New York Philharmonic / Bernstein - Royal Edition - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The Trio Accanto's unconventional instrumentation of saxophone, piano, and percussion fascinates composers and inspires them to look beyond their usual musical horizons. This is confirmed by the collection of pieces on this recording, which documents the ensemble's challenging yet accessible repertoire. Helmut Lachenmann describes his InchMarche fataleInch as a kind of musical InchderailmentInch. It is a highly virtuoso and brilliantly constructed march in which the master of unconventional playing techniques and noise-like instrumental sounds surprises listeners with his mastery of major/minor tonality, something still shunned in certain avant-garde circles. Lachenmann's InchSakura-VariationenInch [Cherry Blossom Variations], on the other hand, are anything but noise-like. These melodic postmodern collages appear in three different versions on this . Works by four other composers are also included in this collection. Martin Schüttler's InchxeroxInch plays with the InchtrashyInch aesthetic of our everyday electronic environment, presenting glittering metallic sounds that turn out to be the noises of a copy machine. InchIn BetweenInch by Yu Kawabara offers an abstract scenario of contrasting sound characters and gliding wave motions. Martin Smolka's Inchfff (Fortissimo feroce Fittipaldi)Inch is short, wild, and extreme it depicts a Formula One race with legendary Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi. Michael Finnissy's InchOpera of the NobilityInch has a clear, symmetrical architecture. With original material as well as quotations from works performed by the historical London opera company of the same name, Finnissy creates a web of relationships where there is no separation between history and the present tense, the private and political spheres, or the music's inner life and extra-musical reality.

Adam Fischer writes InchIn the Düsseldorf Tonhalle in late February and early March 2020, we gave Mahler's Sixth Symphony in three live concert performances which we recorded for this album. This date in the calendar had special significance the first lockdown period due to the Corona pandemic set in immediately thereafter. The orchestra was playing in full line-up in front of a full house for the last time for a long while. The mood was ominous we all felt something was amiss, and the next day everything had to be cancelled. We strongly associate those circumstances with our work on the Sixth, and with the foreboding we felt of a catastrophe that has since ruined the livelihoods of many musician colleagues and deprived us all of a meaningful period in our lives. Mahler's Sixth is always a major event for the orchestra and for the audience. One leaves the concert hall weary and exhausted; time is required to regain one's composure. This symphony requires a gigantic orchestra here, once more, Mahler was attempting to stretch the boundaries of what was possible in his day. Not to achieve a mere effect, but simply because he needed such a gigantic instrumental apparatus to express his feelings. The sheer amount of emotions we deal with in this symphony is almost unbearable. The controversial third hammer blow provides a good example Mahler most certainly crossed it out after a rehearsal, overcome by emotion, afraid of dying. In his very bones he thought and felt that this symphony would prompt his demise...Inch

Bernstein / New York Philharmonic - Royal Edition [COMPACT DISCS] date 12/10/2009