Chmoulevitch, Eggert, Edwards, Colla — Concert of the Winners of the Molinari Quartet's First International Composition Competition

Credits

Musical Program

Competition

Works by Vsevolod Chmoulevitch, Moritz Eggert, Wolf Edwards and Alberto Colla
Performed by the Molinari Quartet

Recorded in concert and produced by: Johanne Goyette
Redpath Hall, McGill University, Montreal
November 15, 2002
Production assistants: Sarah Elola, Jacques-André Houle
Booklet cover: Hommage à Mondrian (2000), Guido Molinari
Graphic Design: Diane Lagacé

In the fall of 2001, the Molinari Quartet announced its First International Composition Competition. We are proud to present to you this CD of the award-winning works, recorded live in concert in November 2002.

The members of the jury were the members of the Molinari Quartet as well as the composers Denis Gougeon, R. Murray Schafer, and Gilles Tremblay, whom we warmly thank for their excellent work. Allow me to remind you that this competition was open to contestants under the age of 40, who were asked to submit an original, unpublished work for string quartet not exceeding 20 minutes. And what a response we got! We received 222 scores from 39 countries, surprising numbers when one considers the relatively short notice and the fact this was the first edition of the competition. Another surprise was that all these countries covered the five continents, north and south.

The artistic level of the entries having been judged to be very high, we chose to award not three, but four prizes. The present recording invites you to discover four young composers whose musical idioms are both very personal and most original. The award-winning works prove once again that the string quartet is alive and well, and that it can adopt many rich and fascinating guises.

Born in 1970 in Russia, Vsevolod Chmoulevitch studied composition and conducting at the St.Petersburg State Conservatory with professor Boris Tistchenko and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon with Gilbert Amy. In 1992 he participated in the summer course of the Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau and he studied with Philippe Manoury during the Académie Européenne of the Aix-en-Provence festival.

Mr. Chmoulevitch has been a winner of several International Competitions starting as early as 1992 with the prize from the Tenth International Composer’s Competition in Hitzacker to the Henri Dutilleux International Composer’s Competition in 1999.

He has had many commissions from, among others, the Soros-Foundation, the Académie Européenne du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Oskar Back Foundation, the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain de Lyon, the Ensemble Inter-Instrumental de Châteauroux, the Académie Musical de Villecroze, and the Festival Usedommer.

Founder and conductor of the New Music Group (St. Petersburg) Chmoulevitch conducts his works as well as works from other contemporary composers with orchestras and contemporary music ensembles in France and Russia. He works also for the theatre, especially with Lev Dodine and is the author of the musical comedy Aibolit and Barmalei composed for the Young Public Theatre of St. Petersburg. The music of Chmoulevitch has been premiered by such ensembles as Court-Circuit, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, EOC de Lyon, Noordhollands Philharmonisch Orkest, Danel Quartet, Ensemble Novicento, Musica da Camera at international festivals (Festival d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, Musique en Scène in Lyon, Gaudeamus Music Week, Sound Ways in St. Petersburg). His music is played in Russia, France, Germany, the United States, Italy, and Holland.

The time it took me to write this quartet! Indeed, the project turned into an experiment because over a period of three years, all the original ideas I had would reveal themselves through excerpts for string quartet. And even if the direction was determined from the start, the content kept changing and transforming itself. The final step consisted in bringing all these “patchwork” elements into a single global process, according to the narrative dimension and what I would call the “message” I wanted to put forward. I had two major concerns: develop the complexity of my language as much as I could, since that would be interpreted as “professionalism.” As well, I wished to use that complexity in a performerfriendly manner, to create a musical discourse that would be “romantic” (hence the title) with post-serial means of inspiration. There was another challenge: to write fast music that would not be too short: that is one of the problems composers are faced with, writing lots of notes that go by too fast!

The quartet is divided into two movements: the first is extraverted and kinetic, while the second is more introverted, a sort of reaction to the issues raised in the first (I am only speaking in a general manner). Since each movement comprises two parts, the whole work is divided into four episodes outlining the following scheme : allegro – scherzo – adagio – allegro (a repeat of the material from the first episode). This structure alludes to the mixed sonata form that was so successful in the Romantic period and of which Liszt appears to have been the first proponent. This is the second reason which led me to choose this work’s title.

A look at the score will reveal an in-depth exploration of rhythm. Two principles oppose one another, according to the character of the material. The first approach consisted in notating melodic lines with precise values, to achieve an expressive character. With the second, aleatoric lines (yet still subordinate to a global pulse) pertain to a more destructive continuum, which ultimately takes over the first one, another Romantic trait!

The third Romantic “stigmata” is made manifest through harmony. Indeed, with its intense sonority recalling Scriabin or Schoenberg, the first chord takes on the function of a theme, first through its invasion of the vertical structures and later when it is repeated in an obsessive manner, in the fourth episode.

Moritz Eggert was born 1965 in Heidelberg. After early piano studies he began his music education at Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium in Frankfurt, first in piano (with Wolfgang Wagenhäuser) and theory, then in composition (with Claus Kuehnl). After finishing school he studied piano with Leonard Hokanson at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt. In 1986 he moved to Munich to study composition with Wilhelm Killmayer at the Musikhochschule Muenchen. Later he continued his piano studies with Raymund Havenith in Frankfurt, and his composition studies with Hans-Jürgen von Bose in Munich. In 1992 he spent a year in London as a post-graduate composition student with Robert Saxton at the Guildhall School for Music and Drama.

His main duo partner is the cellist Sebastian Hess. In 1996 he presented the complete works for piano solo by Hans Werner Henze for the first time in one concert, a programme that he continues to play with great success.

In 1989 he was a prize winner at the International Gaudeamus Competition for Performers of Contemporary Music.

As a composer Moritz Eggert has been awarded with prizes like the composition prize of the Salzburger Osterfestspiele, the Schneider/Schott-prize, the Ad Referendum prize in Montreal, the Siemens Förderpreis for young composers, and the Zemlinsky Prize. In 1991 he founded—together with Sandeep Bhagwati—the A*Devantgarde festival for new music, which has taken place for the 6th time in June 2001. His concert-length cycle for piano solo, Hämmerklavier, has been a great international success with reviewers and audiences alike.

Moritz Eggert has covered all genres in his work—his oeuvre includes 6 large-scale operas as well as ballets, and works for dance and music theatre, often with unusual performance elements. In 1997, the German TV produced a feature-length film portrait about his music. Among his more recent important works are the concert-length cycle for voice and piano Neue Dichter Lieben featuring 20 love poems by contemporary German authors, and the orchestra piece Scapa Flow.

Important premieres this year include the children’s opera Dr. Snot’s Scary Scheme for the opera Frankfurt am Main (a collaboration with librettist Andrea Heuser) and a song-cycle for Jazz Ensemble for the CD-label between the lines. He has been commissioned to write two new operas with renowned German directors Hans Neuenfels and Claus Guth (2004/2005).

Wolf Edwards (b. Montreal, November 12, 1972) studied at the University of Victoria completing a degree in music composition and theory. He has been the recipient of many awards including a University of Victoria Fellowship (Victoria, 2002), first prize at the International Strings of the Future Composition Competition (Ottawa, 2001), Sonic Boom Prize in Composition (Vancouver, 2000) and the Murray Adaskin Prize in Composition (Victoria, 1995).

In addition, his works have been performed at international festivals in both Europe and North America by such outstanding musicians as the Sofia Soloists, Tzenka Dianova, and the Arditti String Quartet. Mr. Edwards lives and works with his family in Victoria, BC.

“At the age of three my family began moving to various parts of Canada, eventually settling in the Northern interior of British Columbia. At the age of eleven, we relocated to a rural community on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. After completing high school I moved to Victoria BC and began performing and touring with various political hardcore bands.

Around the same time I managed to complete a degree in music composition at the University of Victoria and start a young family. Upon completion of my degree, my family and I moved to Montreal for two years where I worked various part time jobs and pursued independent studies in music and art. We then returned to Victoria BC.

Throughout my short ‘career’ as a composer in the classical music world, I have had the honour of receiving some recognition through competitions and performances at both the national and international level.

My primary interest is to work directly with performers, who specialize in contemporary music, in order to explore new possibilities in regard to musical expression.”

Island is made up of blocks, which were constructed independently in order to create contrasting characteristics. The ‘identity’ of each state depends upon formal structuring of the various musical elements.

Formalisms
Rhythm is explored in four different ways. One structure incorporates certain ideas developed by the Greek theorist Aristoxenus (ca. 375-60 B.C.) in his unfinished Elements of Rhythm. This is paired with a steady state where duration is expressed as 16th and 32nd notes exclusively. These two ideas are balanced by another pairing consisting of spatially notated sounds and a construction of preconceived rhythmic fragments. Pitch material consists of four rows which differ in length and structure. The rows do not recognize octave equivalence, thus repeated notes are a structural possibility. Sound mediates frequently between conventional pitch, variable noise, and quartertone scales. Like rhythm, these sounds are used to create contrast between musical states.

Model
The idea was to construct an open musical structure where formalism exists but does not overrule. The states, although relatively autonomous, develop into a whole through dynamic interaction. They are, in a sense, forced to share a space and must therefore seek harmony. Harmony is possible only by mediating self-determination with communication. Once these mediating forces are in operation, the controlling forces of any imposed system(s) will have been undermined and replaced.

Alberto Colla was born in Alessandria, Italy, in 1968. He graduated in composition with C. Mosso and R. Piacentini. He pursued his studies in composition with Azio Corghi at the Academy of “Santa Cecilia” in Rome where he won the SIAE scholarship for the best degree of the year. Among young Italian composers, Colla has received the most prizes. He won first prizes in the following competitions: “G. Verdi” in Parma, “Abu Ghazaleh” in Paris, “The Dimitris Mitropoulos” in Athens, “BMW - Musica Viva” in Munich, “E. Grieg” in Oslo, “2 Agosto” in Bologna with the Special Mention by the President of the Italian Republic, “C. Gesualdo da Venosa” in Potenza, “M. Pittaluga” in Alessandria, “F. Margola” in Brescia.

His compositions were selected to be performed in major festivals. They have been recorded for radio and television broadcasts by major orchestras all over Europe, Israel, and the U.S.A., and are recorded on CD in Austria and Japan.

His lyric opera Il processo was performed during the Lyric Season 2001-2002 of the Teatro alla Scala of Milan and of the Theatre “R. Valli” in Reggio Emilia. Luciano Berio commissioned him a new composition for chorus and large symphony orchestra for the inauguration, in 2002, of the new Auditorium by Renzo Piano in Rome.

In 2002 - 2003 his composition Le rovine di Palmira will be played in Florence and in Los Angeles during the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra’s season, conducted by Roberto Abbado.

Alberto Colla concentrated his musical research in particular on polystylism and on symbolism in intervals, themes, and gestures. He worked out orchestration like a summa of different techniques, bordering on quotation, transcription, parody, and evocation. He examined the “nostalgia” of the past’s musical ideas (working on material by Baldassare Galuppi, Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Fryderyk Chopin, Nikolaj Rimskij-Korsakov, Edvard Grieg, Kurt Weill, Robert Russell Bennett, Igor Stravinsky, etc.). He also studied how to elaborate monodic sacred European music, extra-European musical technique (Egypt, Middle East, Mesopotamia, Indonesia) and ethnological musical technique (Central Africa, the Amazon region).

He teaches composition at the “Corso di Alto Perfezionamento in Composizione” in the International Advanced Academy of Music “L. Perosi” in Biella, Italy. His music is published by Universal Edition in Vienna, BMG Ricordi and Sonzogno in Milan.

My Quartetto in memoria di Sergej Prokofiev is a way to pay homage to the great Russian composer on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his death in 2003. For this reason, the first movement of my work begins with a theme that approaches the first theme of the first String Quartet in B minor Op. 50 by Prokofiev. This beginning theme evolves very naturally in a direction far from Prokofiev’s quartet. I think that music quotations within a homage may be the starting point of an evolutionistic composition that can bring unexpected results. I can define this way of composing like a kind of contextual polystylism.

The monster, in fancy, is often made by combining heterogeneous parts of different animals. In the same way, in art, with polystylism, the fusion of different styles and techniques historically and geographically irreconcilable, may be very natural. But for me, the polymorphism in music (constructed by using quotations and different styles) is not a pure Promethean creation, just tragic and monstrous.

In fact, the polymorphism in music arises from aesthetic and expressive needs and manifests itself both in terms of time and place, thus providing a link to past generations and to our contemporaries all over the globe.

The temporal approaches are inside the generational compendium. It is the possibility to know, to work out, and to revisit the experiences of composers from past generations.

The geographic approaches, on the other hand, arise from intercultural communication. Today, in fact, intercultural communication is obvious, rich, and for me indispensable because of a more and more global view of the world.

This quartet is in two movements to be played without interruption. The first movement is Allegro and the second is an intimate and melancholic Largo.