“Spiele im Spiegel” (“Mirror Games”) are short experiments in various musical patterns. In No. 1, several octatonic patterns of different speeds are tightly compressed into a single, 25-second sweep.

Spiel im Spiegel No. 1 (2015)

“Overtunes” explore the confluence of pitch and rhythm. Overtune No. 1 opens with a set of sine waves gently oscillating around two pitches, creating rhythmic patterns from the manipulation of closely clustered frequencies (namely “acoustic beating”). By the end of the piece these waves diverge and spread out into a broad, shimmering chord.

Overtune No. 1 (2015)

“Spiele im Spiegel” (“Mirror Games”) are short experiments in various musical patterns. In No. 2 a single-voice arabesque turns into a series of clusters and, eventually, triads.

Spiel im Spiegel No. 2 (2015)

“Overtunes” explore the confluence of pitch and rhythm. In Overtune No. 3, a raindrop-like rhythmic pitter-patter is sped up to the extreme so as to morph into discernible pitches and fuse with a bright, glowing chorale reminiscent of Georgian folk singing.

Overtune No. 3 (2015)

“Spiele im Spiegel” (“Mirror Games”) are short experiments in various musical patterns. No. 3 explores the patterns of three bouncing rhythmic palindromes that gradually move into synchrony.

Spiel im Spiegel No. 3 (2015)

Tessa Lark, violin
Peter Dugan, piano

In “Theme and Variation”, an original Theme written in the style of a Georgian folk song – specifically, one from the Eastern region of Kakheti – is paired with a simple, minimalistic variation, which acts as a kind of reflection or postlude.

Theme and Variation (2015)

entre ciel et terre (2014) for cello and electronics
Juliette Herlin, cello
voice of Fabienne Verdier

"entre ciel et terre" ("between sky and earth") for cello and electronic sounds explores an idea central to the painter Fabienne Verdier's work, that of perpetual motion and transformation. Extracts from Verdier's discussion of her work are used in the electronic track, and the music often plays an illustrative role for the concepts described in the speech.

Image: Serie Walking - painting, Triptyque n° 07, 2013, Fabienne Verdier(detail)

Text:

Pour moi, l'essence de la réalité c'est un mouvement constant, un mouvement permanant, sans début ni fin, et pour moi la grande forme n'a pas de forme, elle est en constant devenir donc je trouve une verité dans cette énergie qui se libère, qui circule devant nos yeux, mais qui ne s'arrête pas... Le vide, pour moi n'est pas vide, le vide est plein de microstructures qui passent, qui trépassent, qui meurent, qui surgissent, pour moi un tableau ou une encre c'est comme un corps vivant et donc il faut créer un tissu, une peau, une ossature, du sang qui circule, on doit sentir cette respiration de toutes ces microstructures, de cet univers. Et mon cerveau joue avec ça et trouve son chemin par rapport à toutes les expériences vécues, peut-être par rapport à toutes les formes que j'ai pu emmagasiner, contempler dans mon existence que ce soit des lignes d'éclair, de tonnerre, des formations d' élan vital dans les branches, de mystère végétal, que ce soit dans les lignes de crête... 
Je sens les fractales qui s'inscrivent dans l'espace de manière extrêmement rapide... J'ai à peine de temps de le regarder que c'est déja parti... 
Je suis debout entre ciel et terre. Et c'est de ce vide plein que jaillit la forme. Elle vient de la et elle repart là-bas et elle ne nous appartient pas. Elle est libre.

- Fabienne Verdier

For me, the essence of reality is in constant, permanent movement without a beginning or end, and for me the Grand Design doesn't have a form but rather is in constant becoming. Thus I find truth in this liberating energy that moves before our eyes and never stops... "Emptiness" for me is not empty, but full of microstructures that come and go, spring up and die out. For me a painting is like a living being, thus one must create skin, tissues, skeletal structures, blood that circulates... One must feel the respiration of all these microstructures of this universe. My mind plays with this, finding its way with the experiences I have lived through, the forms and concepts I have assimilated and contemplated in my existence, such as the shape of a flash of lightning or thunder, the vital energy in the tree branches, the shape of the mountain tops... 
I feel the fractals that are rapidly inscribed in space... I have hardly the time to look and they are already gone... 
I stand between the sky and earth. It is from this full emptiness that Form emerges, coming and going without revealing itself to us... It is free.

- Fabienne Verdier

entre ciel et terre (2014)

“Overtunes” explore the confluence of pitch and rhythm. Overtune No. 2 is “night music” – a certain “chirping” from the acoustic beating can be heard as a pair of gently oscillating augmented triads create a pattern of shifting hexachords that eventually contract into a single pitch.

Overtune No. 2 (2015)

Commissioned by and premiered at the Chelsea Music Festival, June 15, 2015

The two brief movements of “Transformations” each explore gradual, almost imperceptible shifts between different kinds of textures.

Transformations for String Quartet (2015)

Premiered at the Chelsea Music Festival, June 14, 2015

The “Chorale Variations” are based on the chorale theme “Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan”. They are a set of variations in reverse: the theme becomes increasingly recognizable as the work progresses.

Chorale Variations (2014)

Pianist and composer Nicolas Namoradze came to international attention in 2018 upon winning the triennial Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, Canada – the largest competition prize in classical music. The Calgary Herald called him “unparalleled” and “a pianist’s pianist”, stating that “the refinement of his playing was of international standard, and everywhere his interpretative skills commanded attention and admiration.” Namoradze’s activities as the 2018 Honens Prize Laureate include recitals at Carnegie Hall (New York), 92nd Street Y (New York), Wigmore Hall (London), Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, the Gardner Museum (Boston) and the Konzerthaus Berlin, recordings on the Honens, Hyperion and Steinway labels, performances with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, and appearances at leading festivals and music centers around the world such as the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Miami International Piano Festival and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

After completing his undergraduate studies in Budapest, Vienna and Florence, Namoradze moved to New York for his Master’s at Juilliard. He now pursues his Doctorate at the CUNY Graduate Center holding the Graduate Center Fellowship, studying piano with Emanuel Ax and Yoheved Kaplinsky and composition with John Corigliano. Namoradze serves on the faculty of Queens College.

Nicolas Namoradze

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