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CD
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NEOS 11907CD
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With his new CD, Quiet Stone, Laurie Altman abducts the listener into a musical world that is completely different to that of his previous three NEOS recordings. In a certain sense, his background as a jazz pianist shines through; Instead of large, fully composed works he offers miniatures with some improvised passages. The recordings are strongly characterized by the presence of a 13-string guitar belonging to Laurie Altman's stage partner of many years, Anders Miolin.
Performers includes: Andreas Kühnrich - cello; Laurie Altman - piano; Nedyalko Petkov - clarinet; Anders Miolin - 13-string guitar; Isabel Pfefferkorn - mezzo-soprano; Matthias Mueller - clarinet.
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2CD
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NEOS 11614-15CD
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Laurie Altman's musical compositions on Sonic Migrations represent, in some way, a passage: A passage through places (globally), history and events, words, sonic environments, people's lives and their mutual emotions. The pieces are the by-product of a time span of some 25 years, encompassing diverse ensembles and sonic frameworks, far-flung influences, textures, and feelings. There are some outstanding artists playing, like Clipper Erickson (piano), or the Manhattan String Quartet, to name a few. And there is a technical innovation: The Sensor Augmented Bass Clarinet (SABRE) is a bass clarinet, playable in the customary way, and equipped with various sensors with which a computer can be controlled. The original qualities of the instrument are retained, and through the connection to the computer a whole new field of possibilities and areas of application is opened up. With the SABRE, a musical instrument is available for the first time with which a direct connection between acoustic music and the digital world can be realized. The musician on stage can directly control this with his/her instrument, thus spontaneously placing the electronic music into a musical context. Moreover, other media such as visuals, light or video games can be controlled. "No Hay Olvido (Sonata)" features a poem by Pablo Neruda; "Laments of the Homeless Women" features apoem by David Sten Herrstrom. Personnel: Laurie Altman - piano; Randy Bauer - piano; Kuang-Hao Huang - piano; Clipper Erickson - piano; Patrice Michaels - soprano; Matthias Mueller - clarinet, SABRE; John Bruce Yeh - clarinet; Andrew Rathbun - saxophone; Cavatina Duo (Eugenia Moliner - flute; Denis Azabagic - guitar) and Manhattan String Quartet.
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CD
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NEOS 21306CD
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The composer's art is one of personal habitation and felt experience. Rhythmic, warm, direct and nuanced, always intense and alive. A musical work lives and grows inside of its creator. Day or night, on a train or tram, along wooded pathways and mountainous perches, the work evolves to find, hopefully, a place vibrantly, in the world. Living with a musical work means reliving it as well. Its perfections and imperfections, its spirit and character, and all the choices made in its realization. "Divergence": the moving away from a center; the personal iteration from before into what comes after through change, chance and manipulation: pathways redirected and abandoned, options tested, then deployed. Arnold Schönberg diverges from 19th century romantic expansions into a realm of derivative cells, "rowed" together seamlessly to dissolve traditional tonal access. "Consonances are easier to understand than dissonances; and though dissonances are harder to understand, they are not incomprehensible (as the history of music indeed proves) so long as they occur in the right surroundings -- then nobody will be able to dispute them." (Arnold Schönberg, Style and Idea, University of California Press). Erich Korngold's romantic and emotional music defies and diverges from ongoing styles and trends emphasizing atonality and serialism to create a musical tapestry full of emotional intensity and beauty, while Duke Ellington's music diverges from categorical definition, liberating itself through extended compositions, suites and inventive orchestrations into a place beyond the sometimes narrowly defined parameters of jazz.
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CD
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NEOS 11315CD
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Laurie Altman was born in 1944 and raised in New York City. He attended the Mannes College of Music in New York where he majored in Composition and studied most notably with William Sydeman and Lester Trimble. Laurie Altman has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including the Mason Gross Fellowship, a Lincoln Center Composers Forum Award, a Woodrow Wilson Composers residency Fellowship and a University Professors Citation of Excellence from Tufts University in Boston. An Assistant Professor at Westminster Choir College/Rider University in Princeton New Jersey for many years, Laurie Altman in addition pursued an extensive career as a performing jazz pianist with his quintet in New York City, and other venues including clubs and festivals in Russia, Helsinki and Germany. Since moving to Switzerland in 2010, he has had two European premieres at the Musikverein in Vienna, as well as performances in Zurich. November 2013 will feature the world premiere of his composition Brahms Takes, written for clarinettist and composer Matthias Müller and the Galatea String Quartet. It will be repeated in December in Lucerne. Laurie Altman lives with his wife, pianist and photographer Jeannine Hummel, in Spiez and in Zurich.
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