Talea Ensemble: Alessandrini, Iannotta, Yi Ting Lu, Zubel

Program Notes

Clara Iannotta
They left us grief-trees wailing at the wall (2020)

They left us grief-trees wailing at the wall is a sixteen-minute work for nine amplified instruments. The composition is dominated by seemingly static bands of sound which, on closer inspection, appear full of life and variety. Like paint brushed in stripes across different surfaces, each band reveals a different texture—from the relatively clear sounds of wine glasses or bowed vibraphone to the jagged sounds of bent cardboard or laminated paper vibrating against a saxophone bell.

Yi-Ting Lu
Timelessness I: Individualism (2017)

The composition Timelessness I: Individualism seeks to encapsulate the essence of an individual’s enduring natural voice. It gradually sheds layers of collective expression, diminishing the texture with each passing moment, while simultaneously transcending the constraints of time through the preservation of distinct timbre inherent in each instrument. The entire piece is enveloped by the symbolism of the number eight, embodying the notions of boundlessness, perpetuity, and infinite possibilities.

Patricia Alessandrini
Pastorale (Hommage à Alfred Schnittke) (2014)

This piece is centered around two existing works, Beethoven’s Pastoral Sonata, Opus 28, and Schnittke’s Quintet. These works are linked by a single stylistic factor, which takes on different meanings according to the aesthetic projects associated with them. In the case of the Pastoral Sonata, the characteristic repeated pedal tone of the first movement may be interpreted as evoking a seemingly unchanging landscape in which nuances come to the fore over time; over the course of the movement, this material takes on other attributes as repetition becomes a motivic element in itself. The Schnittke Quintet features obstinate, steadily repeated notes which create an effect of a certain unease when they appear for the first time in the first movement. These repetitions also evolve into related materials over the course of the quintet, such as long-held notes and trills, and a reduction of the musical language to a few simple repeated figures in its ending. Given the dedication in the title to the memory of his mother, these repeated notes may be seen as creating a sense of stark inevitability, especially in the repetitions of the first movement, which give way to a certain assuagement, or a tenderness of memory perhaps, in the closing figures of the last movement. In this composition, I explore repetition in the light of the respective historical and aesthetic contexts of the two works referenced, and how they are articulated by various interpretations, and illustrated by different recordings. Modified versions of these recordings are re-injected into the new composition through the live electronics system for the piano, which in a sense modifies its resonance to reflect these materials.

Agata Zubel
FLASH (2021)

I see no reason to describe this piece in words.
It is described in images. — Agata Zubel