Friedrich Lips – Schneefall bei Nacht

Sergej Berinskij (1946) – Three pieces in “mauvais” style (1992) L’amour! Kchoo?! Partando Vulp (nobody knows what that is supposed to mean). Each of these titles sounds rather abstract and they have nothing to do with their concrete, metaphorical contents, however, they arouse one’s imagination and initiate people’s emotional perception. The oeuvre demands a rather temperamental performance, emotions most erupt from one’s inside to the outside.

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Depending on the music’s intensity and passion naturalistic and even sexual pictures are created in the listener’s imagination. Not without any reason the composer asks to play these “Three pieces” with the help of a microphone so that all these intentions can be reproduced with hyperbolique volume. The oeuvre is terminated with an episode presenting jewish lamentations.

“Yuji Takahashi’s (1938) “Like a water-buffalo” (1985) is a philosophical contemplation of the sense of being. Its short, but elegant structures stimulate asssociations of Bonsai (Art of cultivating mini-trees) or of Ikebana (Art of creating unique bouquets with only 2 or 3 blossoms). The general tendency in the piece towards the tonal centre “G” (rather key minor), the musical idiom which is rather unusual to the “European ear” and the rather moody and very refined rhythmics create an atmosphere presenting the mysteriousness of the East.

“From dusk to the light” (1995) is Edison Denissov’s (1929-1996) first piece of music for bajan solo. In 1987 this composer, who is one of the most important contemporary artists, wrote a Phantasy to themes of Soviet songs of the 1930s for bajan, piano and percussion. On April 1st, 1987, Friedrich Lips and an ensemble of percussion lead by Mark Pekarskij played the first night. Whereas in most other pieces the way from “Chaos to Light” is marked by fights and obstacles, something different appears in Denissov’s oeuvre: Peace marks the music from beginning to the end. He wants to present the inspiration of the intellect, the quiet contemplation of a person’s old age. Shades of p and pp dominate the piece; dolce, dolcissimo and espressivo are characteristic. Complicated rhythmics (9/8, 11/9, 5/4, etc.) don’t arouse any hectic pace, on the contrary, they even inspire a well balanced world of thought. From time to time beautiful harmonics create an even spicy odeur.

A great number of pieces for bajan can also be found in the oeuvre of Jürgen Ganzers (1950), professor for composition at the Berlin Music Academy. The composer also plays this instrument to perfection. In his “Phantasy 84″ he uses the stereo-effect of two bajan-keyboards in a masterly manner. A basic element of this piece is the premonition of inevitability and things unexplained, the waiting for the unknown, the fact that there could be changes in life. I just remind you of the fact that the piece was written in 1984!

Wladislaw Solotarjow (1942-1975) – Chamber Suite (1965) The romantic poetry of the famous Russian poet Alexander Blok delivered the basic idea for this suite. The titles of the various pieces are rather poetic and also point towards their contents: 1. Evening Prelude, 2. Moonlight spurting outdoors…, 3.Snowfall by night, 4.Mysterious Visions, 5. I’ am calling instances of gloomy sorrow, 6. An old fairy tale. The range of all the 6 pieces of this cycle is not very big, p and mp dominate. However, the pictures of everyone of them make the listener feel rather personal, very intimate emotions, so that they don’t want to stop listening… At the end it’s not applause that is required, but silence…

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