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NEOS 11703CD
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This CD, titled Vocal Music, presents a selection of the vocal works for mezzo-soprano and various instrumental settings, composed by the recently deceased Czech composer Ladislav Kubík during the period 2012-2016, complemented with one of his earlier compositions, "River in Spring on a text by Franz Kafka (1996). Kubík's lifelong interest in poetry and prose, demonstrated over the years by his numerous vocal works, ranged from the ancient Latin texts and traditional Japanese poems through Rilke, Pasternak, and Kafka to the 20th century Czech, Slovak, American, and Polish poetry. Equally wide is the range of musical forms and genres that bear the poetic message; they include large choral works as well as miniature songs, various chamber music combinations, and non-traditional vocal applications, sometimes in symbiosis with an electronic component. Amongst these works, a special place in Kubík's compositional output belongs to the works for mezzo-soprano, partially generated and inspired by the composer's collaboration with the notable mezzo-soprano Phyllis Pancella. Three of the included works, "24 Haiku", "To Be a Poet", and "Magdalene", are dedicated to her. Yet, her performance is effectively supported by Taiwanese-American pianist Hui-Ting Yang and the Czech musicians Jitka Hosprová (viola) and Hana Brozová (flute), as well as the excellent and, for new music, always enthusiastic Florida State University Percussion Ensemble with Alexander Jiménez (conductor).
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NEOS 11608CD
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Flashes Of Light, composed in 2014-15, connects the classical concept of a concerto with a provocatively unusual sound, made possible by the combination of brass and percussion instruments with four pianos. Historically, writings for multiple pianos have been very rare (i.e. works by Antheil, Glass, G.F. Haas, Reich, Spahlinger, Wyschnegradsky), and always originate from the composers's specific intent or stylistic concept. In Ladislav Kubík's work, the use of four pianos is for the multiplication of the piano's characteristics, including the ability to produce highly sophisticated inner textures and, of course, to substantially extend all technical possibilities of the instrument. Yet, despite existing within this atypical ensemble, the piano maintains its usual idiomatic character as it has absorbed three centuries of musical development. The piano section appears as a homogeneous body and presents a wide variety of musical possibilities, ranging anywhere from the lyrical cantilena to intense percussive passages. All individual instrumental parts are very demanding and their relative importance to the ensemble as a whole is well balanced. However, at the center of the composition is the first solo trumpet. Ladislav Kubík (born in 1946 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) studied composition and music theory at the Prague Academy of Music. Kubík has received many awards for his compositions including the Guggenheim Fellowship, distinctions at the International Rostrum of Composers UNESCO, the Intervision Prize, and the International Franz Kafka Prize. Commissioned by the prestigious organizations in Europe and America, his works have been performed in nearly 30 countries. He served as an adjudicator in major world music competitions and established his own "Ladislav Kubík International Prize in Composition". Ladislav Kubík resides in the United States where he is a professor of composition at Florida State University. As a sought-after pedagogue he appears yearly at the CASMI International Summer Courses in Prague. Personnel: Hui-Ting Yang - Piano; Phyllis Pancella - Mezzo-soprano; Karen Bentley Pollick - Violin; Barbara Butler, Christopher Moore - Trumpet soloists; Read Gainsford, Joel Hastings, David Kalhous, Heidi Louise Williams - Piano soloists; Javian Brabham, Judy Gaunt, Seth Johnson, John Kilgore, Eric Millard, Rebecca Walenz - Trumpet Ensemble; John McGovern, Mitchell Gribbroek, Peter Soroka, Ben Tomlinson - Percussion; Alexander Jiménez - Conductor.
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