Hearing Leaves

A Concert of Ensemble Modern

At 19:30 on May 20, 2018/ Sunday

CCOM Opera and Concert Hall

1.Bernd Alois Zimmermann  (Germany)    

Présence (1961)

2.Miroslav Srnka                

 Coronae  for French horn (2010)   

----Intermission----

3.Karen Power (Ireland)     

 Hearing Leaves  for string quartet (2013)

4.Denqing WEN (China)   

Ink Splashing II  for string quartet (2017)

4.ZHAO Xi (China)    

Memories about Flower II  for piano quintet (2017)

5.Xiaogang YE (China)  

  Colouful  Sutra Banner  Op.58

Supported by Goethe-Institut e.V.

 Ensemble Modern 

Founded in 1980 the Ensemble Modern (EM) is one of the world’s leading ensembles for contemporary music. Currently, the Ensemble unites 20 soloists from ten countries, all of whom contribute to the ensemble’s rich cultural background. Resident in Frankfurt am Main, the Ensemble Modern is famous for its special working and organisational structure, unlike any other in the world: there is no artistic director; all its members are responsible for jointly selecting and implementing projects, co-productions and financial matters. Its unique and distinctive programme includes musical theatre, dance and video projects, chamber music, ensemble and orchestral concerts. Ensemble Modern gives approximately 100 concerts each year at renowned festivals, such as the Salzburg Festival, Bregenzer Festspiele, Wien Modern, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Holland Festival, Klangspuren Schwaz, Berliner Festspiele, Ruhrtriennale, musica viva, as well as outstanding venues worldwide, such as Wigmore Hall, Cité de la Musique, Tokyo Wondersite, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie, Cologne’s Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, Philharmonie Essen, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Oper Frankfurt.

The ensemble strives to achieve the highest possible degree of authenticity by working closely with the composers themselves. The musicians rehearse an average of 70 new works every year, 20 of which are world premieres. [Its work is characterised by extraordinary and often long-term cooperative ventures with renowned artists, such as John Adams, George Benjamin, Peter Eötvös, Heiner Goebbels, Hans Werner Henze, Mauricio Kagel, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, György Ligeti, Benedict Mason, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Steve Reich or Frank Zappa.]

In addition to its multi-faceted concert activities, Ensemble Modern presents the results of its work through regular radio and CD recordings, many of which have gone on to win ECHO Awards and the Prize of the German Record Critics, as well as several Grammy nominations. Almost 30 of the more than 150 CD productions have been released by the ensemble’s own label, Ensemble Modern Media. ]Ensemble Modern was declared a ›Leuchtturm‹ or ›beacon‹ of contemporary culture in Germany in 2003 by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Under the roof of the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA), founded the same year, the Ensemble Modern musicians offer a wide range of educational programmes, such as the Master’s Degree Course »Contemporary Music«, master courses, composition seminars and educational projects for students.] 

The Ensemble Modern is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the City of Frankfurt, the German Ensemble Academy, the Ministry of Science and Art of the State of Hesse, and the GVL. The Ensemble Modern musicians thank the Aventis Foundation for financing a chair in their ensemble. hr2-kultur is cultural affairs partner of the Ensemble Modern.

Composer

Miroslav Srnka

Miroslav Srnka was born in Prague in 1975. 

He studied musicology at the Charles University in Prague with Jarmila Gabrielová (1993–99) and composition at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts with Milan Slavický (1998–2003). 

Study trips took him to the Humboldt University in Berlin 1995-96 and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris in 2001. 

He received the Gideon Klein Award in 2001 as well as the Leoš Janácek Anniversary Prize in 2004, Ernst von Siemens Composers’ Prize in 2009 and Wilfried-Steinbrenner-Stiftung Prize in 2009. 

He was “Composer for Heidelberg” at the Theater und Philharmonisches Orchester Heidelberg in 2006-07. 
His composition, South Pole, was nominated for the International Opera Award, named as one of the three best new operas of the year by the German magazine Opernwelt and enjoyed a new production in Darmstadt in 2017. 

His compositions have been commissioned, premiered or performed by leading interpreters 
at festivals all over the world.

Karen Power 

Irish composer Karen seeks to stimulate, engage and interact with audiences. Her work utilises two primary sources; acoustic instruments and everyday sounds, spaces and soundscapes. Karen’s output is diverse - both in its approach and delivery -  with recent projects presented as orchestral works, sonic installations, chamber music, collaborations between sound and dance, image and experimental film, free improvisations and musical happenings.

Everyday environments and how we hear everyday sounds lies at the core of Karen Power’s practice with a continued interest in blurring the distinction between what most of us call ‘music’ and all other sound. She has found inspiration in the natural world and how we respond to spaces we occupy. She continually utilises our inherent familiarity with such sounds and spaces as a means of engaging with audiences. Resulting works challenge the listener’s memory of hearing while simultaneously shifting focus and presenting new contexts for such sounds. Karen’s current practice revolves around her development of aural scores + parts as alternate methods of communication with performers.

In 2015/16 Karen was awarded a DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Award resulting in key works: Instruments of Ice (2015) for QME + Arctic Ice, once below a double installation + soloists based on Berlin’s underground bunkers and veiled babble (2016) for Ensemble Mosaik + The River Spree.  Current explorations include; those are the dangers of round vegetables in a major train station where players and environmental sounds became 1, a site specific radio art piece in Cork City Gaol commissioned by RTÉ Lyric fm, a NMD commission location, location, location (2018) installation, images and sound choir + voices from hidden places (2018) @ ZMB Festival with Ensemble Mosaik.

is it raining while you listen – CD released www.farpointrecordings.com 

Deqing Wen

Deqing Wen, composer, studied composition at Fujian Normal University (China) with Guo Zu-Rong, the China Conservatory of Music with Shi Wan-Chun and Luo Zhong-Rong, le Conservatoire de Musique de Genève (Switzerland) with Jean Balissat, le Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon (France) with Gilbert Amy, and Columbia University (US) as a visiting scholar under Tristan Murail. He has been listed in Who’s Who in the World of Music by Cambridge Biographic Center. He is currently a professor of Composition at Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Artistic Director of Shanghai New Music Week. He is also a member of the Societé Suisse pour les Droits des Auteurs d’Oeuvres and and vice-chairman of the China-ASEAN musicians union.

Deqing Wen has been honored with concerts portrait, as well as master classes, dedicated to his compositions in China, Switzerland, France, Denmark, the United States, Germany and Israel. His works are published by Swiss Musical Edition, Bärenreiter-Verlag (Germany), Shanghai Conservatory of Music Press, Beijing People’s Music Publishing House. His albums are released by Stradivarius Records (Italy), Grammont Portrait Contemporary SWISS, Naxos Records, Shanghai Music Publishing house and Fujian Audio and Video Publishing House.

Wen is a chosen composer of the Prize of the State of Geneva 1993, the Prix Cultura 1999 of the Foundation Kiwanis and the Composer Prize 2001 of the Foundation Leenaards of Switzerland. 

ZHAO Xi

composer, Professor, the dean of Composition-Theory Department of Wuhan Conservatory of Music. His compositions have received numerous awards and performances in some Festivals and concerts in China, USA, France, Germany, Russian, Ireland, Romania, Korea, and Macau, Taiwan etc. Main works: Tropical Fishes, Golden Wood, Blooming……, The Southern Land, Heaven in Fire etc.

Xiaogang Ye

Composer Xiaogang Ye is a member of the 13rd Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, chairman of the Chinese Musicians’ Association, vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, professor of composition at the Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM), and a member of the Board of Directors of the China Film Association. He is also a candidate of the first “Four-Batch Project” of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Regarded as one of the most leading and influential composers in China, Ye’s important works include Horizon, The Last Paradise, Seven Episodes for Lin’an, In Memory of Peace, Chu (Symphony No.3), Cantonese Suit, Springs in the Forest, Yangzhuoyong Cuo, Twilight of the Himalayas, Scent of Green Mango, Songs from the Steppe, Lu Xun, Tianjin Suite, Macao Bride (dance drama), Song of Farewell (opera) amd Yong Le (opera). His film music include Concerto of Life, Jade Goddess of Mercy, Guasha Treatment, On the Mountain of Tai Hang, The Cairo Declaration, etc.He has been commissioned to compose works for many international and state-level activities and served as judges for important music competitions at home and abroad.

Xiaogang Ye has received top music awards and honorary titles at China’s most prestigious events, such as China Golden Bell Award, Golden Rooster Film Awards, Huabiao Film Awards, The Best Film Music Award, and Achievement Award on Contemporary Chinese Film. He has been the recipient of a “Five-One-Project Award” from the Publicity Department of the China Central Committee, a Wenhua Award from the Ministry of Culture, the “Top 10 Copyright Owners” by the China Copyright Center in 2011, and a China Arts Award in 2013. In addition, Ye has won many international awards, including the Louis Lane Prize, Howard Hanson Prize, the “Heritage Prize for Excellence in Creativity in Music” from the Li Foundation of San Francisco, an award from the American Society of Composers and Publishers, and 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship Award.

Ye has presented concerts of his own works in many occasions and festivals. Notably, The China Story: Songs of the Earth won great acclaim in its New York, Berlin, Saarbrücken and Münich, London, Edinburg, Glasgow, Moscow, Kolkata and San Jose tour. These successes have promoted extensive cultural exchange and cooperation between China and the West, and also show the growing significance of contemporary Chinese culture and the importance of disseminating it to the world.

The year 2017 witness Ye’s influence in the music world. The concerts of Xiaogang Ye’s symphonic works were held in the Shanghai Spring International Music Festival in April, Hangzhou Grand Theater in June, and China National Center for the Performing Arts in July and September by Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic, Baotou Symphony Orchestra and Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra respectively. And two more concerts will be held in Qingdao and Beijing again by Qingdao Symphony Orchestra and China National Symphony Orchestra in November and December this year. Ye finished his new symphonic works Songs from the Steppe and Symphony No. 5 (LU XUN) which have been world-premiered in Beijing. Ye also composed a new chamber music piece Gardenia which has been world-premiered in the U.S.A. this year.

program note

Miroslav Srnka                 Coronae for French horn (2010)  

Contemporary music often works with expressive technique, and an understanding of time that results in a fractured and disconnected development of sound. To reach the opposite, balance and continuity, I started to study movements that occur in nature: the curves of trigonometric functions, the physical description of fluid dynamics, the theories behind swarm intelligence...

I tried to transpose these curvaceous and continuous natural movements into lines in the sound space, where traditionally the only continuous sound line would be a glissando. This made me look for some new, sophisticated techniques of quantization to abstract these natural continuous movements into discrete pitch steps and rhythm values.

French horn turned out to be the perfect choice for such a study. It lets us feel the direct connection between the air flow from the musician's body and the resulting sound. It also produces the most natural line among the wind instruments: it moves freely between the harmonics above a fundamental. Thus, it represents the best sound version of the idea of a continuous line.

›Coronae‹ is the plural of »corona«: a type of plasma »atmosphere« of the Sun or a star, extending millions of kilometres into space and most easily seen during a total solar eclipse. ›Coronae‹ are rays of light coming from something or someone that we can no longer see.

Karen Power      Hearing Leaves  for string quartet (2013)

hearing leaves was written while on residency with The Galway music Residency to celebrate 10 years of music in the city. A key component of this residency lay in delivering workshops to primary and secondary students, therefore much of the origins of this work are connected with explorations made with students during these composition workshops. In particular, why do children play with wrapping paper as excitedly as they play with the toy that’s inside! This piece is a celebration of the excitement that each of us feels, or felt as young children, when we explore sound. 

Deqing WEN    Ink Splashing II  for string quartet (2017)

Commissioned by ProQuartet & Philharmonie de Paris. The first performance was given by le Quatuor Akilone in l'Amphitheatre de la Cite de la musique, 11 Feb. 2018.

Duration: about 13 minutes.

Ink Splashing is one of the techniques for traditional Chinese painting. It was innovated accidentally by an artist in the Tang Dynasty, Wang Qia, who once drunkenly threw ink onto a piece of silk on a desk, and then turned the traces of seeping ink into an unexpectedly remarkable landscape paintingin an impressionistic manner. Later, people developed this technique into a methodical and systematic formula using a combination of washy and thick ink.

In light of this painting technique, this music represents breathtaking movements of ink in different shades going from thickening (using intensification of texture and crescendo) through diluting (lessening texture and diminuendo), interweaving and mutual penetrating of dry and washy ink (abundant timbres and minimum variation), saturated and forceful strokes (the noise made by much pression of bow), light and hollow strokes (harmonic glissandos), and finally fading or settling into an enchanting fairyland (wreathing of after-sounds).

ZHAO Xi (China)              Memories about Flower II  for piano quintet (2017)

The work was formed by two movements: July and Sonata of air. It shows images and feelings in the early summer that composer recalled, when he was in Russia.

A lot of thoughts came out from his mind, when he saw the peaceful scenery and the blue sky; when the accordion sounds that sometimes be passionate and sometimes be soft crossed the ear, then fiery memories and lingering thoughts would appeared with it. And all of these just like a verse "Sonata of air in July".

In July composer arrange piano section and string section alternately, between the texture imitating guitar and the tone based on pentatonic scale, and try to express the endless and deep love for lover. The title Sonata of Air takes the principle that the accordion sound box is affected by the air movement, which means "the music played by the air".

Xiaogang YE        Colouful  Sutra Banner  Op.58

The Colorful Sutra Banner was composed in 2006. It was commissioned by the Chinese violinist LU Wei and Cellist ZHAO Jing. The music is the recollection of the composer’s journey to the Tibetan Plateau. The fluttering colorful Sutra Banner are viewed as the most sacred symbol to the Tibetans, and they make the most beautiful scenery of Tibetan landscape and mindscape.

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