Milos Raickovich
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Flying Trio, Sonata, “El contorno” Variations, Three Romances: Patrych Sound Studios, 2009 Recording producer: Milos Raickovich Engineer & Editing: Joseph Patrych Recorded live in concert: B-A-G-D-A-D (February 7, 2008) and Winter Waltz (November 22, 2008), Kolarac Concert Hall, Belgrade, Serbia Produced and recorded by the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation (RTS) Editing: Joseph Patrych ACKNOWLEDGMENTS All compositions are published by Milos Raickovich New Classicism (ASCAP), and Cover Art: available (free of charge) at: Far Away, by Milos Raickovich (2010) www.amc.net/MilosRaickovich FAR AWAY Photography: Special thanks to: Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, 2007 Emily Waters, Margaret Leng Tan, Rica Fujihira, Judy Kamilar, Ionel Petroi, Recording Information: Miwako, and to my music copyist, CD produced by Milos Raickovich v Zlatko Vrtacnik “Jerry” CD mastered by Joseph Patrych, The EVI Trio Patrych Sound Studios, To Adam and Ana Tatjana Rankovich, piano Bronx, NY, 2010 (DDD) Barry Crawford, flute | Jasna Popovic, piano RTS Symphony Orchestra WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM Milen Nachev & Bojan Sudjic, conductors TROY1191 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2010 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. University of Hawaii, CUNY Hiroshima College in Japan, Brooklyn College, Lehman College, and The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York. Milos Raickovich’s choral work Parastos is published by Boosey & Hawkes. Raickovich’s score for Evans Chan’s film The Map of Sex and Love received a nomination for the best original film score at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival in 2001. A member of ASCAP, Raickovich has received three CAP awards from the American Music Center for his orchestral pieces, Symphony No.1, B-A-G-D-A-D, and Winter Waltz. Milos Raickovich’s early compositions, written in the late 1970s, can best be described as minimalist, ascetic and meditative. Since 1979, his music has evolved into a style that combines Minimalism with Classical forms, a style that he calls “New Classicism.” The Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed describes Raickovich’s New Classicism as “…neither ironic nor naive but, instead, a unique postmodern THE COMPOSER response to both Minimalism and multiculturalism. It is surely possible to hear Schubert, Haydn or Rossini in Raickovich’s “New Classicism”; but under Schubert, Haydn or Rossini lie Eastern European Milos Raickovich (Milosv Raicvkovic´), composer and conductor, was folk music, Minimalism, Messiaen, and, deeper still the Pacific Rim and its cultures. All are part of born in Belgrade (Serbia, Yugoslavia) in 1956. He has lived and worked in Belgrade, Paris, Los Angeles, Raickovich’s remarkable musical roots, but they operate in the background, nested like the windows on Honolulu, Hiroshima and New York, where he now resides. While in Belgrade, Milos Raickovich was the a computer screen.” Raickovich has composed solo, chamber, orchestral, vocal and choral works, as founder of the Ensemble for Other New Music (1977), as well as one of the founders of the Belgrade well as music for film, dance and theatre. Since 1999, Milos Raickovich has written a number of works Youth Philharmonic, later known as the Borislav Pascan Youth Philharmonic (1977). He also worked as with antiwar message. Critic Steve Smith described Raickovich’s antiwar pieces in Time Out New York: an assistant conductor at the Belgrade Opera House. “Some of the works are wistful and poignant, while others are jarring and volatile; all are inventive, Raickovich’s music has been performed in numerous venues in Europe and the USA, including the provocative and timely.” Warsaw Autumn Festival, Zagreb Music Biennale; Carnegie Hall, La MaMa Etc. and Miller Theater in Milos Raickovich’s orchestral and chamber music is released on the CD New Classicism (Mode New York; and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Among the performers of Raickovich’s music are Records), featuring pianist Margaret Leng Tan on toy pianos, violinist Igor Frolov, and the Moscow the Moscow Symphony Orchestra (M. Raickovich, conductor), Honolulu Symphony Orchestra (Donald Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer. Critic Raymond Tuttle writes: “This is one of the Johanos, conductor), Beach Cities Symphony in Los Angeles (Barry Brisk, conductor), Richmond County strangest discs that I’ve heard all year. That’s a compliment. Strongly recommended to both the Orchestra in New York (Alan Aurelia, conductor), RTS Symphony Orchestra in Belgrade (David Porcelijn, informed and the unwary.” (Fanfare) Milen Nachev, Bojan Sudjic and Milos Raickovich, conductors), Ensemble Divertimento (Milan), Raickovich’s CD B-A-G-D-A-D (Albany Records) features a collection of antiwar pieces. Critic Jeff Margaret Leng Tan, Dorothy Lawson, Reiko Watanabe, Gloria Cheng, Jed Distler, Beth Levin, Christopher Simon writes: “In its decidedly unassuming and unremarked way, this disc may be a major milestone Oldfather, Tatjana Rankovich, Jovan and Nada Kolundzija, among others. of classical music in our era. Here is the first truly haunting music to come from resistance to the Milos Raickovich studied composition with Vasilije Mokranjac, Olivier Messiaen, Armand Russell war… Seldom does politically inspired music have the power and beauty of this.” (The Buffalo News) and David Del Tredici; and conducting with Borislav Pascan, Pierre Dervaux, Barry Brisk and Herbert Compositions by Milos Raickovich are published by New Classicism (ASCAP), and can be down- Blomstedt. He holds a Ph.D. in composition from The City University of New York, and has taught at the loaded (free of charge) from the website www.amc.net/MilosRaickovich. THE MUSIC down), and made a melody based on a five-tone scale. This new melody sounded more “Asian” and more appropriate for the film. I composed the main piece, El contorno (Spanish for “the contour”), as a duo Flying Trio is the first composition in my style, which I call “New Classicism.” After composing the Flying for cello and piano. Additionally, I provided a set of variations for solo cello as well as for solo piano. Trio in Paris in 1979-80, I wrote: “New Classicism may be roughly defined as a blend of musical In 2004, I wrote a new version of El contorno Variations, for piano and string orchestra (or string Minimalism and the styles of Viennese Classical and early Romantic music. Its form is Classical quintet). In the current recording, I occasionally used lightly prepared piano (II and VIII movement) and (e.g. the sonata), but tonality is reduced to only a few notes of the scale. This reduction gives tonal the plucking of the piano strings (VI movement). music a new quality—a new energy. New Classicism enables me to express my feelings while at the Three Romances were originally written for violin and orchestra, in Honolulu in 1988. Later that same time it satisfies my need for a clear and coherent musical language.” Indeed, not only the year, while in Hiroshima, I made a version for violin and piano, and a version for flute and piano. This harmonies, but also the melodies of the Flying Trio are made up of only three tones (Major or Minor triads), work is based on scales with six tones. A recording of Three Romances for violin and orchestra is with the main center being the D Minor triad. The movements express various feelings: Lonely Rider, included on my CD New Classicism (Mode Records). Song of Life and Death, Sadness, Anger and Love. There is no “story” to this music, although the second Winter Waltz was written in December of 2005 for pianist Nada Kolundzvija. The orchestral version movement (in B) was written in memory of my mother, Bojana, who died in 1979. followed in 2006. This piece is entirely composed with only five tones. I was influenced by the Viennese Sonata for piano was written in New York in 1988-89 and dedicated to pianist Harumi Ishikawa. The waltzes, Tchaikovsky, Russia, and snow in Brooklyn. There is also a more personal note, or rather, entire work, written in my New Classicism style, is based on a five-tone scale and its transpositions. there are several very personal notes: Mi (for Miwako, my wife, in the oboe), A (Adam, my son, in the The long-held chords and the long pauses are perhaps a symbolic echo of a long-distance relationship. clarinet), A-A (Ana, my daughter, in the violins), and even more… The world premiere took place at the Sonata was given its world premiere by Tatjana Rankovich in New York in 2000. 17th International Review of Composers in Belgrade in November of 2008 with the RTS Symphony B-A-G-D-A-D, Music on a six-note theme was first written as a piano piece in September 2002, Orchestra conducted by Bojan Sudjic´. It was probably just a coincidence that the first snow of that win- during the worldwide struggle to stop the war before it started. This work is a musical dedication to ter started to fall on Belgrade just minutes before the waltz. the ancient city, Baghdad. The name of this capital (spelled the European way, without letter H) is —Milos Raickovich used as a musical theme made of six notes: B-flat, A, G, D, A, D. B-A-G-D-A-D is the only composition New York, 2010 on this CD that uses a complete seven-tone (diatonic) scale. In 2004, I wrote three new versions of this piece: a string quartet, a string orchestra, and an orchestral version. In 2006, I wrote a version of B-A-G-D-A-D for solo harp. In the orchestral version, prominent solos are assigned to the harp, flute THE PERFORMERS and oboe—our contemporary instruments with origins in Mesopotamian civilization.