| Bei Nacht | |
|---|---|
| Piano trio by Graham Waterhouse | |
 The composer in 2011 | |
| English | At Night |
| Opus | 50 |
| Year | 1999 |
| Period | contemporary |
| Published | 2001: Leipzig Hofmeister |
| Movements | 1 |
| Scoring | piano, violin, cello |
| www | |
Bei Nacht (At Night), op. 50, is a piano trio, composed in 1999 by Graham Waterhouse, published by Hofmeister, Leipzig.
Bei Nacht was written in 1999 for the Kandinsky Trio of Illinois to be performed at the University of Illinois. The composition was inspired by an oil painting of Wassily Kandinsky [1] and also relates to a poem by Hermann Hesse, "Bei Nacht" (At Night on the High Seas, 1911), which begins: "Nachts, wenn das Meer mich wiegt und bleicher Sternenglanz auf seinen weiten Wellen liegt" (At night, when the sea rocks me and pale glow of the stars lies on its wide waves). [2] The work is in one movement, a performance takes about 10 minutes. [1] The tempo markings are: Allegro moderato – Più mosso – Tempo I – Tranquillo – Tempo I – Allegro molto – Tempo I – Tranquillo. [2] The composer comments:
"Around the time of composition was a Kandinsky Retrospective at the Royal Academy in London. Amongst the exhibits was a particularly striking, early oil painting entitled "Nacht", which looked more akin to the work of Cézanne or of the French impressionists and quite unlike those works of Kandinsky's later style. In this painting concentric circles spread outwards from a darkly morbid moon, like ever widening circular ripples on a pond. Against this seemed to be apparitions of dancing figures. Visual stimuli play only a minor role in my works, yet the mysterious salubriousness of the painting captured the imagination. The vividly depicted circles found expression in a recurring "ground bass", underpinning a gradual crescendo in texture and intensity; the spectral dancers were alluded to in an irregular, agitato passage in 5/8. At the climax of the piece these two elements combine; the welter of sound is abruptly broken off, however, and it is in the subdued atmosphere of the opening that the work concludes." [1]
The trio was first performed in the United Kingdom at the New Recital Room of the University of Cambridge on 19 February 2008 by the Waterhouse Piano Trio, Irina Puryshinskaja (piano), Boris Kucharsky (violin) and the composer (cello), together with works of Mozart, Schubert and Hugh Wood's piano trio, op. 24 (1982–84). [3] The composer was then a "Musician By-Fellow" at Churchill College and also performed his Cello Concerto as part of the Lent Term Choral Concert on 9 February 2008 with "The Orchestra on the Hill" in a concert which also included Beethoven's Egmont Overture , Elgar's Serenade for Strings and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. [4] The Waterhouse Piano Trio had performed before Bei Nacht (2005) and Wood's trio (2007) in Munich at the Gasteig. The first concert also included Beethoven's Piano Trio No. 5 ("Ghost") and Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 2. [5] Wood's work appeared together with Schubert's Piano Trio No. 1. [6]
On 5 May 2011 Bei Nacht was performed by the ALEA Ensemble at the Musik-Forum München, Studio für neue Musik (studio for new music), together with chamber music of Gerhard Präsent (Trio intricato), Herbert Blendinger (Fantasie in G) and Iván Erőd (Trio). It was played by Sigrid Präsent (violin), Tobias Stosiek (cello) and Rita Melem (piano), Gerhard Präsent, the founder of the ensemble, moderated the concert. [7] [8] The Bayerischer Rundfunk broadcast the concert on 19 August 2011 [9] in its series after midnight "Concerto bavarese" (Bavarian concert). [10]
Bei Nacht was published in 2001 by Hofmeister, Leipzig, which also published the composer's Cello Concerto, Celtic Voices and Hale Bopp and Gestural Variations , among others. [11] Bei Nacht op. 50 für Violine, Violoncello und Klavier is dedicated to the Kandinsky Trio. [12]
Bei Nacht is part of a CD Skylla und Charybdis of the composer's works for piano and strings. It was released in 2020 by Farao Classics. [13] A reviewer in Das Orchester noted that the composer created a "notturno" atmosphere by beginning with fragile threads of sound ("Klangfäden") that gradually grow to melodies. [14]
Graham Waterhouse is an English composer and cellist who specializes in chamber music. He has composed a cello concerto, Three Pieces for Solo Cello and Variations for Cello Solo for his own instrument, and string quartets and compositions that juxtapose a quartet with a solo instrument, including Piccolo Quintet, Bassoon Quintet and the piano quintet Rhapsodie Macabre. He has set poetry for speaking voice and cello, such as Der Handschuh, and has written song cycles. His compositions reflect the individual capacity and character of players and instruments, from the piccolo to the contrabassoon.
Gestural Variations, Op. 43, is a trio composition by Graham Waterhouse in 1997 originally for oboe, bassoon and piano. Later versions are scored for clarinet, cello and piano (1999) and flute, cello and piano (2009).
Piccolo Quintet is short for the Quintet op. 26 of Graham Waterhouse, composed in 1989 for piccolo and string quartet and published by Zimmermann in 2002 as Quintet for piccolo, 2 violins, viola and violoncello.
Rudi Spring is a German composer of classical music, pianist and academic. He is known for vocal compositions on texts by poets and his own, and for chamber music such as his three Chamber Symphonies.
The Bassoon Quintet is a quintet by Graham Waterhouse, composed in 2003 for bassoon and string quartet.
Jörg Duda is a German composer of classical music.
Gerhard Präsent is an Austrian composer, conductor and academic teacher.
The ALEA Ensemble is a chamber music ensemble founded in 1988 in Graz for contemporary music, playing in variable formation including the ALEA Quartet.
Herbert Blendinger was an Austrian composer and viola player of German origin.
Three Pieces for Solo Cello op. 28, is a composition for cello in three movements by Graham Waterhouse, dedicated to cellist Siegfried Palm in 1992. The composer, a cellist himself, wrote it to "exploit the characteristics" of his instrument. In 1996, a revised version won a composition prize and was performed at the Hochschule für Musik München. The work was published by the Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag in 1996 and recorded on a Portrait CD of chamber music in 2001.
Rhapsodie Macabre is a composition for piano and string quartet in one movement by Graham Waterhouse, written in 2011 as a homage to Franz Liszt. It was first performed at a Liszt festival of the Gasteig, Munich, with the composer playing the cello part.
Miku Nishimoto-Neubert is a classical pianist.
Graham Waterhouse, cellist and composer especially of chamber music, has written a number of works for string quartet, three major works in several movements, several smaller works and compositions for a solo instrument and string quartet.
The Cello Concerto, Op. 27, is a concerto for cello and orchestra by Graham Waterhouse, composed in 1990. It was first performed in 1995 in Toluca and Mexico City with the composer as the soloist, and published by Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag in Leipzig in 2000.
Bells of Beyond is a piano trio, composed in 2013 by Graham Waterhouse.
Katharina Sellheim is a German classical pianist, with a focus on chamber music and lied accompaniment. She has appeared in recitals internationally, collaborating with members of the Münchner Philharmoniker, and has been a lecturer at the Musikhochschule Hannover.
Konstantin Sellheim is a German classical violist, who has appeared internationally with a focus on chamber music. He is a violist of the Münchner Philharmoniker, and lecturer of viola at the Universität der Künste Berlin.
Skylla and Charybdis is a 2014 composition for piano quartet by Graham Waterhouse, played in four movements without a break. The title refers to Scylla and Charybdis, two sea monsters from Greek mythology. In performances in German-speaking countries, it has also appeared in English surroundings as Between Scylla and Charybdis.
Variations for Cello Solo is a composition written by Graham Waterhouse in 2019. The variations depict characters of personalities. The cellist and composer performed the world premiere in Vienna in 2020. The composition was published by Schott the same year.
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