QUADRIPTYCH (2008)
QUADRIPTYCH (2008)
for ensemble
ensemble: 1*.1*.1*.1/1.0.0.0/1.1.1.1.1
duration: 22 minutes
première: May 16, 2008, City Museum Ljubljana, Festival Unicum, Slovenia
Cantus Ensemble
Conducted by Berislav Šipuš
QUADRIPTYCH
score preview
QUADRIPTYCH
(excerpt)
May 16, 2008, City Museum Ljubljana
Cantus Ensemble, conducted by Berislav Šipuš
Production by Radio Slovenia
Additional performances
Klangspuren International Ensemble Modern Academy
Conducted by Jonathan Stockhammer
International Ensemble Modern Academy
Conducted by Brad Lubman
ABOUT
A substantial work for ten players lasting over twenty minutes, QUADRIPTYCH represents a “taking stock” at the end of the composer’s years spent under the tutelage of Wolfgang Rihm. Each of the four movements, which proceed in a single unbroken chain from start to finish, is in fact a re-instrumentation of an earlier ensemble composition composed towards the end of Žuraj’s time under Rihm. The movements, in order, are: I. Relief, II. Octet, III. Nachspiel zum Lied “Letzte Hoffnung” aus Franz Schubert’s Winterreise, IV. Reflections. The solo part in Relief is distributed across the instruments of the ensemble.
That these works are able to be brought together in this way with minimal linkage has to do with the clear and distinctive compositional language Žuraj had developed up to that point, and which is common to all of them. The biting wit and colourful instrumentation already present in his early works are complemented by the structural stringency honed in works such as IN MEDIAS RES for orchestra.
Alwyn Tomas Westbrooke
A substantial work for ten players lasting over twenty minutes, QUADRIPTYCH represents a “taking stock” at the end of the composer’s years spent under the tutelage of Wolfgang Rihm. Each of the four movements, which proceed in a single unbroken chain from start to finish, is in fact a re-instrumentation of an earlier ensemble composition composed towards the end of Žuraj’s time under Rihm. The movements, in order, are: I. Relief, II. Octet, III. Nachspiel zum Lied “Letzte Hoffnung” aus Franz Schubert’s Winterreise, IV. Reflection. The solo part in RELIEF is distributed across the instruments of the ensemble.
That these works are able to be brought together in this way with minimal linkage has to do with the clear and distinctive compositional language Žuraj had developed up to that point, and which is common to all of them. The biting wit and colourful instrumentation already present in his early works are complemented by the structural stringency honed in works such as IN MEDIAS RES for orchestra.
Alwyn Tomas Westbrooke