Szilard Benes, Clarinet
Kimiko Krutz, Piano
Bojidara Kouzmanova-Vladar, Violin
Dorottya Standi, Violoncello

Peter Burwik, Conductor

Recorded live in November 2020 at Bilkent University Concert Hall

Johannes Maria Staud: Lagrein | exxj | Burwik

Au pavillon de (Monsieur) Porcelaine ...en six variations

A șaptea piesă de pe noul meu album, Zeuții, inspirat de poemele lui Florin Dumitrescu

The seventh tune from my new album, Zeuții (The Godlets), inspired by poems by Florin Dumitrescu.

Diana Miron - voci, pocnit din degete/ voices, finger snaps
Iordache - chicken egg

AI PUTEA SĂ

Ai putea să-mi explici
de ce mai abitir
pe aleea de lîngă cimitir
trec cele mai mișto gagici

Ai putea să crezi
că strigă după ele
clopotul din capele
în liniștea amiezii

Ai putea să descrii
cum vin să le mîngìie
vălătuci de tămîie
de dincolo de zid

Ai putea să-mi deduci
ce voluptuoasă taină
le-nfioară sub haină
atunci cînd fac cruci

Ai putea uita
viața că e scurtă
vidă și absurdă
cînd chiar în fața ta

poți să vezi prea lesne

pe lespezi cum se plimbă
îngeri fără nimb bă
și să-i prinzi de glezne

Zeuții

Ai putea să (feat. Diana Miron)

Sonatine for viola & piano
I : Novelette
II : Scherzino
III : Quasi Requiem

Christophe DESJARDIN (Viola)
Wilhem LATCHOUMIA (Piano)

Nov 14th, 2016 
ARS MUSICA

SONATINE

- for flute, violin, cello, percussion & harp -
Ensemble Couleurs (Cluj)
Alexandru Murariu, conductor

Starlight

Diana Rotaru: "All music is a challenge; if listeners have the curiosity to try to learn a new language, it's difficult not to find something that they like."

Music Time - Meridian International Festival

"Monologue on a song without words", a solo horn piece in 4 movements by composer Irina Pernes.
(1. Composure 2. Anger 3. Despair 4. Resignation)
World premiere performance, Bucharest conservatory, 22.05.2023
Horn: Erik Sandberg

Irina Pernes: Monologue On A Song Without Words

listen to a SAMPLE of Johannes Maria Staud "Lagrein" for clarinet, violin, cello and piano 
performed by PHACE 

Johannes Maria Staud "Lagrein" for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (excerpt

Francesco Filidei - Berceuse (2018) - Luca Lavuri, Piano

Part of the piece - 2 Kinetic studies, made during the residency at the Spatial Sound Institute in Budapest in 2016: https://soundcloud.com/svetlanamaras/sets/2-kinetic-studies

Study no.1 is guided by the principle of symmetry. The central spot of the composition is in the middle of the room - half the way on both horizontal X- and Z-axis. Each object always moves through both halves of at least one of the X- or Z-planes. The element which is being doubled, is followed by the same-pace movement of the element on the opposite side of the axis, but the movement is being reversed: element no.6 positioned on Z-4 goes from X-5 to X+5 while at the same time in the same speed element no.7 at Z+4 goes from X+5 to X-5. 
There are three elements which are the musical nucleus of the composition (1, 2, 3). These sounds are airy (noisy) but they have a recognisable pitch and form a minor triad. All other elements are tuned to these three elements which define the tonal center of the piece. This kind of interpretation of the harmonic aspect of the composition, parallels the interpretation of ‘symmetrical’ in spatial domain. 

This is a stereo mixdown of the piece.

VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/210260544

Study No.1

"Hannya" for noh voice and string quartet
Live rec from premiere - Tokyo, 20.10.2020
Ryoko Aoky, noh
'ensemble no'
Yasutaka Hemmi, 1st violin 
Yoshu Kamei, 2nd violin 
Takahiro Yasuda, viola
Aki Kitajima, cello

***

Written for the great Ryoko Aoki and ensemble-no, “Hannya” started from my obsession with the Hannya mask in Japanese Noh theatre and, at the same time, with the myths about snakes in ancient Romanian folklore. The characters that wear the Hannya mask are women or souls of women that became demons, often in the shape of snakes or dragons, because of strong negative emotions, such as jealousy or obsession. In Romanian mythology, the snake is often a benefic symbol, but through successive ritualic transformations, it becomes a “zmeu”, a hominoid creature with “evil”, perverted characteristics. So, in a very general way, in Japan the human becomes a snake through malefic emotions, while in Romania the snakes become malefic by acquiring human traits. 

I found this interesting and I chose very short fragments from the very famous “Dōjōji” play as a basis for a sort of chamber music - monodrama piece that mixes Noh theater text with Balkan musical influences. A “Balkan Noh-mini play” of sorts. Ryoko’s character is a monster, but a monster in pain that, through telling her own story, seems to find redemption in the end. The storytelling thus becomes a ritualic act of purification. The work is divided in 6 small sections – 1. Story, 2. Monster, 3. Lament, 4. Dance, 5. Echoes.

***

Text from “Dōjōji” [ENG translation]:

1. Story

Once upon a time, in this province, there was a lord of the manor in Manago who had a daughter. A chief of mountain priests visited the sacred shrine of Kumano from Oshu annually and stayed at the lord’s house every year. 

One day the lord teased his young daughter and joked that the mountain priest must be her future husband. The daughter grew up taking the story seriously in her childish mind.)

After years, when the mountain priest visited the lord’s house in Manago, the daughter came to the mountain priest’s room at night after people fell asleep and told him, “How long are you going to leave me alone? Please come marry me and take me to Oshu soon.” With her sudden request, the mountain priest was astonished but managed to soothe her. Then he ran away from the inn during the dark night, and came to this Dojo-ji Temple. In response to his request to help him, the priest and monks hid him in the bell by lowering it since any other suitable place was found.

2. Monster

My sin must have disappeared. I would go to observe the holy rite for the hanging bell.

When the moon has almost set, when the tide has almost ebbed, I had passed Komatsubara hazed by the mist from the ocean. As my heart hastens, I could reach the Dojo-ji Temple before sunset. I arrived at the Dojo-ji Temple.

3. Lament

Let me observe the rite of the renewed bell.
Would you please permit me to observe the rite.
I am different from other women.
I would like to offer a great dance.
I am different from other women.

4. Dance

Meanwhile, the daughter made up her mind not to let him escape and ran after the mountain priest. However, the water level of the Hidaka-gawa River was so high that she could not cross the river. While she ran up and down the river bank, her excessive attachment toward the man finally transformed her into a monstrous snake. The snake easily crossed the river and arrived at this temple. After searched him all over the temple, the snake felt suspicious of the bell on the ground. The snake held the crown of the bell between its teeth, coiled around the bell by seven-folds, and blew fire to it. When the snake hit the bell with its tail, the bell instantly melted down and the mountain priest disappeared together with the bell....

5. Echoes

My sin must have disappeared.

Hannya

One of the most visible young Romanian composers, Diana Rotaru (b. 1981, Bucharest) has written from chamber and orchestral music to chamber opera and soundtracks for multimedia or dance shows and short films. Her music explores different expressive directions, from hypnagogia or pre-oneiric aesthetics, feminine psyche, humor or imaginary folklore.

 

She is also active as a promoter of new music in Romania, as the artistic director of SonoMania new music ensemble (since 2012) and the main coordinator of the Romanian Music Information Center (CIMRO.ro).

 

Diana Rotaru has won numerous prizes, among which the Romanian Academy’s George Enescu Award (2010), the ISCM-IAMIC Young Composer Award (World Music Days, Vilnius, 2008), the Irino Prize (Japan, 2004) or the George Enescu Prize ex-aequo (Romania, 2003 and 2005). Her works have been commissioned by Ensemble XXI (Dijon), Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Pärlor för svin, Ernst von Siemens Foundation, Takefu International Music Festival, etc.

 

She was a resident at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (autumn 2007), on a George Enescu grant from the Romanian Cultural Institute. In April 2011 she was an Artist-in-Residence at Villa Sträuli, Winterthur (Switzerland), at the invitation of Ensemble TaG, who performed her music in two concerts during that period (Verborgen in einer Muschel/ Hidden Inside a Shell – Theater am Gleis and Meet the Artist: Diana Rotaru -Villa Sträuli). In April-June 2015 she was Artist-in-Residence in Vienna, with a grant offered by the Austrian Federal Chancellery & KulturKontakt Vienna.

 

Diana Rotaru is currently teaching composition and music analysis at the National University of Music in Bucharest, where she studied with Ştefan Niculescu and Dan Dediu (2000-2005) and where she has a PhD in Composition (with the dissertation The Recent Trance and the Principle of Repetition in New Music, 2012). She also studied composition with Frédéric Durieux at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (2005-2006). She participated at different summer composition courses such as Acanthes (Metz, 2008), Voix Nouvelles-Royaumont (2002 and 2006), or the International Bartok Seminary (Szombathely, 2003), thus working with Jonathan Harvey, Savatore Sciarrino, Brian Ferneyhough or Michael Jarrell, among others. In September 2018 she was invited to be an assistant professor to Toshio Hosokawa at the Takefu International Music Festival in Japan.

Hannya

dianarotaru

Related tracks