SPOOR : RZEWSKI

 

… Old man Sargent sitting at the desk, the damned old fool won’t give us no rest,

he’d take the nickels off a dead man’s eyes to buy a Cocacola and a pomopie.

I got the blues, I got the blues, I got the Winnsboro cotton mill blues…

 

 

Frederic Rzewski (b. 1938 - USA) is a composer, a virtuoso pianist and the co-founder of the almost mythical ensemble for improvisation Musica Elettronica Viva. He lives and works in Brussels and for many years he was a teacher at the Conservatory of Liege. Rzewski’s pioneering work in the free improvisation scène and electronic music area has been an inspiration for many other composers and impro musicians. Enough reasons for Champ d'Action to follow the trail of this very versatile artist.

Champ d'Action chooses for a documentary approach to Rzewski's extensive oeuvre with a digression into the work of colleague and spiritual friend Christian Wolff.

The famous "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" (based on a workers' protest song), for solo piano, is the fourth part of the North American Ballads. Pianist Yutaka Oya brings the blues like you've never heard it before. In 'To The Earth’ for a speaking percussionist Marcel Andriessen brings an ode to the earth by using ‘tuned flowerpots’.

In Rzewski’s recent 'Main Drag', a road story for 9 musicians, the solo percussionist is driving a pulsated energy through the piece.

In Christian Wolffs' ‘In Between Pieces’, the composer gives much freedom to the performer. The musician, as an independent thinker / artist, has a major input in their own artistic performance of the score.

"Les Moutons des Panurge", the almost legendary piece of minimal music of 1969, for which Rzewski has found inspriration in the herding of sheep, is the finale of this concert. A seemingly simple score ends up in a really exhausting battle for the musicians.

 

program

Frederic Rzewski - Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues  [pno solo]   12'

Christian Wolff - In Between Pieces  [vc, perc,  guit]   8'

Frederic Rzewski - Main Drag  [perc solo, 4x e-guit, 2 synt, cl, sax]   13'

PAUZE

Frederic Rzewski - To The Earth   [perc solo]   8'

Christian Wolff - In Between Pieces   [vc, perc, guit]   8'

Frederic Rzewski - Les Moutons des Panurge   [tutti]   18'

 

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