GEN19719 Booklet Itunes Stenzl.Indd
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Fair Wind Works by E. Séjourné, A. Koppel, Y. Pagh-Paan, B. Hamilton, T. Takemitsu, I. Xenakis and V. Houdijk Kai Strobel, Percussion ARD INTERNATIONAL MUSIC COMPETITION Fair Wind Kai Strobel, Percussion Emmanuel Séjourné (*1961) Prelude No. 1 for Solo Marimba (2012) World Premiere Recording 01 . (07'10) Anders Koppel (*1947) Fair Wind for Solo Marimba (2020) World Premiere Recording 02 1st Movement . (05'21) 03 2nd Movement . (08'06) Younghi Pagh-Paan (*1945) Klangsäulen for Solo Percussion (2019) World Premiere Recording 04 . (08'23) Bruce Hamilton (*1966) Interzones for Vibraphone and Tape (1996) 05 . (10'48) Sammy Fain / Tō ru Takemitsu (*1930) 12 Songs for Guitar (1977) 06 Secret Love . (02'49) Iannis Xenakis (1922–2001) Rebonds A for Solo Percussion (1987–89) 07 . (07'45) Vincent Houdijk (*1981) MaPa for Solo Vibraphone (2018) World Premiere Recording 08 . (08'05) Joseph Kosma / Tō ru Takemitsu (*1930) 12 Songs for Guitar (1977) 09 Amours Perdues . (03'08) Total Time . (61'42) Interview with Kai Strobel You have become one of the most promising percussionists of your generation. What led you to play percussion? A childhood dream or chance? KS Actually both. I started playing percussion because of my older brother Marc, who was encouraged to learn how to play at an early age by our parents. My mother, a trained ac- cordionist and conductor, was particularly attracted to percussion instruments during her studies; and she was accordingly very supportive when my brother showed an interest in them. After our cellar had become well equipped with all these amazing instruments, even I couldn’t help but be fascinated by them and wanted to begin as soon as possible! What is it about the instrument that appeals to you? KS The wide variety of instruments and their versatility have always fascinated me! In ad- dition to my classical training, I took jazz drum lessons, was part of my school’s big band and toured with them throughout the USA, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. It was this time in the jazz big band that strongly influenced me personally because it sparked an unbelievable joy in me for music. I was part of a large music group, and could 4 make music with my friends, express myself within this framework and continue trying things out artistically. To this day, I continually remind myself of this positive approach to music because in classical music, we have an unfortunate tendency to play with our heads instead of with our hearts. From my career in jazz and classical music, I am able to look at music from different per- spectives, which enriches my artistic work. What were your criteria for putting your program together? What can we expect to hear on the CD? In putting the program together it was important to me to display a wide range of moods and genres which I could identify with. At the same time, I also limited myself to a relatively small selection of instruments—marimba, vibraphone and two setups – in order to keep the instruments’ versatility in the foreground. The atmosphere of Emmanuel Séjourné’s Prelude No. 1 with its expressive variations of tempo and late romantic character stands in stark contrast to Tōru Takemitsu’s Secret Love and Amours Perdues, for example, whose sparkling arpeggios and charming melodies allow a much finer perception of the same instrument. Fair Wind by Anders Koppel, on the other hand, shows another completely different side of the marimba. Apart from the impressionistic, rather calmly arranged first movement, the second really gets down to business. The more challenging articulation in this movement lets the marimba really shine but also demands a wicked rock bass towards the end. With Interzones by Bruce Hamilton, I wanted to introduce an audiotape component on my CD. The most fascinating thing here, in addition to the compelling, rhythmic perfection, is the 5 chamber music-like way that it deals with the tape. As sounds and motifs are tossed back and forth between the vibraphone and the audiotape, a real dialogue emerges. A number of the works have only recently been written and published. Are there any world premieres or commissioned works on the CD? Altogether there are four new recordings, one of which was also commissioned for the CD. It quickly became clear to me that Anders Koppel should write the commissioned work for this CD. We had already been in contact with each other in 2019 since I was playing his 3rd Marimba Concerto with the State Capella Symphony Orchestra in connection with the Musical Olympus Festival in St. Petersburg. I am always fascinated by the tonal language of his compositions and his genre-bending compositional style, in which harmonies and sounds of the avant-garde as well as those of contemporary music and jazz can be found. We determined the criteria and parameters of the work together, agreed on a programmatic content and the final product was: Fair Wind! In addition to the previously mentioned Prelude No. 1, the two other world premieres are MaPa by Vincent Houdijk and Klangsäulen by Younghi Pagh-Paan. I heard MaPa live for the first time as part of the opening concert for the 2018 TROMP Percussion Competition in Eindhoven, which I was also taking part in at the time. After the finalists had been an- nounced, Vincent came to congratulate me on getting to the finals and, as really more of a joke, we agreed that if I won 1st place, he would give me the score as a gift. In the end, that’s exactly what happened! I won the competition and was handed the MaPa score with a wink! Klangsäulen was a work commissioned by the 68th ARD International Music Compe- tition in 2019. I personally like that the piece primarily deals with sounds, the mixing of 6 sounds and effects, and in doing so, doesn’t satisfy that old percussion stereotype of “fast and loud”. Instead, it requires a highly developed sense of rhythm and an innate feeling for balancing the different instruments. A number of drums and several instruments for effects are used in the works by Xenakis and Pagh-Paan. Do you have certain preferences in constructing the setups? I orientate myself first on the work’s requirements. If the composer specifies bongos, toms and bass drums as in Rebonds A, for example, I of course adhere to it. Having said that, I do have a free hand in the size of the instrument and the tension of the drumheads. My own interpretation of the piece always starts from this moment. In general, I play drums with natural skins from either calf or goat. The overtones are more harmonic, the basis of the sound is much warmer and rounder than on a synthetic skin. In order to emphasize further the title of the piece Klangsäulen (Pillars of Sound), I tried to create the largest possible spectrum of sound. Having differentiated the sound of the instruments as much as possible from another, I could then decide either to let them sound individually in the surrounding space, or to incorporate them into an already resonating pillar of sound. Secret Love and Amours Perdues were originally written by Takemitsu for guitar. How do you then play these works as a percussionist? Because the “classical percussion” instrument only first became established as a solo and chamber music instrument in the course of the 20th century, the scope of its literature natu- 7 rally can’t be compared to that of the piano, strings or plucked instruments. For this reason, I regularly comb through other instruments’ literature. I listen to genres and playing styles that are sometimes foreign to me and then see if it’s possible to realize them on my own instrument without distorting the original. Since the physical characteristics of playing the guitar, for example, can be compared to those of the marimba (strings/wooden bars are plucked/struck), I regularly read through guitar literature. During my search, really just by chance, I came across the 12 Songs for Guitar by Tōru Takemitsu. Percussionists know of Takemitsu primarily from his avant- garde-like works, which is why I was even more fascinated by his 12 charming arrangements of old pop songs and chansons and decided to select the two most beautiful ones for my CD. You are already the 1st prize winner and audience award winner of the 2019 ARD Inter national Music Competition and the 1st prize winner of the 2018 TROMP Percussion Com petition in Eindhoven – What are your other goals? In the future, in addition to my solo career, I would like to be in a position where I can play chamber music and orchestral literature. Due to my recent successes in competitions, my focus has naturally shifted significantly to having a solo career. Artistic freedom as a soloist is, on one hand, a privilege and a form of self-expression, but on the other hand, having a creative exchange and finding compromises together with other artists is just as important to me and as artistically rewarding on a completely different level. Interview conducted by Johanna Brause 8 9 The Artist Biographical Notes ai Strobel, 1st place winner and recipient of the audience award at the 68th ARD Music Competition 2019 and winner of the 2018 TROMP Percussion Competition in Eindhoven, ranks among the most promising percussionists of K his generation. As a soloist, he has performed with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, the Württembergische Philhar- monie Reutlingen, the Asko|Schönberg Orchestra, the Musicum Collegium Basel and the St.