Ladislav Kubík: Sinfoniettas Nos. 1 & 3 – Piano Concerto No. 3

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Article number: NEOS 11011 Category:
Published on: January 12, 2011

infotext:

Sinfoniettas Nos. 1 & 3 · Piano Concerto No. 3

Ladislav Kubík (born in Prague in 1946) had been following his own and very personal path since the 1974s, when he became a prizewinner at the UNESCO International Composers' Tribune (XNUMX in Paris with Lament of the Warrior's Wife  and the Piano Concerto No. 1). Kubík is influenced both by the West European avant-garde and of course by his Slavic background.

His music combines sonic exploration and formal experimentation with a keen sense of the melodic and emotional. This artistic connection is clearly evident in Kubíks violin concerto, his ballet song of man as well as in more recent works (which he only wrote after his naturalization in the United States), e.g. B. Triptych about Kafka, Symphony No. 2 "Jacob's Well" – and especially in the Songs of Zhivago, drawing on Pasternak's poetry.

Also Kubík's works for solo instruments and chamber ensembles (Elegy in Two MovementsTrio »Metamorphoses«Sonata Portrait) reveal a focus on structural detail and a special flair for programmatic reflection and passionate expression.

The Symphony No. 1 (1998) was composed for the Cleveland Chamber Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Andrew Rinder, who conducted the 1998 premiere. Chamber music and orchestral composition come together in this beautiful work. Each of the 19 performers is treated as a soloist, and each part is heard with great clarity in this short one-movement work. However, Kubík also managed to give the ensemble the appearance of a much larger orchestra.

Donald Rosenberg, a well-known music critic of the Cleveland Plain Dealers, wrote: "Although an intimate ensemble of only 19 players performs, the atmosphere created ranges from aggressive sounds to playful passages to ethereal sighs. Kubík builds luminous highlights with meticulous craftsmanship. Each phrase sounds like an imperative elaboration of the previous one. Traces of Berg's lyricism and Schönberg's structural mastery can be found in Kubík's bold and very personal style.«

Concerto No. 3 for piano, orchestra and electronicsin memory of Bohuslav Martinů (2010): This new, large-scale work was written by Kubík to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martinů's death. Like Kubík, Martinů was a Czech composer with decidedly cosmopolitan influences.

During his long and creative career, Martinů lived in France, the United States (where he moved after Hitler came to power), and Switzerland. In his Piano Concerto, Kubík shows his admiration for Martinů through three recorded quotations: Two from Martinů's Piano Concertos No. 5 »Fantasia Concertante« and No. 4 “Incantations” (both appearing in Kubík's second movement) and one from the final passage of Martinů's 6th Symphony (heard in Kubík's Epilogue).

The three quotes are not played by the live orchestra, rather they are sound recordings with slight electronic modifications. This creates an ethereal effect because Martinů's music resounds from the hall and creates a special dialogue with the orchestra. In fact, there is an impression as if the live musicians seem to communicate with the past and directly involve Kubík Martinů.

This effect is particularly evident when the work is performed in a hall that has a 5.1 surround system. A trained pianist, Kubík still has a strong bond with his instrument. Even in passages where Kubík builds bold and complex textures, the solo instrument retains its original character of rich color and breathtaking moments of deep immersion.

The three-movement Symphony No. 3 »Gong« for mezzo-soprano, mixed choir, orchestra and electronics was composed for the Prague Premieres Festival and premiered there in 2008. The first movement is purely orchestral (large orchestra plus alto saxophone), while the central second movement (Gong) Mezzo-soprano and electronics interpret one of Rilke's very own poems.

In the third sentence (A god can...) Kubík unites all interpreters for the interpretation of Rilke's Sonnet No. 3 from Part 1 of the Sonnets to Orpheus. The electronics (central in the second movement) are now restrained but carry symbolic meaning, based on the sound of gongs and human voices, capturing the abstract meaning of Rilke's unique poetry in which pure sound conveys meaning.

In her review in A Tempo Revue Eva Reiserova writes: »Kubíks Symphony No. 3 is a work of captivating effect with perfect macro and micro structures. The combination of the composition with the text and the mystical and hymn-like character of the music corresponds perfectly to the atmosphere of Rilke's time and shows how deeply Kubík penetrates the heart of Rilke's wonderful poems.«

The three works on the present recording draw their inspiration from different sources and times. But although they refer to our musical and poetic predecessors, they give us a genuinely contemporary and fresh perspective on the music of our time.

Michael Buchler

program:

[01] Symphony No. 1 for 19 instruments (1998) 09:31

Set 21
Jakub Hrůša, conductor

Concerto No. 3 for Piano, Orchestra, and Electronics (2010) 20:38
To the memory of Bohuslav Martinů

[02] I.Maestoso. aggressiveo. Appassionato. Lirico. Più agitato. Dramatico. Maestoso. 04:48
[03] II. Molto sostenuto. Con fluidezza. Calmando. 07:50
[04] III. Presto. Tempo rigorously. Meno mosso. Presto. frenetic. L'istesso tempo. Epilogue-Lento. 07:54

Read Gainsford, piano
Brno Philharmonic
Alexander Jiménez, conductor

Symphony No. 3 “chime” for mezzo-soprano (alto), mixed choir, orchestra, and electronics (2008) 15:56
On the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke

[05] I. Introductory Movement 03:43
[06] II. Gong 05:42
[07] III. "A god can..." 05:58

Jadwiga Rappé, mezzo-soprano
Bold Mixed Choir
Marek Vorlíček, choir master
Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
Jan Kučera, conductor

total time: 46:26

Press:


05.01.2012

This short playing CD presents three orchestral works by Ladislav Kubík. Two of them include an electronic strand and all show how Kubík has espoused the way of dissonant lyricism.

Symphony No. 1 is a work in which sourly irritable soloistic display is dominant yet segues into dreamy soft focus dissonance (4:10). Percussion rasps and rattles, side-drum and orchestral piano make their impact in a work that also fits the Concerto for Orchestra specification. The music is transparently laid out and much of it strikes one as Webern-like in its clarity of aural layout – everything is caringly calculated. It ends in musing beauty admitting of hope-bereft intimacy.

The Concerto No. 3 for piano, orchestra and electronics includes four Martinů quotations: two from piano concerto 5, one from the fourth and one from the Fantaisies Symphoniques. These appear as slightly processed/skewed recordings of parts of the reference works. The first movement is potentially doom-laden with belligerent remorseless drums. The second is more reflective-idyllic with some noticeably Martinů-style writing for the strings (2:58). The piano glimmers and muses in feline dissonance. It's not hard listening. War dance rhythmic assaults and ravening brass criss-cross harsh piano dissonances in the finale. This finds its heart's home in peace (2:10) before yet more of the ruthless blitzing. Gainsford and his collaborators prove elite advocates. There are no half-measures whether in aggression or in the touchingly still Martinů-soused glow of the final pages lost in the stars.

Symphony No. 3 gongs are in three movements. The first of these frames glimmering beauty with urgent paranoiac brass-calls and drum attacks. The other two movements set the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. Rappé's statuesque yet smokingly volatile voice alternates between operatic effusion and oratory. This is mixed with a gong and swishing noises from the electronic apparatus. The style is defiantly Schoenbergian in the manner of Moses and Aron. The last movement mixes choir and solo voice.

For Gong and Ein Gott vermags the words are printed in German only in the usual cleanly presented Neos booklet.

For exploratory souls able to accommodate Kubík's free-thinking dissonance as well as its potent engagement with hysteria and poetry.

Rob Barnett

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2012/Jan12/Kubik_sinfoniettas_neos11011.htm

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