Written for Talea is a landmark series of concerts that Talea has been presenting for the past four seasons. Written for Talea is a unique set of concerts because it puts the audience and the ensemble in the same boat- positioning them as explorers. We navigate the pieces together with a blank slate of expectation, not sure what we’ll find. I think often when we embark on an unknown journey, our hope is for smooth seas. I find with art and music, however, sometimes the bumpiest rides give us the most. We can not only enjoy the journey, but it makes us take it on with mindfulness, enriching the experience.
-Elizabeth Weisser Helgeson, Talea President
Check out the program notes and get up to speed with these amazing composers.
Mario Diaz de Leon: Sacrament
The word “Sacrament” describes a holy ritual in the Christian Church, that is regarded as an outward and visible sign of divine grace. I have chosen this title as suggestive rather than prescriptive, allowing the hypnotic and ritualistic character of the music to speak for itself. The initial inspiration for this piece is a fast arpeggiating riff in A minor, punctuated by silence, which repeats continuously with variations. Over the course of the work, the music explores contrasts between speed and stillness, primal pulse and fluid motion, spaciousness and overload. Sacrament was commissioned by the Talea Ensemble and made possible through a generous donation by Katharina Pistor and Carsten Bonnemann.
Joshua Fineberg: L’abîme
L’abîme is scored for a trio of Bass Clarinet, Bassoon and Cello soloists complemented by an on-stage ensemble of Flute, Oboe, Piano, Percussion, Violin and a trio of French Horn, Viola and Double Bass in the rear of the hall.
Much rhetoric in the new music world focuses on the acoustically arbitrary division of sonic material into pitch vs. noise, but reality is much more fluid. In this piece, the noise-based techniques in the soloists are the source of almost everything one hears, but those sounds are projected, distorted, diffused and replicated in the mostly pitch-based ensemble parts — like images reflected again and again in a hall of mirrors. This creates a kaleidoscope of doubles and resemblances that shift gradually over time as one moves through this very disorienting space. L’abîme was commissioned by and written for the Talea Ensemble.
Jason Eckardt: Whorl
As the title suggests, Whorl is preoccupied with lines that twist, wrap, and spiral around one another. The somewhat unusual ensemble — solo guitar with English horn, bass clarinet, viola, and ‘cello — compresses the ensemble’s tessitura around a low center, allowing for intertwining that occasionally obscures the identities of the instruments. The teeming textures that result are sometimes violently torn apart, only to re-coalesce, as if drawn together by an unseen force, circling back to a central axis. Whorl was commissioned by the Talea Ensemble and is dedicated the Nico Couck and the members of Talea.
