Programme

Nik Bärtsch (1971*) is a Swiss pianist, composer, bandleader, record producer and author from Zürich. Repetition and change are central motifs in his music and performance practice. Nik Bärtsch’s work is at the intersection of contemporary music, jazz and funk influences. Bärtsch is influenced by oriental philosophy and the ostinato of James Brown, taken a close interest in the work of the American composers Steve Reich, John Cage and Morton Feldman. For all the diversity of its influences, this music always reveals its own signature – although elements from a wide variety of musical worlds have found their way into it – from funk and jazz to new classical music and the sounds of Japanese ritual music – these forms are not juxtaposed or quoted in a postmodern way, but rather merge to form a new style. The result is a grooving, tonally and rhythmically highly differentiated music, composed of a few phrases and motifs that are combined and overlaid in ever new and varied ways.

8 Moduls for Piano Solo
Composer’s note – This piano cycle consists of eight Moduls, set here for piano solo. They can be played separately or in variable combinations and order, depending on the context and capability of the player. While the interpretations on the recordings sometimes differ from the score, they still precisely follow the idea and coherence of the pieces.

Her rational principles of composing and construction of musical forms often based on some graphic lines or numerical sequences. Yet, the adherence to strict rules has in no way limited the scope of her imagination and artistic intuition. Works composed over the past decade demonstrate the increasing importance of an emotional element as well as the turn from minimalism to neoromantic expression. She describes her current work as the music of changing emotional states. Restless and constantly racing with time, she is in action all the time. So is the mood, in which you will find yourself while listening to her music: you are about to sense the bursting energy of sounds.

“Alpių traukinys” (Train of Alps) for piano 4 hands
The composer’s infinite admiration for Switzerland and its landscape led to the composition for piano four hands “Alpių traukinys”. Based on various ostinato patterns, as allusion to train ride, the change of harmonies and characters opens a different musical horizon that emerges like a new corner of the Alps, causing new emotions and creating postcard memories.

Dieter Ammann was born in Switzerland, into a highly musical family. Following his studies at the Academy for Music Education and Church Music in Lucerne and several semesters at the Swiss Jazz School in Berne, he started to perform as musician in the field of improvised music and jazz. Subsequently he studied theory & composition with Roland Moser and D. Müller-Siemens at the Music Academy Basel, followed by master classes, amongst others with Wolfgang Rihm and Witold Lutoslawski. In the nineties, composing became his main focus.

Regard sur les traditions for piano 4 hands
although the term “tradition” in this composition refers to literature of Messiaen and Ligeti, it is also reflected in the sound of this piece. If from Messiaen he uses one of his modes, Ligeti stands for the mechanization of musical movement. One concern was to break the traditional style of writing “top: melody – bottom: accompaniment” in a variety of ways so that the two players become congenial partners. Of further compositional interest is the change in perception of a mechanically repeated pattern by continuously accelerating or slowing it down (linear versus vertical listening). The addition “avec quelques trompes d’oreille”, borrowed from painting that works with optical illusions, refers primarily to the second part of the piece, where the impression of rhythmic shifts arises within a uniform motor movement.

His music is born of tradition, extends it and even declares it. The work of the composer, who studied in Vilnius and London, began with a historicizing approach to sound. He did not sought to be modern in the true sense of the term, but to convey through himself what is already known and close. After taking a closer look at the tradition and, undoubtedly, making it the foundation for his further work, the composer gradually moves away from the influences of the past and approaches post-spectral expression.

Chromatography
Composer’s note – when I started writing this piano etude, my initial idea was to look at the sound of the instrument through a perspective of colour. Broadly speaking, the title Chromatography translates as colour writing, or colour drawing (χρώμα + γραφικά). On the assumption that colour is a frequency, we can equally regard musical parameters, such as harmony, timbre, register, pulse, etc. as frequency – a variation of a pulse. Throughout the piece, there are indirect references to the great tradition of piano repertoire, spanning over two hundred centuries: Liszt, Chopin, Debussy, Ligeti, Nancarrow… From the free-flowing lines to shimmering Ravel-Esque textures, this Etude invites on a journey across the whole colouristic landscape of the piano, despite its uniquely unified timbre.