With an Austrian premiere, Ars Electronica bid farewell to POSTCITY on the last Festival day: pianist Maki Namekawa plays Philip Glass’ first piano sonata, which he dedicated to her. The piece was commissioned jointly by the Piano-Festival Ruhr, the Philharmonie de Paris and Ars Electronica. Its world premiere performance took place in July 2019 at the Piano-Festival Ruhr and both the composer as well as Maki Namekawa received enthusiastic appreciation. The piece can now be experienced in the Train Hall of the former post distribution center in Linz as part of “Pianographique – Piano Music meets Digital Images“, the final highlight of the Ars Electronica Festival 2019!
“The Sonata is colorful, wild, excitingly jumpy…” – with these words Malte Hemmerich begins his review of the premiere of Philip Glass’s latest work at the Piano-Festival Ruhr on July 4th 2019 in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
He further continues “… it is a prime example of Philip Glass’s piano music with its opposing rhythms, and there are also many other familiar elements from the composer’s etudes and individual works. In such a wild kaleidoscope, however, they appear here for the first time.”
“It is Glass’s most demanding piano work to date; the rapid succession of virtuoso octave jumps are close to the limit of playability. Namekawa breathes this music, the piece is an example of how an incomparable unity can arise from the close collaboration between composer and interpreter.”
Program
Igor Stravinsky / arr. for Piano 4 hands Dennis Russell Davies “Firebird” (Austrian Premier)
PianoDuo: Maki Namekawa & Dennis Russell Davies
digital realtime visualisation: Cori O’lan
– intermission –
Philip Glass: Piano Sonata (Austrian Premier)
Movement I
Movement II
Movement III
Piano: Maki Namekawa
digital realtime visualisation: Cori O’lan
Commissioned by :
the Piano-Festival Ruhr, the Ars Electronica and the Philharmonie de Paris
Credits:
- Piano Sonata by Philip Glass
- Commissioned by Piano-Festival Ruhr,
- Festival Ars Electronica, Philharmonie de Paris,
- World Premiere Performance July, 2019.
- Supported by Yamaha
