In Plus or Minus Ming Tsao developed on the basis of Karlheinz Stockhausen's compositional playing Plus Minus a fascinating "serial machine" – a complex system of musical permutations that restructures sound in surprising ways. Tsao transforms Stockhausen's original through strict serial rules, contrapuntal overlays, and a sophisticated play with rhythmic shifts. In doing so, material from Stockhausen's Mantra integrated in a fragmented, "negative" form—often recognizable in fragments, but radically transformed. The result is an evening-length work for two pianos and electronics that demands the highest levels of both concept and technique.
The GrauSchumacher Piano Duo – long-standing specialists in contemporary piano music – performs this highly complex work with impressive precision and musical depth. Their long-standing experience with Stockhausen's Mantra flows audibly into the interpretation of Plus or Minus The close cooperation with the SWR Experimentalstudio Furthermore, it opens up extraordinary sonic dimensions: Vibration transducers are mounted in both grand pianos, using the soundboard and cast iron frame as loudspeakers. Thus, acoustic piano playing merges with electronically generated sound spaces consisting solely of piano recordings and originating from the instrument itself. Along parametrically controlled timbres, a vibrant, spatial cosmos unfolds, freeing the music from any humanistic linearity and imbuing it with a new, materialistic lyricism.
The album is complemented by Ming Tsao’s Dritte Stimme zu Bachs zweistimmigen InventionenThis voice, which Tsao calls a "virus," deliberately destabilizes the harmonic balance of the originals. With sensitive sound design, Ulrika Davidsson and Joel Speerstra on the duo clavichord demonstrate that even Bach's seemingly monumental structures are fragile and open. The "infected" texture thus creates a fascinating dialogue between tradition and disruption, between stability and fragility – an intense listening experience that casts familiar music in a new light.
An album that radically breaks with expectations, deconstructs historical references and challenges listening habits.
Program
Ming Tsao (* 1966)
Plus or Minus for two pianos and electronics (2017–2018)
GrauSchumacher Piano Duo (Andreas Grau, Götz Schumacher)
SWR Experimentalstudio (Michael Acker)
Dritte Stimme zu Bachs zweistimmigen Inventionen for one or two keyboard instruments (2019)
Due Corde (Ulrika Davidsson, Joel Speerstra)
Total playing time: 74:37
World premiere recordings
Biographies
The composer Ming Tsao By focusing on the inherent qualities of sounds—in his own words, their "materiality"—he creates music with a sensuality all of its own. With his highly precise compositional style, characterized by extreme formal rigor, he develops a new conception of the lyrical in contemporary music: it encompasses ruptures and diverse shifts of perspective that question our modern experience. Many of Ming Tsao's works arise equally from his critical and profound analysis of Western classical traditions and his connection with traditional Chinese music. The format in which he brings these interests together is increasingly opera.
Ming Tsao was born in Berkeley, California, in 1966. He studied violin and viola before traveling to China to study the fretless Chinese zither, the guqin, in Suzhou with the renowned virtuoso Wu Zhao-ji. After studying composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston and ethnomusicology at Columbia University in New York, he went on to study logic, philosophy, and mathematics. He earned his Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy) in composition from the University of California, San Diego, as a student of Chaya Czernowin. He also studied privately with Brian Ferneyhough.
From 2009 to 2017, Ming Tsao was Professor of Composition at the University of Gothenburg; he currently teaches as a visiting professor of composition at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. In 2021, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition. In 2024, he was appointed Birge Cary Professor of Music at the University of Buffalo in New York.
www.mingtsao.net
GrauSchumacher Piano Duo
Andreas Grau Goetz Schumacher
Cleverly curated programs are the hallmark that has established Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher as one of the most internationally renowned piano duos. Like no other piano duo, they span the spectrum from Bach to contemporary and contemporary music. Their collaboration at the piano makes them seem like artistic soulmates. With their wide-ranging range of expressive possibilities, they have performed at various festivals and concert halls.
The duo has worked with conductors such as Emanuel Krivine, Kent Nagano, Andrey Boreyko, Peter Eötvös, and Zubin Mehta. Their orchestral projects include concerts with the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the DSO Berlin, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the RSO Vienna, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Many
Composers writing for the GrauSchumacher Piano Duo include, most recently, Peter Eötvös, Philippe Manoury, Stefan Heucke, Jan Müller-Wieland, Brigitta Muntendorf, Hanspeter Kyburz, and Luca Francesconi, to name just a few. The duo's penchant for sophisticated programming concepts is also documented by their numerous CD recordings, which have been released in a separate series by NEOS, among others.
de.karstenwitt.com/grauschumacher-piano-duo
The SWR experimental studio sees itself as an interface between compositional ideas and technical implementation. Each year, several composers are invited to receive a working grant to then realize their works in dialogue with the studio's staff. In addition to producing these works, the studio is also active as an ensemble in performances. With 50 years of presence in the international music world, it has established itself as the leading ensemble for works with live electronics and regularly performs at almost all major festivals as well as in numerous renowned music theaters. Among the outstanding productions in the history of the Experimental Studio are works by such important composers as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Luigi Nono, the latter of whom created almost all of his late works in close collaboration with the studio. Nono's "Aural Tragedy" Prometheus has been performed more than 1984 times by the Experimental Studio since its premiere in 80 and can be considered a milestone in 20th-century music history. Among the younger generation, Mark Andre, Chaya Czernowin, and Georg Friedrich Haas have stood out as composers who have produced groundbreaking works in the Experimental Studio. Among the performers associated with the Studio are outstanding musical personalities such as Mauricio Pollini, Claudio Abbado, Peter Eötvös, Daniel Barenboim, Gidon Kremer, Carolin and Jörg Widmann, Irvine Arditti, and Roberto Fabbriciani. The Experimental Studio has received numerous international awards for its exemplary work, including the German Record Critics' Annual Award for the production of works by Luigi Nono. Following Hans Peter Haller, André Richard, and Detlef Heusinger, Joachim Haas has been the director of the Experimental Studio since 2022.
www.swr.de/experimentalstudio
»Due Corde« and the new Duo-Clavichord
Ulrika Davidsson and Joel Speerstra have been playing music for two keyboards for almost three decades.
instruments and perform in Europe and the United States.
Ulrika Davidsson is a versatile musician who plays the harpsichord, clavichord, piano and fortepiano and gives concerts throughout Europe, the USA, South Korea and Japan. She teaches piano and historical keyboard instruments at the Academy of Music and Theatre at the University of Gothenburg and is a frequent guest at international academies and festivals. She has been an assistant professor at the Eastman School of Music, music director of the Rochester City Ballet (USA) and has taught at the Bremen University of the Arts and the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Ulrika Davidsson studied at the Eastman School of Music, where she earned a doctorate in piano and historical keyboard instruments and a master's degree in harpsichord performance. She completed further studies at the Academy of Music and Theatre in her hometown of Gothenburg and at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. Her teachers have included Barry Snyder, William Porter, Malcolm Bilson, Willem Brons and Elisif Lundén. Her CD recordings include the piano sonatas of Haydn and a complete recording of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book IShe has been awarded the Swedish National Artist Prize, the Adlerbert Scholarship, and the Mölndal City Culture Prize, among others.
Joel Speerstra teaches and researches organ and historical keyboard instruments at the Academy of Music and Theatre at the University of Gothenburg. Previously, he was an assistant professor at the Eastman School of Music. He is active in artistic research, instrument making, and performances at academies and international keyboard festivals. Joel Speerstra studied organ with William Porter and David Boe at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Several scholarships enabled him to continue his studies in Europe: organ and clavichord with Harald Vogel in Germany and instrument making with John Barnes in Edinburgh. His doctoral project led to a reconstruction of David Gerstenberg's pedal clavichord and the publication of the book Bach and the Pedal Clavichord: An Organist's Guide (published by Rochester University Press). He was awarded a State Prize in Musicology by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music for his research on the pedal clavichord. His current research project focuses on forgotten mysteries in 17th-century keyboard music.
Info
Catalog number: NEOS 12530
EAN: 4260063125300
