Two compositions for two pianos by Jürg Frey and performed Reinier van Houdt abd Dante Boon: "Entre les deux l"instant" (2017/2018) where pianist interchange playing "Melody" and note(s) from a "List of Sounds" with flexibility in performance; and "toucher l"air" (2019) where two pianists play each part at the same time with subtle similarities but in different tempos.
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Sample The Album:
Jurg Frey-composer
Reinier van Houdt-piano
Dante Boon-piano
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Label: elsewhere
Catalog ID: elsewhere 014
Squidco Product Code: 29867
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2020
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at Splendor, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on September 9th, 2019, by Luke Deane and Hans van Eck.
"Jürg Frey's unique compositional approach places him at the cutting edge of contemporary classical music. Since the late 90's, Frey started to work with 'lists' as a basis of his compositions, sometimes words, sometimes chords, from which he developed and organized musical materials. In recent years, Frey's focus on 'lists' has extended more toward the connections of items with each other, forming melodies.
Frey wrote two compositions for two pianos in 2017-2019: 'Entre les deux l'instant' (2017/2018) and 'toucher l'air' (deux pianos) (2019). 'Entre les deux l'instant' was world-premiered by Dutch pianists Reinier van Houdt and Dante Boon at Splendor Amsterdam and was later recorded there together with 'toucher l'air' by the same two pianists in the presence of Frey in Amsterdam in 2019.
The first piece on this album, 'toucher l'air (deux pianos)', was composed in close connection to Frey's previous composition 'Entre les deux l'instant'. This piece consists of seven movements, written for two parts for piano 1 and piano 2, in which two pianists play each part at the same time with subtle similarities but in different tempos. The interaction between the two is only vaguely shown in the score, giving this piece a mixed sense of openness and closeness, separation (or aloneness) and intimacy.
The second piece on this album, 'Entre les deux l'instant', consists of two parts: 'Melody' and 'List of Sounds'. Melody starts with pianist 1 (Van Houdt), then continues with pianist 2 (Boon), going back and forth between two pianists to the end. When one pianist plays Melody, the other plays a note(s) from List of Sounds given in order in the score. The pianist can also add extra notes to the Melody, to double these notes, but slightly later and softer than the sounds of Melody, like adding a slightly 'off' shade to it. Two parts are played simultaneously by two pianists but the timings are flexible, up to each pianist to decide, not pre-arranged nor intended to coincide precisely.
Van Houdt and Boon conveyed every fine nuance of Frey's two piano pieces with their extraordinary sensitivity and masterful skills, organically filling the two pieces with a clean tranquility and airy feeling.
The album cover features French contemporary artist Sylvain Levier's minimal artwork, which perfectly resonates with Frey's extremely subtle yet profoundly captivating pieces for two pianos."-elsewhere
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Jurg Frey "Jürg Frey was born in 1953 in Aarau, Switzerland. Following his musical education at the Concervatoire de Musique de Genève, he turned to a career as a clarinetist, but his activities as composer soon came to the foreground. Frey developed his own language as a composer and sound artist with the creation of wide, quiet sound spaces. His work is marked by an elementary non-extravagence of sound, a sensibilty for the qualities of the material, and precision of compositional approach. His compositions sometimes bypass instrumentation and duration altogether and touch on aspects of sound art. He has worked with compositional series, as well as with language and text. Some of these activities appear in small editions or as artist's books as individual items and small editions (Edition Howeg, Zurich; weiss kunstbewegung, Berlin; complice, Berlin). His music and recordings are published by Edition Wandelweiser. Frey has been invited to workshops as visiting composer and for composer portraits at the Universität der Künste Berlin, the Universität Dortmund and several times at Northwestern University and CalArts. Some of the other places his work has developed are the concerts at the Kunstraum Düsseldorf, the Wandelweiser-in-Residence-Veranstaltungen in Vienna, the Ny music concerts in Boras (Sweden), the cooperation with Cologne pianist John McAlpine, the Bozzini Quartet (Montréal), QO-2 (Bruxelles), Die Maulwerker, incidental music, as well as the regular stays in Berlin (where during the last years many of his compositions were premiered). Frey is a member of the Wandelweiser Komponisten Ensemble which has presented concerts for more than 15 years in Europe, North America and Japan. Frey also organizes the concert series moments musicaux aarau as a forum for contemporary music." ^ Hide Bio for Jurg Frey • Show Bio for Reinier van Houdt "Reinier van Houdt is a composer and pianist from Rotterdam, Netherlands, member of both the Ensemble MAE and the Ives Ensemble. Reinier van Houdt studied piano at the Liszt-Akademie in Budapest & the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He premiered music by ao Robert Ashley, Alvin Curran, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Francisco López, Charlemagne Palestine, Yannis Kyriakides, Maria de Alvear, Jerry Hunt; he has collaborated with John Cage, Alvin Lucier, Luc Ferrari, Olivier Messiaen and with theatrecompanies like Hotel Modern, Andcompany&Co, Veenfabriek, Leine&Roebana and ZOOGDIER, a musictheatregroup of which he is co-founder. He also one of the driving forces behind ensemble MAE." ^ Hide Bio for Reinier van Houdt • Show Bio for Dante Boon "Dante Boon (1973) is a Dutch composer and pianist living in Amsterdam. At the age of 14, he started his piano studies at the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatorium. At the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, he studied composition with Diderik Wagenaar. After having been the keyboard player and arranger for a major Dutch rock band for several years, he went back to the classical, especially contemporary piano repertoire. With Samuel Vriezen, he recorded Tom Johnson's Symmetries (piano four hands) for Karnatic Lab Records. Recordings for other labels include works by Rozalie Hirs (Attacca Records) and Philip Corner (New World Records). his first solo CD cage. frey. vriezen. feldman. ayres. johnson .manion was released 2010 on Edition Wandelweiser Records to international critical acclaim." ^ Hide Bio for Dante Boon
11/18/2024
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11/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
11/18/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Toucher L'air - Part 1 02:38
2. Toucher L'air - Part 2 03:00
3. Toucher L'air - Part 3 02:28
4. Toucher L'air - Part 4 01:20
5. Toucher L'air - Part 5 05:07
6. Toucher L'air - Part 6 03:25
7. Toucher L'air - Part 7 08:59
8. Entre Les Deux L'instant 33:54
Compositional Forms
Piano & Keyboards
Duo Recordings
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
New in Compositional Music
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