ENSEMBLE ALTERNANCE 2012/2013 ENSEMBLE ALTERNANCE : Frédéric Baldassare : cello, Jean-Marie Cottet : piano, Dirk Descheemaeker : clarinet, Jacques Ghestem : violin, Jean-Luc Menet : artistic manager & flute, Claire Merlet : viola, Dimitri Vassilakis : piano

Mark Andre, Pierre Boulez, Raphaël Cendo, Geoffroy Drouin, Helmut Lachenmann, Philipp Maintz, Hans Thomalla, Luca Antignani, Alireza Farhang, Federico Gardella,Gérard Grisey, Olga Neuwirth, Gérard Pesson, Alessandro Solbiati, Nicolas Tzortzis

2012/2013 INSECURITY...

Under the influence of the current events and the media hiccup, the meaning of some words is often reduced to a limited field. Replaced in the context of our concern, the word insecurity takes another meaning and reveals all its positive value. Because the matter is here about a fertile insecurity which replaces human in his dignity and his capacity in the knowledge from which he draws means to act.

"The mistakes and the wandering are inevitable when we advance on what is unusual " says Heidegger, an unusual of which the insecurity becomes then an integrated element.

If we had to search for a common point between the composers scheduled during the 2012-2013 season, we could find this one : the insecurity, as a fertile compost of the imagination and convenient to the emergence of an authentic and new musical thought: a novelty about which Pierre Boulez will say « it is the unpredictable which becomes required ", and which the expression reveals a real thought educating others by a curiosity in front of all which seems to be obvious.

But there is also a necessity of another nature: that the reflection in a musical thought and then the act of writing are imperative upon these composers with sometimes almost an urgency and such an acuteness as this neccesity may be considered as a strength of life.

And it is good of this energy the interpreters are the recipients then the bridge towards an audience enlisted in a positive spiral.

With the same and the indestructible enthusiasm, we shall try to summon it during the season 2012-2013, on occasion of residences in the Fernsehmusik Forum of Bremen, the National Domain of the Castle of Chambord or still in the Campus Internazionale di Musica - Sermoneta.

Jean-Luc Menet Some composers of our season 2012/2013...

Geoffroy Drouin

philosophy coherence fluidity

Studies at the Superior Conservatory of Music of Paris with Gérard Grisey, Marco Stroppa and Marc-André Dalbavie then to Royaumont with Brian Ferneyhough and Jonathan Harvey. 2002 Program of composition and computing of the IRCAM. Collaboration with the IRCAM ion a research project about orchestration. The Pompidou Center dedicates him a workshop directory for his work " Crispy Grain ". 2008 Price of the André Boucourechliev Foundation Doctorate within the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales 2008 responsable of a cycle of seminars of composition in Ircam. Teacher at the music Conservatory of the Center of Paris and the University of Versailles -Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines. Philipp Maintz

rationalism hedonism sensualism

Studies with Robert HP Platz to the Academy of Maastricht then with Karlheinz Essl in the Studio For Advanced Music and Media Technology in the Anton-Bruckner- Privatuniversität in Linz (Austria). Studies in the CRFMW (Center of researches)at the University of Liège Training course of Composition and Musical Computing in the IRCAM. Premiere of the string quartet " INNER CIRCLE " by the Arditti Quartet in 2004. 2005 first work for full orchestra, « heftige landschaften mit 16 bäumen », a com- mission of the Festival of Salzburg, premiered by Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart. 2005 british premiere of the same work by the BBC-Symphony Orchestrat " LIED " geborsten ) is created at the Festival Wien Modern 2010 premiere of his opera " Maldoror " in the opera of Münich 2011 Boarder in the Villa Massimo (Rome) To create means establishing possibles which work to arouse new manners to feel, think, imagine. What are yours ?

It's a great pleasure to start once again in hand of these works which I was able to consider as finished at the moment. The resumption of this musical material opens me then of new perspectives likely to incite more still my imagination. It is almost as if I launched in a process of inspection of the reverse of a medal, the dark side of an already known musical material. It is the same attitude which guided me by reconsidering the material of the trio with piano « Tourbillon » and which brought me to compose "Trawl". And it is still in the same state of mind as I am going to reconsider "Trawl" in the perspective to write a new work during my residence in the Castle of Chambord in the next spring. The same material will be of use to elaborate another work for four soloists and large ensemble which will be premiered on occasion of the Beethovenfest in Bonn.

Sérialism, spectralism: two aesthetics veins which renewed our listening. How do you place you with regard to this inheritance ?

Previously, in work such as "NAHT" for example, I calculated almost every detail of musical forms following various algorithms, which I developed by following to sérialistic and / or spectral ideas. When I began to write a vocal work for the first time, the moment of a total questioning occured.

With the fourth Lied of my september album. cycle I discovered that to adapt itself to a literary structure and to its dramaturgy was contradictory with "to synthesize" a completely sérialistic musical form. All the time during which I wrote my opera MALDOROR I carry out an experiment almost of "liberation", following almost blindly my musical instinct by creating the musical form

The serial and / or spectral thought goes with me as a toolbox which I know very well, and which helps me to refine that I want to say ;it is a stimulation, the itching powder of my inspiration and my phantasy ; but that does not fix me any more the course.

The literature (Lautréamont) and more particularly the poetry (Winkler, Rilke) seem to feed your creativity : could you say to us what you draw it?

It is not only Ron Winkler I know since a residence in common in 2004, or Rainer Maria Rilke who compose my poetical Pantheon; so recently the Russian futurist Velimir Chlebnikov and for the future also the Argentine poet Roberto Juarroz take place there. All these texts have in common they touched me as far as I felt them expanding of a slope for a musical expression by which I was inspired to follow the thread.Music occurs immediately in my brain if by chance I discover a poem which I can imagine sung or declaimed.

The National Domain of Chambord welcomes you for a residence in 2013, period during which you will write a new work for the Ensemble Alternance: could you speak to us about this musical project ?

I would like to devote time to restate two works. In 2010 I wrote a first version of « trawl » for Alternance, which was created in Bremen. Just following to the premiere, I strongly felt the necessity to develop and extend this very dense work. Besides, I worked in 2011 on a poem of the succession of Rainer Maria Rilke for the writing of a lied for baritone and piano. This poem is part of a set of four poetic sketches of Rilke which I want to include as a cycle of lieder for baritone and piano. I write it for Otto Katzameier, an very talentuous singer who held the part of baritone in my opera " MALDOROR ". I completely fell in love with his voice and I have already written another work for him and orchestra. Maybe we can consider this way of « to retouch », of to cross again and again the interpreters, to be inspired by them (as Otto Katzameier or also Marisol Montalvo and of course Alternance !) belongs also to my mania of « retouching » ?…

Interview Philippe Maintz by Jean Luc Menet, Paris 12/09/2012. Raphaël Cendo

excess energy fulgurance beyond the limits curiosity

Studies piano then composition at the Ecole Normale de Musique-Paris. 2003 : integrates the class of composition at the Superior Conservatory of Music of Paris in 2003 then the annual musical program of composition and computing in the IRCAM till 2006.

Receives the teachings of Allain Gaussin, Brian Ferneyhough, Fausto Romitelli and Philippe Manoury.

2007 R. Cendo is awarded by the Francis and Mica Salabert foundation for win- ning the first price of the international competition of composition of the the Symphony Orchestra of Montreal. Boarder of the French Academy (Villa Medicis) until 2011.

2009 Pierre Cardin Price of the "Académie française des Beaux-Arts". Lives in Berlin. "Rokh", is a new work commisioned to Raphaël Cendo by the Foundation Ernst von Siemens for Ensemble Alternance. « Rokh »was written and created by segments in 2011 and 2012. The complete version was proposed for the first time in February, 2012 in Tonhalle of Düsseldorf and then recorded in studios 4'33 (Ivry sur Seine ) by Franck Rossi. What does mean «Rokh» and could you describe the process ?

"Rokh" is the Persian name given to a gigantic and fabulous bird about whom speaks « Les Mille et une Nuits » and is likened to the Greek Phoenix. Guard of the tree of the Knowledge in the Garden of Hesperides, the immortal bird is capable of being reborn having wasted away under his own heat. It symbolizes the cycles of death and resurrection.The work is divided in three movements.The first one is a writing extremely pushed by the saturation, a kind of complete of road of the saturated phenomena. The extreme gestural writing and the required energy gives to this movement an unpredictable and uncontrolled character In contrast, the second movement is based on a very clear density with very bright tones ending by a solo of bass flute supported by the Ensemble. It investigates a dense material with a wide and rich range of ele- ments but always on the verge of the audible.The disorientation is total, the timber changes constantly: nothing can totally be recognized.With a speed on the limit of the possible the last movement begins with a very detailed almost congealed mass which evolves towards a return of the material of the first movement.The time accelerates to find the raw elements of the first movement, this time slowed down and stacked.

" The completion of a work it is the result of a conquest on one, a personal great adventure. It is especially of it that the works have to testify. " says Raphaël Cendo. Let us bet this recording is the most faithful reflection. Olga Neuwirth

woman-composer In movement In margin work not - étiquetable

inflluenced by David Lynch, Eisentein, jazz, rock, multimedia, poetry

Studies in Conservatory of Music of San Francisco as well as the plastic arts and cinema in the Art College. Master's essay on " The use of the music in the movie " The love to death " by Alain Resnais 1993 : teaching of Tristan Murail and training course in computing in Ircam. Meets Adriana Hölszky, Vinko Globokar and especially Luigi Nono Elfriede Jelinek, future Nobel Prize in Literature, chooses her to realize two mini-operas for the Wiener Festwochen. 1998 : focus on her work at the Salzburg Festival 2003 : «Lost Highway »with Elfriede Jelinek 2006 : member of the Adacemy of Arts-Berlin Helmut Lachenmann

freedom no compromise requirement desecration of sound forward-thinking

1988-1996 Opera "Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern" 1991-1992 "Zwei Gefühle..., Musik mit Leonardo" 1997-1999 "NUN"

1978 lecturer at the Musikinstitut Darmstadt. 1976 >1981 teacher at the Musikhochschule Hannover. 1981>1999 teacher at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart. 1992 Bach Prize Hamburg 1997 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 2008 Visiting Professor Harvard University 2012 BBVA Foundation Prize

Mark Andre

music of darkness saturated masses music of the extreme unnamed music implacable (Jean Noël von der Weid)

Studies at the Superior Conservatory of Music of Paris then with Helmut Lachenmann in Stuttgart. Studies of musicology at the École Normale Supérieureof Paris and the Center of Higher education of the Renaissance in Tours, with a thesis on « Ars Subtilior », one of the foundations of his own aesthetic reflection. Follows Master's degrees-classes of Brian Ferneyhough at the the Royaumont Foundation. 1996 Residence in Akademie Schloss Solitude of Stuttgart. Kranichsteiner Price of the Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt. Study the electronic music with André Richard within a residence in S.W.R Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung Freiburg. 1997 till 1998 composer in residence in the SWR and the city of Baden-Baden from 2001 resident in the Villa Medicis of Rome and in the opera of Frankfurt Premiere of Musiktheater-Passion in drei Teilen 22,13 to the Staatstheater de Mainz repeated to the Bastille Opera of Paris . 2005, residence in the DAAD Künstlerprogramm. 2010 teacher at the C.von Weber Musikhochschule in Dresden. Pierre Boulez Icon stylistic unity opens the way

One of the most influential composers of the second half of the XXth century. His musician's trajectory is integrated to the History of music.

Major figureof the modernism.

Founder of the Domaine Musical.

Leader of the Philharmonic orchestra of New York and of BBC Symphony Orchestra. Initiation of the public in particular by the concert and the record into the classic modernists of the first half of the century (Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Webern, Bartók, Berg, etc.). Pierre Boulez also had a significant impact on the development of musical institutions, especially in France arousing or accompaniing the projects of Ircam of which he was the first director, of the Intercontemporain Ensemble, as well as the Cité de la Musique in Paris.

Hans Thomalla peculiarity exploration of the sound sound refinement

Studies of composition in Frankfurt Musikhochschule and Stanford's University. Prize-winner of the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis and the Christoph-Delz-Prize. 2011 premiere of his opera " Fremd " at the Opera of Stuttgart. Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung composer's price

Training programme

Go towards what we do not still know or what is not still familiar. Forget what appears "natural" and which is finally only the fruit of a habit, which draws originally from a since forgotten unusual. Renew exactly with this unusual Go on then with estonishing

Here are some of the principles which preside over this new training programme.They jus- tify our mission to accompany, under specific formats a wide pannel of people desiring to borrow with us the sometimes craggy path of the unknown. With the cooperation of moderators, composers themselves and the International Television Forum for Music in Bremen,we shall follow it with regular partners as the Ecole Normale de Musique of Paris well as new others as the music Conservatory (XIX° adt) of Paris or the Campus Internazionale di Musica de Sermoneta which welcomes Alternance in residence. Paris 11.13.12 Auditorium Conservatoire du XIX° adt / 8pm

« complexity, emergence, dialectic » Three médium (film, overview, live music) to see main musical principles under different angles film : « Time and Motion Study II »(Colin Still) overview :« Emergence and dialectic in music, a transdisciplinary approach of writing music » by Geoffroy Drouin live music Geoffroy Drouin

Paris 03.25.13 Ecole Normale de Musique Salle Cortot Masterclass

Paris 03.30.13 meeting with Hans Thomalla music : Hans Thomalla

Paris 05.23.13 Auditorium Conservatoire du XIX° adt film « Heimat Bach» (Ulli Aumüller) meeting with Alessandro Solbiati live music : György Kurtag, Alessandro Solbiati

Sermoneta 01 > 07.07.13 Château Caetani Campus internazionale di musica masterclasses, workshops 09/02/2012 Naestved, Festival Susaa, Raphaël Cendo, Pierre Boulez,Gérard Grisey , Gérard Pesson, Mark Andre, Geoffroy Drouin (WP).

10/21/2012 Paris, Cité Internationale Universitaire, Collège Franco-britannique, Raphaël Cendo (FP).

11/13/2012 Paris , film « Time of motion Study II» (Colin Still) music : Geoffroy Drouin (FP). CONCERTS

05&06/06/2013 Brême , Fersehmusikforum, Helmut Lachenmann, Pierre Boulez , Hans Thomalla, Mark Andre, Raphaël Cendo, Philipp Maintz, Olga Neuwirth.

05/23/2013 Paris , Auditorium Conservatoire du XIX° adt, film «Heimat Bach» (Ulli Aumüller) music : György Kurtàg, Alessandro Solbiati.

06/08/2013 Château de Chambord, Helmut Lachenmann, Philipp Maintz, (WP).

01 till 07/07/2013 Sermoneta, Italy, Campus Internazionale di Musica festival Pontino Nicolas Tzortzis (WP) , Alireza Farhang (WP), Hans Thomalla, Raphaël Cendo Philipp Maintz, Luca Antignani, Federico Gardella. ENSEMBLE ALTERNANCE 8, rue d’Ormesson 75004 Paris Tél.: 01 42 71 12 40 mèl.: contact@ ensemble-alternance.com http://www.ensemble-alternance.com

design TambourMajor, photographies : Philippe Gontier L’Ensemble Alternance

Frédéric Baldassare, cello Jean-Marie Cottet, piano Dirk Descheemaeker, clarinet Jacques Ghestem, violin Jean-Luc Menet, flute Claire Merlet, viola Dimitri Vassilakis, piano

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Otto Katzamaier, voice Stephan Meier, percussion Franck Rossi, sound engineer would like to thank.