Solos | Duos | Works with ensembles | Works with orchestra

 

 

DUOS

 

 

 

 

 

STOCKHAUSEN MINI FESTIVAL | with Brian Wolff and Antonio Pérez Abellán

 

 

 

HOMMAGE TO STEVE LACY | with Chris Culpo, pianist/composer

 

Steve Lacy: Bone
Duke Ellington: I Like the Sunrise
Steve Lacy: Nowhere Street
Chris Culpo: Paper Doves
Steve Lacy: The Needleboats at San Sabba
Thelonius Monk: Trinkle Tinkle
Steve Lacy: Prayer
Charles Ives: The Cage
Steve Lacy: Art
Erik Satie: 3 Mélodies sans Paroles
Steve Lacy: Joy
Steve Lacy: The Blue Baboon

 

 

 

 

 

with Frank Gutschmidt, piano

 

György Kurtág: János Pilinszky Lieder

Wolfgang Rihm: Hölderlin Gesänge

Sylvano Bussotti: Quatre Pièces de Chair II

Salvatore Sciarrino: Due Melodie Nuove

Iannis Xenakis: Pour Maurice

Georges Aperghis : Le Rire Physiologique

 

The “Liederabend” might seem an arcane event left over from 19th
century house concerts.  With this program, we show that it is a
pertinent, vital art form.  Beginning with works inspired by the
musical style of the Second Viennese School and masterpieces of 20th
century poetry, the evening continues with an excerpt from Sylvano
Bussotti’s towering 1960 piece “Pièces de Chair II.”  The younger
Italian generation is represented by Sciarrino’s virtuoso piece whose
title evokes our theme of a contemporary song recital.  Iannis Xenakis
deconstructs both the voice and the piano with his revolutionary “Pour
Maurice.”  To finish, a little known masterpiece by his fellow Greek
émigré Georges Aperghis, the amusing and devilishly difficult music
theater work “The Physiological Laugh.”

 

 

FROM CACCINI TO LED ZEPPELIN | with Magnus Andersson, guitar

 

(with chitarrone, guitar and electric guitar)

Monodies by Giulio Caccini, Stefano Landi, Barbara Strozzi and Giovanni Puliaschi

Franz Schubert: Das Wandern, Ständchen, Frühlingsglaube, Der Leiermann

John Cage: A Flower, The Wonderful Widow of 18 Springs

Nicholas Isherwood: Detrás de mi en la rama quiero verte

Hans Werner Henze: "The Rebellion" from El Cimarrón

The Grateful Dead: Dark Star

Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven

In the 1960's, Cathy Berberian revolutionized the recital with her performance of music from "Monteverdi to the Beatles" with piano accompaniment. Whereas the piano was the instrument of choice for vocal accompaniments in the 19th century, the guitar and its ancestors have accompanied love songs from the troubadours to the present day. Recent musicological research has shown that it was common practice to compose "passaggi" for 17th century monodies, as well as to embellish Schubert "Lieder" and sing them with guitar accompaniment. The rock groups presented here are/were famous for their improvisations and we take the songs out before bringing back the melody. Most early baroque composers were also singers. The bass singers Giovanni Puliaschi and Nicholas Isherwood have written music for their own voices. Puliaschi, Caccini and Landi accompanied themselves on the the theorbo, much as the lead singers of rock bands accompany themselves on the electric guitar today. A journey through the history of music shows why plucked strings and vibrating vocal cords make an ideal combination.

 

USA/EUROPE
with guitar

John Cage: A Flower, The Wonderful Widow of 18 Springs

Nicholas Isherwood: Detrás de mi, Vendras con migo

Hans Werner Henze: 'The Rebellion' from El Cimarrón

Franco Donatoni: Aso

Charles Wuorinen: Psalm 39

Giacinto Scelsi: CKCKC

 

 

 

INDIAN SONGS | with Sabine Neumann, mezzo soprano (both singers playing native percussion)

 

Karlheinz Stockhausen, Am Himmel wandre ich (Indianerlieder)

 

 

 

DIPHONIC DUO | with Sainkho Namtchilak, vocalist

 

"Diphonic Duo" alternating improvisations and traditional music sung by Sainkho and composed pieces sung by Isherwood (works by Giacinto Scelsi, Chao Ching Wen, Artyom Kim, Nicholas Isherwood and Ho Chung Shih), ending with a duo improvisation, all with harmonics singing.

 

 

 

PROGETTO BUSSOTTI | with Sylvano Bussotti, piano

 

 

NICHOLAS ISHERWOOD, BASS
SYLVANO BUSSOTTI, PIANO

Italy's greatest living composer has agreed to peform a "Liederabend" of his music. Bussotti will play the piano himself in selections from previous works written for Isherwood (Questo Fauno, Tieste, Lingue Ignote) as well as a new work in the spirit of his Pearson Piece, composed for vocal pioneer William Pearson. Taking his inspiration from a piece about himself called Sylvano Sylvano , he has decided to have Isherwood the singer perform texts by Isherwood the writer in Isherwood Isherwood.

An esthete and complete artist (composer, painter, opera director, set and costume designer, actor, pianist), Bussotti will not only play, but will also stage the performance and choose the clothing, lighting and other details. This duo is the culmination of 10 years of artistic collaboration between Isherwood and Bussotti.