Martin Derungs

On this CD:

1. Concerto for violin & orchestra
Composed by Martin Derungs
Performed by Tonhalle-Orchestre Zurich
Conducted by Michael Stern

2. Giarsun, 5 Rätoromantische Lieder, after texts of Leta Semadeni for voice, recorder & Cembalo
Composed by Martin Derungs
Performed by Martin Derungs, Katharina Ott

3. Concerto for recorder, double bass, harpsichord & strings
Composed by Martin Derungs
Performed by Martin Derungs

4. Scene Teatrali, for wind octet
Composed by Martin Derungs

Tracks:

La Chute D'Icare
Superscriptio
Intermedio Alla Ciaccona
Etudes Transcendantales: I
Etudes Transcendantales: II
Etudes Transcendantales: III
Etudes Transcendantales: IV
Etudes Transcendantales: V
Etudes Transcendantales: VI
Etudes Transcendantales: VII
Etudes Transcendantales: VIII
Etudes Transcendantales: IX
Mnemosyne

Amazon.com

Ferneyhough, an English composer, is the father figure of a movement in contemporary classical music called the New Complexity, and his music is a fascinating synthesis of the highest delicacy in instrumental writing with visceral fervor. The works on this disc are all excerpts from an immense cycle entitled Carceri d'Invenzione (Dungeons of Invention). The strongly drawn architectural features of the music, inspired by the series of etchings by Piranesi, are impressive; but it is the fragile, expressive textures that are finally most moving and memorable. --Joshua Cody

Customer Reviews:

ferneyhough for beginners?.......2002-01-01

This was my first experience of this composer, whose works I knew to be controversial, even notoriously so. Although I'd come to grips with some classics of serialism over the last few years, I still had some trepidation as I started the disc. What was it like? Interesting (that perhaps almost goes without saying)...thought provoking...but also often beautiful, as well as strange. La Chute d'Icare is actually a short clarinet concerto. The sound is like the sonic realisation of some fantastically imagined aviary, with the clarinet soloist the most glittering of all the birds. Messiaen never sounded much like birdsong to me, but this did. The soloist, also the dedicatee of the work, brilliantly plays a part that sounds well-nigh impossible for anyone else. Next on the disc are two solo works: one for piccolo (a feast of fluttertonguing, trills, runs, rapid changes of pitch and intensity.... another virtuouso display), then a second one for violin, played by Irvine Arditti. This "intermezzo" is a kind of deconstruction of violin sounds. Ferneyhough describes it as an ugly piece, but it didn't sound it to me, savage perhaps, but not really ugly. Next, the 9 movements of the "Etudes Trancendantales". This is another mysterious, even misleading, title, for the piece is actually a song cycle, with a fragmented text, sometimes broken up into individual syllables and noises, with varying instrumental accompaniments in the different movements. Imagine a sort of "Marteau sans Maitre" with 20 more years of development. The last piece (Mnemosyne, for bass flute and pre-recorded tape, which seems to consist mostly of flute sounds, on this disc played by the same player)is the Ferneyhough that any open-minded listener would surely enjoy hearing....at least once! Again, there is a range of virtuoso sounds from the live flute, with a slow, almost hypnotic background from the tape. Ferneyhough says that he wants the effect of music played underwater, like Debussy's "Engulfed Cathedral", and he surely achieves this. You've heard of "Water Music", now listen to "Underwater Music". The playing, so far as one can tell, is fantastically brilliant throughout the whole disc. Maybe there are better starting points for Ferneyhough's music, but this disc seemed a good one to me.

Great showcase of complexity and ferocious virtuosity.......1999-04-11

It's always heartening when a composer writes solo unaccompanied works. In a way it is a patrilinear legacy to foster succeeding generation of interpreters. Ferneyhough's music is an elitist affair, for musicians you need to devote a substantial part of your performing life to it. For us listeners there is no compromise here, why should there be? Ferneyhough's creativity has developed slowly over his career always searching for the next link in his vast labyrinth of musical procedures and processes.It has yielded a vigorous body of work with a devoted following. The "Superscriptio" is a piccolo solo, long a neglected instrument inhabiting the tippy-top of the sonoric field. Ferneyhough brings a fine sense of the natural purity of its sound traversing all its strident registers in a hightened display of rhythmic complexity. When we come violinist Irving Arditti we have a premiere interpreter of Ferneyhough and here the "Intermedio. . . " reveals an ugly virtuosity in all registers with fast clipped double stops, an anguished-like gestures. Arditti however has developed a distanced objectivity in anything he plays, as if his playing is a mere passive conduit for these coldly abstract musical structures . And finally the "Etudes Transcentales" we have full forces of the remarkable Nieuw Ensemble. Ferneyhough's innovations to my mind remain purely technical for he feels he needs to shape and share a dialogue with the past to find a frame for his work and expressive content His structural-global resolutions, the way a piece unfolds in time, are indeed commonplace. Frequently we find Ferneyhough resorting to traditional handling of his materials, simple contrasts,simple traversing of registers,relying on textural change to refocus. And the listening experience is all too often opaque and disorienting,like our emotive sensibilities must somehow cope with blizzards of ill-define materials. Here in the "Etudes Transcendantales"" we have an obvious reference to Listz,who was also a technical innovator who also resorted to a programmatic frame to contain his pianistic innovations. The texts here in the "Etudes" Songs 1,2, and 6 by Ernst Meister and others by Alrun Moll are all beside the point for it hardly matters if the text is heard. Couched in complex linear textures with continous linear movement in microtones, you become swept into the sheer complex power of this linear motion.The synergism which occurs in the marvelous counterpoint does not help to focus your hearing but disperses it. No image really emerges and Ferneyhough's linear technique is so refined so multi-directional that a programmatic element, as these texts, remains at a distance. The vocal atonal linear leapings doesn't help matters. This type of vocal writing (an historical affinity dating to Boulez's "Le Marteau. . . ") leaves the text by itself,words are not conveyed nor their images ,the voice is simply another instrument, not a conveyor but an accomplice in pitch linear purity.Ultimately this language of musical complexity is a relative one and within the force fields of postmodernity it is certainly a legitimate agenda for a creator to foster a musical language that will remain an exclusive creative enclave for some. The fact that this complexity will always appeal to a select few is commonplace and a sign that the ears as a perceptive organ haven't developed in its history. That is an historical perspective,not one which is created.

Padre Antonio Soler: 12 Sonaten fur Cembalo

Average customer rating:

Padre Antonio Soler: 12 Sonaten fur Cembalo

Manufacturer: Ex Libris
ProductGroup: Classical
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000KMHE5W

Product Description

digital recording

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Martin Derungs

Manufacturer: Musiques Suisses
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000DD6R
Release Date: 2000-09-09

Konzert Fur Violine und Orchester/Giarsun

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Konzert Fur Violine und Orchester/Giarsun

Manufacturer: Grammont
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000N28C96

Product Description

21 Tracks

Padre Antonio Soler: 12 Harpsichord Sonatas - Martin Derungs

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Padre Antonio Soler: 12 Harpsichord Sonatas - Martin Derungs
Padre Antonio Soler (Composer) , and Martin Derungs (Harpsichord)
Manufacturer: Allegro Corporation
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000E87B
Release Date: 1993-10-27

Della Ciaja: 6 Sonates pour Clavecin, Op. 4

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Della Ciaja: 6 Sonates pour Clavecin, Op. 4

Manufacturer: Accord
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000004CBF
Release Date: 1997-05-27

Tracks:

Son I: Toccata
Son I: Canzone
Son I: Allegro
Sona I: Moderato
Son II: Toccata
Son II: Canzone: languente
Son II: Lento
Son II: Allegro
Son III: Toccata
Son III: Canzone
Son III: Moderato
Son III: Non presto
Son IV: Toccata
Son IV: Canzone
Son IV: Larghetto
Son IV: Allegro
Son V: Toccata
Son V: Canzone
Son V: Moderato
Son V: Maestoso
Son VI: Toccata
Son VI: Canzone/Allegro
Son VI: Primo Tempo
Son VI: Secondo tempo: Allegro
Bonus Track

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Zurcher Liederbuch 1986

Manufacturer: Jecklin
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000T8UQFW

Product Description

Das Ziel; Lieder vom Tod;Sehnsucht; Zwei Leider; Spuren/ CD2- 7 Fruhlingslieder; Drei Lieder; Vier Lieder; Drei Lieder; "Ein vatter-landische Liederbogen. Recordings made in 1988 ans 1942,46,53"

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