Nov. 22, 2023 / AASSM Concert Hall 8:00 pm

José M. Sánchez-Verdú

Arquitecturas del límite (2005)

A special place in Sánchez-Verdú’s oeuvre is occupied by the work cycles, which include various “architectures” that already reveal their strong, structural orientation in the title. This series of works, inaugurated in 2002/03 with Arquitecturas de la ausencia, comprises twelve individual works including the complete series of Machaut Architekturen I-V as well as Arquitecturas del límite (2005) for instrumental ensemble. This composition, defined by Sánchez-Verdú as a work in progress, was premiered along with works by four other composers as part of a tribute to Cristóbal Halffter on the occasion of his 75th birthday under the collective title In nomine C.H.. The two-movement version of this work had its world premiere in October 2011.

Karin Haußmann

Due Tempi (2020)

The duo for piano and violincello was commissioned from me for a cello festival. It was to be played at the premiere following the Cello Sonata op. 5,2 by Ludwig van Beethoven and to relate to it.

For some time now, I have been using familiar works as a starting point for compositional processes – whether out of fear of blank paper or because of my close ties to our musical tradition. 

This does not become audible in the finished pieces. Rather, I want to try out phenomena that are attractive to me in a new musical language. These are often simple things, for example chromatically tense sustained notes in Beethoven, as in this case. Or the tension between long cello notes and fast piano figures – often reversed in my piece (fast figures in the cello, often trill variations, to fading chords in the piano).

The title “due tempi” means not only the two tempi alternating in the piece, but also such different speeds in shaping the sound.

Christoph Maria Wagner

Remix III, (Beethoven V) (2012)

In my series of Remix Piano Pieces several landmark works of classical music are remixed in the strict sense of the word. The material of the classic pieces is treated with techniques which are well known from actual electronic club music – as for example looping, delay, filtering and so on. The idea of these procedures is to drive the classical material to completely unexpected directions and so to renew the perception of the repertoire pieces.

Remix III is based on the first movement of Beethoven’s fifth sympony which can be regarded as the perhaps best known piece of the whole classical repertoire. The movement’s formal structure is hold up quite literally in my piece, but the details are pulverized between cascades of delay-effects. So, the whole work sounds perhaps as a kind of “beethoven on drugs”…

Xiaoyong Chen

Evapora (1996)

Commissioned by the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in 1996 

The title refers obviously to the process of evaporation, that is, the slow diffusion of a (liquid) object. In this sense, I am transposing this visual form onto an acoustic level – sound fading as an echo into silence, “clouds” of sound slowly thinning and becoming imperceptible. The composition consists of three movements, each having its very individual character. Its tonal material is used very economically. 

The 1st Movement evolves in empty space, quiet, peaceful and timeless. The 2nd Movement has a mobile yet continuous character. The tones with 16th notes run through the entire movement in a rapid tempo. This continuity is then interrupted by variable accents. 

The 3rd Movement. Each single tone is treated as a whole. The strings and the piano commence together in A but slowly part, each proceeding along its individual path. 

Charlotte Seither 

Far from Distance (2008)

The title Far from distance describes a paradox. If you take it by the meaning of the words being far from distance means being close. What seems to be a metaphor unfolds to be the method behind the composition. Things will get set in focus by double negation and are put in relation to each other. The linear processes that happen on a micro level between the three instruments are being melted together. Later in the piece motor elements develop but they are always embedded in the lineal process of the composition. 

Fusun Köksal

Sätze-Wörter-Zeichen (2022)

Sätze-Wörter-Zeichen is a commissioned work by Tonedmelisma Music Festival and E-MEX Ensemble premiered in 2022 by E-MEX Ensemble. 

It is a musical narrative that unfolds in step-by-step manner-through musical building blocks words, phrases, paragraphs. While the juxtaposition of words, as in spoken language merge into phrases points towards a forward moving temporal-state, the trimmed words become signs that punctuate the narration and stop the forward moving time. Unlike my previous works, it does not directly refer to a concrete phenomenon other than music. But on the other hand, it attempts to tell a story that does not exist, sometimes lyrical, sometimes intense, sometimes returning to the beginning, and sometimes disappearing into the void.