Classical and Modern Music
Format: CD
Code: 111983
EAN: 3838898111983
Janez Matičič: GEMINI FOR TWO PIANOS
PIANO I: MILANKA ČREŠNIK
PIANO II: JANEZ MATIČIČ
1 GEMINI: Graduel (listen!)
2 GEMINI: Punctus
3 GEMINI: Fluides
4 GEMINI: Cantus
5 GEMINI: Cinesis
The composition Gemini was created in 1972–73, during my stay in the Parisian Cité des Arts. I decided to compose it after a relatively long period of consideration. In those times, you could hear musical works for two pianos quite often in Parisian concert halls. Therefore I composed one myself. As it is well known, the piano was always my instrument de reférence. In my works, I studied and experimented with the technical abilities of the instrument for many years. I
came to the conclusion that two pianos would enable me to extend the spectrum of sound possibilities quite significantly. When thinking about the design, I procrastinated upon two important compositional components. Firstly: the choice of the piano sound material; and secondly: its form, the shape in which this material will take place. This influenced the running order of the movements themselves. The first movement, Graduel, is based on the representation of form. It slowly rises from the
lower to the higher piano settings. In treble, long lying notes with corresponding tone clusters, which rise gradually and are graduated. Each of them brings a specific static environment and a change in the structural quality at the same time. The movement ascends to the highest possible position and then disintegrates and slowly vanishes with a prominent tone cluster passage. An interplay, where both pianists use the technique of silencing the piano strings with their hands then follows.
The basic characteristic of the second movement, titled Punctus, is the representation of the matter: the use of very short successive tone fragments (clusters) without the binding material or a consistent melodic connection. They often appear with a prolonged resonance, created by the use of a special pedal technique. The motion formally takes place in all directions, while it often wedges itself upon a certain level of height and then catches itself in sequences of repeating melodic and
rhythmical figures. This pulsing brings the movement to its climax and then the matter arranges itself into the form of a retrograde manner. It calms down and leads to a repetition of the beginning, code. The third movement has the title Fluides. After using the matter, it is the complete opposite of the previous movement. It starts with the smallest possible motion, with cluster treble and develops in quick, smooth lines into legato, which reminds of glissandi. The simultaneous play of both
pianists creates the impression of uneven undulations, which several times develop in dramatic or emotionally intense musical feelings. The fourth movement, Cantus, deals with the melodic component of the sound of the piano. It is built on an extended palette of tones and includes various uses of the piano strings. The divides between individual formal sections are often marked by the motif B-A-C-H, a tonal engraving of a composer of whom I think very highly of. Tone B repeats in the
composition constantly. In the middle section it represents the axis of an intense, almost brutal gradation, which again yells the name of the famous cantor after the climax.
The entire melodic course collapses, a coda emerges and after a few oscillations between tones H and A, it resonates in a final pulsing of tone B. The final movement, Cinesis is in a way a summary of the material from the previous movements. It is characterised by the brutality and arrogance of percussion. At the beginning, the play is led by sharp sound numbers, and later the musical course expands into a series of sections with a distinctive rhythmical pulsation. A soft, leggiero oasis on a
pedal cluster, originating from the tone A emerges in the middle of this movement. This is a lyrical opportunity for the two performers and the audience to ease down from the agitated motion of before. The tone cluster appears with the second piano, while the first one "flutters around it" with short and light impulses. The agitated motion, an increasingly roused and intensive co-play sets off again in the final section. Above the chanted rhythmical pattern, the melodic theme appears once
more and leads to the clause in the form of wild cluster accelerando and the final synchronic chord beats.
This score was commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture. Several performances were planned, but they were all cancelled due to various reasons. Thus the composition was played on a concert stage for the first time as recently as 2010, in the Radio Slovenija's Studio 14. I played it together with the excellent pianist Milanka Črešnik, who helped me also with creating the archival footage, presented in this CD.
CHORALS FOR PIANO FOUR HANDS
PIANO:
TATJANA KAUČIČ
JANEZ MATIČIČ
6 Sonata No. 4: Chorals
7 Sonata No. 4: Soave
8 Sonata No. 4: Exalta
Sonata No. 4, "Chorals" is in opposition with the score entitled Gemini, is much less radical, although it was created more than three decades later. The structure of the score was partly dictated by the idiosyncrasies of playing the piano four-handed, which is in comparison with the structure for two pianos a much more limited form. I started to write the movement Soave in Paris in 2003. I spontaneously used a few choral elements in it and later – after thorough deliberation – designed the
entire cyclical score after choral motifs. They spread over the entire sonata and aren't quotations from some period choral sources. These choral motifs are the fruit of my personal inspiration and my aspiration to deal with choral ambience in the context of modern piano methods. I wrote the first movement, Chorals in 2006. We couldn't say it has the form of a sonata. It is a sequence of sound blocks in which choral material (in different ways) intertwines with typical piano elements. Choral
elements appear in various transpositions and sometimes even interlock in a counterpoint effect. At the end, we can intensely feel the appearance of a coda with a gradual arresting of the sound course. The sound finally dissipates in a resonance of individual harmonics. Soave is technically less demanding, more static and in a certain way takes over the role of a slow middle movement. The formal philosophy of sound "blocks" and the "evaporation" of the sound material at the end are typical
for this movement also, but the rendition itself is somehow different. It is similar to the third movement, Exalta (2006), although the dimensions of used elements are much greater. Radical sound contracts appear, the dynamic span is extreme, the same as the span of sound registered used in this movement. The typical aggressiveness (pronounced marcato sounds) near the end is interrupted by a softer sound fabric. This brings the music to its pinnacle: the flow of sounds ascends and bursts in
with percussion elements encapsulating new, very rhythmical features. Although this movement is in a way "an apotheosis of rhythm", choral material is always present in the background. In the final part, the percussion elements extend to the zone of the extended piano sounds (the use of piano strings and resonant body).
The asymmetry of rhythmical impulses is the hallmark of this sonata. The geometry of metrical cells is often defined by prime numbers and in superimposed lines we occasionally notice the skipping of rhythmical accents.
