Eötvös Intervalles-Intérieurs; Windsequenzen
Crazy, funny, tragic: the evolving voice of a modern composer of real stature
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Peter Eötvös
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: BMC
Magazine Review Date: 10/2004
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 55
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: BMCCD097
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Snatches of a Conversation |
Peter Eötvös, Composer
Marco Blaauw, Trumpet musikFabrik Omar Ebrahim, Speaker Peter Eötvös, Composer Peter Eötvös, Conductor |
Jet stream |
Peter Eötvös, Composer
BBC Symphony Orchestra Markus Stockhausen, Trumpet Peter Eötvös, Conductor Peter Eötvös, Composer |
Paris-Dakar |
Peter Eötvös, Composer
Budapest Jazz Orchestra Gergely Vajda, Conductor László Góz, Trombone Peter Eötvös, Composer |
(2) Jazz improvisations on themes from Le Balcon, Movement: On piano |
Peter Eötvös, Composer
Béla Szakcsi, Piano Peter Eötvös, Composer |
(2) Jazz improvisations on themes from Le Balcon, Movement: On electric guitar |
Peter Eötvös, Composer
Gábor Gadó, Electric guitar Peter Eötvös, Composer |
Composer or Director: Peter Eötvös
Label: BMC
Magazine Review Date: 10/2004
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 58
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: BMCCD092
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Intervalles-Intérieurs |
Peter Eötvös, Composer
Michael Svoboda, Trombone Peter Eötvös, Conductor Peter Eötvös, Composer UMZE Chamber Ensemble |
Windsequenzen |
Peter Eötvös, Composer
Klangforum Wien Peter Eötvös, Conductor Peter Eötvös, Composer |
Author: kYlzrO1BaC7A
Intervalles-Intérieurs is Eötvös’s most thorough exploration of the substance of sound. Its alternative title, ‘Inside the Intervals’, suggests music along the lines of pioneering ‘spectral’ compositions by Gérard Grisey or the early work of Kaija Saariaho. In fact, the piece is a subtly evolving dialogue between an instrumental quintet (cowbells accorded equal significance with wind and strings) and a tape part which both anticipates and elaborates on the intervals from which emerge the work’s rhythms and melodies. The tape has parallels with the ambient music of such diverse figures as Alvin Lucier and Brian Eno – though Eötvös’s varying of musical motion and concern for overall continuity are his alone.
Similar qualities pervade Windsequenzen – except that here the eight individual movements embody the ‘calm in motion, motion in calm’ paradox of Zen Buddhism with a vein of wistfulness more akin to contemporary Morton Feldman. Sensual and meditative by turns, these works chart a fascinating early stage in Eötvös’s composing.
A relevant stage, too, as can be heard on the disc of works from the past four years – above all in Jet Stream, whose relationship between trumpet and orchestra Eötvös describes as akin to an individual going in the opposite direction to a Japanese crowd in a one-way street. There’s a virtuoso role for trumpeter Markus Stockhausen, yet it is the richly translucent orchestral writing – continuing the vein of zeroPoints and Replica (the last on ECM, 7/00) – that imprints itself on the mind and haunts the senses. An improvised cadenza points to the disc’s jazz connotations: capricious in Snatches of a Conversation, with its ‘hard bop’ trumpet and Omar Ebrahim’s crazed Woody Allen intoning of exchanges half-heard or, more likely, half-imagined; direct in Paris-Dakar, where the relationship between trombone and big band intriguingly evokes George Russell rather than Leonard Bernstein. Two improvisations after Eötvös’s recent opera La Balcon, lively and poetic by turns, round off the disc.
The performances – assembled from a variety of sources – are as authoritative as one would expect given the composer’s presence either as conductor or supervisor, with booklet notes informative or diverting according to the nature of each piece. The Intervalles/Windsequenzen disc is primarily for converts to Eötvös’s musical ethos, but ‘Snatches’ makes an ideal and rewarding point of entry.
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
SubscribeGramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.