Stockholms Saxofonkvartett | Sound of Stockholm

lör 22/10 19:00

Foto: Fredrik Grahn

Program
Marie Samuelsson: Improvisation – Komposition för saxofoner (2007)
Hanna Hartman: Horizontal Cracking in Concrete Pavements (2007)
Johan Svensson: up up up around around (2011) uruppförande, Kulturrådets beställningsverk
Erman Özdemir: Apocalypse (2007)
Annie Gosfield: Brawl (1998)

Medverkande
Stockholms Saxofonkvartett:
Per Hedlund
Jörgen Pettersson
Johannes Thorell
Leif Karlborg

Marie Samuelsson: Improvisation – Komposition för saxofoner (12')

Detta stycke komponerades 2007 för två saxofonister, Mats Gustafsson och Jörgen Pettersson, som framförde stycket på flera konserter. Stockholms saxofonkvartett skulle åka till Turkiet nu i sommar och ville gärna ta med och spela stycket, nu i en ny version för fyra saxofoner, och det var ju en rolig idé. Så jag överlämnade med varm hand verket till kvartetten för en ny tolkning.

Musiken rör sig i ett gränsland mellan improvisation och komposition, med improvisationsmaterial i en stämma och noga noterat material i den andra. Jag utgick från några musikaliska ord och grundstrukturer som improvisationen och det noterade kunde samlas kring, och dessa blev också titlarna på de tre delarna i stycket: imitation, variation och maximering.

Stig Jacobsson om Marie Samuelsson i en kortad version:
Marie Samuelssons verk är ofta fysiska och rymmer virtuosa stämmor. För lyssnaren blir musiken rytmiskt spännande och samtidigt nästan impressionistiskt vacker, utan att någonsin frångå den starka skapande övertygelse och konsekvens som blivit hennes kännetecken. Man har kunnat höra hennes stycken i många länder. 2007 ägnades hennes musik en fyra dagar lång tonsättarfestival i Stockholms Konserthus, då nitton av hennes verk i olika genrer framfördes. Under festivalen uruppfördes beställningsverket Singla för orkester. Samuelssons tonspråk är alltid rikt varierat i såväl rytmer som klang, och hämtar inte sällan kraft från djupet och mörkret – gärna med kontrastverkan, som ibland även antyds i verktitlar: Flygande linjer och dån, är ett sådant verk för orkester. Luftburna lager av flageoletter i stråkarna eller snabba drillar i träblåsarna, blandas med kraftfullt dånande ackord som driver musiken framåt. Snyko uruppförde musiken 2009 och tog det med sig till en festival i franska Beauvais och Helsingborgssymfonikerna tog upp det 2010.

Kontrasterna hittar vi redan i Samuelssons tidiga karriär. Hon har spelat klassiskt piano sedan barnsben samt har en bakgrund som rock- och improvisationsmusiker, innan hon utbildade sig till tonsättare. Båda sidorna behövde hon när hon fick beställning på ett stycke som hon kom att kalla Komposition – Improvisation (2007). Elektroniska klanger återkommer i flera verk, och kunskaperna om sådana fördjupade hon för Pär Lindgren och som utvald deltagare i en exklusiv kurs för professionella tonsättare vid IRCAM i Paris.
De senaste åren har varit omtumlande. Fear and Hope stod på repertoaren under Orkester Nordens turné, som bland annat gick till München och Berlin. Sorgestråk spelades av Caput Ensemble vid Nordiska Musikdagarna. Det elektroakustiska verket Myon song framfördes vid en utställning på Universeum i Göteborg, hornkonserten Hornet i blåsten spelades av Stockholms läns blåsarsymfoniker med Sören Hermansson som solist. Hennes produktion omfattar så här långt ett femtiotal verk av många olika typer. Och skrivbordet är fyllt med nya uppdrag, nu arbetar hon med en opera för Vadstenaakademien 2013, till Kerstin Ekmans originallibretto.

up up up around around (19') för saxofonkvartett
Mönster av kopplingar uppstår, lever och försvinner, ger plats åt nya mönster. Stycket är beställt av och tillägnat Stockholms Saxofonkvartett.

                     a r o u n d       a r o u n d
up   up   up   up       a r o u n d     a r o u n d
up up up up up    a r o u n d    a r o u n d
up          up          up                    ar o u   n    d

Johan Svensson (1983) arbetar som frilansande tonsättare och engagerar sig i många typer av konstnärliga projekt. Han leder även workshops i musik för barn, ungdomar och musikstuderande samt föreläser om musik och musikhistoria i olika sammanhang och för olika åldrar. År 2009 mottagare av Carl Larsson-stipendiet. En av grundarna av den experimentella musikensemblen Mimitabu.

Hanna Hartman: Horizontal Cracking in Concrete Pavements

Komponerat för Jörgen Pettersson och Mats Gustavsson 2007, här i version för Stockholms Saxofonkvartett.

Hanna Hartman, Swedish composer and soundartist living in Berlin.

Engelsk text:

Erman Özdemir (1978) Apocalypse (2007)

Commissioned by the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet

The work reflects the state of mind of a generation that was introduced to world affairs in the years 1980. The postmodern ideals that lighted up our young dreams were fast eradicated. The 21th Century was ushered in as a nightmare of bloody wars. When I listen to the world, I intercept the alarming roar of wild colonialism having a comeback.

The four horses of the Apocalypse, symbols of “conquest,” “death,” “pestilence” and “war” are daily present with the youth of the 21st Century. My work can be considered a pessimistic one—nevertheles, an act of exposing the symbols of the process that makes mankind miserable seems to me as a virtuous one.

Erman Özdemir, born in 1978 in Izmir, Turkey, got his first lessons in piano, composition and music theory from his father. In 1995 he graduated from the Izmir Secondary School of Music. He studied in Bursa at the music department of the Uludağ University, and after graduation received a master's and doctoral degree in composition in audio design from the Ege University in Izmir. He is currently teaching at the Adnan Menderes University in Aydin.

Erman Özdemir is a prolific young composer of a very extravagant style comprised of dreaming and exaggeration. Pointillistic textures dominate his composing.

Annie Gosfield: Brawl (1998) for saxophone quartet

Brawl  (1998, 10 minutes, for saxophone quartet)  Premiere by ROVA Brawl was composed for Rova with the intention that they would leave their mark on it: using solo sections, cutting contests, and a combination of notated and loosely structured sections. The beginning of the piece is fully notated, and improvisational techniques are incorporated as the piece progresses. Brawl was composed during a residency at the Djerassi Foundation in Woodside, California. According to Forms in Music (J. Humphrey Anger, 1900) a "brawl" is "an old French dance in commom time, of a gay character." This "Brawl" is not exclusively in common time: in reference to Dr. Carl Djerassi's birthplace, it also uses compound Bulgarian rhythms. On June 4, 1998, (a few days after the piece was completed) a much-publicized brawl took place in New York City, in which 40 drunken firemen terrorized a Manhattan bar, fought tooth and nail, exposed themselves, and caused general mayhem.

Annie Gosfield lives in New York City and divides her time between performing on piano and sampler with her own group and composing for many ensembles and soloists. Her work often explores the inherent beauty of non–musical sounds, and is inspired by diverse sources such as machines, destroyed pianos, warped 78 records, and detuned radios. She uses traditional notation, improvisation, and extended techniques to create a sound world that eliminates the boundaries between music and noise, while emphasizing the unique qualities of each performer. A 2012 fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, and the recipient of the 2008 Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ prestigious “Grants to Artists” award, Gosfield’s essays on composition have been published by the New York Times and featured in the book “Arcana II”. Active as an educator, she has taught composition at Princeton University, Mills College, and California Institute of the Arts.

Dedicated to working closely with performers, Gosfield has created new works in collaboration with musicians such as ex-Kronos cellist Joan Jeanrenaud, pianist Lisa Moore, cellist Felix Fan, the Miami String Quartet, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Her music has been performed worldwide by some of the best interpreters of contemporary music, including the Flux Quartet, Silesian String Quartet, So Percussion, Talujon Percussion, Present Music, Newband/The Harry Partch instruments, Agon Orchestra, Rova Sax Quartet, The West Australian Symphony Orchestra New Music Group, Blair McMillen, Chris Cutler, Marco Cappelli, George Kentros, Frances-Marie Uitti, Fred Frith, Felix Fan, Stephen Gosling, Sarah Cahill, Anthony de Mare, and many others, at festivals including Warsaw Autumn, ISCM World Music Days, The Bang on a Can Marathon, The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Festival Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville, Wien Modern, Spoleto Festival USA, OtherMinds, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Settembre Musica Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Company Week, and three "Radical New Jewish Culture" festivals curated by John Zorn. Her music has been presented at venues including The Miller Theatre, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Anchorage, The Stone, Tonic, (New York City); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco); Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles); Walker Art Center (Minneapolis); Teatro Olimpico (Rome); Théâtre de la Ville (Paris); Ujazdowski Castle (Warsaw); The Hermitage (Saint Petersburg); and many other spaces worldwide. Gosfield's portrait concert at Merkin Hall was featured in the New York Times' “Best of 2007” issue.

Gosfield's discography includes three solo releases on the Tzadik label. Her most recent CD, “Lost Signals and Drifting Satellites” demonstrates her very personal approach to contemporary classical music, at once noisy, melodic, and atmospheric. It features four recent compositions drawn from her extensive work for soloists and ensembles, performed by Joan Jeanrenaud, the FLUX Quartet, and others. Her 2001 Tzadik CD ”Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery” features two large–scale pieces inspired by her 1999 residency in the factories of Nuremberg, Germany: EWA7, performed by Roger Kleier (guitar), Ikue Mori (electronics), Sim Cain and Jim Pugliese (percussion) and Gosfield (sampling keyboards); and Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery, performed by The Flux Quartet and Talujon Percussion Quartet. Gosfield's first solo CD, ”Burnt Ivory and Loose Wires”, focuses on music inspired by detuned and destroyed instruments, performed by her own ensemble, ROVA, and cellist Ted Mook. Annie's music has also been featured on CD's released by Sony Classical, CRI, Harmonia Mundi, Wergo, Recommended, Caprice, Cantaloupe, Rift, EMF, Innova, Atavistic, ORF, Mode, and Starkland.

In addition to writing chamber music, Annie has composed a site-specific work for a factory in Germany, collaborated on installations with artist Manuel Ocampo, and created a video for an imaginary orchestra of destroyed instruments which has been shown at international film festivals. Active as a performer and improviser, she has played with Derek Bailey, Joan Jeanrenaud, Roger Kleier, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, William Winant, Ikue Mori, Scanner, Marc Ribot, Larry Ochs, Ches Smith, Min Xiao Fen, Joey Baron, Sim Cain, David Moss, Davey Williams, and LaDonna Smith. Gosfield's music has been featured by many choreographers and dance companies, such as Karole Armitage, Susan Marshall, Les Grands Ballet Canadiens, Didy Veldman with Skanes Dansteater, Oregon Ballet Theater, Milwaukee Ballet, Gruppen Fyra (Finland), Ballet Gulbenkian (Portugal), and Ballett der Staatsoper Hannover.

The New York Times recently published several of Gosfield’s articles on composition in “The Score”, a series on music featured in their Opinion section in TimesSelect. An article by Gosfield on the creative process titled “Fiddling With Sputnik” was published in the book “Arcana II”, edited by John Zorn. Her work has been profiled on National Public Radio, and in articles in MusikTexte, The Wire, Contemporary Music Review, Avant Magazine, Strings Magazine, as well as the book “Music and the Creative Spirit”.

Gosfield was a visiting lecturer at Princeton in 2007, and held the Darius Milhaud Chair of Composition at Mills College in 2003 and 2005. She was a visiting artist at Cal Arts in 1999, and guest composer at the Eastman School. Annie has received fellowships from the McKnight Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, Civitella Ranieri, and the Siemens Foundation, and has received grants and awards from the NEA, Meet the Composer, the Argosy Foundation, the American Composers Forum, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, The Rockefeller Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the American Music Center, U.S. Artists at International Festivals, among others. Current projects include a new portrait CD for Tzadik, a CD of piano works performed by Lisa Moore, and a concert-length piece for Athelas Sinfonietta and her own trio based on the clandestine radio transmissions of the Danish Resistance in World War II to premiere at the Huddersfield Festival.

http://johansvensson.nu

Arrangör

Stockholms Saxofonkvartett