Peter Eötvös: Kosmos

Riskily static at one extreme, turbulently volatile at the other, the whole work has an authentically awestruck character and an infectious lack of inhibition that Eötvös usefully preserves... — Gramophone Magazine, August 2014 More…

Release Date: 10th Mar 2014
Catalogue No: WER67842
Label: Wergo
Length: 53 minutes

Eötvös: Sonata per sei

Work length15:59

$4.00

$5.60

GrauSchumacher Piano Duo, Schlagquartett Köln

I. Viertel = 86

Track length3:15

$1.00

$1.40

II. Halbe = 69

Track length5:00

$1.00

$1.40

III. Halbe = 69

Track length2:59

$1.00

$1.40

IV. Bartók überquert den Ozean - Achtel = 84

Track length4:45

$1.00

$1.40

Eötvös: Sonata per sei. V. Viertel = 112

Work length3:53

$1.00

$1.40

GrauSchumacher Piano Duo, Schlagquartett Köln

Eötvös: Psalm 151

Work length19:10

Album only

Schlagquartett Köln

Eötvös: Kosmos

Work length14:44

$2.00

$2.80

GrauSchumacher Piano Duo

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To celebrate his 70th birthday on 2nd January WERGO releases the CD 'Kosmos' with chamber music for piano and percussion by Peter Eötvös.

A love of Bartók’s music first appears in the piano piece 'Kosmos' and the title refers to Bartók’s famous piano cycle 'Mikrokosmos'. However, the work also bears the title 'Kosmos' because Yuri Gagarin’s famous space flight was about to take place when it was written in March 1961. Eötvös was then only 17 years old and Gagarin excited the young composer’s imagination. For the 125th anniversary of Bartók’s birth in 2006, Eötvös wrote a piano concerto in which he further developed Bartók’s ideas and thought processes. The concerto is entitled 'CAP-KO', an acronym for Concerto for Acoustic Piano, Keyboard, and Orchestra. The piano resources are extended by use of a computer, which adds further sounds to those being played – a revolutionary technology that Eötvös wants to be understood as a symbol of Bartók’s pioneering spirit. The concerto centres on the famous Bartók cascades of octaves and sixths. Eötvös has twice re-arranged 'CAP-KO' for other instrumentations, in this case as 'Sonata per sei' for two pianos, three percussionists and sampler keyboard.

Another musician Eötvös has always admired is Frank Zappa. When Zappa died in 1993 at the young age of 42, Eötvös responded with grief and anger. He said, “In connection with Zappa’s premature and meaningless death, one really cannot praise God, but must protest.” He composed a piece that gives expression to this protest. Since the 150 psalms in the Bible do not deal with protest, the piece became Psalm 151: “This is the one that is not in the Bible.”

Reviews

August 2014

Riskily static at one extreme, turbulently volatile at the other, the whole work has an authentically awestruck character and an infectious lack of inhibition that Eötvös usefully preserves in his more recent music...All three of these compositions benefit from superbly confident performances and the sound could not be more vivid.

Peter Eötvös: Kosmos

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