Bei Nacht
Encyclopedia
Bei Nacht op. 50, is a piano trio
, composed in 1999 by Graham Waterhouse
, published by Hofmeister, Leipzig
.
to be performed at the University of Illinois. The composition was inspired by an oil painting of Wassily Kandinsky
and also relates to a poem by Hermann Hesse
, "Bei Nacht" (At Night on the High Seas, 1911), which begins: "Nachts, wenn das Meer mich wiegt und bleicher Sternenglanz auf seinen weiten Wellen liegt" (At night, when the sea rocks me and pale glow of the stars lies on its wide waves). The work is in one movement, a performance takes about 10 minutes. The tempo markings are: Allegro moderato – Più mosso – Tempo I – Tranquillo – Tempo I – Allegro molto – Tempo I – Tranquillo. The composer comments:
The trio was first performed in the United Kingdom at the New Recital Room of the University of Cambridge
on 19 February 2008 by the Waterhouse Piano Trio, Irina Puryshinskaja (piano), Boris Kucharsky (violin) and the composer (cello), together with works of Mozart, Schubert and Hugh Wood
's piano trio, op. 24 (1982–84). The composer was then a "Musician By-Fellow" at Churchill College and also performed his Cello Concerto as part of the Lent Term Choral Concert on 9 February 2008 with "The Orchestra on the Hill" in a concert which also included Beethoven's Egmont Overture, Elgar's Serenade for Strings
and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms
. The Waterhouse Piano Trio had performed before Bei Nacht (2005) and Wood's trio (2007) in Munich at the Gasteig
. The first concert also included Beethoven's Piano Trio No. 5 ("Ghost") and Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 2
. Wood's work appeared together with Schubert's Piano Trio No. 1
.
On 5 May 2011 Bei Nacht was performed by the ALEA Ensemble
at the Musik-Forum München, Studio für neue Musik (studio for new music), together with chamber music of Gerhard Präsent
(Trio intricato), Herbert Blendinger
(Fantasie in G) and Iván Erőd
(Trio). It was played by Sigrid Präsent (violin), Tobias Stosiek (cello) and Rita Melem (piano), Gerhard Präsent
, the founder of the ensemble, moderated the concert. The Bayerischer Rundfunk
broadcast the concert on 19 August 2011 in its series after midnight "Concerto bavarese" (Bavarian concert).
, which also published the composer's Cello Concerto, Celtic Voices and Hale Bopp
and Gestural Variations
, among others. Bei Nacht op. 50 für Violine, Violoncello und Klavier is dedicated to the Kandinsky Trio.
Piano trio
A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music...
, composed in 1999 by Graham Waterhouse
Graham Waterhouse
Graham Waterhouse is an English composer and a cellist. He is known for chamber music and for unusual scoring, such as Piccolo Quintet, Bright Angel for three bassoons and contrabassoon, Chieftain's Salute for Great Highland Bagpipe and string orchestra, and works for speaking voice and cello,...
, published by Hofmeister, Leipzig
Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag
Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag is a publisher of classical music, founded by Friedrich Hofmeister in Leipzig in 1807. Early listings included composers Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. Hofmeister was the first to publish Mahler's Second Symphony. Pedagogical works, such as...
.
Composition
Bei Nacht was written in 1999 for the Kandinsky Trio of IllinoisIllinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
to be performed at the University of Illinois. The composition was inspired by an oil painting of Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely-abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics...
and also relates to a poem by Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature...
, "Bei Nacht" (At Night on the High Seas, 1911), which begins: "Nachts, wenn das Meer mich wiegt und bleicher Sternenglanz auf seinen weiten Wellen liegt" (At night, when the sea rocks me and pale glow of the stars lies on its wide waves). The work is in one movement, a performance takes about 10 minutes. The tempo markings are: Allegro moderato – Più mosso – Tempo I – Tranquillo – Tempo I – Allegro molto – Tempo I – Tranquillo. The composer comments:
"Around the time of composition was a Kandinsky Retrospective at the Royal AcademyRoyal AcademyThe Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
in London. Amongst the exhibits was a particularly striking, early oil painting entitled "Nacht", which looked more akin to the work of Cezanne or of the French impressionistImpressionismImpressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
s and quite unlike those works of Kandinsky's later style. In this painting concentric circles spread outwards from a darkly morbid moon, like ever widening circular ripples on a pond. Against this seemed to be apparitions of dancing figures.
Visual stimuli play only a minor role in my works, yet the mysterious salubriousness of the painting captured the imagination. The vividly depicted circles found expression in a recurring "ground bass", underpinning a gradual crescendo in texture and intensity; the spectral dancers were alluded to in an irregular, agitato passage in 5/8. At the climax of the piece these two elements combine; the welter of sound is abruptly broken off, however, and it is in the subdued atmosphere of the opening that the work concludes."
The trio was first performed in the United Kingdom at the New Recital Room of the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
on 19 February 2008 by the Waterhouse Piano Trio, Irina Puryshinskaja (piano), Boris Kucharsky (violin) and the composer (cello), together with works of Mozart, Schubert and Hugh Wood
Hugh Wood
Hugh Wood is a British composer.- Biography :While Wood was brought up in a musical family, it was only after graduating in History from Oxford that he decided to dedicate his energies to composition; and he moved to London in 1954 to study with William Lloyd Webber, Anthony Milner, Iain Hamilton,...
's piano trio, op. 24 (1982–84). The composer was then a "Musician By-Fellow" at Churchill College and also performed his Cello Concerto as part of the Lent Term Choral Concert on 9 February 2008 with "The Orchestra on the Hill" in a concert which also included Beethoven's Egmont Overture, Elgar's Serenade for Strings
Serenade for Strings (Elgar)
Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op. 20, is a piece for string orchestra in three short movements, by Edward Elgar.It was written in March 1892 and first performed in private in that year, by the Worcester Ladies' Orchestral Class, with the composer conducting. It received its first public...
and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms
Chichester Psalms
Chichester Psalms is a choral work by Leonard Bernstein for boy treble or countertenor, solo quartet, choir and orchestra...
. The Waterhouse Piano Trio had performed before Bei Nacht (2005) and Wood's trio (2007) in Munich at the Gasteig
Gasteig
Gasteig is a cultural center in Munich, opened in 1985, which hosts the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. The Richard Strauss Conservatory, the Volkshochschule, and the municipal library are all located in the Gasteig...
. The first concert also included Beethoven's Piano Trio No. 5 ("Ghost") and Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 2
Piano Trio No. 2 (Shostakovich)
The Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67, by Dmitri Shostakovich was written in 1944, in the midst of World War II.-Composition history:The composition was dedicated to Shostakovich's good friend, Ivan Sollertinsky, a Russian polymath and avid musician, who had recently died at age 41. The work...
. Wood's work appeared together with Schubert's Piano Trio No. 1
Piano Trio No. 1 (Schubert)
The Trio No. 1 in B-flat major for piano, violin, and cello, D. 898, was written by Franz Schubert in 1827. The composer finished the work in 1828, in the last year of his life. It was published in 1836 as Opus 99, eight years after the composer's death....
.
On 5 May 2011 Bei Nacht was performed by the ALEA Ensemble
ALEA Ensemble
The ALEA Ensemble is a chamber music ensemble founded in Graz for contemporary music, playing in variable formation including the ALEA Quartet.-History:...
at the Musik-Forum München, Studio für neue Musik (studio for new music), together with chamber music of Gerhard Präsent
Gerhard Präsent
Gerhard Präsent is an Austrian composer, conductor and academic.-Professional career:Gerhard Präsent studied from 1976 at the Musikhochschule Graz, composition with Iván Erőd and conducting with Milan Horvat. He graduated in 1982 in composition and in 1985 in conducting, in both subjects with...
(Trio intricato), Herbert Blendinger
Herbert Blendinger
Herbert Blendinger is an Austrian composer and viola player of German origin.-Professional career:Blendinger studied viola and composition with Willy Horwath and Max Gebhard at the conservatory in Nuremberg, then from 1961 to 1963 at the Musikhochschule München with Georg Schmid and Franz Xaver...
(Fantasie in G) and Iván Erőd
Iván Eröd
Iván Erőd, also Iván Eröd , is an Hungarian-Austrian composer and pianist.- Career :Erőd studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music with Pál Kadosa and Ferenc Szabó . He emigrated to Austria in 1956 and studied there at the Vienna Music Academy, with Richard Hauser and Karl Schiske...
(Trio). It was played by Sigrid Präsent (violin), Tobias Stosiek (cello) and Rita Melem (piano), Gerhard Präsent
Gerhard Präsent
Gerhard Präsent is an Austrian composer, conductor and academic.-Professional career:Gerhard Präsent studied from 1976 at the Musikhochschule Graz, composition with Iván Erőd and conducting with Milan Horvat. He graduated in 1982 in composition and in 1985 in conducting, in both subjects with...
, the founder of the ensemble, moderated the concert. The Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk [Bavarian Broadcasting] is the public broadcasting authority for the German Freistaat of Bavaria, with its main offices located in Munich. BR is a member of ARD.- Legal foundation :...
broadcast the concert on 19 August 2011 in its series after midnight "Concerto bavarese" (Bavarian concert).
Publication
Bei Nacht was published in 2001 by Hofmeister, LeipzigFriedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag
Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag is a publisher of classical music, founded by Friedrich Hofmeister in Leipzig in 1807. Early listings included composers Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. Hofmeister was the first to publish Mahler's Second Symphony. Pedagogical works, such as...
, which also published the composer's Cello Concerto, Celtic Voices and Hale Bopp
Celtic Voices and Hale Bopp
Celtic Voices and Hale Bopp op. 36 are two independent compositions of Graham Waterhouse for string orchestra, which were published together in 1998 by Hofmeister, Leipzig. Celtic Voices was written in 1995, Hale Bopp was written in 1997 inspired by Comet Hale-Bopp, and scored for an additional boy...
and Gestural Variations
Gestural Variations
Gestural Variations op. 43 is a trio composition of Graham Waterhouse in 1997 originally for oboe, bassoon and piano. Later versions are scored for clarinet, cello and piano and flute, cello and piano .-Movements:...
, among others. Bei Nacht op. 50 für Violine, Violoncello und Klavier is dedicated to the Kandinsky Trio.
External links
- Graham Waterhouse website
- Kandinsky Trio website
- Irina Puryshinskaja pianist of the Waterhouse Piano Trio, biography, Walser Herbst 2008
- Boris Kucharsky, Violin violinist of the Waterhouse Piano Trio, biography, Hunstein Artist Services
- Musikalisches Wagnis Merkur, 6 July 2007