Format: Download Album
Barcode: 8718274610345
Releasedate:
In traditional chamber music performers strive to achieve an interpretive whole through a process of cross- fertilization. Although the musicians may be mutually inspired, there is an inevitable loss of expressive individuality through interpretive compromise. In more recent chamber works – one thinks, for example, of Ligeti or Xenakis – the high degree of rhythmic and metric complexity makes just “staying together” a central challenge (particularly when there is a lack of rehearsal time), resulting in performances that lack interpretive depth.
My Chamber Concerto (2017) addresses both issues with a different approach to chamber music. The work has no full score because every musician plays his or her part in an independent tempo without any synchronization. There is no need for interpretive compromise because in each part only the dynamics and an approximate indication of the tempo are given, leaving each musician free to interpret the part according to his or her individual creativity. And because each part is in a different and independent tempo there is no pressure to focus on rhythmic simultaneity. The result is a Chamber Concerto for four soloists, each playing his or her part with a maximum of individual expression, intensity and stage presence.
Marijn Simons
Chamber Concerto
Composed by Marijn Simons.
Performed by Liza Ferschtman (violin), Ole Christian Haagenrud (piano), Nabila Chajai (harp) and Colin Currie (percussion).
In traditional chamber music performers strive to achieve an interpretive whole through a process of cross- fertilization. Although the musicians may be mutually inspired, there is an inevitable loss of expressive individuality through interpretive compromise. In more recent chamber works – one thinks, for example, of Ligeti or Xenakis – the high degree of rhythmic and metric complexity makes just “staying together” a central challenge (particularly when there is a lack of rehearsal time), resulting in performances that lack interpretive depth.
My Chamber Concerto (2017) addresses both issues with a different approach to chamber music. The work has no full score because every musician plays his or her part in an independent tempo without any synchronization. There is no need for interpretive compromise because in each part only the dynamics and an approximate indication of the tempo are given, leaving each musician free to interpret the part according to his or her individual creativity. And because each part is in a different and independent tempo there is no pressure to focus on rhythmic simultaneity. The result is a Chamber Concerto for four soloists, each playing his or her part with a maximum of individual expression, intensity and stage presence.
The unity of the composition is achieved by shared musical cells that appear in one part and are later varied in another. The cross-fertilization between the musicians here involves the interaction of this shared musical material. The constant interplay of ideas, gestures, and interpretive approaches produces, as with a kaleidoscope, ever-shifting dimensions and perspectives. As a result, each performance of the Chamber Concerto is a unique event and any recording of the piece can only be made without edits, as in the present recording of the world première at the Delft Chamber Music Festival.
Air Sculptures III
Composed and produced by Marijn Simons. Mastered by Kees van de Wiel.
There is also no full score for Air Sculptures III (2010-2014), but in this case, it is a composition which exists only as a recording. Moreover, it would be virtually impossible to perform this “e-composition” live in a concert hall because it is conceived for the medium of an audio file. Technically speaking, it is an electronic composition resembling the tape compositions of the last century, although here electronically produced sounds form only a part of this composition. In addition to sounds produced by synthesizers and samplers, there are also recordings, often heavily manipulated, of acoustic instruments, spoken dialogue, audience rumble and street noise.
Marijn Simons