In addition to his extensive compositional output, Romanian composer Corneliu Dan Georgescu has studied music performance, theory, morphology, musicology, and ethnomusicology. His compositional work has developed in parallel with his scientific research in ethnomusicology and aesthetics. From 1962-83 he worked at the Bucharest Institute Constatin Brailoiu (formerly the Institute of Folklore, Institute for Social Anthropology and Dialectological Research), where he undertook fieldwork as an ethnologist. Georgescu then worked as an art historian at the Institute for Art History, Bucharest. From 1970-1987 he was awarded nine prizes of the Romanian Composers Union for his compositional and musicological works. In 2007 he received the "The Cultural Merit" award. Watch a performance of Corneliu Dan Georgescu's  Praeludium fur Columna Infinita (2011) . . . it's one of our NEW MUSIC VIDEOS for the week.

Anna Weesner's music has been described as “animated and full of surprising turns” (The New York Times), as “a haunting conspiracy” (The Philadelphia Inquirer) and cited as demonstrating “an ability to make complex textures out of simple devices” (San Francisco Classical Voice). John Harbison has written that “none of it proceeds in obvious ways. Her vocabulary is subtle and rather elusive; the effect is paradoxically confident and decisive.” Weesner is the recipient of a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2008 award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Listen to her work for string orchestra, Still Things Move (2003) . . . it's one of our PYTHEAS EARFULS for the week.

Described as "beautiful and impassioned ... lustrous at the keyboard" by The New York Times, Lisa Moore’s playing combines music, theatre and expressive, emotional power - whether in the delivery of the simplest song, a solo recital or a fiendish chamber score. Crowned "New York's queen of avant-garde piano" and "visionary" by The New Yorker this New York based Australian virtuoso has performed with a large and diverse range of musicians and artists – the London Sinfonietta, New York City Ballet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Bargemusic, Bang on a Can All-Stars, TwoSense, Steve Reich Ensemble, Grand Band, So Percussion, Don Byron Adventurers Orchestra, Signal, Le Train Bleu, Third Coast Percussion, Da Capo Chamber Players, eighth blackbird, and the John Jasperse Dance Company. Pitchfork writes "She's the best kind of contemporary classical musician, one so fearsomely game that she inspires composers to offer her their most wildly unplayable ideas". Moore's repertoire moves between composers such as Joseph Haydn, Robert Schumann, Leos Janacek, Bela Bartok, Modeste Mussorgsky, Gyorgy Ligeti, Randy Newman, Rufus Wainwright, Martin Bresnick, John Adams, Missy Mazzoli and Frederic Rzewski . . . she's this week's NEW MUSIC PERFORMER.

Richard Danielpour  Three Preludes (2003), nos. 1 and 2 . . . a little something FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times writes of American composer Richard Danielpour's opera Margaret Garner (2005), "Mr. Danielpour’s undeniable craft comes through in almost every passage. He can write lyrically ruminative vocal lines and knows how to energize choristers, as in an animated ensemble of slaves awaiting auction, where the words “No, no more!” become a theme for a syncopated, patter-filled, fuguelike chorus. The orchestral writing is flecked with color and richly sonorous". Hear Gregg Baker and Denyce Graves of the Opera Company of Philadelphia sing an excerpt from Margaret Garner . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

One of the 20th-century's great symphonists, Witold Lutoslawski created an impressive, always progressing body of music in the most difficult of circumstances. As the commander of a military radio station, he was captured by the invading Germans at the beginning of World War II. He escaped, and survived the occupation by playing piano duos in Warsaw cafes, including his Variations on a Theme of Paganini. In 1949 his Symphony No. 1 was the first Polish work to be denounced as formalist by Stalinist cultural politicians. In reaction, Lutoslawski wrote public works based on folk material, while continuing to develop a more personal language privately. In the cultural thaw following Stalin's death, Lutoslawski became a major international figure, renowned for innovations in form and performing techniques and a consistently eloquent personal voice - (from the Los Angeles Philharmonic). Hear Lutoslawski speak of his life and his music in an interview with Charles Amirkhanian . . . this week's COMPOSER PORTRAIT.

Composer Karen Amrhein has now completed her project of creating an animated film based on her 2007 work "Princess Paliné, who learned the seven words that stay a dragon's hunger and cool its fires". According to the composer, "The 28-minute animated film (with musical score and narration) ... engaged much of my time over the past year and a half. Having almost no experience with film-making – and none with animation – before beginning this, I’ve learned a great deal. I created the animation by employing time-tested stop-motion techniques to altered images from old fruit and vegetable crate labels, medieval illuminations, and bits from scans of paintings by the masters. Preview audiences have been left in stunned silence by the results". Watch an excerpt from this beautiful and timeless film . . . the second of our FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS for the week.

Erik Satie's Nocturnes are some of the last compositions he wrote for piano. Their harmonies rely on fourths and fifths and each shows a characteristic simplicity of texture. By this stage of his life, Satie's compositional technique had altered somewhat and the Nocturnes, like most of his works from the 1890s onwards, are made up of juxtaposed fragments of themes. Listen to and watch a unique performance of the Nocturne No. 2 (1919) . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music

Richard Danielpour has become one of the most sought-after composers of his generation – a composer whose distinctive American voice is part of a rich neo-Romantic heritage with influences from pivotal composers like Britten, Copland, Bernstein, and Barber. Danielpour has commented that "music [must] have an immediate visceral impact and elicit a visceral response." Check out his Souvenirs (2008) for orchestra ... this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEO.

According to Ned Raggett (All Music Guide), "Mirjam Tally's self-titled debut CD, collecting pieces composed over the previous seven years, reflects both a striking confidence in the 27-year-old's compositional abilities and an attractively broad range of influences ..." Have a look at it - it's our PYTHEAS FEATURED RECORDING.

In 1930 Berthold Bartosch moved to Paris and created the 30 minute film entitled L'Idea/The Idea. It is described as the first serious, poetic, tragic work in animation. The film's characters and backdrops were composed of several layers of different types of paper from semi- transparent to thick cardboard. Special effects like halos, smoke and fog were made with lather spread on glass plates and lit from behind. The film was based on a book of woodcuts from Frans Masereel and the animated film featured a score by composer Arthur Honegger, who employed the Ondes Martenot in his score, the very first use of an electronic instrument in film history ... see and hear it - it's our current PYTHEAS SIGHTING.

"For sheer visceral effect, nothing matched Chen Yi's Spring Dreams. The idea of 'petals falling' was conveyed through rhythmic whispers and chatters, birds by pulsating whistles. In the midst of this cumulative din the sound of voices actually singing came as a jolt. Chen has the ability to create a minor sensation with the simplest of means." - Paul Horsely, The Kansas City Star. See a perfomance of Chen Yi's Spring Dreams (1997) by Chanticleer at this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music