voce, orchestra
musica di Heiner Goebbels (1952)
AUS EINEM TAGEBUCH (From a Diary) (2002)
Brevi note per orchestra
per orchestra con campionatore
musica di Heiner Goebbels (1952)
THE HORATIAN - THREE SONGS (1993/1994)
1. Rome and Alba
2. So That Blood Dropped to the Earth
3. Dwell Where the Dogs Dwell
da Surrogate Cities
per mezzo soprano and orchestra
testo: Heiner Müller
musica di Heiner Goebbels (1952)
July 3, 2005
From the cello, a new bow commissioned from Andreas
Grutter, producing a huge articulated bass, still capable of singing impossibly
soft inflections in the highest register, with a made-to-order springiness.
It is an unqualified success. Andreas Grutter is an artist who understands
the details of sound (he is also a bass player, still active in performance)
His ear is highly refined and he knows how to translate this into bowmaking;
one gets the feeling that he sees the bow in a raw cut piece of pernambuco
and then releases it in all its elegance. Visit him at the link below:
bows
July 2, 2005
Frances-Marie Uitti will be in residence at Mills
College in November 2005 giving seminars and master classes on the music
and improvisation techniques of Giacinto Scelsi.
link
June 7 200
Uitti and Griffiths in Munich
“There is still time”, subtitled “Scenes for speaking voice
and cello” receives its concert premiere in Munich on June 19. American
cellist Frances-Marie Uitti and British writer Paul Griffiths perform the work
first realized on their New Series debut album last year.
Uitti is one of the most highly regarded instrumentalists in new music, having
worked closely with John Cage, Elliott Carter, Iannis Xenakis, Luigi Nono,
amongst many others, and having played a significant role in the “rediscovery” of
the music of Giacinto Scelsi. Uitti is the inventor of numerous extended techniques
for the cello, her innovative use of two bows inspiring many composers to write
works for her. Active in both contemporary music and improvisation, she is
also a composer.
Paul Griffiths is one of the best-known writers on music in the English language,
a prize-winning novelist, and latterly a librettist, having written the words
for Elliott Carter’s opera “What Next?” and Tan Dun’s
opera “Marco Polo”. His texts for “There is still time” ingeniously
rearrange the vocabulary of Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet into new
poems and stories.
The concert takes place at the Black Box in Munich’s Gasteig and begins
at 20.00. Tickets are EUR 14,-/10,-.
And, on June 18, on Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne, Frances-Marie Uitti
participates in a special concert dedicated to the music of Scelsi, which also
features the Munich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Poppen.
A New Series recording with Scelsi’s music, featuring Uitti, Poppen and
the MKO is also in preparation.
From the wesite of ECM link
Tuesday December 21, 2004
The solstice. Elsa Stanfield
Many years ago I met Elsa Stansfield and her partner
in art and life, Madelon Hooykas. Two sublime artists who resist categorization
for they are equally sculptors, video artists, object artists. We collaborated
in a work wherein we'd trade sketches back and forth each building on
the other, me sonically and they in video. The final work Solstice was
exhibited in the Stedelijk Museum. I followed their work throughout the
years, always charmed by the simplicity and playfulness, moved by the subtext
of Buddhist thought, and wordless from the beauty.
They were at my studio several months ago and we initiated
another project for the Buddhist Television (Babethe van Loo) much in the
same interactive way. I visited their studio and saw the first sketches
and ideas.
A few weeks later Elsa fell gravely ill. In spite of her harrowing condition
she refused to speak of the illness or of her physical state. Most inspiring
of all was her insistance to live in her work to her last, speaking
of color
theory,
music, bird song,
and the
project we were in the midst of. Moment to moment using what time she had
left in the creative state.
And she is still with us all.
Their Work
Saturday December 11, 2004
Scelsi Centennial
This year is the Scelsi year with many celebrations taking place in Europe
and the United States. I will be playing in a concert organized by the Munich
Chamber Orchestra as well as giving many lectures, seminars and concerts
throughout the world. Dates coming up in the Spring in Paris, Bern, Rome,
etc. More information will be posted as the dates fill in and I will make
a special Scelsi Page on this site with information about the pieces, the
sound world,
and working with him.
prescient chills:
Giacinto Scelsi was born in La Spezia on January 5, 1905. Late in his life
he once told his chauffer, Salvatore, that he would die when the 8's lined
up. Indeed, went
on
his final
journey on 8.8.88. We who knew him well still feel his presence.
Friday December 10 2004
Eric Jensen is a master instrument builder who also happens to also be a
top electronics expert. He was a professional cellist playing demanding contemporary
scores
before he decided to dedicate himself to innovative instrument design. Eric
not only builds standard electric instruments but also works closely with
clients to develop custom made specialty instruments. The beauty of his work
is worthy of a museum- the gorgeous hardwoods chosen, the refined shapes,
the perfection in details- in actuality his instruments are
sounding
sculptures.
I have a 6 string instrument which we developed together in the period that
I was teaching at Oberlin Conservatory. I spent an afternoon at his house
in Seattle where we discussed what I wished in great detail down to the last
detail of the travel case. The instrument took 1 year to build and is just
what I wished for.
For musicians who are serious about getting a state of the art electric
instrument, I think Eric is The Man.
Here is his self-description, a very modest one considering his highest
level of craftmanship:
"With the help of several specialist craftsmen I now make instruments for
musicians around the world, including performers in jazz, rock, pop, country,
traditional ethnic, and many kinds of progressive music. We work hard to
provide the best possible instrument for every customer, and we get a significant
number of repeat orders and referrals from satisfied clients.
Jensen instruments are available with a choice of state-of-the-art pickups,
beautiful natural hardwoods, color finishes, MIDI, and wireless systems.
We make semi-custom instruments from our standard designs, and also entirely
custom-designed instruments.
I look forward to answering your questions and to building a fine instrument
suitable for your needs"
Jensen instruments
Thursday December 9,2004
Andreas Grutter has started a musicians matchup site named schnabbelnet.nl.
In this way promoters can find musicians for various functions be they concerts,
last minute events, and other. Performers, composers, teachers are listed
at this time and it is expanding exponentially.
Tuesday December 7, 2004
Bologna and the Scelsi Archive
I was invited by the University of Bologna to hold a seminar on the string
writing of Giacinto Scelsi and coach the ensemble Fontana Mix directed by
Francesco La Licata.
The level was surprisingly high and preparation intense. We gave a concert
to a packed hall two days later with the following works: Natura Renovatur
for 11 instruments, Quartet # 3, Ygghur for cello solo, Ko-tha for amplified
guitar, Il Funerale di Carlo Magno (2 bow version with percussion). Professor
Mario Baroni is heading a huge project to house the music of Berio and Maderna.
While living in Rome,
I organized all the edited scores for the original publication at Schirmer.
This was a fascinating experience for me because it gave me the chance
to acquaint myself in a deeper way with Scelsi's writing. Sharon Kanach was
also of
great assistance in this project. They were transfered to Edition Salabert
at a later date.
Scelsi recorded the original piano and ondiolina improvisations
on analogue tape from the 50's through the 80's. After his death in 1988,
The Fondazione Isabella Scelsi asked me
to transfer
these onto DAT digital format as some of the tapes were beginning to disintigrate
in the Roman heat. I did this in duplicate, one to be kept sealed in
the bank under climate controlled conditions and one for scholars,
performers, and composers. There are roughly 700 hours of material which
nobody has heard outside of Scelsi and myself, and much of it not transcribed.
I indexed and cross referenced the original tapes to the DAT's numerically
and kept a detailed archive (in duplicate) of what was there, the state
of the original tapes, the instrument used for each improvisation etc.
Luciano Martinis has produced a magnificent series of art books under the
title Parole Gelate (translated Frozen Words). These are beautifully bound
on heavy matte paper in an elegant font. These books include philosophical
works, poetry, aphorisms and are wonderful accompaniments to Scelsi's music!
Sharon Kanach is producing a book of Scelsi's writings as well. But this
will come after finishing her book on the works of
Iannis Xenakis in
collaboration
with the Xenakis Foundation and his wife. Release now scheduled for Jan 27
: Iannis Xenakis La Musique de l'architecture,(textes, réalisations
et projets architecturaux choisis, présentés
et commentés par SK), Editions Paranethèses, Marseille, Jan.
2005.
Not
to miss, this will be one of the main sources of authoritative scholarship
on Xenakis.
Monday December 6, 2004
The Penguin Companion to Classical Music is now out, a
1000 year compendium of music history by Paul Griffiths.- a seminal work
for musicians in all fields!
Thursday September 23, 2004
The ECM cd, there is still time with
text by Paul Griffiths and music by me is now officially available. Paul's
readings
are wondrous in their emotion-laden rich tenor voice.
Music in itself. And the production is exceedingly beautiful, as always
with Manfred Eicher's work. Elegant
and poignant
at once with the photographs of Roberto Masotti gracing the inner pages
like a story line. They are heartbreakingly beautiful and remind me of
that nostalgic feeling
I get with Sebald, a glimpse of a world somehow lost.
Paul Griffiths wrote
me a most stunning poem which is in the booklet as a dedication. He sent
it to me as a surprise after the recording session.
With permission, I quote it on the home page.
This is a cherished project that has been close to
my heart for many years and I celebrate that it has found its rightful
home with ECM and Manfred Eicher's special vision.
Saturday September 17, 2004 update
New works for 2 bowed cello preparing for concerts
and new CD's. Preparing the Willem Jeths cello concerto for recording in
the winter, finishing the Contemporary Techniques book with Ruth Dreier
and
Larissa Groeneveld as readers, and doing interviews for the issue of Contemporary
Music Review, an English publication
(actually
a
book)
that
I've been asked
to curate. Interesting and huge work on improvisaiton.
New work with electronic
composer Joel Ryan, and with Johan van Kreij who is programming some
Max/MSP for me. Singing again.
Planning a trip to Milan where I shall see Roberto
Masotti and Sylvia Lelli, both photographers sublime. Roberto contributed
his beautifully melancholic photographs
of landscapes to the ECM record of Paul and myself. Sylvia is a well known
portrait photographer, I will be happy to catch up with her recent work.
It is many years since we worked together and I am looking forward to a
poignant meeting.
I am working on Monday
nights at the atelier of Andreas Grutter (master bowmaker) along with 5
other
appassionati on bowmaking. One enters to hear only the
sounds of scraping, drilling, sawing, reaming,
and scratching-
each
addict bent over his piece of pernambuco wood, imagining a new Tourte will
emerge.
Around 10pm talk breaks out and the percussive sawing and drilling become
backgrounds, but only after Andreas offers drinks. All the apprentices
are musicians, many from the orchestras here and a few from the jazz world.
A great bunch of people and some good bowmakers in the making. I am redesigning
the underbow of the two bows. Have used a normal bow for many
years and
have
decided that it isn't optimal. Very tricky to find good solutions, much
thinking and designing on the page, then trial and error in wood, that
most time consuming way. Last week I came in with my snakewood bow,
octagonally carved and ready for bending over the flame. This last has
always made me nervous. Andreas gave me a long explanation,
though I have already made two bows, probably to calm me down. He told
me that the wood should be warmed evenly on all sides, and then- with a
cloth on the hot stick- pressure is applied. How much? He said that the
bending should
have a certain "take" to it, that you could feel that it would
remain and not spring back. That " it is a sexy feel" to bend
the wood. More inticed after this last, I tried gently. Nothing happened.
More bending, but the wood always sprang
back. Again another try. Zilch. Eros on strike? So I thought
that perhaps I should warm it just a
little bit more and apply just a smidgen more pressure. And lo and behold,
just as I was getting that nice feeling, mmmmmmmmm, it broke. Just snapped.
I guess I turned white as everyone stopped their work and asked me if I
was okay. Andreas told me
that this happens sometimes when there are micro fissures not apparent
to the naked eye. So we chose a new piece of wood and started over from
scratch.
Andreas makes incredibly beautiful bows; they are perfectly shaped, with
elegant narrow throats, beautiful heads, and sound wonderful. Baroque and
modern bows as well. He sometimes copies
master bows for fun
and tells me of all the nice sticks that come into the shop. His former bow
master in Italy sends him some mysterious hair (from Mongolia??) that I love.
Luckily
he lives
just on the other side of the canal from me so that I can drop in with my
questions. Andreas loves to laugh and takes
his time with everything he does.( Makes me feel like I am in Fast-Mo). One
day I noticed him drinking green tea from teabags, bitter awful stuff, and
returned with some wonderful loose
green
and white
teas
that I get fresh from a little shop in town, plus a special water thermometer
and some sweets. Revenge for teaching me the proper way to make bows.
Wednesday June 9, 2004 update
Double flash- fragments.
My ECM records collaboration with Paul Griffiths,
a long term project completed this winter, is now edited and in the works
for
a Fall release. Extraordinary readings of his text
"There is still time" in
the
Rainbow
Studio in Oslo. Manfred Eicher, a rennaissance man supreme,was an
inspiration throughout the whole production.
Paul Griffiths listening to the edits
photo by Anne West
Bob Levin jumped off a plane from Poland and surprised me at the
concert. We first played together in the Charles Ives trio and later in
Germany when he lived in Freiburg. What a treat to see him again!
Fromm Foundation residency at Harvard University:
one week of work with composers who all wrote works for me. Robert Hasegawa,
Karola
Obermuller, Dominique Schafer, Du Yun, Ken Uema, Julie Rohwein, Aaron Berkowitz.
All in totally different styles ranging from the lyrical to microtonal,
pieces using improvisation, others featuring noise/harmonics with electronics.
The whole was superbly organized by composer Peter Gilbert and the experience
was very rewarding, and gave happy additions to my repertoire. Robert Levin,
just
off a plane
from
Poland,
joined the
fullhouse
audience
to my
complete
delight! This trip also allowed me to catch up with the manic schedule
of pianist/conductor Steve Drury, also known for his vibrant interpretations
of John Zorn's music.
Peter Gilbert,Ken Ueno,Du Yun,Dominique Schafer,Aaron Berkowitz,Bob Hasegawa,
FM, Karola Obermuller and Julie Rohwein.
Now working with Eric Jensen's custom-built 6 string
cello. It is a new addition to the family of cello-like objects that
I play including
the Morin Choor and Stroh cello. Beautifully crafted instruments that are
works of art in themselves, Eric is a former cellist and composer. It was
a privelege to work with someone who sits on on both sides of the fence
(electronically and computer savvy as well as a hands on musician).
He built the MIT violin as well and loves a good experimental project.
He is also a detailed meticulous artisan who loves to spend time on his
creations.
This summer I am also developing MAX/MSP software
with several assistants here in Holland so that I can process sound live
in interesting ways,
improvise
with a machine-partner and tour with just the Mac. Okay, two cellos plus
a Mac. Okay, okay, in Holland it's two cellos and a Morin Choor plus a
Mac.
New two-bow pieces in the works.
Working with DVD and film for the Biennale of the
Amsterdam Film Museum in a big composition project with perussionist Tatiana
Koleva.
Rousse, Bulgaria, a festival that included the Juilliard
Quartet, Yuri Bashmet, Marcus Stockhausen and many others. Master classes
and concert with the Bulgarian radio/TV. The town used to be the capital,
and still has great old world charm. Beautiful town square filled with
busy restaurants and cafes. The people are elegant and have a culture that
many in the West should envy. Perhaps years away from luxuries, to indulge
in the only real Luxuries: reading, learning, culture. I found my translator
Javor (whose real job is working on restaurations of historic buildings
for the UN) a jewel of a man whose dry humor won me over the first day.
His wife Albena is a classical pianist and they both showed a remarkable
adventurousness for new music with a good dose of critical
intelligence
to
go with it.
Heroines:
Steina Vasulka, legendary video artist living in Santa
Fe. She did a presentation at the Art school that etched itself on everyone's
brains. Working with large projections on strategically placed mirrors,
working with abstract forms wildly dancing throughout the room, contrasting
pieces that were hypersensitive, and a tour de force that she completed
in Amsterdam using her electric Zeta violin to steer images. Yours truly
was immortalized in images showing just hands on the fingerboard and two
bows.
Cristina Zavalloni, a force of nature
. She lit the stage on fire (Italian songs of the 60's and
improvisations) with perfect vocal technique that covers 5 octaves, a presence
that raised the
room
temperature
10 degrees,
and a sense of humor that burst the Bim Huis at the seams.
Monica Germino,violinist who shared the solo stage
with Cristina in Passione of Louis Andriessen. A perfect bow arm, wonderfully
expressive in vibrato-less long lines tracking the voice. A wonder.
I've been a guest professor at Oberlin Conservatory
ate one and a half years, concerts in Europe squeezed in between. Constant
jetlag, frenetic work schedule. I taught the classics and chamber music.
Tom Lopez is doing outstanding work there in the electronics department.
Monique Duphil also illuminates everything that crosses her keyboard- a
world class Star. Her Debussy leaves one breathless...
I was fortunate to befriend some exceptional people
there: John Hobbs who was a frequent and stimulating lunch companion, and
who has been wonderfully supportive in editing the endless Book
(more
about
that later) and who has become a lifeong friend, Roger Chase, violist
supreme, The Alegants, Brian and Marcy who are a major force in the city.
Tuesday, June 26,2001
One year, a flash. When you are very young, They never tell you
that time accelerates.
More work with Hollandia, many concerts of classical music. New
compositions from Boris Filonovski and Peter Ringwood. Peter
Oetvos gave me a hauntingly beautiful work "Songs to Polly"
for voice and retuned cello. Work with Joel Ryan, electronicist,
composer, sound designer for Bill Forsyth Ballet in Frankfurt,
and improviser cum laude. Work on MSP with Johan van Kraaij for
my midi interface to the Mac. Concert at Tonic with Elliott Sharp,
and in Amsterdam with Pauline Oliveros. Gaudeamus Jury for Performers,
also with Pauline and also David Starobin, Melvin Poore, Ton
Hartsuiker. Work with DJ Low, or Tom de Weerd, a maniac spinner
from Antwerp (Lowlands distribution)
Recording with Miya Masaoka koto, and Joel Ryan.
Work with Paul Griffiths, and the finding of a home for O
Pale Hope with ECM records. Manfred Eicher, one of the more impressive
people I've met in a long time-a man who hungers for good music,
as if his internal life depended on it.
It does.
Birth of WatchMe DVD/internet initiative with Ferenc van Damme,
and Landscape artists from Leeuwarden. Making of a DVD in Britsum.
Magical experience.
Tours to Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Russia,
USA ad inf.
Accepted the post of Visiting
Professor at Oberlin Conservatory for Spring term 2002.
And in between a trip to Burgundy to taste those gorgeous
reds, and another in Winter through Tuscany for more reds.
Saturday, July
29, 2000
Since April I have
been nonstop behind the cello: no words, just music.
The premiere of William
Jeths' (pronounced yets) Cello Concerto took place in
a Portrait Festival around his music. Quartets, solo pieces,
and a new work for gamelon ensemble were premiered in Rotterdam
with wonderous reviews and full houses. Willem Jeths writes in
a unique tongue, a language that is at once hyper expressive,
and with an ear that is constantly searching for sonic solutions
beyond the normal. His use of hand made instruments inserten
in a symphony orchestra adds particular colors and flavours not
otherwise possible. In a land that worships the straight line,
Willem dares to write music that can curve sensuously, darkly,
with melodic work that defies gravity- unexpectedly you fine
yourself with a catch in your throat, eyes filling.
The Cello Concerto
is a work streching over 35 minutes with the slow movement in
the center for solo cello. (some of it with two bows...) He uses
the entire sounding range of the instrument, not forgetting the
rich singing nature of the middle A string. That gorgeous sonoral
reference to the great romantic tradition in which the cello
was first given wings.
It is a grateful work to play. As all instrumentalists know,
some works are pure hell under the fingers and sound easy to
the listener, but this had the balance of physical virtuosity
and a visceral experience for all. As the cello is amplified,
Jeths can pour on the brass for huge orchestral declamations,
and great colorful swells of sound. In the percussion was a Honky
Tonk piano that gave a peculiar 'out of tune' flavor as well
as a 3 meter hollowed block of wood that tocked an ostinato beat
at times.
Jeths is one of the
big talents with promise in Holland's new generation. He is a
composer to explore. CD's available at Donemus- get the lyrical
Violin Concerto, and then watch for the new improvisation
CD that we are soon to put out!
(Yes, like Jonathan Harvey, he dared to take off the compositional
garb and expose his naked thinking brain in real time!)
Dick Raaijmakers June
15th, Melkweg Theater
The next huge project
was for the Holland Festival, and it was a work for which I'd
waited years.
Dick Raaikmakers is
one of the most fascinating artist-thinkers in Europe. Like Cage
or Scelsi, it is difficult to define him and even more difficult
to avoid descriptive words such as iconoclast, visionary, genius.
He fits no catagories, can be put in no boxes. A conceptualist
who works in collaboration with others for the realization of
a composition, he works often from a scientific inspiration as
basis. Dick worked in the Philips labs for years, being one of
the seminal thinkers in electronic composition. He was closely
alligned with Jan Boerman when they later started a studio together,
and subsequently worked in the Hague. Many of his pieces are
spacially orientated, done 'on location' in circumstances that
cannot be recorded. They must be experienced directly, and for
this reason, his works are alive only in the minds of those who
witnessed them. Few recordings can be found, and his genius is
known almost exclusively among the Dutch.
Any attempt paraphrase
Konzert fur... cannot do justice to the massive complexity
of the work. Let it suffice to say that it is built on the Triple
Concerto of Beethoven using a reworked CD as orchestra. What
one hears is a 1 1/2 hour work for solo cello with Triple Concerto
as accompaniment. As the theatrical situation is that of a rehearsal,
one sees the Conductor leading the Solo Cellist through the rehearsal
repeats, with a midified orchestra mediated by a Musician/Technician.
The Solist, me, works through the solo part, as well as playing
the violin part and piano part. At times the Solo cello improvises
through important orchestral lines; as if viewing the ever permutating
work through a microscope. As the original Beethoven is built
around repetitions of thematic material, this concept of Raaijmakers
creates a sort of Beethoven to the second power. More Ludwig
than Ludwig...
We had the great fortune
of working with Roland Kieft as Conductor, to my delight, a former
cellist and a creative thinker of ferocious intelligence, Roland
has conducted throughout Europe and has led all the most important
orchestras of Holland. Johann van Kraij did the work of Job with
Dick, sorting out the repeats and editing the total with great
skill and patience. Johann is also a composer, and his dedication
in the production of the 'score' was saintlike.
Paul Koek was of enormous support and assistance in the theatrical
direction, and we all relied on his sense of balance, humor,
and vitality in the rehearsals. These were done in the Veen studio
of Hollandia (with whom I have worked in the past)
Konzert fur... is one of the very few Raaijmakerian
works that can travel as the complexity is contained, and the
setting is in a rehearsal space or concert hall. Though it probably
is not recordable without extensive damage to the concept, it
will hopefully be experienced in many performances throughout
Europe.
Hollandia : July
A repeat of The Fall of the Gods in Braunschweig as part of the
Expo 2000. It was enlightening to pick up again with Ton van
der Meer and Paul Koek, just where we'd left off a year earlier.
The improvisations took new twists, and we teased each other
on stage with daring new ideas. Rehearsals and non-music time
was filled with levity and weak-kneed laughter from constant
pranks and fun.
Theater people are
different from classical musicians. The former usually work alone
and present a totally studied product at first rehearsal while
theater people build the production together from the first line
onwards. This process creates an atmosphere of openness and nakedness
that is a refreshing contrast to the isolation of the musician's
practice room. Theater rehearsals never end as everyone is in
constant play during the production period eating together, going
to museums of exhibitions together... sharpening the wits with
humor and absurdity. It was a luxury to be able to take the time
to work with them.
Friday, April
7, 2000
Soundscapes Cryptic
And Beautiful
By Alexis
Georgopoulos
Mark Dresser, perhaps
best known as the bassist in reed player Anthony Braxton's classic
quartet from the '80s and '90s, leads many ensembles ranging
from cutting-edge jazz (Force Green) to chamber music (the Modular
Ensemble).
Frances-Marie Uitti
is a renowned cellist/composer/performer celebrated for using
two bows at once, allowing for complex multivoiced timbres. She
has collaborated with many of the world's most daring composers,
including Iannis Xenakis, Giacinto Scelsi and John Cage.
Sonomondo (RealAudio
excerpt of title track) thus is a combination of advanced improvisation
and modern composition. The title track begins with soft yet
tense notes swaying unresolved, evocative of a boat lost at sea.
The sounds deepen as the song progresses, at first droning with
a heavy stillness, later spiraling with feverish urgency.
"La Finestra"
(RealAudio excerpt) is a storm about to break. Phrases intertwine
and crack upwards, overtones whistling. "Montebell"
(RealAudio excerpt) is the closest the duo come to any recognizable
classical style, but this quickly unravels into a dissonant march,
the players engaged in howling rhythmic interplay before departing
with long sustained brushstrokes.
Like a landscape, Sonomondo
changes from moment to moment. Like a dialogue, it does not repeat
but shifts in motion. Dresser and Uitti search the hollows of
the wood and test the strength of their strings in pursuit of
new sounds and textures. At once haunting, penetrating and dreamlike,
their exquisite musicianship reveals a fascinating and rich language,
a site of exploration and of possibilities.
[Mon., May 1, 8:45
AM EDT]
Tuesday,
April 4, 2000
John Cage Music
for Solo Cello, etcetera records
Solo instrumental works
by John Cage can be tricky. His scripted indeterminacy (with
customarily Cagean instructions such as "any number of players
and means") can mean any number of things, including an
invitation to unbridled virtuosity. And while Frances-Marie Uitti
is certainly virtuosic- witness her brilliant Giacinto Scelsi:
Music for Cello - she smartly takes another tack here. Her
renditions of Cage's cello pieces, from the earliest (c 1950's)
26'1.1488 for a String Player (drawn from Concert for
Piano and Orchestra) to Etudes Boreales (1978) is
stunning in its measuredness. Uitti gets inside the cello, extracting
whistly overtones and pileup undertones, collating distant lines
into a fabric that embraces interruptions, nonlinearity, and
jumping octaves. Rounding out this Cage collection is Uitti's
own rendition of the Lecture on Nothing, which occupies
41 minutes of the second CD. It's a great modernist-to-postmodernist
look at the construction of a lecture, the stringing of language
into something self-consciously coherent. It's one of Cage's
best voice pieces, and Uitti does a fine job with it.
Andrew Bartlett
If you are a cellist or like cello music, you may not like this
compendium of Cage Cello Works. But Uitti is the premiere solo
Cellist of Europe. She engaged in a Marathon in New York many
years ago where whe cleaned the shel es of new cello music from
Britten to Scelsi. Here you need to admire her formidable experience
playing this music. She puts more into it and has more sensitivity
and a pure 'feel' if you can in Cage than say the Arditti ever
will. "Etudes Borealis" is like this granite rock that
all avant-garde cellists need to play. That's if they are serious.
tusai@aol.com
She has it!
Like any music, some musicians simply perform contemporary works
better than others. Cage is difficult since his music requires
a developed sensibility more than anything else... a feel for
what the music is really about. Most musicians tend to play up
the quirkiness more that they should. Ms. Uitti presents the
pieces with a restraint that is rare among Cage soloists.
Jeffrey Byrd
Friday, March
31, 2000
A homage to my distant
friend and sister Jane, author of the insects and virgins below.
Jane is one of the funniest (read brilliant) people I know. I
always end up playing sideman to her; doubled up while
she straitfacedly cracks up everyone within the range of hearing.
Jane got to the violin before I started to play cello, and she
zoomed through all the beginner's stuff quickly reaching the
level to play some pretty sadistic concerti. And having chosen an instrument
that could be played while walking, she had a terrifying advantage over me,
in that
she could stalk me throughout the house violin under chin, playing
the things I hated the most. I'll never get the opening bars
of the DeBerio A minor out of my ears, a particularly nasty little
theme that screams octaves and trills in the first measures.
My only consolation was getting
her back on her birthday with the Dvorak Humoresque telephonically celloed
from
Boston to California. Took
her a year to get rid of i t.
Jane used to take out the violin after months of neglect and
thinking she was all alone in the house, whip through the Spring
Sonata of Beethoven with a MusicMinusOne accompaniment. Spot
on! She would turn around to find me lurking outside, and redfaced
with embarassment scream "Fraaaaaaan, whadaryadoinhere?!"
Wednesday,
March 29, 2000
Mark Dresser is a sophisticated
composer whose musical mind is filled with unorthodox ideas,
daring mixtures-contrasts and subtle elegances. I just heard
a complete concert of his music in Antwerp for a string festival
organized by Hugo de Craen in the Singel. As we opened the concert
with an improvisation in celebration of our new CD , Sonomondo,
I was delighted to be able to listen to the rest of the concert
in the hall. For such a virtuoso bass player, one wonders how
it is possible that he finds the time to explore the intricacies
of extended techniques for piano, flutes as well as string quartet.
But remarkably enough, he manages it with great finesse!
Most impressive is his work Banquet, which is available on CD-
a masterpiece of orchestrated soul, colorful gestures, virtuosic
displays for flutes, bass and string quartet. It is deeply felt
music with an intelligence to match.
Classy: the fact that Mark Dresser can get the cream of the cream
to play backup in his works- for all of the participants were
top level chamber musicians: visitors of the great concert halls
of the world. The audience was enraptured, and showed enthusiastic
appreciation with the extended applause at the end of the evening.
Tuesday,
March 28, 2000
Received :
"Oh - I was finally able to play that little "mini-CD"
you sent with your Christmas package, the Uitti/Vitiello of the
dying insects consumed in the forest fire while the virgin has
an orgasm during the thunderstorm. Neat!"
Wednesday,
March 22, 2000
Mark Dresser &
Frances-Marie Uitti:
Sonomondo.
The ubiquitous Dresser, easily one of the most in-demand bassists
working right now, joins renowned cellist Frances-Marie Uitti
(who pioneered a two-bow approach to her instrument, allowing
her to sustain all four strings at once) for a brooding avant-chamber
duet. Thankfully, Sonomondo avoids the Achilles' heel
of so much 'free' music, which can only rely on its' participants
sonic individuality and constantly changing instrumentation to
distinguish itself from the mess of other, like-minded projects.
It takes the hands of virtuosi--be they Taylor or Shipp, Ayler
or Gayle--to elevate it, to make it new, and Dresser and Uitti
fit the bill. Sonomondo can be taken as one monumental
suite: it scurries, moans, and the whole sounds like some quiet
harbinger, a whisper of apocalypse. Listen to Dresser swipe at
"Sotto," while Uitti scrapes out a foundation. It's
almost entirely formless, but there's a symbiosis, a building
that gives the music movement and surprising lyricism.
"52nd Street"
Sunday, March
19, 2000
Just back from the
Concertgebouw concert where we gave an afternoon of the Bach
Suites: in order, the players were old music expert, Jap ter
Linden on baroque cello, Dimitri Ferschtman, fm, Harro Ruisjenaars,
Larissa Groeneveld, and Quirine Viersen finishing with the magnificent
6th suite in D major. The hall was full to the last seat, and
the marvellous acoustice gave everyone a bit of extra inspiration
to make a stunning Festival.
Tomorrow rehearsals on the Beethoven Triple concerto with Dick
Raaijmakers, in his version. Which is- through the microscope.
The repetitive factor so all pervasive in this work is examined
and amplified through even more repeats with loops. At times
the music reaches a stasis that reminds one of the colors and
hues of Wagner-quite unexpected! And me jumping around the solo
part and underlining parts of the orchestra score in real time.
A wild ride.
End of the week I go to Antwerp to work with Mark Dresser once
again. It will be our first time in public as all our work has
been in the studio. I look foward to that emotional sound oriented
poetry that Mark knows to produce so well. He is one of my favorite
musicians and composers. A man of the Heart.
And then to work on the new cello concerto of Willem Jeths to
be premiered in May. Time shortens. Nobody tells you this when
you are a kid; that time accelerates as you live longer. A continuous
accelerando. not fair.
Saturday,
March 18, 2000
Last night I did a
collaboration with skulpturess and installation artist Rini Hurkmans.
Her work is very spare: one would think it just the bare bones
of a worked out concept except for the fact that it is of extreme
poetic beauty. I've known Rini for years through my friend Marja
Bloem who is a curator at the Stedelijk Museum, and for whom
I have realized many music projects. A wild shock of waistlong
red hair adorning on the body of a cat. The work: often cleanlined,
stark and intensely emotional in the response it provokes from
audiences, one doesn't leave a Hurkman work in the same state
of being as before experiencing it.
This work was a video compiled from the work of her master carpenter/resorer
grandfather who cleaned up the cathedral in Breda. Of particular
lucidity was his decision not to restore the faces of the tiny
figures that were partially destroyed during the reformation-
leaving hacked, smashed features that when enlarged on video,
illustrated the horrors and unspeakable realities of the wounded
in war. Every slide was punctuated by the amplified click of
the camera shutter, a percussion that tolled for the deaths in
Kosovo. My job, to make a commentary, and underline this video
(35 minutes) was a tough one as I considered the work complete
in itself. Using the two bows in contrast to each other, the
perfect smooth contrasted by the shattering of the upper bow
on the strings was one solution, as was the use of the amplified
voice.
Tomorrow we celebrate
Bach in the Concertgebouw. Five of my wonderful collegues and
I will each play a Bach Suite to make up a marathon containing
the whole. Several intermissions give the public time to eat
and drink and chat with each other, while we, with our vastly
differing interpretations will be practicing in the green room.
There is a warm feeling among all of us, and a comradship that
makes the experience just what Iris van der Goot (conceptualizer)
intended.
Friday, March
17, 2000
Frances-Marie Uitti
and Mark Dresser
Sonomondo
cryptogrammophone CG104cd
"A compendium
of the art of the duo" is how Elliott Sharp's sleevenote
describes this album recorded in 1996 and 1997 by celllist Uitti
and bassist Dresser. But it defies any expectations you might
hold for their instrumental combination-this pair achieves an
almost orchestral range of sonorities without any electronic
treatment. As Sharp also notes, the music confuses us partly
because of the players' virtuosity in extended techniques. Although
the album forms a kind of suite of seven pieces, each track undergoes
a metamorphosis. Their improvisation is fluid, evanescent and
elusive.
At best, describing
each track can only give a flavour of the mujsic found there.
But some landmarks can be discerned amid the constant, absorbing
transformations. The opening title track begins as a soundscape,
but Ambient tendencies are soon swallowed up in a tone of increasing
urgency. "Grati" initially has a pizzicato bass undergirding
the most conventionally melodic approach of any track, while
Uitti's cello is melismatic and vibrato laden. But the mood subsides
as the music fragments into dark, dissonant areas.
"La Finestra"
has some of the most remarkable effects , with high-pitched pluckings
turning into guitar-like strummings. It's hard to tell which
instrument is doing what, given their often extreme registers.
But then it's often hard to tell the instruments apart, as sounds
converge and diverge seamlessly. "Montebell" opens
with a seesawing, wheeling motion, with a suggestion of tango.
Untypically propulsive, it rises to a pitch of intensity equalled
only by the turbulence at the close of "La Finestra".
There's warmth and beauty in these remarkable performances, but
you have to listen a few times to notice.
Andy Hamilton THE
WIRE (march 2000)
Friday, March
17, 2000
On John Cage (from the Utrechts Nieuwsblad)
I think of John above
all as a philosopher as well as musician, writer, visual artist,
and theaterman. His innovations came from an extraordinary vision
that was initially influenced by Marcel Duchamp. Also, he was
at the forefront of his times: as well as being a shaper of those
very times he also benefitted from the acceptance of his ideas
that, in another era, would've been even more controversial and
outright rejected.
By applying the I Ching to composing practice, he was the first
composer to erase much of his own personality. This created a
music that was fluid in most of the parameters in spite of the
fact that to reach this end, the performer was bound to very
strict 'rules'. John was not interested in improvisation at all.
He said that usually improvisers just repeat themselves, and
this he found boring. He formalized a system in which performers
would never repeat the same music. Of course, many would say
it isn't music as often it has no melody, harmony or rhythm in
the traditional sense, but then again, every substance has some
of those three elements in the abstract.
Although one of his outstanding character traits was humor and
laughter, so indicative of his superior intelligence, he was
extremely serious in his work. He lived to work and worked constantly
when he was home or abroad. His output was enormous- just the
music alone (not counting the countless artworks, theater works
and writings which were prodigious) was one of the most prodigious
collections ever made by any single composer. And the innovative
ideas within these works are pure genius- the most famous of
which being the prepared piano. But many other ideas using new
sounds and particularly his use of silence as primary and seminal
musical material was radical at the time. And still is.
John influenced a whole
generation of artists, not only in music, but in the visual arts
and in theater. His writings remain as enigmatic and often humorous
guidelines to the future of art.
Thursday,
March 2, 2000
Mark Dresser and I
celebrate the release of our new CD on Cryptogrammophone, a hot
new Californian label. (contact at crypto@mediaone.net)
Elliott Sharp wrote
the liner notes:
SONOMONDO NOTES: The
duo format is one of my favorites in improvised music, open-ended
and rich in possibilities. It can be a conversation, intimate
and revealing, or a heated argument with ideas flying, sometimes
contradicting, sometimes enhancing. Our perceptions may be teased,
foreground and background reversed. We may marvel at the unified
sonic field presented in a duo, two minds hearing and playing
as one, or we may also marvel at the remarkable independence
of musical manifestation, a counterpoint of simultaneous ideas
and textures connected only by their inevitability.
And so introduced,
we have Sonomondo, a new disk from Frances-Marie Uitti and Mark
Dresser, a compendium of the art of the duo. Which is not to
say that this duo is in any way didactic! Quite the opposite:
it is warm and glowing with communication and reveling in the
very physical sensations of its own soundworld.
Transparent, luminous,
evanescent yet somehow rooted in the deep earthtones of the low
strings, this duo confuses us. Are we hearing a string quartet?
An orchestra? Are these instruments that we even have names for?
Uitti and Dresser are both masters of multiplexity - each has
devised a variety of extended techniques to expand their timbral
range allowing impossible chords, lines, and sounds to be produced.
My first hearing of
Frances Uitti was in 1974 when she was an Artist-in-Residence
at the Center for Creative and Performing Arts in Buffalo. She
had already developed her two-bow technique to play 4-voice chords
(and more if you count the harmonics and multiphonics that she
could generate) and both her sound and musical conception was
astounding.
I first heard Mark
Dresser in the context of Anthony Braxton's magnificent quartet
with Marilyn Crispell and Gerry Hemingway. Mark provided the
fulcrum upon which the elements of the quartet balanced. His
larger-than-life bass was a force-of-nature growling out thunderous
tones of pure fluidity peppered with his unique two-handed tapped
glissandi.
The seven pieces of
Sonomondo form a suite opening with the eponymous title track
tremulous and searching before transforming into glowing Ayleresque
vaportrails. Grati allows us to be a party to dark and questioning
conversations which lead to the fluttering soundfields and volcanic
eruption of La Finestra. Montibill treats us to a mutational
shuffle, sometimes hinting at waltz or tango and replete with
bluesy melismatic wailing. The pungent drones and biting microtones
of Arcanhues give way to Sotto's twisting counterpoint and rising
intensity which brings us finally to the Cielostraat, really
a superhighway of bittersweet sustained harmonics over split
tones echoing the opening of Sonomondo and sounding like a choir
of voices too smart to be merely angelic.
Elliott Sharp - NYC
- Nov. '99
Friday, February
25, 2000
The John Zorn book
ARCANA has just been released in Granary Editions, New York.
My TWO BOW chapter is in it as well as articles by George Lewis,
Elliott Sharp, Mark Dresser and many others. I await the arrival
by plane in the next days.
Thursday,
February 24, 2000
I just premiered the
Willem Jeths' new piece Bella Figura. A dramatic work crafted
from elements of his cello concerto (just finished and to be
premiered in May with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra)
There are breathtaking glissandi, quartertoned color chords,
romantic structures and pyrotechnics galore as well as an improvised
2 bow section. There were ecstatic reviews calling us a 'Golden
Combination' etc.
Involved in a solo
project initiated by Iris van der Goot from Onstage Productions
(see contact page) that is entitled "Who's afraid of..."
and themes itself around works of this century- Isabella van
Keulen, Harry Sparnaay, Claron Mc Faddon, Johann Faber, Arno
Bornkamp, and Godelief Schrama are the all star list that includes
me as well. All solo pieces representing the best of Y2K.
Next are the rehearsals
for Dick Raaijmaker's Holland Festival project on the Triple
Concerto of Beethoven- Konzert fur. Filled with terrors of the
night! I will have to be able to improvise in real time, in public
of course on this monsterously difficult work.
Concerts everyday this
week, must go play now.
Tuesday,
February 1, 2000
Frances-Marie Uitti
& Stephen Vitiello light up Huddersfield
Artists with equal
commitment to Improv and composed music are rare. US-Dutch cellist
Frances-Marie Uitti is one figure who has the highest stature
in both areas. Reknowned for her performances of pieces by Giacinto
Scelsi, Morton Feldman, Louis Andriessen, and Jonathan Harvey,
she has worked extensively in improvising contexts with Scanner,
Elliott Sharp, Mark Dresser and Harvey (again) and her partner
for this Huddersfield Festival event, the New York composer,
DJ and installation artist, Stephen Vitiello. Tonight they are
joined by UK turntablist Mathew Wright and VJ Ferenc van Damme
on hand to take live video samples.
The Uitti/Vitiello
partnership dates back to their appearance at Cologne's Per/Son
festival in 1997. Just as that event brought them together in
a church, another house of the Lord, doubling as an occasional
festival venue, reunited them for this one- off on the outskirts
of Huddersfield. For this rare UK appearance, Vitiello left his
prepared electric guitar behind to concentrate exclusively on
electronics.
Recently he's made a speciality of working with legends of the
avant garde. His excellent dark hued CD Light of Falling Cars,
featured another Per/Son veteran, Pauline Oliveros, but today's
partner Uitti is a more obviously dynamic performer, and her
compositions form the basis for Vitiello's samplings. Since Light
of Falling Cars, Vitiello has taken a less romantic approach
to sound meaning Industrial and Illbiant soundscapes figured
prominently as settings for the cellist's real time performance.
Uitti also played a
Mongolian morin choor along side her two cellos- one an antique
instrument built in 1710, the other fitted with a radio mic to
yield a more abrasive tone. But with Vitiello occasionally processing
her through his Sherman Filter Bank it wasn't always clear who
was responsable for her cellos electronically manipulated timbral
variations. In Huddersfield she used her revolutionary two bow
technique sparingly. To start with she employed it to create
a plangent aching polyphony over Vitiello's very Industrial textures.
Towards the end she introduced the choor (an adaptation of the
Mongolian spike fiddle with horsehair strings and bow) without
disrupting the continuity of their 90 minute performance.
For one section she layered a haunting cello elegy atop Mathew
Wright's vividly crackling vinyl applique, even as her slow moving
cello lines were being digitally lowered into a cauldron of bubbling
and grinding electronic noise, out of which rose a counterpoint
of tolling bell sounds.
That Vitiello and Uitti
hadn't worked with the other two had its drawbacks for the players-Vitiello
later explained how a dead area near the stage made the interaction
difficult. The problem wasn't evident in an ambitious performance
of intriquing variety-which made for a welcome departure from
the Huddersfield Festival non-Improvising art music tradition
Andy Hamilton
The Wire, February 2000
Wednesday, November
24 1999
Horrible about keeping
up my website. guilt. shame. Just too many concerts and the move
was more diworienting than I had originally thought it would
be. Keep loosing stuff I need as I guess I am so place oriented.
Many wonderful projects
coming up with composer Dick Raaijmakers ( a project around the
Beethovenn Triple concerto) William Jeths who finished his cello
concerto to be premiered in May and a new solo piece he wrote
for me. More about this later when I get the score! Playing with
Han de Vries in duo much to the pleasure of the audience and
both of us. Did a concert with Hugo Claus in the Beurs van Berlage
here in Amsterdam wherein I musicalized some of his most evocative
poems. Next weekend I go to Huddersfield to do a Uitti2 (squared)
project with Ferenc van Damme as VJ, Stephen Vitiello sampling
and mixing as DJ. Then in London to catch some concerts, talk
about a release of Imagingings that I did with Jonathan Harvey.
Thursday,
May 20 1999
Elliott and I had a
great concert in the huge renovated theater of Lisbon. The public
was large and very enthusiastic. One could hear them listening-
intense energy. We had great conversations over very fresh fish in
some Mom and Pop places we bumped into. And the wine....
The next day I was
in Le Mans with Bruno Chevillon. Seems the French don't think
of me as an improviser, but as a note playing virtuoso of new
music. We played in a beautiful gallery space in an old monastery
chapel. The public was loud in appreciation and vociferous. Bruno
has a tape which I hope to post on this site in the future.
I am just back from
NYC where I did some classes at Bennington College in nearby
Vermont. Marvellous school in a wonderful setting of nature.
The Dutch would dream of having so much untouched nature. Over
here, what looks like a clump of trees lines up as one gets closer...
all is planned, planted, counted and probably taxed. Then I made
a CD for the Electronic Music Foundation (Joel Chadabe composer
is the artistic director and founder) of the Scelsi works that
are unpublished and not yet recorded. We will edit later in the
year and release near the millenium change.
Joel is not only an
outstanding thinker and musician, but a dynamite cook. I had
nonstop 4star cooking whether from him or from the restaurants
he hosted me in.
I edited some work
done previously with Stephen Vitiello in NYC at Harvest Moon.
Stephen is having a lot of success with his new CD, "The
Light of Falling Cars"
I just participated
this last weekend in Jon Rose's String em Up Festival in Dodorama
Rotterdam. Improvisers included Bob Ostertag, Otomo Yoshihide,
Mia Masaoka, Mary Oliver, and others. Much variety, sound, and
adventure.
I am now in rehearsal
with Hollandia, the premiere theatregroup here in the Netherlands.
A work by Visconti titled "Twilight of the Gods" and
set between the wars. Dark, depressing and good. I will make
the music along with Paul Koek and Tom van der Meer. Heiner Goebbels'
music will also be played.
Thursday,
April 1 1999
It is super busy around
here with concerts and filmings; am now doing a film with Frans
Zwartjes. He is a hero in the art world and sort of a cult figure
among filmakers. His mind is simply astounding and this work
is really inspiring. I have no idea what will come of it and
am simply feeding him material to edit.I don' t often trust others
with my work to this extent...but then, Frans is a genius.
Frank Scheffer is premiering
a 9 minute clip of Michel Waisvicz and FM taken filmed from the
Touch Festival in Amsterdam in December. The clip is appropriately
titled TOUCH.
Thursday,
18 March 1999
I am just back from
editing a clip I am making with Ferenc van Damme here in Holland.
I have some stills from the session that I thought would be fun
to put on the site.
· Check
out the FM Foxx clips
Monday, 08
March 1999
I just got back from
a cello festival in Denmark where I was featured along with my
illustrious collegues Anner Bijlsma and Ralph Kirschbaum. Master
classes, recitals and a mad orchestra concert where we all three
played cello concerti from different periods (Haydn, Lutoslawski,
Elgar). The hall was sold out and it was a wild success with
the public! I heard an amazing recital by Harro Ruysenaars with
Rian de Waal: an intense musicmaking mixed with high virtuosity
normally associated with Feuerman and the likes.Walked on air
for days.
Next week I begin a
film project with the master art filmer Frans Zwaartjes. He has
an amazing way of shooting directly exactly what he wishes to
see in the final product and thereby eliminates external editing-
he does it all instantly in his genious mind. Frans is a cult
figure in the art world and respected and hailed by press and
culturally sophisticated people. Many of his films have won prizes
in the big festivals, and he is venerated as a sort of guru.
After that, Hollandia
Theater is presenting a piece on Visconti in which I will compose
music and perform as well.
Concerts of Beethoven
Sonatas interspersed between these with my wonderful pianist
Alwin Bar.
Then a composition
project for the Klangturm in St Polten Austria. This is a glass
tower of 60 meters height filled with different acoustical spaces
and electronics. My work will deal with the natural phenomenon
of tracking- much like the signals that bats give out and humpback
whales to guide themselves in space. I hope people will loose
themselves in music and rediscover space through sensors and
self initiated signals.
Mongolia is on the
agenda in June for a crossover festival wherein the Mongolian
musicians will hear Western art music and improvise with others
of different cultures. Japanese and German TV will record these
encounters. It promises to be one of the highpoints of my year!
· a new CD review
Tuesday,
02 February 1999
Tomorrow a concert
outside Amsterdam with works by Faure, Messaien, and Beethoven.
14th a concert in Delft
with Marieke van Leeuwen with reading s from Ovid and my own
music, followed by the C major suite from Bach.
Then at the end of
the month , a Psychodrama written for me by Vinko Globokar called
Pendulum. A pyrotechnical show wheren the performer is divided
into two personas, a male and a female. The profile of the performer
and the music played reflect these two contrasts and the developments
that happen when the performer turns toward the audience and
with the back to the audience.
Then off to Denmark
to do the Cello Festival wheren I will play a solo recital, give
a masterclass and play the Lutoslawski Concerto with orchestra.
The recital will feature the two bow technique and contain works
by Kurtág, Scelsi, Padding, King, Barrett, Harvey, and
FM Uitti.
I am also writing a
book of Contemporary Cello Techniques from 1915 to the present
for the University of California Press. It is a huge undertaking
of 60,000 words and will highlight the major innovations of out
century with a large section dedicated to the composers who have
written substantial works for cello to explain the sound world,
the poetic nuances, their wishes for performances.
Cambridge University
Press is also publishing a chapter of mine on the 20th century
in their book Cambridge Companion to the Cello. This should come
out in the spring of this year.