Concert Mario Brunello in the series of concerts "Bach Shuffle" marking the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach: Bach. Glass. Crumb World famous Mariinsky Ballet and Opera Theatre - Opera and Concert Hall
Schedule for Mario Brunello in the series of concerts "Bach Shuffle" marking the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach: Bach. Glass. Crumb 2022
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach Composer: Philip Glass Cello: Mario Brunello Composer: George Crumb
Orchestra: Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra
The programme
includes: Johann Sebastian Bach Brandenburg
Concerto No 4 Soloists:
Stanislav Izmilov (violin),
Svetlana Yemelianova (block flute),
Alexander Kiskachi (block flute),
Nikolai Мokhov (flute),
Alexander Ozeritsky (flute),
Yuri Martynov (harpsichord)
Philip Glass Piece in the Shape of a Square
Soloists: Nikolai Мokhov (flute),
Alexander Ozeritsky (flute)
Johann Sebastian Bach Brandenburg
Concerto No 5 Soloists:
Stanislav Izmilov (violin),
Nikolai Мokhov (flute),
Valeria Rumiantseva (harpsichord)
George Crumb Voice of the Whale
Soloists: Nikolai Мokhov (flute),
Mario Brunello (cello),
Valeria Rumiantseva (harpsichord)
The Mariinsky Orchestra Conductor: Mario Brunello
On 24 March 1721 Johann Sebastian
Bach sent Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg,
the scores of six concerti “for various instruments.”
The Margrave, whom Bach had met in 1719 in Berlin, was
a passionate music lover who collected the scores of more than
two hundred concerti by various composers in addition to being
a strong proponent of Antonio Vivaldi. Bach’s Brandenburg concerti
were based on a model created by Vivaldi (almost all are in three
movements and feature wind instruments), but each of them is highly
original. No two are alike, each is unique, and together they comprise
a veritable encyclopaedia of Baroque music. The unique
nature of Concerto No 4 for Violin, Two Flutes, Strings
and Basso continuo lies in the fact that here once and once
only a very rare type of flute is used – not
the disassembled flute and not the end-blown flute but the echo
flute. These are so rare that even authentic performers today use them but very
seldom. The second movement of the concerto is based on
the effect of an echo, while the great polyphonist
of all time and peoples wrote the finale
in the form of a fugue.
In Concerto No 5 the solo
instruments include the harpsichord, in addition to
the performers of the disassembled flute and the violin,
for the first time in the history of music. Bach was
probably inspired to do this by the possibilities offered by
the instrument itself, for which he travelled especially to Berlin
in 1719, there meeting the Margrave of Brandenburg. Immediately
after the first orchestral ritornello the harpsichord ceases
accompanying the strings (which it does incessantly in the other
five concerti) and has music of its own to perform. At the end
of the first movement there is a colossal keyboard cadenza.
Later, Bach and his sons developed this idea, composing dozens of concerti
for keyboard and orchestra. Anna Bulycheva
George Crumb (1929 –) is one of the most
renowned American composers and has written numerous vivid and unique symphonic
and chamber works. Among these are Star-Child for soprano, boy’s
chorus, a group of orators, bells and vast orchestra (the score being
conducted by four conductors), Haunted Landscape for symphony
orchestra, the string quartet Black Angels, four cycles
for two pianos entitled Makrokosmos and Madrigals
for soprano and ensemble to verse by Federico Garcнa Lorca among
others. A maestro at complete ease with contemporary composition techniques,
Crumb also employs naпve simplicity of intonation. Vox
Balaenae (The Voice of the Whale) (trio
for flute, cello and prepared piano with electrical amplification) is one
of the most significant works in avant-garde music to appear
in decades. The composer says of the work that “Vox
Balaenae was composed for the New York Camerata. The work
was inspired by the singing of the humpback whale, a tape
recording of which I had heard two or three years previously. Each
of the three performers is required to wear a black half-mask.
The masks, by effacing the sense of human projection, are
intended to represent, symbolically, the powerful impersonal forces
of nature (i.e. nature dehumanised). I have also suggested that
the work be performed under deep-blue stage lighting. The form
of Vox Balaenae is a simple three-part design, consisting
of a prologue, a set of variations named after geological eras
and an epilogue. The prologue (the opening Vocalise) is
a kind of cadenza for the flautist, who simultaneously plays
his instrument and sings into it... The Sea-Theme is presented by
the cello (in harmonics), accompanied by dark, fateful chords
of strummed piano strings. The following sequence of variations
begins with the haunting sea-gull cries of the Archezoic
and, gradually increasing in intensity, reaches a strident climax
in the Cenozoic... The concluding Sea-Nocturne
is an elaboration of the Sea-Theme. The piece is
couched in the "luminous" tonality of B Major and there are
shimmering sounds of antique cymbals (played alternately by
the cellist and flautist). The concluding gesture
of the work is a gradually dying series of repetitions
of a ten-note figure. In concert performance, the last
figure is to be played “in pantomime” (to suggest
a diminuendo beyond the threshold of hearing!). It
is interesting that Crumb creates the border between dead and living nature
with the help of an allusion to the first bars
of Richard Strauss’ symphonic poem Also sprach Zarathustra:
the first time ad the close of the flute cadenza
in the Vocalise and the second time in the
Cenozoic which depicts the time of the birth
of mankind. The meditative quality of Crumb’s music has its
roots in ancient myths and rites. To an equal degree it is
influenced symbolist images of Lorca, Debussy and Messiaen. Iosif
Raiskin
Schedule for Mario Brunello in the series of concerts "Bach Shuffle" marking the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach: Bach. Glass. Crumb 2022
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