OLGA NEUWIRTH PORTRAIT CONCERT | TALEA ENSEMBLE
MAY 24, 08:00 PM
In an evening dedicated to the music of Olga Neuwirth, one of the most celebrated young Austrian composers of our time, the Austrian Cultural Forum presented a performance by the virtuosic Talea Ensemble at New York’s Czech Center. Neuwirth’s music has a unique place in the contemporary canon and the evening provided an exciting opportunity to hear a retrosprective of her work.
The worlds of sound in Olga Neuwirth's compositions are like twisting labyrinths. Looking for points of orientation, one is left groping: the pitches and instrumental timbres are either completely absorbed or wiped away by the music. Her works have come to reflect her diverse interests. The sharp cuts, superimpositions, rapid sequences of contrasts, and montages of heterogeneous materials serve as her homage to cinema, while the constant interplay of instrumental sounds and the artificially generated sounds of live-electronic music demonstrate the possibilities of new technology, creating a clear state of tension within her music. Ultimately, Neuwirth's works seek to be understood as a permanent resistance to the absurdities of daily life; their diversity of sounds conveys a field of associations which can intensify the listener's own need to fully observe and contemplate the possibilities of his own daily environment.
Olga Neuwirth is the recipient of the 2010 Grand Austrian State Prize, the highest award granted annually by the Republic of Austria to an artist for outstanding achievements. Robert Hilferty of the New York Times writes that Neuwirth "...knows how to bend and twist sound like no other."
The Talea Ensemble has given many important world and US premieres of new works by composers including Pierre Boulez, Tristan Murail, Jason Eckardt, Pierluigi Billone, Hans Abrahamsen, Stefano Gervasoni, Marco Stroppa, and Fausto Romitelli. The Talea Ensemble was recently the guest ensemble for the 18-day Spectrum XXI Festival tour in Paris and London and has twice been invited as guest ensemble to the Nevada Encounters of New Music (NEON) as well as La Ciudad de las Ideas (Mexico), Art Summit Indonesia (Jakarta), and the International Contemporary Music Festival of Lima, Peru. As an active collaborator of new music, the Talea Ensemble has joined forces with Ensemble Cairn (Paris), Hyperion Ensemble (Romania), and the iO Quartet (New York). Steve Smith of the New York Times writes (regarding their recent performance at the Scandinavia House) that “championing works like these, and playing them with a compelling lucidity, are precisely what Talea Ensemble does best.”
On May 26, 2011, Steve Smith reviewed the Olga Neuwirth Portrait Concert for The New York Times:
"At 42 Ms. Neuwirth is among Europe’s most vital and distinguished composers, not that you would guess it from her woefully meager representation in mainstream American concert life. Beyond the enlightening interview, the concert - produced by the Austrian Cultural Forum in collaboration with the Czech Center New York - offered a well-chosen handful of striking works, including three United States premieres, all meticulously prepared and compellingly rendered."
Smith raves about the piece incidendo/fluido (2000): "incidendo/fluido played incisively by the pianist Steven Beck, brittle chromatic outbursts clambered and thudded across the keyboard. Two tiny loudspeakers placed on the piano strings dampened some notes to percussive effect while adding a counterpoint of sustained wails and murky overtones."
Read the full New York Times Review here.
Audio recording from the event:
Olga Neuwirth: Incidendo
Olga Neuwirth: Torsion
Photos of the event (click to enlarge), by David Plakke:
