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Nederlands

Kloing!

Nadar Ensemble, Marino Formenti

The Belgian Nadar Ensemble’s adventurous young musicians have made a name for themselves at the cutting edge of music making. For this concert they collaborate with composers who use live video and sound editing as an integral part of their music. Stefan Prins devoted his piece Mirror Box Extensions to seven of the ensemble’s musicians and their virtual lookalikes on video. Accompanied by an intriguing video choreo­graphy, Bluff by Michael Beil/Thierry Bruehl is full of humour and melody. The third piece in the programme is Kloing! by festival focus composer Olga Neuwirth, a tragicomic duel between pianist Marino Formenti and a computer controlled Bösendorfer grand piano, complementing a programme hovering between the real and the virtual. Please note: as part of this performance there will be video recordings of the audience as well. These recordings will be deleted immediately after the show. Programme Programmabook Olga Neuwirth

The Belgian Nadar Ensemble’s adventurous young musicians have made a name for themselves at the cutting edge of music making. For this concert they collaborate with composers who use live video and sound editing as an integral part of their music. Stefan Prins devoted his piece Mirror Box Extensions to seven of the ensemble’s musicians and their virtual lookalikes on video. Accompanied by an intriguing video choreo­graphy, Bluff by Michael Beil/Thierry Bruehl is full of humour and melody. The third piece in the programme is Kloing! by festival focus composer Olga Neuwirth, a tragicomic duel between pianist Marino Formenti and a computer controlled Bösendorfer grand piano, complementing a programme hovering between the real and the virtual. Please note: as part of this performance there will be video recordings of the audience as well. These recordings will be deleted immediately after the show. Programme Programmabook Olga Neuwirth

Stefan Prins (1979)

Mirror Box Extensions (2014/15)

ensemble, live video and live electronics

Dutch premiere

 

interval

 

Olga Neuwirth (1968)

Kloing! (2008)

Dutch premiere

 

interval

 

Michael Beil (1963)/Thierry Bruehl (1968)

Bluff (2014/15)

scenic composition for ensemble with live video and audio

Dutch premiere

 

Neuwirth is known for composing listening experiences, for example in her most recent major work, the acclaimed Le Encantadas, which will be performed at the Gashouder. This piece creates a great impact by the unusual spatial grouping of the performers. In her piece Kloing! a computer controlled Bösendorfer grand piano interacts with a pianist and video footage. In addition, the bassoon virtuoso Pascal Gallois will play her piece Torsion, written especially for him, and composition students from the Royal Conservatory will perform their interpretation of her music in one of their lunchtime concerts. Neuwirth will also be a guest at De kunst van het luisteren (The Art of Listening), an event where she will speak about the way we listen to music and the world around us. It’s a great opportunity to get better acquainted with one of the most exciting composers of our age.

 

Although her music is not yet played often in the Netherlands, Olga Neuwirth is one of the leading international contemporary composers. Her innovative work combines influences from avant garde as well as popular cultures. Drawing on sources from literature, architecture, pop music and cartoons, she is a composer in tune with the modern world. The Holland Festival will stage her exceptional work in a special programme of concerts.

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dates

Sun June 5 2016 3:00 PM

information

  • Duration of performance unknown (inclusief twee pauzes)

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Kloing! is a duel for piano and projected pianola by the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth. In this concert, Kloing! will feature alongside original scores by Stefan Prins and Michael Beil, both performed by the acclaimed Nadar Ensemble. In all three pieces, the musicians will confront their virtual counterparts, creating tension between the live event and what happens on the video screens – real versus virtual, man versus machine – and questioning the role of technology in modern society.

Kloing! is a duel for piano and projected pianola by the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth. In this concert, Kloing! will feature alongside original scores by Stefan Prins and Michael Beil, both performed by the acclaimed Nadar Ensemble. In all three pieces, the musicians will confront their virtual counterparts, creating tension between the live event and what happens on the video screens – real versus virtual, man versus machine – and questioning the role of technology in modern society.

Referring to a musical hammer blow, Kloing! is an apt description of Olga Neuwirth's music: firm, overwhelming, and never dull. In Kloing! she displays her love of combining live music with imagery and recorded sound, creating a confrontation between old and new, avant-garde music. The central part of Kloing! is a virtuoso piano piece performed by Marino Formenti. The Bösendorfer grand piano Formenti plays is computer controlled, frequently following its own course. On the screen, the audience see and hear recordings of a special Welte-Mignon pianola, as well as famous piano players from the past and even a Tom and Jerry cartoon featuring a piano. Now and then Formenti's live performance is projected as well. Combining nineteenth-century piano virtuosity with modern-day avant-garde artistry, the score is a musical representation of the seismic vibrations produced by the 2004 tsunami. Neuwirth created this representation and programmed the Bösendorfer with the help of Peter Plessas and Gerhard Eckel of the Graz Institut für Elektronische Musik. 

 

Prior to Kloing!, the Nadar Ensemble will perform Stefan Prins's Mirror Box Extensions. The title of Prins's piece refers to a form of therapy for amputees who suffer from phantom pain sensations, in which mirrors are used to give the amputees the impression they still have their lost limbs. Prins uses this metaphor to explore the twilight zone between physical and virtual reality. In Mirror Box Extensions, he shows us a vision of people with multiple guises, making it impossible to know what is real, recorded, original or manipulated. Tangible reality and its virtual mirror image become intertwined in a constantly expanding labyrinth from which not even the audience can escape. The musicians are projected on multiple screens, creating a myriad of different visual layers and perspectives. 

 

The concert concludes with Bluff, by composer Michael Beil and director Thierry Bruehl. Beil and Bruehl stage a 'theatre of everyday (self)deception'. The musicians' actions suggest unspoken expectations, tensions, confusion and (self)doubt. Once again, projections and recorded sound play a central role. 

 

Together, Kloing!, Mirror Box Extensions and Bluff offer a fascinating exploration of the boundaries between music and theatre, image and sound, reality and appearance.

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credits

scenography Marieke Berendsen, Stefan Prins video Kobe Wens light design Marieke Berendsen Kloing! ---------- music Stefan Prins, Olga Neuwirth sound direction Peter Plessas sonification advice Gerhard Eckel (IEM Graz) with the support of FiEMA en IEM Graz thanks to neoScores music, live video Michael Beil dramaturgy, stage direction Thierry Bruehl performance Nadar Ensemble production SWR Donaueschinger Musiktage, Thomas Moore, Muziekcentrum De Bijloke Gent violin Marieke Berendsen video software Culture Crew (Vincent Jacobs) managing director Rebecca Diependaele flute Katrien Gaelens percussion Yves Goemaere sound, electronics Wannes Gonnissen cello Pieter Matthynssens artistic direction Pieter Matthynssens, Stefan Prins piano Marino Formenti, Elisa Medinila trombone Thomas Moore stage manager Johannes Vochten, Thomas Moore saxophone Bertel Schollaert clarinet Dries Tack e-guitar Kobe Van Cauwenberghe