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| | Arts Calendar / October 21 / Concerts |
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19:00 | Anton Batagov (piano, Russia) |
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 Anton Batagov (piano) will perform Triadic Memories of Morton Feldman. Feldman lived and worked in New York. His music is probably the softest music ever written. NewYork is probably the noisiest city on this planet. This fact is really amazing. Modern world is extremely loud. We are constantly surrounded by sounds of all kinds being produced by our civilization – cars, trains, plains, machinery, sirens and alarms, phones and other electronic toys, all - pervasiveradio and television with their obtrusive voices and jingles, music from passing cars, music that is always being played in stores, restaurants and bars, music from headphones, etc, etc… We don't even notice these sounds because we have gotten used to them. We have completely forgotten what silence sounds like. Silence. The key word for Feldman's music. His music is very quiet, almost silent. Not a single loud note. Not the slightest desire for any dynamic changes. No crescendos/diminuendos. No climaxes, no traditional development, no contrasts, no conflicts. Pianissimo throughout. Icy overtone structures. Transparent piano texture on the edge of complete silence. Every note is infinitely valuable. This music offers us a unique chance to restore our ability to hear. To hear silence, to hear soft sounds, to hear ourselves. It requires deep concentration. Not an easy task…Anton Batagov (born October 10, 1965 in Moscow) is a Russian pianist and post-minimalist composer. Heralded as "one of the most significant and unusual figures of Russian contemporary music" (Newsweek, Russian edition, 1997) and "a Russian Terry Riley" (Los Angeles Times, 2008), Anton Batagov is one of the most influential Russian composers and performers of our time. The post-Cagean philosophy of Batagov's projects eliminates any boundaries between "performance" and "composition" by viewing all existing musical practices—from ancient rituals to rock and pop culture and advanced computer technologies—as potential elements of performance and composition. In 2015 his CD Fear No More, a symphonic/rock vocal cycle performed by the Russian State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, was nominated for International Classical Music Awards. The post-minimalist language of Batagov's compositions is rooted in the harmonic and rhythmic patterns of Russian church bells and folk songs seamlessly mixed with the spirit of Buddhist philosophy, the dynamic pulse of early Soviet avant-garde, and the unfading appeal of rock music. Batagov's works feature a unique sense of large-scale architecture and textured emotionalism.
MMDM Chamber Hall  |
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