Classical and Modern Music
Format: CD
Code: 111297
EAN: 3838898111297
NINA PREŠIČEK - PIANO
Nina Prešiček graduated from the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart and has completed the postgraduate programme at the Conservatoire National de Toulouse. During her studies, she obtained her Master’s degree in musicology at the Sorbonne. In 2007 she received a scholarship from the International Nadia and Lili Boulanger Foundation in Paris. As a soloist and chamber music partner, she regularly performs in Europe and beyond (Canada, USA, Eritrea, Brazil …). She has been the
guest of several festivals, such as Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, the Warsaw Autumn, Tribuna Beograd, Rio Cello Encounter.
She also collaborates with many composers (Nina Šenk, Lojze Lebič, Janez Matičič, Nenad Firšt, Uroš Krek, Milko Lazar, Uroš Rojko, Larisa Vrhunc, Withold Szalonek, Jürg Wyttenbach …) and with many musicians from Slovenia and abroad (Matej Šarc, Aleš Kacjan, Igor Mitrovič, Mate Bekavac, David Hall Johnson, Mats Lidström, Patricia Kopačinskaja …). In the years 2007–2009 she has been a lecturer at the University of Maribor.
Nina Prešiček: Vdih časa - A Breath of Time - COMPOSITIONS:
1. Lojze Lebič (1934): Sonnet for Aci (1976) 9:42 (listen!)
2. Mauricio Kagel (1931): MM51 a piece of Film Music for piano (1976) 9:15
3. Janez Matičič (1926): Cosmophonia for piano and tape (1970) 12:23
4. Igor Štuhec (1932): Sonata 74 for piano (1974) 8:07
5. John Cage (1912–1992): In a Landscape (1948) 10:04
Total time
49:33
Lojze Lebič (1934): Sonnet for Aci (1976)
The composition SONNET for Aci (sonitus: lat. – voice, sound) was written in 1976 and a year later, it was premiered in Budapest. In the same year it was also performed at the Festival of XXth century music in Radenci. The first third of the work formally follows the structure of a sonnet – two four-line and two three-line stanzas – the remaining part is composed more freely, so that it has fragments from
the first third analysed or explained. The choice of the carrying tones of the SONNET, A-C sharp – with which the piece begins and ends – is to be understood as a compliment to Aci Bertoncelj (1939-2000), who over thirty years ago inspired the composition of this work and was also its first performer.
(L. Lebič)
Mauricio Kagel (1931): MM51 a piece of Film Music for piano (1976)
As in Arnold Schönberg’s “Begleitmusik zu einer Lichtszene,” the theme of my piano piece is the threat posed by unexpressed dangers and fears. But in contrast to Schönberg’s orchestral work, which was written independently in an expressionistic music language, here only stereotyped models of that commercial music familiar to us from countless productions by the film industry are employed. The linking of this music
to the recollection of typical situations of shivering and shuddering in crime films enables the listener to conjure up fragments of scenes. The result is the imagination of private horror fantasies. It should also be mentioned that a metronome beats at a tempo of 51. The uniform ticking heightens the rhythmic tension absolutely necessary for the musical atmosphere of the piece. At the same time, however, this merciless object, on sometimes becoming almost independent, eerily goes over into a
titled position, causing unexpected, roguish affects in the pianist.
(M. Kagel)
Janez Matičič (1926): Cosmophonia for piano and tape (1970)
Cosmophonia for piano and tape has been commissioned by the “Groupe de Recherches Musicales” in Paris for the Lisbon Festival Gulbenkian in 1970. The work presents itself in the form of a concert composition with the pianist in the role of the soloist, accompanied by the electro- acoustic material on tape. From time to time, the piano itself is included in the electronic wrapping of sounds emerging from the
loudspeakers, since it is equipped with contact microphones that record only some of the tone spectrums. The basic form of the composition could be similar to a classical concert piece: Introductory orchestral part (Introdukcija), in this case of course played by the electro-acoustic material, concluding coda with the distinctive “departing” characteristics and the intermediary parts with their different and contrary characters. The whole of the theme can be compared to a series of waves,
each of them reaching its own point of culmination. At its world premiere in May 1970 in Lisbon, the piano was played by the composer himself.
(J. Matičič)
Igor Štuhec (1932): Sonata 74 for piano (1974)
Sonata 74 for piano was composed in 1974. The composer reflects on his composition as follows: “If a sudden ill-sounding echo was to indicate the senseless course of events, then the composer himself has provided for an enduring pause to contemplate on that. The pause is defined, as well as undefined, depending on the interpreter’s rendition. The auditory senses have been warned by the ill-sounding echo that the sonic event
reverberating in its sonority within a certain physical material communicates the following: unpredictability, entrancement, bizarreness, persistence, alienation and revitalization. Especially the latter gives rise to hope for the sonic and rhythmical specifics to transform into adequate frequencies, structures of intensity and temporal impulses. All that happens is supposed to be determined, even that which is coincidental, I would say perfidious, should be brought to perfection. Through
philosophical contemplations, the musical actuality is guided towards a position or rather a realisation that reism is inevitable in interpretation. Finally, the thing itself is the one that will resound within the matter.”
The one-movement Sonata has passages that have a full rhythmic freedom and are only roughly framed by time units. These passages alternate with strictly determined metric denotations. In this composition, the sound is there for the sound’s sake. The title itself indicates this, since Sonata is understood in the sense of “sonare” – to sound, and is without any correlation with the traditional characterization of a sonata. That is why the composer has avoided any literary or associative
descriptions which would enable a reflection of extra-musical content. The content is strictly musical, i.e. the sound itself. The composition follows the related and the transformed musical material. On the one hand, there are typical interval structures, placed vertically and horizontally into the sonic field until finally clusters are formed, and on the other hand, there are long notes and tiny tremors caused by tapping on the strings and then also aleatoric releases of tension. But
nevertheless, there is a constant tension within this composition, leading to a sonic outburst in its culmination, gradually transforming into nothingness.
(I. Štuhec)
John Cage (1912–1992): In a Landscape (1948)
In a Landscape is surely the most accessible work of John Cage. It was composed, together with his Suite for Toy Piano, at Black Mountain College, North Carolina in 1948. Cage presented at the college a festival of music by Eric Satie, a composer whose influence can be heard in this meditative and hypnotic study for solo piano. Black Mountain College was recognised as one of the leading progressive schools in the States, and
Cage taught there in 1948 and 1952. Lou Harrison was head of its music department in 1952 and he staged what is considered to be the first ever multi-media happening with participation from John Cage, Merce Cunningham, David Tudor, and Charles Olson. In a Landscape is both melodic and expressive, requiring the performer to play with full pedal sustain throughout the piece.
(N. Prešiček)
