Nadav Lev guitars New Strings Attached 1 he release of New Strings Attached would best serve their artistic language New Strings Attached marks the culmination of a long and vision in conjunction with the guitar. journey. It all started a few years ago The accumulation of the newly written Contemporary Music for Guitar by Young Israeli Composers Twhen the initial idea for this project was music that followed has been a moving born: initiating the creation of new rep- and surprising process of discovery. Al- 1. Gilad Cohen (b. 1980): The Rushing Ronnie Reshef (b. 1979): Four Bialik ertoire for classical and electric guitar by though I aimed for diversity in the first Camel (2012) (9:26) Children’s Songs (2009) (8:42) prominent young Israeli composers. This place, I was still amazed by the broadness Nadav Lev Nadav Lev, Tehila Nini-Goldstein mission captured me, as it promised to be of the musical spectrum presented in the not only relevant for both the Israeli music results – a journey between immensely 2. Yair Klartag (b. 1985): Nothing to 7. Me’ever layam (3:06) corpus and the guitar repertoire, but also different musical landscapes. express (2014) (8:23) * 8. Sna’i (1:31) particularly personal. It seemed to natu- Nadav Lev, Mivos String Quartet 9. Dov (2:13) rally combine two of my deepest interests New Strings Attached is a fascinating, ev- 10. Tarnegol (1:52) – performing and initiating the creation of er-changing musical road. I believe it not Jonathan Keren (b. 1978): Three Ladino new music on the one hand, and exploring only reflects exceptional originality while Songs (2008) (11:18) 11. Nadav Lev (b. 1977): Shomeret Layla layers of my own cultural roots and iden- exploring a broad array of sonic possibil- Nadav Lev, Miranda Cuckson, Rinat (2013-2014) (14:54) tity on the other. I came to believe that in ities, but also serves as yet another living Shaham Nadav Lev, Re’ut Ben-Ze’ev, Guy Barash order to bring forth the unique diversity of testimonial to the endless faces of the musical voices emerging from Israel, the contemporary guitar. 3. Durme, durme mi linda donzella Nadav Lev, classical and electric guitar guitar with its endless versatility of color, (4:00) (accent marks) with Mivos String Quartet style and texture is the perfectly suited in- The album is equally divided between 4. Abretu puerta serrada (2:27) Rinat Shaham, mezzo-soprano strument. two main centers: one of purely instru- 5. Quen te va ver con cocharas (4:51) Miranda Cuckson, violin mental music, and the other of vocally Tehila Nini-Goldstein, soprano I went on to approach and commission oriented music. It opens with Gilad Co- 6. Guy Barash (b. 1982): TalkBack III Re’ut Ben-Ze’ev, mezzo-soprano an exceptional group comprised of some hen’s The Rushing Camel, brilliantly (2010) (9:28) Guy Barash, live electronics of the most prominent and interesting fusing influences of classical music, eth- Nadav Lev, Guy Barash composers to emerge from Israel in re- nic music and progressive rock through cent years. I invited them to compose a deeply intimate, virtuosic and original Total playing time: 62:16 for either classical or electric guitar in take on the very idiom of classical guitar. different settings, attempting to choose It moves on to Yair Klartag’s Nothing to *Commissioned by the Adele and John Grey Endowment Fund with them the ensemble and format that express, which creates an abstract sonic All works are heard here in world premiere recordings 2 3 landscape, transcending any ethnic or artist Guy Barash and three incredible Is- Yair Klartag: Nothing to express* The search for my personal understand- non-musical pretexts while exploring the raeli-born singers, who – with their distinct ing of the term “expression” has been surprising synergy between electric gui- voices and musical personalities – add A conversation between writer Sam- occupying my thoughts in the last few tar and string quartet. Jonathan Keren’s fresh dimensions of variety and soulfulness uel Beckett and art historian Georges years. I have tried to dismantle my urge Three Ladino Songs illuminate the to the music: Rinat Shaham, Tehila Ni- Duthuit regarding (among other artists) for expression and find the concrete pro- deep, multi-layered essence of seemingly ni-Goldstein and Re’ut Ben-Ze’ev. the painter Pierre Tal Coat: cesses it meant for me – what am I “push- straightforward folkloric music with the ing out”? Is my natural thought process composer’s ever-flowing musical imag- - Nadav Lev Beckett – The only thing disturbed by the reflected in my pieces’ structures? Is there ination and contrapuntal language. The revolutionaries Matisse and Tal Coat is a a concrete sound world that exists in my album turns back to a more abstract mu- certain order on the plane of the feasible. inner world and wishes to be realized? sical world in Guy Barash’s TalkBack III, Gilad Cohen: The Rushing Camel Duthuit – What other plane can there be How big is the discrepancy between these a hectic, energetically charged dialogue for the maker? potential inner sounds and the musical between guitar and computer, exploring The Rushing Camel begins its journey B. – Logically, none. Yet I speak of an art scores? tensions between spontaneity and con- from afar. I like to think of the beginning turning from it in disgust, weary of puny trol, narrative and commentary, as well of the piece as the distant sound of a beast exploits, weary of pretending to be able, of In this piece I have tried to create music as human creativity and technology. It galloping in the desert, impossibly long being able, of doing a little better the same that corresponds to neither my thought returns to concrete cultural context in legs thumping along in a vast, open void old thing, of going a little further along a process nor my inner sound world. The Ronnie Reshef’s crystalline, lyrical and of endless sand. Both the view and the dreary road. “drama” is based on the abstract relations witty art-song settings of Four Bailik sound are not quite clear but sometimes D. – And preferring what? between the sounds. A constant pulse Children's Songs by Israel’s national you can see its obscured frame peeking B. – The expression that there is nothing lies in the center of the piece and is re- poet H. N. Bialik. The program ends on a from between the mountains, until at to express, nothing with which to express, peatedly destructed and reconstructed. most personal note with my own original some point it is within view. And stand- nothing from which to express, no power to The entire piece can be heard as waves of piece, the extensive Shomeret Layla. The ing in front of you, you begin to realize express, no desire to express, together with de-pulsation and re-pulsation. program notes that follow were contrib- it is communicating with you. It speaks the obligation to express. uted by the composers themselves. of dreams and desires lost and gone, D. – But that is a violently extreme and *A piece commissioned by the Adele and recollections of moments that still make personal point of view, of no help to us in John Gray Endowment Fund I was fortunate to be joined in this album the heart ache . all while staring at you the matter of Tal Coat. by an amazing group of world-renowned with those goofy camel eyes and baring B. – ……………… collaborators, including violinist Miranda that impossibly long tongue. (Erin Mick- D. – Perhaps that is enough for today. Cuckson, the Mivos String Quartet, Sound elwaite and Gilad Cohen) 4 5 Jonathan Keren: Three Ladino Songs tunes, but rather to keep their original Ronnie Reshef: Four Bialik Children’s The second song, “Sna'i" (Squirrel), is a folk nature, while using my own compo- Songs light song with a comic touch. Its harmo- In 2008, guitarist Nadav Lev and I were sitional voice. ny is dominated by dissonant intervals, discussing the possibility of commis- This song cycle was written in 2008 in one which give it a sharp and witty sound. sioning me to compose a chamber music Guy Barash: TalkBack III of the smoothest compositional process- The third song is titled “Dov” (Bear), and piece featuring the guitar. The idea that es I have ever experienced. It felt as if the it is no surprise that it is the heaviest in appeared to be most appealing to both of Inspired by a conversation with guitarist songs already existed in some dimension, the set. Incorporating semi-horrific allu- us was a mixed-ensemble piece, which Nadav Lev, the dedicatee, I wrote Talk- and were only waiting for me to write them sions in the text, the vocal part sits very would make use of folk material. Even- back III for guitar and computer in 2010. down. They sprang out of me effortlessly low in the singer’s tessitura, giving it a tually I chose female voice and violin in It is the third in a series of compositions and naturally, in what felt like a real epiph- darker tone, and the guitar part is based combination with the guitar and started for acoustic instruments and interactive any. The texts of Bialik, one of the most on a minor key with touches of the dark searching Ladino songs that would fit computer processing. With Talkback, important Hebrew poets of the early 20th Phrygian mode. The fourth song, “Tarne- the piece. After looking at innumerable I explore new playing techniques, en- century, surely contributed to the ease of gol” (Rooster), is the most vocally virtu- tunes, three songs were chosen.