Fascinated by the ‘insect-like’ beauty of agricultural machinery, Darius Milhaud gave musical expression to texts from sales catalogues in his work for mezzo-soprano and ensemble – without a trace of irony. Vladimir Tarnopolski drew his inspiration from Foucault’s pendulum, which demonstrated that the world rotates around its stationary axis.

From a seeming standstill he creates a compelling world of sound that evokes thumping machinery in a factory. Conlon Nancarrow was frustrated by the limitations of live pianists and painstakingly punched his complex rhythmical patterns in paper rolls for the mechanical pianola. György Ligeti was a great champion and friend of Nancarrow. He extended the boundaries of the piano literature with three books full of complex, polyrhythmic etudes.

Artists

Vladimir Tarnopolski
Foucault’s Pendulum
Darius Milhaud
Machines agricoles op. 56
Conlon Nancarrow
No. 7 (arr. Yvar Mikhashoff)
No. 6 (arr. Yvar Mikhashoff)
György Ligeti
Arc-en-ciel (arr. Hans Abrahamsen)
En suspense (arr. Hans Abrahamsen)
Kammerkonzert
Martin Matalon
Spirals, loops, lines (première) 

Asko|Schönberg

conductor
Reinbert de Leeuw
soprano
Kristina Bitenc