Browse by Label: MDG SCENE (GERMANY)

Artist:	SCHLEIERMACHER, STEFFEN
Title:	Piano Music of the Darmstadt School, Volume 2
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	MDG 6131005CD

Performed by Steffen Schleiermacher (piano, toy piano). Pieces by: Earle Brown: "Corroboree"; Mauricio Kagel: "Mimetics"; Henri Pousseur: "Caracteres"; Helmut Lachenmann: "Echo Andante"; Karlheinz Stockhausen: "Intervalle". "Steffen Schleiermacher is famous for his recordings of modern piano music. Maurico Kagel's Mimetics from 1961 requires that an additional piece be performed simultaneously. Schleiermacher chose to perform his own 'Piece for Toy Piano and IKEA Bells' 'Schoen Hut'. Schoen Hut is the manufacturer of the toy piano which he customized with bells from the toy department of the IKEA furniture store. Stockhausen's 'Intervalle' was composed and inspired by the societal turmoil of 1968. The composer identified with the Darmstadt Summer School movement took the stringent serialistic compositional methods of the 1950s and opened them up for improvisation and other devices."

Artist:	SATIE, ERIK
Title:	Piano Music Vol. 5
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	MDG 6131067CD

"The piano music of Erik Satie is a natural successor to Steffen Schleiermacher's award winning series of the music of John Cage. Steffen Schleiermacher has been awarded numerous prizes for his work on music of the twentieth century, both as a composer and pianist. Satie's solo piano music has become a favorite of film directors as background for foggy, melancholy scenes. Satie was famous for giving frivolous seeming names to his pieces like 'Sleeping Preludes' and 'Really Sleeping Preludes' both dedicated to a dog. Most of the music on this collection is dedicated or inspired by dogs in Satie's life."

Artist:	RILEY, TERRY
Title:	Keyboard Studies
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	MDG 6131135CD

"Performed by Steffen Schleiermacher (keyboard realization and programming) & Bernd E. Gengelbach (sound projection). Minimal music and its strangely fascinating suspended sound animation has long held cult status in the musical world. On this CD Schleielermacher offers more new innovations with Terry Riley's 'Keyboard Studies #1' and '#2'. The keyboard studies are a few pages with short musical formulas and a long 'user's guide' requiring a lot of thought and organizational energy before things can be put into practice. Schleiermacher soon recognized that one interpreter alone couldn't realize the tricky polyphony of the keyboard studies. Schleiermacher arranged the pieces for electronic keyboard. A computer exercises the proper control, so that the voices are never heard simultaneously and the tones occur in rapid succession. An oscillating sound fabric is the result -- in dimensions creating the impression of eternity."

Artist:	STOCKHAUSEN, KARLHEINZ
Title:	Bass Clarinet & Piano
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	MDG 6131451CD

Performed by Voker Hemken (bass clarinet) and Steffen Schleirmacher). "On his new MDG release, Steffen Schleiermacher pays homage to the great Karlheinz Stockhausen, who will turn eighty next year. This pianist specializing in modern music offers new interpretations of Stockhausen's 'Klavierstuck IX,' the most frequently performed work of modern piano music, as well as of 'Tierkreis', together with the clarinetist Volker Hemken. For Stockhausen, the piano was made for experimentation, and it was for this instrument that he wrote his serial compositions. In the transition between extremes and the mediation of them, 'Klavierstuck IX' nevertheless makes a very strong impression. Karlheinz Stockhausen has always had very clear ideas about the way of the world, about the cosmos and his role in it, about his own significance, about music and about esoterism: 'I began occupying myself with the twelve human characters of the zodiac, of which I until then had only a vague notion. While inventing each melody I thought of the nature of children, friends, and acquaintances born under the signs concerned.' 'In Freundschaft' exists for various solo instruments, but Volker Hemken of course presents it in the original version. His wealth of experience as a solo bass clarinetist in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra hardly prepared him for all that Tanze Luzefa holds in store in the way of meowing, purring, smacking, enticing, insisting, and tempting. Howling laughter, vigorous rhythmic clicking, and stamping are also heard."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Trombone & Piano
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	MDG 6131510CD

Performed by Mike Svobda (trombone) and Steffen Schleiermacher (piano). "The entirety of music for the trombone by maverick composer John Cage is on this one CD. Michael Svoboda was born 1960 on the island of Guam and grew up in Chicago. After winning several prizes (BMI Award to young composers 1982), he came to Europe. He has collaborated with Karlheinz Stockhausen, performing the role of Luzlfer as trombone soloist in Stockhausen's opera cycle Licht, and in many more works by that composer. Svoboda performs regularly at major festivals throughout the world and as soloist with major European orchestras. In addition, he performs his own works and plays in various jazz settings. He collaborated with Frank Zappa on a project with Ensemble Modern on Zappa's Yellow Shark project. For nearly 20 years, Mike Svoboda has committed himself to expanding his instrument's repertoire and has premiered over 300 works for trombone in various settings from composers such as Wolfgang Rihm, Sandeep Baghwatl, Toshio Howokawa, Martin Smolka, Peter Eotvos and Helmut Lachenmann."

Artist:	SCHLEIERMACHER, STEFFEN
Title:	For Children
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	MDG 6131520CD

Music by Kurtag, Gubaidulina, Lachenmann and Schleiermacher. Performed by Stefan Schleiermacher (piano). "If you are looking for music for children that is off the beaten path Steffen Scheliermacher has gathered it all together on one CD. Some of the most famous and bold composers of recent history have contributed music for this compilation, including Scheliermacher himself. Seventy one minutes of music made up of a series of sixty three separate miniatures. Steffen Scheleiermacher has risen to prominence by performing almost exclusively modern music."

Artist:	FELDMAN, MORTON
Title:	The Late Piano Works Vol. 1: Triadic Memories
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	MDG 6131521CD

Performed by Steffen Schleiermacher (piano). "Steffen Schleiermacher once again sets out to present the piano compositions of an important 20th-century composer. Vol. 1 of his three-part series featuring Morton Feldman's late piano works contains the 'Triadic Memories.' It is 90 minutes long -- quite short by this American composer's standards! During the 1970s, Morton Feldman developed a new interest in the carpets of Anatolian nomads. He was motivated by an artistic fascination transcending the collector's passion. Although only five or six basic colors are used in the carpets, they are never identical; the nuances produced during the coloring of the threads make the difference. Feldman's music is similarly structured. The wealth of his composition is revealed only under the acoustic microscope. Filigree deviations in the repeating individual tones and chords are detected only by those who take the time to contemplate the peaceful flowing of finely set tones. Steffen Schleiermacher deliberately and reflectively approaches the piano texture of almost monochrome effect and has the tones sound as softly as possible amid constant employment of the pedal. He sets rhythmic and tone-color nuances -- well-thought-out -- in opposition to the slightest hint of uniformity." Total palying time: 80'46.

Artist:	FELDMAN, MORTON
Title:	The Late Piano Works Vol. 2: For Bunita Marcus
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	MDG 6131522CD

Performed by Steffen Schleiermacher (piano). "With volume two of Feldman's late piano works, the recording is devoted to one piece dedicated to the former student and close colleague Bunita Marcus. Feldman's music never is opulent but spare and sparse with few notes that sometimes are stretched over periods of silence. Pianist Steffen Schleiermacher is a specialist in modern music for piano both as a composer and performer. His MDG recordings have garnered an amazing amount of praise."

Artist:	GLASS, PHILIP
Title:	How Now
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	MDG 6131600CD

"Always the same melody, forever the same rhythm... Philip Glass immediately sends his audiences into a trance, and Steffen Schleiermacher is the perfect interpreter of this composer's captivating will. The music of Philip Glass appears to be completely predictable. Already after a few minutes it becomes clear that the note flow will continue undisturbed, that no additional element will produce modifications. The clever alternation between duple and triple time simultaneously creates the impression of variability in the metrical pulse of the music without adherence to an identifiable plan. Glass seems to compose out of a box of building blocks, with prefabricated parts -- but always makes for surprises. Philip Glass composed these work for his own ensemble. He wanted to perform them with various keyboards, saxophones, clarinets, and flutes and without having to rely on the services of specific musicians. He did not supply any further instructions, and Steffen Schleiermacher fully avails himself of this freedom. For this recording he played How Now on the piano. He presents the two other pieces -- Music In Fifths and Music In Similar Motion -- in a version for several electric keyboards recorded in succession and then mixed. In compliance with 'historical performance practice' he chose only those sound registers coming close to the Farfisa organs typifying the 1960s."

Artist:	CAGE, JOHN
Title:	Violin & Piano
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	MDG 6131607CD

"Steffen Schleiermacher's recording of the complete piano works of John Cage has brought him his international breakthrough. These recordings earned the pianist numerous prizes, including three ECHO Klassik awards. Schleiermacher, teaming up with Andreas Seidel (violin), returns to Cage's music, in a recording of the composer's complete oeuvre for piano and violin. These four pieces spanning five decades in Cage's life are also a perfect fit for the CD format. Seidel, the former first violinist of the Leipzig String Quartet and a member of Schleiermacher's Ensemble Avantgarde, is a musician who with his joy of performance and technical brilliance today enriches the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig."

Artist:	NANCARROW, CONLON
Title:	Player Piano 1 - Studies for Player Piano Vol. 1
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	MDG 6451401CD

2005 recordings, using Nancarrow's original player piano from 1927. "One of the most fascinating chapters in the history of the piano of the 20th century were Conlon Nancarrow's studies for player piano. After American-born Nancarrow returned from the Spanish Civil War, fighting the fascists in the thirties, he emigrated to Mexico and began to compose for the already out-of-style player piano. Tempos of 200 beats per second are not unusual, or chords made up of dozens of notes, all impossible for a human to play but as a result of his innovative use of player piano rolls he could make the impossible possible. The instrument used was Nancarrow's own B�sendorfer Ampico grand piano."

Artist:	NANCARROW, CONLON
Title:	Player Piano 3 - Studies 13-32 Vol. 2
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	MDG 6451403CD

2nd volume to be released; 2005 recordings, using Nancarrow's original player piano from 1927."Nancarrow fans have been waiting for the definitive Canonic Studies CDs for quite a while. The wait is officially over. Conlon Nancarrow's player piano studies are famous for their physically un-playable by human hands sounds and counterpoint. All 'written' on a piano roll. Jurgen Hocker was able to find the perfect piano for this project, a Bosendorfer with an Ampico Forsetzer."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Player Piano 4 - Piano Music Without Limits
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	MDG 6451404CD

Original compositions for player piano from the 1920s. Features works by Stravinsky, Hindemith, Haass, Toch, Munch, Lopatnikoff, Casella, Malipiero, Duchamp, Antheil. Furious glissandi, monumental chords, breathtaking velocities, most highly complicated rhythms compounded by multilayered meters, note cascades of hurricane force together with puffy little musical clouds innocently drifting by the dawn of the 20th century brought with it the fully automatic player piano and revolutionized the keyboard world. Stravinsky, Hindemith, Toch, Antheil, Casella, and Malipiero all discovered this instrument and between 1915 and 1927 wrote the original compositions featured on Vol. 4 of MDG Player Piano series. Previously these impressive documents of 'machine aesthetics' have been available only here and there and in unsatisfactory sound quality. After many years of work, Jurgen Hooker is now finally able to fill in this discographic gap. This player piano enthusiasm has collected original perforated ribbons from throughout Europe and lovingly and meticulously prepared them for performance on the Ampico-Bosendorfer player piano stored by him for this purpose."

Artist:	NANCARROW, CONLON
Title:	Player Piano 5: Studies 33-41c Vol. 3
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.50
Catalog #:	MDG 6451405CD

"Canons were Conlon Nancarrow's thing, and the complex temporal courses plotted with the greatest precision in his Studies ('The Well-Tempered Clavier' of the twentieth century) were his trademark. When a second concert grand piano enters the sweepstakes, then we realize why Nancarrow himself was never able to perform the Studies recorded here. Take a four-part canon for two pianos and have the second instrument enter twenty seconds later and play faster than the first, so that the two come together for the shared final chord. The best pianist would be doomed to failure and even piano rolls cannot fulfill to the note the requirements of Nancarrow's Study No. 40. It is thus hardly surprising that 19 years went by between its composition and its premiere. It is only when modern computer technology lends its helping hand to two player pianos that we are able to experience Nancarrow's works exactly as this exceptional American composer imagined them during the mid-1970s. This new recording of the Studies for Player Piano owes its existence to J�rger Hocker. This fanatical Nancarrow fan repeatedly visited the American composer in Mexico and for many years searched for suitable player pianos, had them restored, and prepared copies of the original rolls -- with the result that Nancarrow's works can now be heard on his two B�sendorfer and Fischer grand pianos with especially prepared hammers. And it was also Hocker who tracked down the musical electronics expert Horst Mohr and the engineer Walter Tenten, without whose help the premiere of Nancarrow's Studies would have been unthinkable."

Artist:	NANCARROW, CONLON
Title:	Player Piano 7: Studies 42-48 Vol. 4
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	MDG 6451407CD

"Rarity seekers, this is for you! On volume 7 of his highly ambitious series featuring works for player piano, J�rgen Hocker presents yet another world premiere with Conlon Nancarrow's 'Studies for Player Piano No. 45c', heard here for the first time on an original Ampico player piano. The first recordings of Nancarrow's compositions on original instruments were produced in Mexico in 1977. At the time, this American citizen living in self-imposed exile had completed the 'Studies' through No. 41. A later recording with the other studies in 1988 suffered from the poor condition of the instruments, resulting in a discographic gap that only now has been filled. Elements of jazz music run like a red thread through the three 'Studies No. 45'. First there is a 'limping' boogie-woogie bass with greatly modified jazz melodies, with Nancarrow himself terming this bass the 'spastic rhythm'. Then he punches a slow blues with extremely intricate time relations on the paper roll of the player piano. He concluded by drawing on a technique employed by the American composer Henry Cowell; after a couple of fast chromatic glissandi beyond rendering by the hand are heard, most of the tones are suddenly muffled."

Artist:	VA
Title:	Player Piano 10: Piano Music Without Limits
Label:	MDG SCENE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	MDG 6451410CD

Original compositions and transcriptions in the tradition of Nancarrow. "Vol. 10 of the Player Piano series on MDG features composers who have been inspired by Conlon Nancarrow, the master of the player piano. MDG owes a debt of gratitude to J�rgen Hocker, the player piano expert from Bergisch Gladbach, and to his Ampico grand pianos for making these musical impossibilities a reality. Gy�rgy Ligeti was a border crosser. It is thus hardly surprising that he was the first to discover the great significance of Nancarrow's oeuvre. In the twentieth century this major composer wrote highly demanding piano �tudes in the best tradition of Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, and Rachmaninoff. As Nancarrow in his Studies for Player Piano, Ligeti designed several voices with various velocities. In order to highlight the temporal structures of these pieces intended for performance by a living pianist, Ligeti also had some of his works transferred to the player piano. A wonderful timbre radiates from these centenarian instruments equipped with B�sendorfer sound! Here as many notes as one wants can be produced simultaneously in all the various keyboard regions and at such a swift pace that the tones swirl in a musical hurricane -- not to mention meters and rhythms of a complexity transcending pianistic realization on the keyboard."

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