KAGEL Das Konzert • Phantasiestück • Pan Michael Faust, Flute Paulo Álvares, • Ensemble Contrasts • Robert HP Platz Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä • Patrick Gallois Mauricio Kagel (1931-2008) woodblock adds to the variety of the overall texture, while reticence that, in its turn, makes way for an increasingly Das Konzert • Phantasiestück • Pan the strings form ghostly ostinato patterns which gradually hectic interplay that breaks off to leave the reticent Born in Buenos Aires on 24th December 1931, Mauricio musical notation, as well as his recourse to more assume a more openly expressive manner as the soloist gestures much as before. A brief passage of virtual Kagel was self-taught as a composer, taking his degree in traditional harmonic and tonal elements. Thus Sankt- has recourse to flutter-tonging among other playing breathing from the flute leads into the final section, in philosophy and literature at the University of Buenos Bach-Passion (1985) is more of a continuation, rather techniques. At around the ten-minute mark, the music which the two instruments equably pursue each other in a Aires. From his earliest pieces (around 1950), he was than a rejection, of the German sacred choral tradition, becomes more animated as strings and percussion goad melody such as could almost have a folk or traditional actively opposed to the neo-classical Conservatism while instrumental works such as the First Piano Trio the soloist into flightier asides that, in turn, wind down to a source, the music gradually taking on an expressive poise openly favoured by the Perón government, while an anti- (1985) and the Third String Quartet (1987) similarly draw lilting passage with harp and percussion to the fore. This that sees the work conclude in a mood of barely ruffled establishment intent is similarly evident in the numerous on the lineage of Austro-German classicism for their leads into what might be thought the work’s climactic calm. articles and reviews that were written for the journal exploration of formal and expressive tenets: in other section – soloist and strings trading exchanges with Written in 1985, at much the same time that Kagel Nueva Visión. Kagel headed to West Germany on a words, asking how might it be possible to essay such abandon, before heading into a spectral passage completed his massive Sankt-Bach-Passion, Pan is a true DAAD scholarship in 1957, soon settling in Cologne, pieces without either repudiating or succumbing to the dominated by the resonance of tuned percussion. Gongs jeu d’espirit, yet one whose engaging humour does not where he worked with all the main new music legacy of the musical past. Such an approach inevitably and pizzicato strings alternate as the music subsides into obscure a deeper connection with the chamber-music organizations and performing bodies. He was active as a led to charges of Kagel’s having embraced the thinking of an even sparser section, picking up to the sound of harp genre – coming as it does between the seminal First conductor, writer and teacher, and his honours included post-Modernism, in line with many other composers from and percussion before accelerating into the hectic Piano Trio and the large-scale Third String Quartet. A the Mozart Medal of Frankfurt, Ordre des Arts et des his generation, but the subversive and questioning nature confrontation of soloist and strings that is abruptly curtailed nonchalant gesture from piccolo is set in an imaginative Lettres and Bundesverdienst Orden First Class, as well as of his stance, as was evident in the orchestral Three – leaving the former to resume a dialogue that once again context by string quartet, the piece unfolding as a series membership of the Berlin Academy of Arts. Etudes (1996), prevented any surrender to mere surges onward to see the whole work home with a rapid of variants (rather than variations as such) on its initial Retrospectives of his music and films have been held nostalgia. alternation of forces and a last breathless solo flourish. idea that are pensive and animated by turns – before a throughout Europe and also in North America. Kagel died It is in such a context that the works on this disc Schumann became a potent inspiration for Kagel, in magical interplay of piccolo tones and string harmonics in Cologne on 18th September 2008. should be understood. While each can be heard as an terms of the highly speculative Romanticism embodied in makes way for the scampering final bars. Although earlier mature pieces such as the String abstract and self-consistent entity, an extra-musical his musical language as well as his distinctive approach In the ‘ensemble’ version of Phantasiestück, the Sextet (1953), the choral Anagrama (1957) and the dimension is rarely absent. How each of these ‘situations’ to matters of form. Hence Phantasiestück, composed overall form remains identical, but the range of expression orchestral Heterophonie (1961), are marked by the is related to, and determines an understanding of, the during 1987-88 and which exists in versions for flute and is now greater given the timbral and textural variety influence of avant-garde figures such as Boulez and piece in question is for each listener to decide. Composed piano or as accompanied by an instrumental ensemble. afforded by the presence of string quartet and clarinet. Stockhausen, Kagel’s aesthetic was already one that during 2001-02, Das Konzert is Kagel’s typically oblique The ‘solo’ version sets off with a capering manner with This is especially noticeable in more inward passages, combined precisely organized elements with others that response to writing a flute concerto – though in this flute and piano breezily exchanging rhythmic gestures. where the additional instruments open out the music’s undermined such precision in a determined examination of instance the nominal accompaniment of harp, strings and There follows a slower section in which the dialogue is spatial aspect as well as providing greater tonal allure. the rôle of ‘control’ in art and, by extension, in society. The percussion is conceived on an equal basis with the solo more plaintive, followed by a martial passage with the Nowhere more than in the final section, where the folk-like early 1960s saw the advent of his concept of ‘instrumental part, while the musical content is shot through with myriad flute blowing into and the tapping on the outside of melody outlined by flute and piano is heard in sharper theatre’, where sound itself becomes subject to the allusions to an idealized Romanticism which, ironically their respective instruments. Next comes a more relief – bringing the music into closer alignment with the presence of the performers in acting out a dramatic enough, had yielded few if any equivalent pieces of conventional yet highly appealing dialogue where the nineteenth-century archetypes that Kagel resourcefully context for the work to take place. Around the same time, comparable worth. It is in the bridging between past and composer’s trademark wit can be heard at its keenest, evokes in his later works. he embarked on a series of films where music and vision present that this singular piece – whose single movement gradually thinning out to leave quietly syncopated are combined from new and intriguing perspectives, not comprises numerous intersecting sections – takes on its gestures on piano to which the flute responds with a Richard Whitehouse least Ludwig Van (1969), a bicentennial ‘homage’ to special significance even when assessed within the Beethoven that questions the roles of tradition and the ambivalent perspective of the composer’s later output. performer, with pertinent implications for the development Over pizzicato rhythms and gentle harmonic clusters, of the classical music industry. the flute unfolds a capricious yet evocative melodic line During the 1980s Kagel’s music underwent various that weaves its way in and out of the strings’ translucent changes, in line with his incorporating more conventional backdrop. The on-going contribution from tom-toms and Michael Faust Ensemble Contrasts

Michael Faust studied with Karlheinz Zöller and Aurèle Nicolet. He served as The Ensemble Contrasts is a highly acclaimed chamber group for Principal Flautist with major orchestras in Rome, Hamburg and Munich, and is 20th- and 21st-century music which has gained much recognition currently with the WDR Symphony-Orchestra Cologne. He has won many prizes through its creative and unusual programming. Founded in 1989 by in prestigious music competitions and was the first German musician to win the Michael Faust it has often won critical acclaim, especially for its CD Pro Musicis award in New York. Many composers have written works for him, devoted to music by Elliott Carter. The Ensemble is based in including Peteris Vasks, and Mauricio Kagel. He is Professor of Cologne, Germany. Flute at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf and gives master-classes

Photo: Ludwig Drathen throughout the world. Naoko Ogihara, Violin 3 4 www.mfaust.de Lucas Barr, Violin 3 Matthias Buchholz, Viola 3 4 Johannes Wohlmacher, Cello 3 4 Thorsten Johanns, Clarinet 4 Wolfgang Raumann, Bass clarinet 4

Paulo Sérgio Guimarães Álvares Robert HP Platz

The Brazilian pianist Paulo Sérgio Guimarães Álvares has appeared throughout the Robert HP Platz studied composition with Wolfgang Fortner and Karlheinz world as a soloist and chamber musician. He studied in São Paulo under Caio Stockhausen, and conducting with Francis Travis. He later studied computer Pagano, in Texas under Steven de Groote, and under Aloys Kontarsky in Cologne. composition at IRCAM. He has conducted more than 300 first performances, and After winning the Kranichsteiner music prize at the Darmstadt International Course for since 2005 has been a member of the Bureau du directeur of the electronic studio new music, he explored the relationship between the piano and live electronics at Centre de Recherches et Formation Musicales de Wallonie (CRFMW) in Liège. IRCAM in Paris. Paulo Álvares devotes himself to new music, improvised music and His CD with Ensemble Alternance (works of Mauro Lanza) was awarded a Coup to classical and contemporary repertoire. He has made many recordings, including all de Cœur by the Académie Charles Cros in 2008, and his recording of concertos of Mauricio Kagel’s keyboard music. He is Professor of Piano and Improvisation at by Toshio Hosokawa was awarded a Clef de l’année by ResMusica in 2009. Photo: Susanne Diesner the Cologne Musikhochschule and Coordinator Professor for piano and chamber music at the Instituto Politécnico – ESART in Castelo Branco, Portugal. Arriving in Europe from Buenos Aires in 1957, Mauricio Kagel soon developed his own subversive Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä and theatrical musical aesthetics. Performed here by the work’s dedicatee, Das Konzert is his Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä typically oblique response to writing a flute concerto, ranging from spectral atmospheres to hectic was founded in 1955 and has confrontation. The humor of Pan is clear from the outset, with its invocation and parody of operated in its present form Mozart’s Papageno. The two contrasting versions of Phantasiestück show the composer’s since 1965. The French trademark wit at its keenest. The title refers to the influence of Schumann on Kagel. conductor and flautist Patrick Gallois has been Music Mauricio Director of the orchestra since 2003, leading a group of 38 ̈ nen musicians, with many tours KAGEL ̈ tko abroad. Sinfonia Finlandia (1931-2008) Jyväskylä has recorded extensively for a number of Works for Flute major companies, among others for Naxos. The 1 Das Konzert 25:27 Photo: Pekka Ro for flute and orchestra (2001-02) orchestra also gives concerts regularly in Finland and since 1993 has been active in education and audience development aimed at schools in 2 Phantasiestück (version for flute and piano) Central Finland. (1987-88) 17:34 3 Pan for piccolo and string quartet (1985) 4:45 Patrick Gallois 4 Phantasiestück (version for flute, piano Patrick Gallois enjoys international careers as both soloist and conductor. A pupil of Jean-Pierre Rampal at the Paris Conservatoire, and ensemble) (1987-88) 17:58 at the age of 21 he was appointed principal flute in the Orchestre National de France, holding this post until 1984, when he decided to Michael Faust, Flute 1 2 4 / Piccolo 3 concentrate on his solo career, which has subsequently taken him throughout the world. He conducted his own orchestra in Paris and in 2 4 Photo: Matti Salmi Paulo Álvares, Piano 2003 was appointed Musical Director of the Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä, with which he now regularly tours and records. Ensemble Contrasts 3 4 • Robert HP Platz 4 Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä 1 • Patrick Gallois 1

Track 1 recorded at Suolahti Hall, Jyväskylä, Finland, from 3rd-7th May, 2010 Produced, engineered and edited by Sean Lewis • Sponsored by Stiftung Kagel-Burghardt Tracks 2-4 recorded at Beethoven-Haus, Bonn, Germany, on 17th November, 2010 Executive producer: Harry Vogt (WDR3 PG Musik) Producer and editor: Günther Wollersheim • Engineer: Oliver Dannert A co-production with WDR Booklet notes: Richard Whitehouse • Publisher: Edition Peters Cover image by Ursula Burghardt (by kind permission of Pamela Kagel)