The Squid's Ear Magazine


Quatuor Bozzini: Sens(e) Absence (Collection QB)

Premiered by the Bozzini Quartet at Berlin's Ballhaus Naunynstrasze, this haunting work was composed for temporal and architechtural space using unusual tuning systems producing natural harmonics.
 

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Personnel:



Clemens Merkel-violin

Charles-Etienne Marchand-violin

Nadia Francavilla-violin

Stéphanie Bozzini-viola

Isabelle Bozzini-cello

Kathleen Kajioka-viola


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 771028371129

Label: Collection QB
Catalog ID: CQB_1111
Squidco Product Code: 14590

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2011
Country: Canada
Packaging: Cardstock 3 page foldover
Recorded at the Sendesaal, in Bremen, Germany, on October 1st and 2nd, 2007, by Renate Wolters.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Since its founding in 1999 the Bozzini Quartet has presented new, contemporary, experimental and classical music and has explored with equal eagerness the possibilities of traditional concerts and the ones of avant-garde events. To date, it has commissioned some hundred works and has premiered over one hundred and fifty. The group distinguishes itself through its specific, carefully considered repertoire and its distinct style of playing that pays much attention to details. Its programming seeks to engender productive conversation between strong (if sometimes subtle) creative voices, regardless of their current notoriety or popularity. This utterly contemporary new music ensemble makes its home within an extremely vibrant new music scene, and it is literally carried away by the music it chooses to play. Its performances are brilliant, precise and always inspiring."-Dame



About Sens(e) Absence:

Sens(e) Absence was premiered by the Bozzini Quartet at Berlin's Ballhaus Naunynstraße on the same program as the quartet by Ernstalbrecht Stiebler that shares this disk. Composing for strings has always been, for me, a process of discovery, with their infinite tuning possibilities that produce subtle harmonies and timbres of great nuance and beauty. I imagined, while composing it, space being both temporal and architectural where voices are heard from other dimensions. These considerations influenced the unusual tuning system I devised, which produces a great variety of close and wide intervals with natural harmonics. The music's structure is therefore like inhabiting a building whose rooms always seem different as light changes throughout the day and through the seasons. It is with this in mind that the music was the source for a sound and light installation that occupied the Hans Otte Raum at the Neues Museum Weserberg Bremen: as Bremen's autumn and winter daylight diminished outside, the Hans Otte Raum inside was suffused in a constant rotation of light created by Paul Tzanetopoulos. Over the course of three months the music gradually reduced to one percent of that which is heard here."-Daniel Rothman



Sehr langsam "Very slow" - a tempo indication, as well as the title of this piece. It characterizes the music itself, asking the listener for patience, for calm concentration, and for abandoning himself to the sound. This sound extends into the room, finding the listener-and it might also trigger a resonance in that inner room everybody finds within himself (Kafka), a place where the listener communicates with the inside of the sound, its quality, its spectrum of partial tones, and its microtones as they give their emphasis and differentiation to the sound colour. These sounds are soft-an emotional forte would sever the act of listening in this microtonal sound space, as if by a glaring spotlight. The experience of this particular space is energized, stimulated and invigorated by the sound. A friend once said that this piece has many endings, in the sense that it is continuously fading away-which is true. In these moments, the individual energy of the composed music diminishes, as it were. There, we experience the silence into which this music moves in ever renewed attempts. In order to enhance the musical experience of this piece, it is suggested to listen to it at a reduced volume level."-Ernstalbrecht Stiebler


Artist Biographies

"Clemens Merkel's unconventional sound defines a new sensibility in contemporary music, through its intimate purity of tone, its settled understanding of microtonal or unconventional harmonic language, and its unhurried sensitivity. He is well known for innovative interpretations of Bach and John Cage, and is sought after by composers worldwide as an inspiration for new repertoire. His diverse collaborators range from the Wandelweiser collective to Montréal's Musique Actuelle community, and from emerging experimentalists to today's most revered composers.

For over a decade, Merkel's unusual sound has fused with that of the Quatuor Bozzini, considered one of the world's leading string quartets. Together they have mentored an entire generation of creators through the Composer's Kitchen; have released numerous critically acclaimed albums on their collection qb label; undertake multiple tours annually to be featured at festivals worldwide; and maintain a profound impact on the music scene across Canada and Europe in particular. They nourish Montréal audiences with unusual self-produced events that bridge worlds and cross boundaries of style, generation and culture.

Following an early career in Europe, where he contributed to the continent's leading ensembles, Merkel has made Montréal his home since 2000. He supports and advocates for new music in Québec and in Canada, and is regularly sought after as speaker, curator and adviser. His presence is felt in academia as well, through articles written for the Revue Circuit, and through his teaching at Concordia University. He's a passionate chef and lives in Montréal's Portuguese neighborhood together with his wife Isabelle Bozzini and children Félix and Béatrice."

-Quatuor Bozzini website (http://www.quatuorbozzini.ca/en/select/bio/?id=merkel_cl)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Isabelle Bozzini. Born Montréal, Québec, 1969. Performer (cello).

A passionate chamber player, cellist Isabelle Bozzini is dedicated to exploring two parallel worlds - new music of all kinds and music on period instruments. This endeavour continuously challenges her and nourishes her artistic aspirations.

She is a founding member of the Quatuor Bozzini which since its inception in 1999 has become one of Canada's leading string quartets on national and international scenes. Playing close to forty concerts per year, the Bozzinis produce their own concert series in Montréal including the Salon des compositeurs + Composer's Kitchen event. They tour several times per year in Europe, the US and Canada and have launched the label collection qb in the Fall of 2004 in collaboration with DAME. Isabelle Bozzini also works with Kore Ensemble, and various improvising artists such as Malcolm Goldstein, François Houle, Benoît Delbecq, Diane Labrosse and Jean Derome. Having collaborated for many years with Joël Thiffault and the Montréal Baroque Orchestra, Isabelle Bozzini now plays regularly with Ensemble Arion. She also plays with Idées Heureuses, Ensemble Caprice, the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, and French harpsichordist and conductor Hervé Niquet."

-Quatuor Bozzini Website (http://www.quatuorbozzini.ca/en/select/bio/?id=bozzini_is)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Sehr langsam 30:36

2. Sense Absence 37:18

Related Categories of Interest:


Compositional Forms
Stringed Instruments
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