Summer break

See you on August 31th.

Le Car de Thon - Nos meilleurs Stockhausen

Yannick Barman: trompette
Brice Catherin: violoncelle et électronique
Vincent Daoud: saxophone (1-2-3)
Jean Keraudren: spatialisation et effets (1-2-3)
Christian Magnusson: trompette
Benoît Moreau: clarinette
Luc Müller: percussions
Cyril Regamey: percussions
Jocelyne Rudasigwa: contrebasse
Samira El Ghata: flûte à bec (4)
Yuji Noguchi: clarinette (4)
Sara Oswald: violoncelle (4)
Jean Rochat: percussions (4)

pieces from "Aus den Sieben Tagen" by Karlheinz Stockhausen.

1. Aufwärtz mp3
2. Setz die Segel zur Sonne mp3
3. Es mp3
4. Bonus: Nachtmusik mp3

n°1-2-3 recorded live, by Jean Keraudren, 12.04.2008, at théâtre du Grütli (Genève, Suisse)
n°4 recorded live, 22.06.2007, at Lapin Vert (Lausanne, Suisse)

Download the complete album in .rar: click here - [4 mp3s : 131 mb]

The good thing about Stockhausen is that he did it all. Not only was he further ahead than anyone else, he was also better than anyone else. Aus den Sieben Tagen is a big classic, yet rarely performed. “Classical” musicians despise it because a huge part involves improvisation, and improvisers do not consider it because it is “signed” music. What a regrettable mistake do all these people make. It is precisely during these few days when Stockhausen composed this collection, that he had placed the highest faith into musicians, and, through a metonymic extend, into humanity. At this peak point, the last piece of the book states “Play, you do not need me anymore, everything you will do from now on will be right and good.” Yet, the mistake will not be undone as “classical musicians” are too anxious to be abandoned by the composer, and improvisers cannot bear interference in their musical ideas.

Aus den Sieben Tagen is a collection of pieces to be improvised after the very concise and apparently metaphysical instructions of the Master. But far from delivering us a strange joke or an esoteric manifesto, Stockhausen explores in fifteen pieces the main questions of composition, improvisation, art, its transmission and its origin, the status of the artist, his way of life and thought, the stage, etc.

This CD presents our favourite versions of these pieces, which we have been playing on a regular basis for the past two years. Most of the recording took place during a concert where we performed the whole collection in April 2008 (from 2:30pm to 00:30pm) at the théâtre du Grütli in Geneva. The last track was recorded in the Lapin Vert (Lausanne), a year earlier, in a slightly different casting, during a concert, in which pieces were chosen (intuitively) by the audience.

Le Car de Thon : In August 2006 a new music ensemble was born in Geneva, Switzerland: the Car de Thon. But why should one build up a new ensemble when (too) many of them already exist? First of all because the Car de Thon mixes the qualities of many different ensembles, qualities of which the most significant is precisely the mixing itself. Secondly the Car de Thon has a very specific approach to art in general, and to the people receiving it in particular: the audience. This short article will try to give a quick outline of the Car de Thon’s main interests and ideas, and demonstrate how it has the nerves to call itself an “all audiences ensemble” when we only play so-called contemporary and experimental music and performing arts, which are for some reason believed to be elitist.

(www.insubordinations.net)

Schoenberg - String trio, op. 45

[...]

AGP150 features two recordings of Schoenberg's String Trio op. 45, which was one of his last works, completed in 1946.

[...]

The first recording is presented in both 16-bit and 24-bit files and is performed by the Los Angeles String Trio. It was produced and engineered by the estimable David Hancock, who did so much fine work for CRI Records, and released on Desmar Records (DSM 1020G) in 1978. It is a lovely, spacious recording, and the Los Angeles String Trio's performance is both tight and passionate, with delicous sul ponticello work. The folks at Desmar had the good sense to have Teldec press the record, so there's very little noise or tracking distortion. This is the recording through which I originally fell in love with this work.

The second recording is performed by the Trio à Cordes Francais, and was released as part of a 4LP set featuring chamber works by Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, on EMI Electrola (1C181 - 28368/71) circa 1970. This LP was also pressed in Germany and has very little noise or tracking distortion. The recording is clean and clear but with the slightly harder sound characteristic of many late 1960s recordings. The performance has nothing to be ashamed of, but is not quite as rich and passionate as the other.

[...]

1- Los Angeles String Trio 24-bit [flac : 192 mb]
2- Los Angeles String Trio 16-bit [flac : 88 mb]
3- Trio à Cordes Francais [flac : 78 mb]


(http://www.avantgardeproject.org/agp150/index.htm)