Pianographique

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Maki Namekawa, klavír | piano
Dennis Russell Davies, klavír | piano
Cori O’Lan, real-time vizualizácie | real-time visuals

Projekt Pianographique vznikol z iniciatívy medzinárodného festivalu Ars Electronica v Linzi v roku 2013 a tvorí ho séria spoluprác japonskej klaviristky Maki Namekawa (na festivale Viva Musica! sa predstavila po boku Philipa Glassa v roku 2015 s programom The Complete Piano Etudes), amerického klaviristu a dirigenta Dennisa Russella Daviesa a rakúskeho vizuálneho umelca Cori O’Lana. Pianographique je o prepájaní umenia s novými technológiami, konkrétne o vizuálnom stvárnení hudby, ktoré vzniká v reálnom čase (real-time) na základe interakcie hudby, interpretov a počítačového systému. Počítač je v tomto prípade pomyselným maliarskym štetcom, ktorý je ovládaný klaviristami, a tak ako sa interpretácia jednej skladby na rôznych koncertoch môže líšiť, odlišné sú aj jej samotné vizuálne stvárnenia. Maki Namekawa a Dennis Russell Davies tvoria klavírne duo od roku 2003. Pravidelne koncertujú na významných pódiách v Európe, Japonsku a v Severnej Amerike. Sú jednými z najbližších spolupracovníkov amerického skladateľa Philipa Glassa a pravidelne uvádzajú jeho diela. Na koncerte v rámci festivalu Viva Musica! uvedú jeho skladby Piano Sonata (v slovenskej premiére) a Four Movements for Two Pianos, ktoré doplnia diela The Seasons Johna Cagea a Piano Phase Steva Reicha. Koncert sa koná v spolupráci s festivalom Ars Electronica Linz.

Program

John Cage (1912 – 1992) 
The Seasons
Prelúdium I – Zima (Winter) – Prelúdium II – Jar (Spring) – Prelúdium III – Leto (Summer) – Prelúdium IV – Jeseň (Fall) – Finale (Prelúdium I)

Philip Glass (*1937)
Piano Sonata
Movement I – Movement II – Movement III
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Steve Reich (*1936)
Piano Phase

Philip Glass
Four Movements for Two Pianos
Movement I – Movement II – Movement III – Movement IV

Zmena programu a účinkujúcich vyhradená. | We reserve the right to amend the programme.

Partner koncertu

Maki Namekawa patrí medzi najvýraznejšie osobnosti v rámci súčasnej klavírnej interpretačnej scény. Ako sólistka a komorná hráčka pravidelne uvádza najmä hudbu súčasných autorov. Koncertovala v Carnegie Hall a v Lincoln Centre v New Yorku, vo viedenskom Musikvereine, v Barbican Centre a Cadogan Hall v Londýne, v Citè de la musique a vo Philharmonie de Paris, v Concertgebouw v Amsterdame, v BOZAR v Bruseli, v Suntory Hall a Sumida Toriphony Hall v Tokiu, na festivaloch v Salzburgu, Ars Electronica v Linzi, Musik-Biennale v Berlíne, v Rheingau či na Piano-Festival Ruhr. Maki Namekawa často nahráva pre rozhlasové stanice v Rakúsku, Nemecku, Holandsku, Švajčiarsku, Francúzsku a v USA. Spolupracovala s Royal Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam, s orchestrami Mníchovskej a Drážďanskej filharmónie, s Bamberger Symphoniker, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Sinfonieorchester Basel, s orchestrom Filharmónie Brno, s American Composers Orchestra a so Seattle Symphony. V roku 2013 uviedla na Perth International Arts Festival vo svetovej premiére kompletný cyklus dvadsiatich klavírnych etúd Philipa Glassa za osobnej účasti autora, po ktorom nasledovali koncerty v USA, Mexiku, Brazílii, Írsku, Škótsku, na Islande, vo Švédsku, Fínsku, Dánsku, na Slovensku (v rámci festivalu Viva Musica!), v Poľsku, Nemecku a v Japonsku. Nahrávka The Complete Piano Etudes (2014, Orange Mountain Music) sa dostala na prvé miesto v rebríčku iTunes Classic a bola vysoko hodnotená aj v rámci BBC Music Magazine. V septembri 2018 vydala Maki Namekawa nahrávku Glassovej hudby k filmu Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, ktorý zobrazuje život a smrť japonského spisovateľa a politického aktivistu Jukia Mišimu – v úprave pre klavír, ktorú pre ňu vytvoril Glassov dlhoročný spolupracovník Michael Riesman. V júni 2019 vyšla jej ďalšia nahrávka Isang Yun | Sunrise Falling (za oba albumy získala ocenenie Pasticcio udeľované rakúskou ORF). V roku 2019 Philip Glass napísal svoju prvú klavírnu sonátu, ktorá je venovaná Maki Namekawa. Piano Sonata vznikla na objednávku Piano-Festival Ruhr, Philharmonie de Paris a festivalu Ars Electronica v Linzi a vo svetovej premiére zaznela 4. júla 2019 na Piano-Festival Ruhr v Nemecku za prítomnosti autora. Spolu so svojím manželom, dirigentom Dennisom Russellom Daviesom, založila Maki Namekawa v roku 2003 klavírne duo, ktoré pravidelne koncertuje v Európe, Japonsku a v Severnej Amerike a pre ktoré vzniklo viacero nových diel (Glass: Four Movements for Two Pianos a Two Movements for Four Pianos (spolu s Katiou a Marielle Labèque), China West Suite od čínsko-americkej skladateľky Chen Yi, Variation 57 japonského skladateľa Joea Hisaišiho a ď.). V júli 2017 získali Maki Namekawa, Dennis Russell Davies a Philip Glass cenu Piano-Festival Ruhr Award. Maki Namekawa študovala hru na klavíri na Kunitachi Conservatory v Tokiu u Mikia Ikezawu a Henriette Puig-Roget. V roku 1994 získala cenu Leonida Kreutzera. V roku 1995 pokračovala v štúdiu u Wernera Genuita a Kaye Han na Musikhochschule Karlsruhe. Študovala tiež u Edith Picht-Axenfeld, Pierra-Laurenta Aimarda (Musikhochschule Köln), Györgya Kurtága, Stefana Litwina a u Florenta Boffarda.

Americký dirigent a klavirista Dennis Russell Davies je všeobecne známy najmä svojím originálnym a inovatívnym prístupom k uvádzaniu klasickej hudby a k tvorbe koncertnej dramaturgie. Úzko spolupracoval s viacerými hudobnými skladateľmi ako Luciano Berio, William Bolcon, John Cage, Philip Glass, Heinz Winbeck, Aaron Coplan, Lou Harrison, Laurie Anderson, Avro Pärt, Hans Werner Henze, Kurt Schwertsik, Thomas Larcher, Balduin Sulzer a Manfred Trojahn. Pôsobil ako umelecký vedúci Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra a ako hlavný dirigent American Composers Orchestra, ktorý viedol 25 rokov. Neskôr sa presťahoval do Európy, kde pôsobil ako generálny riaditeľ Opery v Stuttgarte, neskôr ako riaditeľ Opery v Bonne a Beethoven Orchestra v Bonne. Spolupracoval tiež s Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra a so Sinfonieorcherster Basel. V roku 2013, počas svojho dlhého a úspešného pôsobenia v Linzi na pozícii hlavného dirigenta Landestheater a Bruckner Orchester Linz, uviedol pri príležitosti otvorenia nového divadla Musiktheater Linz vo svetovej premiére operu Philipa Glassa The Lost (Spuren der Verirrten) podľa predlohy Petra Handkeho, a operu Rosenkavalier Richarda Straussa. Ako hosťujúci dirigent v USA spolupracoval so symfonickými orchestrami v Chicagu, Philadelphii, San Franciscu, Bostone, New Yorku a Clevelande. V Európe pravidelne spolupracoval s Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam a Gewandhausorchester Lipsko, dirigoval orchester Berlínskej filharmónie, orchestre Filarmonica della Scala, Petrohradskej, Hamburskej či Bavorskej filharmónie, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino a ď. Vo Frankfurte uviedol operu Tri Sestry Petra Eötvösa a dirigoval tiež opery Salome a Wozzeck vo Viedenskej štátnej opere. Vystúpil na festivaloch v Bayreuthe a v Salzburgu, dirigoval v Metropolitnej opere v New Yorku, v operných domoch v Hamburgu a Mníchove, v Národnej opere v Paríži, v Lyric Opera v Chicagu či v Teatro Real v Madride, a spolupracoval s viacerými svetoznámymi opernými režisérmi. Daviesova bohatá diskografia zahŕňa kompletné nahrávky symfónií Antona Brucknera a Philipa Glassa (Bruckner Orchester Linz), Josepha Haydna (Stuttgarter Kammerorchester) a Arthura Honeggera (Sinfonieorchester Basel), ale aj viaceré nahrávky realizované so svojou manželkou a umeleckou partnerkou Maki Namekawa. Dennis Russell Davies sa narodil v Tolede v Ohiu v roku 1944. Študoval hru na klavíri a dirigovanie na Juilliard School v New Yorku. V rokoch 1997–2012 bol profesorom orchestrálneho dirigovania na Universität Mozarteum v Salzburgu. Od roku 2020 je hosťujúcim profesorom na Janáčkovej akadémii múzických umení v Brne. Od roku 2009 je zároveň členom American Academy of Arts and Sciences a nositeľom Záslužného rádu Nemeckej spolkovej republiky, rakúskeho Čestného kríža Za vedu a umenie ako aj titulu Commandeur des Arts et Lettres, ktorú udeľuje francúzska vláda. V súčasnosti pôsobí ako umelecký riaditeľ a šéfdirigent orchestra Filharmónie Brno a šéfdirigent MDR-Sinfonieorchester v Lipsku.

Tvorba rakúskeho VJa Cori O'Lana sa pohybuje na pomedzí umenia a nových technológií s dôrazom na živé, počítačom generované vizualizácie hudby. Vďaka dlhodobej spolupráci s Ars Electronica Futurelab, klaviristkou Maki Namekawa a dirigentom a klaviristom Dennisom Russelom Daviesom vytvoril systém jedinečných vizuálnych interpretácií klasickej hudby, ktoré vznikajú „real-time“, t. j. v reálnom čase. Jednotlivé grafické prvky v rámci týchto digitálnych obrazov sú odvodené priamo z akustického materiálu – teda zo samotnej hudby a z jej interpretácie klaviristami. Aby sa to dosiahlo, zvuky produkované klavírmi sú snímané mikrofónmi a následne počítačom transformované do množstva dátových bodov, ktoré zohľadňujú frekvenciu, výšku tónu, hlasitosť a dynamiku. Tieto dáta následne ovládajú počítač, ktorý vytvára, upravuje a animuje rôzne grafické prvky do výslednej real-time vizualizácie. Samotná živá povaha tohto procesu vytvára bezprostredné prepojenie medzi hudobným a vizuálnym zážitkom, pričom nejde len o „mechanický preklad" hudobného zvuku do obrazu. Namiesto toho sa Cori O’Lan snaží vytvárať živú, organickú vizuálnu entitu, ktorá má svoju vlastnú povahu a správanie, čerpá z charakteristík hudby, pričom súčasne „počúva“ hudbu a reaguje na ňu počas jej hrania. Koncerty v rámci projektu Pianographique boli prezentované v New Yorku, Los Angeles, Tokiu, Osake, Abu Dhabi, Bruseli a v Ars Electronica Centre v Linzi.

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The Pianographique project grew from an initiative by Ars Electronica Festival in Linz in 2013. It comprises a series of concerts by the Japanese pianist Maki Namekawa (at Viva Musica! festival she performed alongside Philip Glass in 2015 with The Complete Piano Etudes), the American pianist and conductor Dennis Russell Davies, and the Austrian visual artist Cori O’Lan. Pianographique is about merging the art with new technologies, specifically about the visual fashioning of music which emerges in real-time, based on the interaction of music, performers and computer system. In this instance, the computer is an imaginary painter’s brush that the pianists have mastered, and thus the performance of a given composition can differ and diverge from its actual visual production with every performance. Maki Namekawa and Dennis Russell Davies have formed a piano duo since 2003. They perform regularly at prestigious venues in Europe, Japan and North America. They are among the closest partners of the American composer Philip Glass, and they regularly perform his works. At Viva Musica! festival their concert will include Glass’s Piano Sonata (Slovak premiere) and Four Movements for Two Pianos, complementing these with The Seasons by John Cage and Piano Phase by Steve Reich. The concert is held in cooperation with Ars Electronica Linz festival.

Maki Namekawa is a leading figure among today’s pianists, bringing to audiences’ attention contemporary music by international composers. As a soloist and a chamber musician equally at home in classical and repertoire of our time, she performs regularly at international venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre New York, Musikverein Vienna, Barbican Centre and Cadogan Hall London, Citè de la musique Paris, Philharmonie de Paris, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, BOZAR Brussels, Suntory Hall and Sumida Toriphony Hall Tokyo, Salzburg Festival, Ars Electronica Festival, Musik-Biennale Berlin, Rheingau Musik Festival and Piano-Festival Ruhr. Maki Namekawa records and performs frequently for major radio networks in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, and USA. Orchestra engagements include Royal Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam, Münchner Philharmoniker, Bamberger Symphoniker, Dresdner Philharmonie, Bruckner Orchester Linz, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Filharmonie Brno, American Composers Orchestra, and Seattle Symphony. In 2013, she performed the world premiere of the entire cycle of Philip Glass’ 20 etudes for piano solo at Perth International Arts Festival under the participation of Glass himself, followed by concerts around the world in the US, Mexico, Brazil, Ireland, Scotland, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, and Japan. A double-CD of the complete Glass etudes has been released in 2014 by Orange Mountain Music, reaching number 1 of the iTunes Classic charts and receiving high praise in the categories “Performance” and “Recording” by BBC Music Magazine. In September 2017 Maki Namekawa presented the whole cycle of Glass etudes for the first time in Austria at the Ars Electronica Festival as a project Pianographique with real-time visualizations by Cori O‘Lan. In September 2018, Maki Namekawa released the piano version of Philip Glass’ soundtrack Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters that depicts the life and death of the Japanese writer and political activist Yukio Mishima. The arrangement was especially crafted for her by Glass’ long-term musical director Michael Riesman and features her crystal-clear technique. The recording was awarded the prestigious Pasticcio Prize by ORF – Austrian National Radio Broadcast. In June 2019, her another recording Isang Yun | Sunrise Falling was awarded Pasticcio Prize again. In 2019 Philip Glass composed his first Piano Sonata especially for Maki Namekawa. She premiered the Sonata on July 4th, 2019, at Piano-Festival Ruhr in Germany in the presence of the composer. This Piano Sonata was commissioned by the Piano-Festival Ruhr, the Philharmonie de Paris and the Ars Electronica Festival. Together with her husband, the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, Maki Namekawa formed a piano duo in 2003 which regularly performs in leading venues in Europe, Japan, and North America. Major works written for the Namekawa-Davies Duo include Philip Glass’ Four Movements for Two Pianos, Chen Yi’s China West Suite, and Glass’ Two Movements for Four Pianos (with Katia and Marielle Labèque) all commissioned by the Piano Festival Ruhr. In July 2017, Maki Namekawa, Dennis Russell Davies, and Philip Glass received the Piano Festival Ruhr Award. In 2019 Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi composed for the Namekawa-Davies Duo a work for two pianos and chamber orchestra Variation 57, premiered in Tokyo under the baton of the composer. Maki Namekawa studied piano at Kunitachi Conservatory in Tokyo with Mikio Ikezawa and Henriette Puig-Roget. In 1994 she won the Leonid Kreutzer Prize. In 1995 she continued her studies with Werner Genuit and Kaya Han at Musikhochschule Karlsruhe, where she completed her diploma as a soloist with special distinction. She went on to perfect her artistry in Classical-Romantic repertoire with Edith Picht-Axenfeld, in contemporary music with Pierre-Laurent Aimard at Musikhochschule Köln, György Kurtág, Stefan Litwin and Florent Boffard.

Dennis Russell Davies’ activities as opera and orchestral conductor, and as pianist and chamber musician, are characterized by an extensive repertory stretching from Baroque to the latest music of our time. Widely considered to be one of the most innovative and adventurous conductors/programmers in the classical music world, Davies has successfully challenged and inspired audiences on both sides of the Atlantic as well as in Japan. He is noted for exciting, well-structured concerts and for his close working relationships with such varied composers as Luciano Berio, William Bolcom, John Cage, Philip Glass, Heinz Winbeck, Aaron Copland, Lou Harrison, Laurie Anderson, Arvo Pärt, Hans Werner Henze, Kurt Schwertsik, Thomas Larcher, Balduin Sulzer, and Manfred Trojahn. After first appointments as Music Director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Chief Conductor of the American Composers Orchestra, which he led for 25 years, Davies moved to Europe as General Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart, then Opera Bonn and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn. He subsequently led the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and the Sinfonieorchester Basel. In 2013, during his long and successful tenure in Linz as Chief Conductor of the Landestheater Linz and Bruckner Orchester Linz, Davies inaugurated the new Linzer Musiktheater conducting the world premiere of Philip Glass’/Peter Handke’s Spuren der Verirrten and Strauss’ Rosenkavalier. As guest conductor in the USA, he has appeared with the orchestras of Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, New York, and Cleveland. In Europe he has worked regularly with the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and has conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker, Filarmonica della Scala, the St. Petersburg Philharmonia, Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, as well as the Hamburg and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras. Recent opera engagements include a new production of Peter Eötvös‘ Three Sisters in Frankfurt and multiple performances of Salome and Wozzeck at the Wiener Staatsoper. He has conducted new productions at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Hamburgische and Bayerische Staatsoper, the Opéra National de Paris, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Teatro Real in Madrid – a total of more than 140 new productions by many of the theatre world‘s most important stage directors. Dennis Russell Davies‘ rich discography includes complete recordings of the symphonies of Anton Bruckner and Philip Glass (Bruckner Orchester Linz), Joseph Haydn (Stuttgarter Kammerorchester) and Arthur Honegger (Sinfonieorchester Basel). With his wife and duo partner Maki Namekawa he has recorded extensively, including works by Mozart, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Glass and Stravinsky’s original four-hand versions of Le Sacre de Printemps, Firebird, and Petrouchka, which he also recorded with the Sinfonieorchester Basel. Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1944, Davies studied piano and conducting at the Juilliard School in New York. From 1997–2012 he was professor for orchestral conducting at the University Mozarteum Salzburg. Since September 2020, he is a guest professor at the Janáček Academy of Music and performing Arts in Brno. Since 2009, Dennis Russell Davies is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has been awarded the German Bundesverdienstkreuz, the Austrian Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst, as well as the title Commandeur des Arts et Lettres bestowed by the French Government. Currently, Dennis Russell Davies is an Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Brno Philharmonic, and a Chief Conductor of the MDR-Sinfonieorchester in Leipzig.

Cori O'Lan has worked at the crossroads of art and technology since the late 1980s. His most recent work is focusing on live, computer-generated visualizations of orchestral and piano music. Through a longstanding collaboration with the Ars Electronica Futurelab, pianist Maki Namekawa and conductor Dennis Russel Davies, he has developed a unique style of ‘accompanying visualizations', working with and elaborating on the music as it is performed, in real time, to create unique, one-of-a-kind visual interpretations. In these accompanying and responsive real-time visualisations, each individual graphic element is derived directly from the acoustic material – that is, from the qualities of the music itself as it is performed by the pianists. To achieve this, the sounds produced by the pianos are picked up by microphones. These signals are then transformed by a computer into thousands of data points, drawing on musical elements including frequency, pitch, volume, and dynamics. This information, in turn, is used to control the graphics computer, which creates, modifies, and animates the different graphic elements that together make up the visualisation. The live nature of this process ensures there is a direct and deeply expressive connection between the musical and visual experiences. With these visual interpretations, O'Lan seeks to go beyond a direct mechanical translation of sound into image. Instead, he sets out to create a living, organic visual entity which has its own nature and behaviour, drawing on the characteristics of the music, while simultaneously ‘listening' to and responding to the music as it is performed. These visual-concert projects have been performed in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Osaka, Abu Dhabi, Brussels and of course at Ars Electronica Linz.