WEST-EASTERN DIVAN
APRIL 28, 2011 | 07:30 PM
Austrian violinist Frank Stadler presented the world premiere of a new composition by Cairo-born Hossam Mahmoud dedicated to the men and women who lost their lives in the name of democracy in Tahrir Square in Cairo, in the Spring of 2011. Frank Stadler was joined by the composer himself on oud and Jun Kanno on piano. Apart from the world premiere of New Piece for Oud, Violin and Piano, the concert at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, entitled West-Eastern Divan, included Herbert Grassl’s Sonata for Violin and Prepared Piano (2009), a Mozart sonata, Ludwig Nussbichler’s Traumbildfragmente III (2003), and Claude Debussy’s Sonata for Piano and Violin. “The title for the evening,” explained Stadler, “is a term we derive from Goethe’s later works and also the name of an orchestra,” which was founded by Palestinian American thinker Edward Said.
Frank Stadler started violin lessons at the age of five. After graduating from the University Mozarteum in Salzburg with distinction, he became an assistant to his former teacher, Helmut Zehetmair. He also studied with Ruggiero Ricci and participated in master classes with Thomas Brandis, Franco Gulli and Ivry Gitlis. He currently teaches violin at the Mozarteum University, Salzburg.
For more than ten years, and with composer and instrumentalist Hossam Mahmoud as his mentor, Stadler has been “exploring, experiencing and reproducing the adventure that is traditional Arabian music.” He adds about their premiere: “The piece for violin, piano, and oud may conjure associations with Eastern music, but the composer sees it as a free contemporary composition without any direct connections with classical Arabian music.” The distance from traditional ways may be in the spirit of the Tahrir Square victims, to whom the piece is dedicated.
It was in Cairo where Mahmoud mastered his studies in oriental music, music education and traditional western music, and where he learned to play the oud, viola and piano. He then completed his composition studies in Graz and Salzburg. His oeuvre includes chamber music, orchestral pieces, electronic music, and operas.
Stadler has been working with Jun Kanno for several years, performing a predominantly Classical and Romantic repertoire. A graduate of University of Toho in Tokyo, Kanno was invited to France by Olivier Messiaen and his wife Yvonne Loriod, who became his teacher at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. He was awarded the Diplôme Supérieur d’Exécution by the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, and was subsequently appointed as Germaine Mounier’s assistant. He completed his studies with Vlado Perlemuter and Gyorgy Sebok.
Demonstrating once again that music is a universal language, the trio’s members hail from different cultural backgrounds, united in New York for a multi-faceted evening classical and contemporary compositions, and a world premiere that expressed solidarity with a people fighting for their human rights.
Audio recordings from the event:
W.A. Mozart: Sonata for piano and violin
Hossam Mahmoud: Taq' sim
Photos of the event (click to enlarge), by Nina Wöss:
