An Ox on the Roof 75: The ox in times of war # 38.
An introduction to contemporary music in ordinary language.
Episode seventy-five of An Ox on the Roof by Thea Derks, inspired by her book An Ox on the Roof: modern music after 1900 in a nutshell.
We are opening with music by Dimitri Tchesnokov today, a Ukrainian of Russian descent who currently lives and works in France. He was born in Russia in 1982 and his website is ‘under construction’. It shows little more than than that he is a French-Ukrainian composer and pianist of Russian origin. He studied the piano at two different schools in Kiev and moved to Paris when he was 15, where he completed his piano studies at the conservatory of Boulogne-Billancourt. He then studied orchestration with Guillaume Conesson, after which he dedicated himself to composing.
Tschesnokov still maintains ties with Ukraine. In 2019, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine recorded his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra on CD, accompanied by the French-Romanian violinist Sarah Nemtanu. Like many contemporaries, Tchesnokov does not like to be labelled. He freely draws inspiration from such diverse composers as Franz Liszt, Boris Ljatosjinski, Alfred Schnittke and even John Adams. The Violin concerto is filled with fiery violin solos and powerful orchestral outbursts, but also has more lyrical passages and the soloist has every opportunity to shine.
Fresh from the press, the CD Encounter by the Swedish-Austrian trombonist Mikael Rudolfsson. He is a member of the renowned Klangforum Wien, with whom he performed only last month in the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ. He has a great love for contemporary music and presents works by greats such as Gérard Grisey and Luciano Berio.
Less well-known is the Greek Konstanzia Gourzi, who composed The Encounter for trombone and tape commissioned by Rudolfsson. Her piece is some sort of dialogue between the performer and himself: he responds to sounds he has recorded himself, which have been manipulated by Gourzi.
Also brand new is a CD with two works by the Norwegian Cecilie Ore, who studied with Ton de Leeuw, among others. The Norwegian Engegård Quartet plays her H2O Trilogy and the, also Norwegian, Messing Kvintet signs for Hototogisu for wind quintet.
Ore brings an ode to the beautiful fjords, impressive glaciers and long coastline of her homeland in her trilogy. In the second part, ‘Glacier Song’, the strings aptly evoke the cracking and bursting of ice. A humorous note is provided by the quote from the famous “Cold Song” from Henry Purcell’s opera King Arthur, in which you can almost literally hear the king chattering his teeth.
The 1st edition of An ox on the roof is sold out, but you can order the second edition on boekenbestellen.nl
- Dimitri Tchesnokov. Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.
Sarah Nemtanu, violin.
National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine conducted by Bastien Stil.
- Konstanzia Gourzi. The Encounter.
Mikael Rudolfsson, trombone.
- Cecilie Ore [picture]. ‘Glacier Song’ from the H2O-Trilogy.
Engegård Quartet.
