EXTENDED
PIANO TECHNIQUE Recital by
(Italy)
Double PORTRAIT:
(Italy)
&
(Italy)
1. Hommage
to Ligeti
2. Damped
Strings
3. Carpal
and Metacarpal
* * *
for piano, synthesizer and live electronics
(2018–20) **
__________
* Bulgarian
premiere
** World
premiere
This concert has been made
possible
thanks to the generous
support of:
*
* *
The
Performer
Anna D’Errico (b. 1980) is an artist dedicated to the music of our time. She enjoys a close
working relationship with both established and aspiring composers, sharing
ideas, premiering new works and devoting herself to exchanges between art forms
and interdisciplinary projects. She has performed at international venues, such
as the Lucerne Festival, Carnegie Hall, Konzerthaus Wien, Essen Philharmonie,
Mozarteum Salzburg, Konzerthaus Berlin, Theatre la Fenice (Venice), Mito Art
Tower (Japan), Festival Musica (Strasbourg),
Wien Modern, June in Buffalo, Heidelberger
Frühling, Ultraschall Berlin, Parco della Musica (Rome), Cantiere di Montepulciano, CDMC Madrid,
IGNM Bern and Basel. Likewise, she has toured Europe and North America, making
her debuts with prestigious orchestras, including Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale
RAI, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, La Fenice
di Venezia and Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto. Her most recent collaborations
include solo projects with Radio France, IRCAM (Pompidou) and ZKM Karlsruhe.
She has worked closely with composers Helmut
Lachenmann, Salvatore Sciarrino, Pierre Boulez, Enno Poppe, Georges Aperghis,
Pierluigi Billone, Mark Andre, Beat Furrer, Rebecca Saunders, Helmut Oehring
and George Benjamin to name a few; she has performed with conductors Peter
Eötvös, Pierre Boulez, Matthias Pintscher, Lucas Vis, Ilan Volkov, Jean
Deroyer, Marco Angius, Igor Dronov. A passionate chamber musician, she has enjoyed
collaborating with performers such as Donatienne Michel-Dansac, Claire Chase,
Uli Fussenegger, Ian Pace, Marco Fusi. A founding member of Ensemble Interface, Anna has appeared
with Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Linea, Ensemble Algoritmo, Ensemble
Prometeo, Ensemble Icarus and
recorded for the labels Wergo, Stradivarius, Raccanto, Ars Publica and
CMC Canada.
She has given master classes for performers and
composers in academic institutions such as Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec, Conservatoire d’art
dramatique de Montréal, University of Minnesota Duluth, Yong Siew Toh
Conservatory of Music in Singapore, Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de
Madrid, Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the University of Queensland.
Anna D’Errico has led educational projects
embracing contemporary music and the arts that have been distinguished by the Silver
Lion Prize at the Venice Biennale and the Abbiati Prize for Education. She is a
recipient of the Kranichsteiner Stipendienpreis at the Darmstadt International
Summer Courses for New Music and of the Pianist/Composer Commissioning Project
issued by the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music.
(© +piùluce)
* * *
The
Composers
He has attended the 40th and 41st Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New
Music.
He has
been composer-in-residence
at the European Centre for the Arts in Dresden, the American Academy in Rome
and visiting composer at Boston
University, Tufts University, New York University, Conservatoire national
supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris and Conservatory of Lugano.
In 2016,
he was composer-in-residence
at the Italian Institute of Culture in Paris.
In 2009, he received the
Fulbright Grant.
His latest opera Aquagranda,
commissioned by Teatro La Fenice, was premiered at the
opening of the 2016/2017 season and received the
Special Prize of the XXXVI
Premio della Critica Musicale – Franco Abbiati, 2017.
His works have been commissioned by numerous
prestigious festivals, music institutions, ensembles and orchestras and have
been performed by the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Dresdner Sinfonikern,
Young Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Orchestre National de
Lorraine, Orchestra d’Archi Italiana, ORT, Orchestra
Mitteleuropa, Scharoun Ensemble, Modern
Art Ensemble, Orchestra del Teatro
La Fenice, Dresden Sinfonietta, Virtuosi
Italiani, Vocal Modern, Coro inCanto, Ixion, Aleph, Argento, Knights, Accroche Note, Algoritmo, Kaida, ExNovo, Astra Choir, NPS, WQXR,
SBS, BBC, RAI and Polskie Radio. His compositions
have been performed at
many
festivals such as Gaudeamus,
Manca, Aspekte Salzsburg, Time of
Music, Acanthes, Warsaw Autumn, ExNovoMusica, Musica
Strasbourg, Contemporanea Udine, Theatre Dunois Paris, Musica/Realtà, Timisoara International Music Festival, American Film Festival,
Center for New Music – San Francisco, Unerhörte
Musik – Berlin, Cantiere di Montepulciano, BEAMS, Zèppelin, Axes, De IJsbreker, Tufts New Music Festival, Rencontres
Lunel, C. N. de la Música México, New London Wind Festival, Boston Harp
Festival and Review of Belgrade. His
music is
published by ArsPublica and Doblinger.
As a conductor, he collaborates with numerous
acclaimed ensembles, international festivals and prestigious universities.
Filippo Perocco is also
a cofounder
and artistic director of L’arsenale
ensemble (Treviso).
* * *
The music of Maurilio Cacciatore (b. 1981) stems out of a combination of acoustical instruments with tools for digital music. It also incorporates electromechanical objects and uses various resources of informatics. It results in a complex multi-layered texture, presenting on the surface classical instruments and electronics, while containing an inner core of hybrid and non-conventional techniques. Beyond the conventional standard of spatialisation, his loudspeaker setups explore non-coded solutions that integrate hardware and software within various musical contents. The theatrical dimension of his works tends to integrate visual aspects and music into the score, seeking an improvement of communication among the players on stage.
He has been student of Fabio Cifariello Ciardi and Ivan Fedele. He is a PhD candidate at the Catholic University of Porto. Currently, he is a professor of Electroacoustic Composition at the Conservatory of Castelfranco Veneto. He has given lectures and master classes on his music at the Saint Martin University of Buenos Aires. Since 2017, he is also a guest professor at the Conservatory Musiarte of Maputo (Mozambique).
He has been a composer-in-residence at the IRCAM, the ZKM, the Muse en Circuit of Paris and the Elektronisches Studio Basel.
In 2010, he was awarded the “Premio Petrassi” Prize of the Italian Republic. In 2012, he won the first prize at the International Composition Competition Premio Città di Trieste. In 2016, he represented Italy at the International Rostrum of Composers. In 2017, he was awarded with the Produktion Preis at the Giga-Hertz Award of the ZKM Karlsruhe.
His works have been performed by first class ensemble and orchestras such as the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, the National Orchestra of Lorrain, the Orchestra of I Pomeriggi Musicali of Milano, Kammerorchester Basel, Ensemble InterContemporain, HANATSU miroir, Linea, Proxima Centauri, Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Aleph, L’arsenale, Algoritmo, Sentieri Selvaggi, Contempoartensemble, Accroche Note, Choir Le Cris de Paris, Voix de Strass. His music is published by the Edizioni Suvini Zerboni, Milan.
Maurilio Cacciatore is artistic coordinator of the Syntax Ensemble and tutor at the Centro Informatico Musicale Multimediale of the Biennale of Venice.
(© Roberto Ligurgo)
* * *
The
Programme / The Works
This double portrait is two times symmetrical,
as it puts into relation two artists who both approach the piano starting from
two opposite poles: continuing the line of tradition and breaking it. And yet,
the outcomes of their research couldn’t possibly be more
different.
On one hand, both composers have a view on the
piano as a character with a ponderous past: Perocco’s Preludi are
molded on Chopin’s
Preludes,
but they distort, filter and thin the original material through piano
preparation and de-compositional processes. Cacciatore’s
Studies
are conceived as a cycle of virtuoso pieces exploring
continuity from the Romantic etudes, through Ligeti, to nowadays sound aesthetics.
On the other hand, both composers try to
deconstruct the piano as inherited by tradition and create a hybrid – or extended –
instrument. Tutorial No. 2: #keyboard-and-keyboard by Cacciatore
extends the piano’s acoustics by projecting live electronics inside its
resonance box and adding a further layer with a synthesizer,
used as an appendix of the piano’s lower register. In Perocco’s new work Nuvolette,
on the
other hand, the electronics are extremely simple, almost home-made. The
piece is part of a cycle around solo instruments extended with resonators made
out of cheap materials.
Anna D’Errico
In
2007 I began a series of works (in progress) for prepared In 2007, I began a
series of works (in progress) for prepared piano called Preludi. It’s a
kind of an erosion of Chopin’s Preludes, which Robert Schumann described as
sketches of study; ruins and rubble. My work continued in 2009 during a
residency at the American Academy in Rome, where I finished the first book of
twelve preludes. Since then, I have had the desire to write a version for
ensemble as well. What was left of Chopin’s original material is almost
smothered by a layer of dust. It retains some primitive and fragile profiles.
There
is no particular reason for choosing the title Nuvolette (Little Clouds) other than the initial
idea of working with an ephemeral, weightless, almost inconsistent sound. An
inconsistency that can arise from different approaches; spontaneous and slender,
paradoxical and brazen. Perhaps somewhere near this hovers a sort of boyish
world that is keeping me company in this period. My usual worms recur: debris,
dirge and precariousness.
Filippo Perocco
My Studies
for Piano No.
1 – 3 have been a moment of introspection among the
other works of my catalogue. I have written them for friends to be used during
their recitals and my goal has always been to try to improve and enhance piano
technique. Sometimes, we see piano pieces called
“studies”
that have no real focus on the technical aspects of playing piano. Moreover,
the word “study” refers more to the short length of the piece than to the form.
So when I started the first study ten years ago, I was convinced about what I
did not want to write and what I considered important for me to put into this
cycle. These three studies have been written between
2010 and 2016; they have subsequently been thoroughly revised in 2019 for their
final publication. The series will be complemented with more studies.
Hommage to Ligeti is the first study. Just
as Paganini’s first Capriccio is
reminiscent of Locatelli’s last one, I decided to correlate my series to Ligeti’s Etudes, which I consider the most
important studies of the last 50 years. Damped Strings focuses on damping
strings while playing. When damping a note on piano strings, finger pressure,
wrist weight and balance change dramatically. The blend with standard piano playing
calls for tremendous control of these parameters on the part of the pianist.
Carpal and Metacarpal focuses on the technique of
playing two notes at the same time with the thumb, or three when adding the
metacarpal. What normally represents playing “false notes” – thus a mistake –
becomes a structural element. The use of the thumb in keyboard technique can further
expand the player’s skills.
The original version
of Tutorial
No. 2: #keyboard-and-keyboard
requires a Disklavier –
a grand piano with a midi interface so as to communicate with a computer.
In this second
version
of the piece,
the live electronics work by synchronising live playing with several layers
that I superpose, mixing them live. The diffusion of the electronics
inside the piano helps in combining acoustic and digital sources together. The
synthesizer brings in another layer that puts the live playing in relation to
the digital sound, like an extension of the lowest register of the piano
keyboard. Tutorials is my series of pieces dedicated
to the technique of electronic music as extended to acoustic writing.
Maurilio
Cacciatore
(© Ariele Monti)