JULY 29 wp - Harmonia Mundi UK Distribution

Label: Wergo
File Under: Classical/Contemporary
Catalogue No: WER6783-2
Barcode: 4010228678321
NORMAL Price
Format: 1 CD
Packaging: cristal
Tomoko Hemmi [piano]
Yukiko Sugawara [piano]
Mark ANDRE: Piano Music
S1 for two piano
Un-fini III for piano
iv 11a for piano
iv 11b for piano
Contrapunctus for piano
iv 1 for piano
RELEASE DATE
29TH JULY 2013
The piano works of Mark Andre are founded on his intensive examination of the fleeting phenomenon of sound
reverberation and decay: there might be a thick cluster that reverberates on a single string, or a single note that causes
the entire landscape of strings to resonate. An echo that has almost faded away may suddenly rise up from another spot
inside the piano; diffuse clouds of sound change their colours or begin to flutter restlessly.
These combinations and their manipulation in time and space are usually preceded by detailed frequency analyses.
Experimental work together with the performers also plays an essential role in the construction of these unstable
resonating states. While Andre's early piano compositions were generated with the help of algorithms, his later works are
no longer the result of calculations. Instead, he now attempts the opposite: to develop the composition out of the
structure of the sound and the “breath of the material”. Compared to the cool objectivity of the works from the 1990s, the
more recent pieces seem softer and more playful, although they have hardly been conceived less systematically – here,
too, the intrinsic logic and necessity of every transition and development is closely scrutinised.