Sandeep Bhagwati: …elusive epiphanies…, 11 fragments from Music of Crossings, Moritz Ernst, piano

Описание: Sandeep Bhagwati's solo piano cycle "Music of Crossings" from 2018 comprises 36 piano compositions. Each of them is written in a different style or layering of styles, some familiar, others not.

Pianist Moritz Ernst has premiered and championed this music on his tours for several years now, and also played the first complete recital of the cycle on May 9, 2019 in Munich's "Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts".

Each composition is accompanied by a poem written by the composer - or a quote that inspired him.

Fragment 1: ...in a garden, serene...

gardens are wonders in process.
detached from the mundane,
you render yourself into nature.

Fragment 13: ...with pinpoint precision...

deflected,
spun,
ideas encounter things
graze what is clearly the case
are distracted, trundle, sink.
who, though, pushes them?

Fragment 2: ...with elegance, wit & passion...

"Be sassy, whatever you do.
From little get much !
Mimic with savvy.
Play your game, always.
And know how to dose
emphasis and wit:
Command as if you were seducing."
Advice from the Countess

Fragment 20: ...waiting for the moon to rise...(Faiz Ahmad Faiz)

The day fades into night - and solitude,
that old acquaintance, pours the wine.
We both wait for the moon to rise -
and for your face to shimmer in the shadows.

Fragment 12: ... I must sing the difficult precisely when it is difficult to sing...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
O my, you here again, Boulez, radical composer,
exploring breathless dodecaphony, unparalleled
1 12 2 11 3 10 4 9 5 8 6 7
O dodecaphonic or serialistic You, structural sage, para-human being, intoning ritual aphonia
1 7 12 6 2 8 11 5 3 9 10 4
O prophet, incandescent Pierre of rational irreverence, lucid conductor, orchestra's boon
1 4 7 10 12 9 6 3 2 5 8 11
O hear, rightly celebrated avantgardian, melodious sounds: are we owing orthodox composition ?

Fragment 9: ... j’aimerais qu’il existe des lieux immuables ... (Georges Perec)
(... i wish there were unchangeable places...)

I am nearing my own house.
My step gets ever more halting.
Inside, they celebrate that strange feast,
to which no one invited me, ever.

Fragment 34: ... elusive epiphanies ...

The future is not ours to see
Things to come are idle talk!
Better trust your body, never think.
With the right moves,
you will make many futures.

Fragment 30: ... how stiff and wondrous old ... (John Dryden – Henry Purcell)

He who loves frost loves fire.
He who binds himself breaks free.
Where dissonance arises, harmony rules.
Wherever stupidity reigns, people adore such adages.

Fragment 26: ... espèce de mouche ... (à Béla Bartók)
(...blasted fly...)

In the diary of flies
down-to-earthness does not matter
The hand moves in implacably
Restlessness ensures survival
Persistence would be sin.
Only whirring is being.

Fragment 36: ... I am a wanderer ... (Shankar-Jaikishan)

If you seek to recover our traces
You may find them everywhere -
But mostly within us!

Fragment 29: ...transparent, airy... (for Wilhelm Killmayer)

The visions of the past are not bereft
Of nature, as fading as the days left
Of high summer. Autumn descends to earth again
The seers’ spirit lights the skies again.
(Friedrich Hölderlin)

Die Bilder der Vergangenheit sind nicht verlassen
Von der Natur, als wie die Tag’ verblassen
Im hohen Sommer, kehrt der Herbst zur Erde nieder,
Der Geist der Schauer findet sich am Himmel wieder.
(Friedrich Hölderlin)


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Recorded on Dec 19, 2022 in Badenweiler by
Stefan Gawlick, sound & Vanessa Heinisch, video
Piano technician: Klavierhaus Labianca, Simon Schmider