Archive for Bach

Stick&Bow present Resonance ~ music from Bach to Radiohead for marimba and cello

Posted by shiragilbert on
 October 19, 2019
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Marimba and cello form a vibrant and compelling – if unconventional – duo in the hands of Stick&Bow, comprised of Canadian marimba player Krystina Marcoux and Argentinian cellist Juan Sebastian Delgado. Resonance, the debut recording from the Montreal-based award-winning musicians, explores a wide palette of repertoire and styles, transcending tradition with new arrangements of music from Bach to Boccherini, and from Nina Simone to Radiohead. Performing Baroque or tango, rock or gypsy-jazz, Stick&Bow brings unique passion, wit, and technical mastery to eclectic and powerful arrangements of some of the most celebrated music in history, presenting the infinite potential of their combined instruments in refreshing and unexpected ways. Resonance was released on the Canadian label Leaf Music on November 1st, 2019.

The new album – with its bilingual liner notes, in true montréalais style – opens with a captivating mélange of works by J.S. Bach, with a transcription of the Adagio from the Sonata for viola da gamba in D Major swinging into the Prelude in D Major from the Well-Tempered Clavier. Also taking inspiration from Bach is American singer-songwriter Nina Simone, who adopts the composer’s contrapuntal style for the 1928 tune Love Me or Leave Me, here in an irresistible new arrangement. The album features not one but two fandangos, with Boccherini’s take on the traditional Spanish folk dance from his Quintet No. 4, and Paco de Lucia’s Entre Arrayanes, in one of Stick&Bow’s most technically challenging and creative arrangements, capturing the colour and essence of flamenco guitars.

A range of characters and moods emerge in three settings for marimba and cello of Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances, while the gypsy-jazz style of Stéphane Grappelli explodes in Tzigane, with idiomatic embellishments and virtuosic cadence-like runs. The revolutionary Argentine composer and virtuoso bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla is represented with his lyrical and nostalgic Invierno porteño, winter in Buenos Aires.

More illuminating performances from the classical repertoire include two movements from Schumann’s Fünf Stücke im Volkstonand the second movement of Shostakovitch’s cello sonata. The complex harmonies and instrumental textures of Radiohead’s Paranoid Android is a surprisingly convincing element of the album, with marimba and cello exploring a range of timbres, including electric guitar sounds.

Also dedicated to working closely with contemporary composers on daring yet accessible works, Stick&Bowincludes two new works on Resonance: Jason Noble’s (b. 1980) Folk Suite, a set of miniatures inspired by the rich folk traditions of his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador; and Parisian composer and bandoneon player Louise Jallu’s (b. 1994) À Gennevilliers, injected with fresh, jazzy harmonies and a freely improvised rhythmic section.

First-prize winner at the Latin-American cello competition (2008), Juan Sebastian Delgado holds a Doctoral degree in cello performance from McGill University and Krystina Marcoux, first-prize winner of the OSM competition (2012), holds her PhD from the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Lyon. Their music has brought them to share magical moments from Banff to Colombia, passing by Armenia, Italy, the USA, Ecuador, France and two extensive Canadian tours in 2019 & 2020 as “Emerging Artists” of Jeunesses Musicales du Canada.

Marimba et violoncelle forment un duo dynamique et fascinant entre les mains des deux musiciens de Stick&Bow, groupe composé de la percussionniste canadienne Krystina Marcoux et du violoncelliste argentin Juan Sebastian Delgado. Le disque Resonance, premier album de ces musiciens primés basés à Montréal, explore toute une palette de styles musicaux, tout en transcendant la tradition avec de nouveaux arrangements de morceaux allant de Bach à Boccherini et de Nina Simone à Radiohead. Qu’il joue de la musique baroque ou un tango, du rock ou du jazz-manouche, le duo Stick&Bow le fait toujours avec passion, finesse et maîtrise technique, en proposant des arrangements éclectiques et surprenants de certaines œuvres musicales les plus célébrées de l’histoire de la musique. La combinaison de ces deux instruments offre un potentiel infini de découvertes et d’interprétations musicales, sous un angle original et inattendu. L’album Resonance sortira chez Leaf Music le 1er novembre 2019.

Dans un style montréalais bien authentique, ce nouvel album présente un livret bilingue audacieux. C’est une combinaison captivante d’œuvres de J.S. Bach qui ouvre le bal : une transcription de l’adagio de la sonate en ré majeur pour viole de gambe, suivie d’une interprétation swing du prélude en ré majeur du Clavier bien tempéré. Nina Simone, chanteuse sensuelle et pianiste hors-pair, entre ici en résonance avec Bach dans un arrangement irrésistible où Stick&Bow revisite le morceau « Love Me or Leave Me » dans lequel Simone insère ingénieusement une invention de Bach au centre de la pièce. L’album comprend non pas un, mais deux fandangos : une adaptation de cette danse espagnole traditionnelle dans le quintette no 4 de Boccherini et le morceau « Entre Arrayanes » de Paco de Lucia, un arrangement qui figure parmi les plus originaux et exigeants pour arriver à bien saisir l’essence même de la guitare flamenco.

La combinaison de marimba et violoncelle fait émerger des humeurs et des couleurs surprenantes dans les danses folkloriques roumaines de Bartók, alors que le jazz-manouche de Stéphane Grappelli, s’enflamme avec des ornementations qui sont propres à ce morceau « tzigane ». Le compositeur révolutionnaire argentin Astor Piazzolla est ici présenté dans un arrangement empreint de lyrisme, nostalgie, mais aussi de force rythmique dans « Invierno porteño » évoquant l’hiver à Buenos Aires.

L’album renferme encore d’autres interprétations lumineuses de morceaux du répertoire classique, dont deux mouvements des Fünf Stücke im Volkston de Schumann et le deuxième mouvement de la sonate pour violoncelle de Shostakovitch. Les harmonies complexes et les textures instrumentales de « Paranoid Android » de Radiohead constituent un aspect étonnamment convaincant de l’album, avec le marimba et le violoncelle qui explorent tout un éventail de timbres, jusqu’au son de la guitare électrique.

Stick&Bow cherche aussi à travailler en étroite collaboration avec des compositeurs vivants, sur des œuvres audacieuses et accessibles. L’album Resonance contient deux créations : « Folk Suite » de Jason Noble (né en 1980), un ensemble de miniatures inspirées par les riches traditions folkloriques de sa province natale, Terre-Neuve ; « À Gennevilliers », de la compositrice et bandonéoniste parisienne Louise Jallu (née en 1994), traversée par des harmonies jazz rafraîchissantes et une section rythmique improvisée. Les deux œuvres entrent respectivement en résonance avec Schumann et Piazzolla, démontrant ainsi la surprenante évolution des genres. 

Juan Sebastian Delgado, gagnant du premier prix au concours latino-américain de violoncelle (2008), détient un doctorat de l’Université McGill. Krystina Marcoux, gagnante du premier prix au concours de l’OSM (2012), détient un PhD du Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Lyon. La musique a conduit ces deux artistes à partager des moments inoubliables dans toutes sortes de lieux, de Banff à la Colombie, en passant par l’Arménie, l’Italie, les États-Unis, l’Équateur, la France, et lors de leurs deux tournées au Canada en 2019 et en 2020 en tant qu’« artistes émergents » des Jeunesses musicales du Canada.

leaf-music.ca    stickandbow.com

This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters. Ce projet est financé en partie par FACTOR, le gouvernement du Canada et les radiodiffuseurs privés du Canada.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Nous remercions le Conseil des Arts du Canada de son soutien.

Cellist Matt Haimovitz Reaches New Heights in His Intense Engagement with the Bach Suites with Six Commissions and Premiere Recordings

Posted by shiragilbert on
 August 11, 2016
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PTC5186561_Coverart_SGPRMatt Haimovitz’s continuously-evolving and intense engagement with the Bach Cello Suites reaches a new zenith with Overtures to Bach, six new commissions that anticipate and reflect each of the cello suites. The new overtures expand upon the multitude of spiritual, cross-cultural, and vernacular references found in the Bach, building a bridge from the master’s time to our own. Overtures to Bach, released internationally on the PENTATONE Oxingale Series in August, follows the 2015 release of Haimovitz’s profound new interpretation of the Bach Suites, inspired and informed by an authoritative manuscript by Bach’s second wife and performed on period instruments.

“I’ve been playing and thinking about the Bach Cello Suites for over three decades,” says Haimovitz, “and with these new commissions – a culminating moment in my relationship with the Suites – I feel like I’m giving back to Bach. I’ve asked six composers, whom I admire so much, to engage with his music. It’s my form of time travel – going back into the mind of Bach through the compositional process of these composers today.”

Overtures to Bach pairs each of the new works with the Prélude, newly recorded here, from the Suite it introduces. Philip Glass simply and eloquently prepares the audience for the first Suite with his Overture, encouraging an open frame of mind. For the second suite, Du Yun creates a heartbreaking lament in The Veronica, referencing a Russian Orthodox prayer for the dead, Serbian chant, and central European gypsy fiddle music. Vijay Iyer’s Run responds to Bach’s third suite with infectious energy and kinesthetic rhythms that celebrate the natural resonance of the instrument as well as the composer’s jazz roots. Then, Roberto Sierra’s La memoria plays on our memory of Bach’s Suite IV, referencing motivic fragments while creating a kaleidoscopic musical perspective, underpinned by Caribbean bass lines and salsa rhythms. David Sanford’s tour de force, Es War, leads into the fifth suite, with a Mingus-inspired pizzicato intro, alluding to Bach’s epic fugue and quoting a Bach cantata. For the sixth and final suite, Luna Pearl Woolf is inspired by pre-Western Hawaiian chant, taking full advantage of the virtuosic properties of the 5-string cello piccolo and treating it operatically, from the low bass to the soprano stratosphere. Overtures to Bach spans more than time, linking us to far-flung corners of our musical world and offering an entrée into six distinct compositional voices. Then, as Philip Glass writes, “Just let Bach’s music begin. It’s there for the listening.”

PENTATONE – which has named Matt Haimovitz their Artist of the Season – has created an online enhanced booklet, with “In Session” videos of Haimovitz and each of the composers in the recording studio, where the new works were further developed and shaped. (The new videos – seven in total – will be available one every two weeks, starting August 1.) Also included as exclusive bonus material on iTunes is a three-movement reflection on Bach by Mohammed Fairouz called Gabriel.

The new album will be launched at Salon Christophori in Berlin on August 12 followed by select Overtures performed on tour in London, Oxford, and Bayreuth. Haimovitz’s “A Moveable Feast” – residencies that bring the Overtures and Suites to unusual locations before culminating in concert-hall performance – premiered last October at Miller Theater at Columbia University and featured in The New York Times, continue this season in cities in Arizona, Utah, Florida, New York, California, Kansas, Iowa, Connecticut, and Quebec.

The PENTATONE Oxingale Series, a new collaboration between the two labels, was launched in January 2015 with BEETHOVEN, Period., the complete Beethoven Sonatas and Variations with Christopher O’Riley. Gramophone said “Haimovitz and O’Riley play the living daylights out of these works” and included it among its list of Top Ten Beethoven Recordings. This was followed by the ORBIT, a new compilation of contemporary solo cello works, which The New York Times called “fascinating … heartwarming, scary, playful and groovy, this recording reveals worlds inside a single instrument.” PENTATONE has also released newly-remastered SACDs of Schubert recordings by Haimovitz, with Itamar Golan and the Miró String Quartet, and Haimovitz and O’Riley’s genre-blurring double-album Shuffle.Play.Listen. The 2015 release of J.S. Bach: The Cello Suites According to Anna Magdalena was critically-acclaimed. Gramophone said: “Those who want to be challenged without compromising tone or tuning, both of which are impeccable here, should look no further,” and ICI Musique concurred, “Matt Haimovitz has made us well aware that this music is alive, breathes, and refuses to be walled up in a stylistic protective shell. And that is the greatest achievement of this exceptional musician.”

MATT HAIMOVITZ is praised by The New York Times as a “ferociously talented cellist who brings his megawatt sound and uncommon expressive gifts to a vast variety of styles” and by The New Yorker as “remarkable virtuoso” who “never turns in a predictable performance.” He has been closely associated with J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites since the year 2000, when the former child prodigy jump-started the alt-classical revolution by taking his cello on the road across the U.S., playing the Suites in bars and coffeehouses, including New York’s now-defunct punk palace CBGB’s. Additional performance highlights this season include concerti with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Atlanta Symphony, and Tokyo’s New Japan Philharmonic. Haimovitz will also lead the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie at the Berlin Philharmonie, and perform a concerto by Isang Yun – marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Korean composer and political prisoner – with the Bruckner Orchestra with Dennis Russell Davies on tour in Austria.

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