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NEOS 12011CD
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The flute has a special place in Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf's oeuvre. What attracts him is its particular virtuosity, agility and ease in crossing large sonic spaces. He was still a student when he composed the alto flute solo "coincidentia oppositorum" (1986) and the flute solo "succolarity" (1989). From the "Angelus Novus" cycle, "La terreur d'ange nouveau" (1997-99) turned out to be a significant, substantial flute work. Then Shanna Pranaitis began performing Mahnkopf's flute music. This led to a cooperation that spawned the three most recent pieces: the solo for piccolo "Kurtág-Cantus II" (2013), the duo "Finite Jest" (2014) with the soprano Frauke Aulbert, and the solo for bass flute "atsiminimas" (2016). Together, these six pieces cover the entire flute family.
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NEOS 11928CD
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Music for voice(s) is one of the richest and perhaps unexplored areas in contemporary music. Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf wrestled for many years with himself and dedicated serious thought to fundamental issues before composing vocal music. Today, he has written a number of compositions with quite different approaches: While he was radically committed to incomprehensible texts in the 1990s, he later did just the opposite. The breadth of vocal forces is also enormous; on this CD they range from solo baritone in "Esė apie vandenis" to a work for a 24-voice ensemble, "voiced void". Again and again, Mahnkopf deals with the topic of the void: "void -- un diletto italiano" for six voices is an epitaph for Pier Paolo Pasolini. Performers include: ExVoCo; SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart; Rupert Huber - conductor; Neue Voklasolisten; Jeffrey Gavett - baritone.
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NEOS 11813CD
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Together with the outstanding Australian oboist Peter Veale, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf spent years working systematically on music for oboe, its playing techniques and tonal possibilities. The result is the 1994 method book, "The Techniques of Oboe Playing", which has become an authoritative work for oboists throughout the world. Mahnkopf has profound knowledge of this instrument and more than 25 years of experience with it. Vol. 7 of the NEOS Mahnkopf Edition is thus devoted to his compositions for oboe. The recorded works range from "Gorgoneion" for solo oboe from 1990 to the "Homage au hautbois" of 2013, which pays tribute not only to the oboe but also to Mahnkopf's longtime friend Peter Veale.
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NEOS 11616CD
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Deeply impressed by the architecture of the Jewish museum in Berlin, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf started to compose his cycle Hommage à Daniel Libeskind in 2001. "As in each of my numerous tribute pieces, my aim was to find a point of intersection between the art of the dedicatee and my music. At the surface level, it is the deconstructive disposition: with Libeskind in an aesthetic of fragmentation, and with me in the 63-part form. Poetically speaking, it lies in the equivalent to the cool expressivity of Libeskind's ingenious edifice." Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, born in 1962 in Mannheim (Germany), studies in composition, music theory, piano, musicology, philosophy, and sociology with Brian Ferneyhough, Klaus Huber and Jürgen Habermas among others, obtaining a music degree and PhD. Since 1984, he has recieved international prizes and awards, including the Gaudeamus Prize, Stuttgart Composition Prize, Ernst von Siemens Music Grant, Villa Massimo. Since 2005, he has been the Professor of Composition at the Leipzig Academy of Music and Theater, Editor of the journal Musik & Ästhetik and the book series New Music And Aesthetics In The 21st Century, author of over 150 essays and numerous books (e.g. Kritische Theorie Der Musik (2006), Von Der Messianischen Freiheit (2016)). Extensive oeuvre in all genres, performed by renowned groups (e.g. Ensemble Modern), important commissions (e.g. Salzburger Festspiele) and numerous portrait concerts worldwide. Hommage à Daniel Libeskind, as presented here, is performed by Ensemble SurPlus. Personnel for Ensemble SurPlus: Martina Roth - flutes; Christian Kemper - oboe and cor anglais; Nicola Mioranda - clarinet and bass clarinet; Stefan Häussler - violin; Bodo Friedrich - viola; Beverley Ellis - violoncello; Peter Veale - conductor.
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NEOS 11417CD
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Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf: "Two central themes of my artistic work are the fate of Judaism and the disasters of the 20th century. The word 'void' denotes emptiness, but also a gap. This idea has preoccupied me since 2000, when I became acquainted with the Jewish Museum in Berlin (still empty at the time), built by Daniel Libeskind; his architecture immediately captivated me, and I have repeatedly engaged with it to this day. Libeskind filled the building with vertical rooms that are simply empty and thus unusable -- for a functional building in the strict sense, they are dysfunctional. They symbolize something absent: the European Jews, who not least enriched Berlin life until the Nazi regime came to power. Libeskind is a master of absences and losses, as his recent 9/11 Memorial in New York demonstrates. Upon my first visit to the Jewish Museum in Berlin I noticed a specific acoustic, especially in the 'Holocaust Tower'. In December 2002 I visited the museum to record sounds there and in one of the 'Voids', where Menashe Kadishman's installation Fallen Leaves was located. I subsequently worked with these recordings at the Experimentalstudio des SWR in Freiburg, resulting in the spatial composition void - mal d'archive. Except for a few oboe notes, the work is a form of musique concrete. It is for 8 loudspeakers, and develops a spatial landscape in which these sounds are used to tell a story whose concretion each listener must conceive for themselves. mal d'archive is the title of a book by Jacques Derrida; in this context, it refers to something being inscribed in a gap in the memory." Performed here by Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks conducted by Roland Kluttig, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR conducted by Rupert Huber, and EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO des SWR.
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NEOS 11307CD
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Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, born in 1962 in Mannheim (Germany), studies in composition, music theory, piano, musicology, philosophy, and sociology with Brian Ferneyhough, Klaus Huber, and Jürgen Habermas, among others. Music degree and PhD. Since 1984 international prizes and awards, including the Gaudeamus Prize, Stuttgart Composition Prize, Ernst von Siemens Music Grant, Villa Massimo. He has been a Professor of Composition at the Leipzig Academy of Music and Theater since 2005. Editor of the journal Musik & Ästhetik and the book series New Music and Aesthetics in the 21st Century, author of over 120 essays and numerous books (e.g. Kritische Theorie der Musik). "After Angelus Novus, I reached a fork in my path. I felt the need to work separately through the different expressive areas I had previously sought to combine in the form of cycles specifically conceived for this purpose, in order to gather the necessary experience so that, one day, my musical language would once again be able to reach some form of (higher) synthesis. Among these is my Kurtág cycle. Kurtág represents this sad, mourning, remembering, 'nostalgic' consciousness in relation to past culture. The miniaturization and concentration of material is reminiscent of Webern, while his roots in folk culture call Janácek to mind. He writes -- using conservative means -- a music whose conservative nature is experienced as non-conservative; no other composer achieved this. He is a miracle in the midst of modernity."
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NEOS 11211-2CD
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2012 release. Featured works: "Angela Nova" (1999-2000), "Zweite Kammersymphonie" (1997-99), "Solitude-Serenade" (1997), "La terreur d'ange nouveau" (1997-99), "La vision d'ange nouveau" (1997-98), "Le rêve d'ange nouveau" (1990), "Angela Nova 2" (1999-2000). Performed by: Monika Meier-Schmid (soprano), Ensemble SurPlus, James Avery (conductor), Ernest Rombout (piccolo oboe), Carin Levine (flute), Franklin Cox (violoncello), Sophie-Mayuko Vetter (piano), Almut Hellwig (soprano).
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NEOS 11207CD
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Performed by: Ermis Theodorakis, piano. Featured works: Rhizom, 5 kleine Lakunaritäten, Kammerminiatur, Kammerstück: Le rêve d'ange nouveau, Beethoven-Kommentar, and Prospero-Fragmente. "Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, born in 1962 in Mannheim (Germany), studies composition, music theory, piano, musicology, philosophy, and sociology with Brian Ferneyhough, Klaus Huber, Jürgen Habermas among others."
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NEOS 11036CD
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Performed by Peter Veale (oboe), Franklin Cox (cello, Ensemble SurPlus, James Avery (conductor). "Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, born in 1962 in Mannheim, studies in Composition, Music Theory, Piano, Musicology, Philosophy and Sociology with Brian Ferneyhough, Klaus Huber, Jurgen Habermas among others. Music degree and PhD. Since 1984 international prizes and awards, including the Gaudemas Prize, Stuttgart Composition Prize, Ernst von Siemens Music Grant, Villa Massimo, important commissions, numerous portrait concerts worldwide. Principal works: 'Rhizom,' 'Medusa,' 'Kammerzyklus.' Performed by Peter Veale, oboe, Franklin Cox, cello, Ensemble SurPlus, James Avery, Conductor."
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