Name: Challenging Performance, Chapter 23.2 : How many Ave Marias? by Challenging Performance
Duration: 29 min 26 s
Description: Wondering how many different performances a classical musician could give of the same score, I asked friends and colleagues what they thought might be possible...

Rei Nakamura - piano
Wojtek Blecharz - conductor

Concerto for piano and wireless speakers (after Symphony No.3 for 200 wireless speakers) is a continuation of my work with sonic multiplicities. Replacing the orchestra with small electronic devices refers both to the industrial and the digital revolutions. 
The first one allowed mass production of musical instruments and creating large homogenous orchestras, the second one allowed mass storing of sound and playing it at any place and any time.
The orchestra of speakers can be compared to a sound garden, where each seed is activated by the “conductor”, who arranges and distributes ca. 60 speakers in space, creating themes, lines, rhizomes or echoes. 
Each speaker contains a memory card with a track, a larger number of speakers creates a multilayered texture and the accompaniment for the soloist. 
The “conductor” controls the motion of the speakers around the audience, since the speakers can be passed from one person to another during the piece, changing the sonic/spatial constellation of the “accompaniment”. 
Concerto was written for Rei Nakamura
The recording was made during Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, August 2023
This track features the 2nd half of the Concerto (total duration 60 mins.)

Concerto for piano and wireless speakers (excerpt)

Wondering how many different performances a classical musician could give of the same score, I asked friends and colleagues what they thought might be possible...

Challenging Performance, Chapter 23.2 : How many Ave Marias?

Jose Rafael Subia - Chiral

Nakamura/Vogel Impro 8-Percussion

Duo Nakamura/Vogel 2-Ganzton

Fernando Manassero - CORTEX

Duo Nakamura/Vogel - Tief Gliss

Duo Nakamura/Vogel 5-Kugel Pizz

Duo Nakamura/Vogel - Leise

Challenging Performance offers a new approach to western classical music, encouraging and enabling performers to be more individual and creative. It shows how and why creativity is normally discouraged, why it should not be, and how it can become part of everyday performance. The linked website, challengingperformance.com, features podcasts, a free online book, and many new and highly imaginative performances. 

The project is aimed at young professional performers, musicians in the making, and open-minded lovers of classical music. 

We showcase recordings by contemporary performers who use a range of historical, modern and experimental approaches to revitalise the performance of classical repertoire. 

Visit https://challengingperformance.com for more information.

Challenging Performance, Chapter 23.2 : How many Ave Marias?

Challenging Performance

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