Kroumata Percussion Ensemble & Friends - Live in Stockholm (1987)

Liner Notes:

EDGAR VARÈSE (1885-1965)

Edgar Varese was born in Paris in 1885. He studied with d'indy, Roussel and Widor—romantic composers whose names hardly indicate the significance Varese would have for the truly new music. But this development did not begin until he was in his thirties, and settled in New York. It is said that the music rack on his piano expanded to become a drafting board, with diagrams and drawings. Although there was a metronome on his desk, the dominating objects were more likely to be the sort of thing to be found in an engineer's office. Two paintings by Miró hung on the wall of his study. He was thought to be working in technical research, and neither his friendly attitude nor his good-naturedness revealed that he was the revolutionary figure of the new music.

And perhaps he wasn't! He said himself that he was only following the path that he found natural. "I do not write experimental music. My experiment is done before I make the music. Afterwards it is the listener who must experiment." In any case, the music he introduced was like nothing else. Each new work, and there were not many, opened the door to a well-planned universe.

Ionisation was begun in 1929 and finally dated November 13. 1931. An ensemble of 13 musicians utilize a total of 37 percussion instruments, including two sirens, glockenspiel, celesta and piano. The three latter instruments are the only ones that can produce specific notes and they are all saved until the final apotheosis of bells. The instruments are divided into different sound groups. All of them cover the register from base to treble, and each part of the work has its own instrumental combination. Rhythm and timbre are the main elements of the composition, and every significant change in timbre also brings about a change in form. Varese has not only wanted to display his pioneering discoveries, he has also made these a part of his artistic means of expression to such a great extent that the music develops organically from the first beat to the last. For half a century, Ionisation has had the ability to capture the listener. The work is one of the founding masterpieces of our time—legendary and style-forming.

SVEN-DAVID SANDSTRÖM (1942)

Sandström was born in 1942 in Borensberg. He studied art history, musicology and, later, composition with Ingvar Lidholm at the State Academy of Music in Stockholm, he also studied with György Ligeti and Per Nörgaard. He was Lidholm's assistant at the composition class until 1974, after which time he has worked as a composer.

For a short time he was a teacher in improvisation at the National College of Music Drama in Stockholm, and since 1981 he has been a teacher of composition and improvisation at the State Academy of Music in Stockholm. In 1986 he was appointed professor of composition there. Among the awards that he has received are the Christ Johnson Music Fund Prize (1974) and the Nordic Council Prize (1984).
Sven-David Sandström has made the following comment on his new work, "Chained":

"The piece was composed especially for this occasion, when a large group of percussionists and pianists were to appear together in an unusual concert performance. The 'chaining' of the title is to be considered in purely musical and rhythmical terms, and it has no ideological or other connection. The title referes to a sort of musical linking in which the complex structure is forced into a locked rhythm. That is the basic ideal. Then suddenly a door opens upon something bright and positive. In the beginning the pianos have lyrical sections, but they are gradually forced into the rhythmic circles of the percussion. By the end of the 25-minute piece they are all working together, with respect to both rhythm and ideas. The low-frequency percussion instruments are placed in the center of a semi-circle containing the remaining percussionists. The rhythms and figures spread like waves through the group in a perceivable yet irregular pattern. The piece is not an experiment. The pianos form a lyrical pole to the rhythmic percussion. The treatment of the pianos is decidely virtuoso. The music is clearly extrovert—music to be experienced. It is not 'easy listening', but has lots of action."

GEORGE ANTHEIL (1900-1959)

Before George Antheil was 25 years old. he was internationally known as the most radical representative of American music. At his death he had written not only six symphonies, three operas, several ballets, orchestral works, and piano and chamber music with time his music became more and more conservative), but he had also edited a column for the lovelorn, invented and patented a submarine torpedo, and had been made an honorable member of the Paris police force after his studies of gland disturbances in criminals.

At the age of 22 he began a European tour. His program included Bach, Beethoven and Chopin—but also his own shocking piano works, Airplane Sonata, Death of the Machines, Sonata Sauvage and Mechanisms, which revealed his futuristic ideas, mechanical rhythms, rich harmonies, violent dynamics and experimental form. These ideas were to be developed and attain their completion in Ballet mécanique.

When he arrived in Paris in 1923, he was hailed as the leading modern composer. The highlight of his stay was the premiere of a ballet which was originally called Message to Mars and was intended loran abstract film by his friend Fernand Léger. The performance in 1925, like that at Carnegie Hall in 1927, was a magnificent scandal. Under the name of Ballet mécanique it became one of those works which are constantly being talked about, but rarely performed.

Later in life, the composer wrote this about his ballet: To those who might wish to understand the intentions and aestetics of Ballet mécanique from my point of view, the most important thing I think I can say about it is that it is somewhat like modern architecture . . . like a modern house, or skyscraper in which ... materials for surfacing, building, are used which had previously never been used before. . .Ballet mécanique is an approach to a new aestetic in music. If one has in mind to understand it, let him listen with new ears, as he must look at a piece of modern architecture with new eyes. Rhythmically, aestetically, materially and constructively it is, I feel, aligned with our modern life. When one considers when it was written—1924—I believe it may also have a bit of prophecy in its pages."

Stig Jacobsson

ANDERS LOGUIN (1954-)

Loguin was educated at the College of Music in Stockholm, taking the percussion soloist course.
He has also had orchestral training in Sweden and England, and has studied conducting in the United States. He has worked as a percussionist with the Stockholm Philharmonic, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Oslo Philharmonic. He is a lecturer and the head teacher of percussion at the College of Music in Stockholm. Anders Loguin has been a member of Kroumata since it was formed in 1978, and has participated in a number of recordings for radio, television and gramophone, both as a solo and chamber musician, and as an orchestra member. He has conducted the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra, the Stockholm Wind Symphony, various ensembles at the College of Music, and a number of Kroumata productions.

KROUMATA

"THE WORLD'S BEST PERCUSSIONISTS!" was the San Francisco Chronicle's enthusiastic verdict after hearing Kroumata. And the remarkable fact is that these five Stockholm percussion players are taking the world by storm. First Europe and the USA, and now Japan, where Kroumata will be performing in November (1987) together with Keiko Abe, one of the world's finest marimba players.

Kroumata was formed in 1978 for the purpose of presenting percussion music in the form of chamber music and solo playing, but also with the intention of collaborating with other musicians, singers, dancers and soon. Among other things, this has resulted in exciting and variable concert programmes and has encouraged Scandinavian and international composers to write new works expressly for Kroumata. The group has been able since 1981 to work full time, with the Regional Music organisation as its employer—a unique arrangement, not only for Scandinavia but internationally as well. Kroumata has made two LPs, the first of which was awarded the 1984 Swedish Phonogram Prize. The following year the newspaper Expressen nominated the group for its Spelmannen music award. In February this year (1987) Kroumata toured East Germany, and was awarded the Critics' Prize for its performance at the Music Biennial in Berlin.

Credits:

• THE PIANISTS from left): Richard Pilat, Roland Pöntinen, Carl-Axel Dominique, (cond./dir.:) Anders Loguin, Staffan Scheja. (Foto: Claes Jansson).
• THE KROUMATA PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE from left): Leif Karlsson, Ian Hellgren, Anders Holdar, Ingvar Hallgren, Anders Loguin. (Foto: Per B. Adolphson).

Track List:

1. Edgard Varèse: Ionisation
2. Sven-David Sandström: Chained
3. George Antheil: Ballet Mécanique

Download Links: Enjoy the Music!, or here.

Other recordings with the Kroumata Percussion Ensemble:

• Kroumata Percussion Ensemble
• Kroumata Percussion Ensemble & Manuela Wiesler
• Cage / Katzer / Strindberg / Sandstrom: Music For Percussion
• Sotto Il Segno Del Sole
• Kroumata Percussion Ensemble: Cage, Cowell, Lundquist, & Taira
• Works by Nishimura Miyoshi Takemitsu Matsushita
• Xenakis: Pléiades / Psappha
• Sotto Il Segno Del Sole
• Gubaidulina: Silenzio/De profundis/Et exspecto/In Erwartung
• Kroumata Percussion Ensemble: Encores
• Stonewave for 6 percussionists: I. -. II. -. III. -.
• Works for Percussion by The Kroumata Percussion Ensemble
• Kroumata & Rascher
• Farberman: Concerto for Jazz Drummer; Shchedrin: Carmen Suite

Wind & Percussion Music by Penderecki, Mayuzumi & Badings

Only one other recording of these works grouped together appears to exist. Performed by the New Brass Symphony, it too is out of print. Even individually these works are tough to find. All three are extremely challenging to perform, and certainly challenging to listen to as well. They display the chaotic complexity of 20th century avant-garde classical style, making them less accessible to general listeners. All three have sections I find particularly nice, but the Mayuzumi is the most accessible work of the three.

Liner Notes:

American Wind Symphony Orchestra
Robert Austin Boudreau, Music Director

A short walk from teeming, downtown Pittsburgh two rivers—the Allegheny and the Monongahela—mingle their waters to form a third, the mighty Ohio, and start it down its 963-mile journey, southwest to the Mississippi. At the point where the rivers meet (to form what looks like the letter Y lying on its side) there is a lovely uncluttered park that attracts many strollers during the warm months. Some come merely to picnic or loaf and watch the boats go by, but many more head for a big red barge anchored on the north (Allegheny) side of the park, the home of a remarkable cultural phenomenon known as the American Wind Symphony Orchestra.

Founded in 1957 by Robert Austin Boudreau, this group of TK musicians, chosen from the top young talent from the United States and abroad, has in its 13-year existence caused a major upheaval in musical circles, not only in Pittsburgh but wherever it has been heard. While most large cities offer some kind of outdoor music in the summer, most of it is of the light-classic or familiar-masterpiece category. Not so, the orchestra in Pittsburgh. It throws in a few toe-tappers for encores now and then ("Down by the Riverside" is the inevitable, if only semi-official, theme), but its major business is the expansion of the musical repertory by commissioning hard, new compositions from some of the most adventurous composers in the avant-garde firmament. What you will hear on this record, is an example of what the American Wind Symphony Orchestra offers its audiences—wildly enthusiastic, please note—on any given night during its eight-week season.

Credit for this unique idea—which can be defined as a refusal to believe that people have to stop thinking once the warm weather begins—must fall to Boudreau, a New Englander trained at Juilliard and the Paris Conservatory, a man fiercely dedicated to preserving culture as a living, growing part of human experience, and awesomely endowed with the twin virtues needed to make one's way in his chosen field these days: the ability to make music superbly and the ability to charm enough money out of private and official sources to keep the enterprise afloat. Credit must also go in large measure to Point Park College in Pittsburgh and its president, Arthur M. Blum, a dynamic educational force in Pittsburgh which maintains the orchestra as part of its growing cultural service to its community.

Pittsburgh is, however, only one of many cities which benefits from the remarkable work of the American Wind Symphony. After the home season each summer, the barge sets out down the Ohio River, serenading communities in six states with the same challenging fare it performs at home. The orchestra's journeys in its time have taken it up and down the Mississippi, through the Tennessee Valley, and the Inland Waterways. Wherever it has sailed on its floating stage, it has spread the excitement of the living, growing musical repertory.

The three compositions presented herewith are splendid examples of the powerful, original music the American Wind Symphony has caused to exist through its commissioning and publishing activities. Each of the three composers—the Dutchman Henk Badings (1907- ), Poland's Krzysztof Penderecki (1933- ) and Japan's Toshiro Mayuzumi (1929- ) is among the most talented and respected free spirits among today's composers. Each of them has approached the problem of writing for a specialized ensemble of winds, brass and percussion with no condescension to the youth of the orchestra's members or the supposed tastes of audiences at outdoor summer concerts. They have, instead, written big, daring, vivid (and extraordinarily difficult) music.

Badings, one of the first major composers to experiment with the fascinating and seemingly limitless possibilities of music produced by electronic means, has created in his Armageddon a harrowing tone-picture of the Last Judgment. His score is in seven sections, of which the first and third are for tape alone. The fifth uses a soprano, who intones a wordless line. The last is a huge climactic section in which tape, orchestra and soprano (this time singing part of the text from the "Dies Irae" section of the traditional Requiem Mass) join forces. "The end of the world," Badings writes of his score, "is not the most attractive theme to linger with in our thoughts. I reread the Bible, I looked again at the woodcuts on the subject by the famous medieval Albrecht Dürer and at the impressive lithographs by Odilon Redon. From them the subject haunted me and I started my sound-fantasies." Badings has included in his score such unusual instruments as a bass flute, a bass oboe or heckelphone and two contrabass-clarinets. His tape was composed with sounds produced by a variety of oscillators, tone generators and ring modulators, transformed by means of an array of sophisticated techniques involving splicing and rerecording to produce the two-track tape heard here.

—Carole Farley, Soprano Soloist

Penderecki's Pittsburgh Overture uses nothing but "live" sounds, but uses them in an even more staggering array. No fewer than 18 types of percussion are required (five woodblocks of varying sizes, six cymbals, six timpani, etc.) along with a full complement of winds and brass. Yet, in no bar of the 104 the work takes are all instruments heard together. Instead, there is a constant vibration, a moving back and forth from one block of sound to the next. Penderecki's style is like that of no other composer active today. Wisps of sound, blurs of sonority sliding up and down the tonal spectrum, blat out at each other, often separated by long, mysterious silences. It sounds at first fragmented, formless; yet, further hearings reveal a subtle but clear over-all structure, a logic involving statement, departure and return that gives the music both shape and substance. Is there a more difficut piece of music in existence? Or an ensemble better equipped to cope with its intricacies? Very likely, not.

 

Mayuzumi, widely known to American audiences through his superb score for John Huston's film, The Bible, is one of the small but remarkable group of Japanese musical iconoclasts that has developed in recent years and brought that distant land into the musical mainstream. His Percussion Concerto, a one-movement work demanding yeoman work from two timpani players and four other percussionists, again along with a large wind and brass ensemble,- is in a single movement that, like the Penderecki Overture, returns to a restatement of its opening material at the end. Like several other avant-garde composers of the day, Mayuzumi has created his music with an ingenious consideration for the actual space that surrounds a performance. The two timpanists, for example, often echo each other's work from opposite sides of the stage, creating a spatial effect exciting in actual performance and also on a stereophonic recording. Vivid, slashing in its rhythms, colorful in its myriad sound combinations, the Concerto stands as almost an encyclopedia of modern percussive effects . . . but an encyclopedia that exists as a living work of art.

—Alan Rich, Music Critic, New York Magazine

Track List:

1. Krzysztof Penderecki: Pittsburgh Overture
2. Toshiro Mayuzumi: Concerto for Percussion and Winds
3. Henk Badings: Armageddon

Download Link: Enjoy the Music!, or here.