winds of the heart

Innova 239

ESTHER LAMNECK, TROGAT

ROBERTO FABBRICIANI, HYPERBASS FLUTE

1        1:20

2        4:38

3        5:22

4        2:01

5        6:34

6        3:04

7        4:16

8        1:41

9        3:29

10    1:51

11    3:48

12    2:25

13    4:51

14    5:23

 

Roberto Fabbriciani, flutist, and Esther Lamneck, clarinetist, came together in the summer of 2008 to explore the sonic possibilities of the HyperBass Flute and the Trogat. In this duo of complex and continual exchanges, temporal dimensions seem to have been surpassed. The music emanates from a primal and distant place, and is liberated in an unrestrained magical space that the listener is invited to share.

 

Both artists are renowned performers of the flute and clarinet and have worked in contemporary music on both sides of the Atlantic for decades.

 

 

 

The HyperBass Flute was a long time idea of Roberto Fabbriciani and his interest to work with its unique sonic character impelled him to finally bring the instrument to life.  Esther Lamneck has always loved the extraordinarily beautiful sound of the Trogat and performs it extensively.

 

             Roberto Fabbriciani has opened up new dimensions in flute playing with his sensational virtuosity and innovative technical approach. He has performed in the most important Music Festivals including the Biennale di Venezia, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Holland Festival, Music Biennale Zagreb, Warsaw, Granada, Madrid, Luzern, Salzburg, Wien, Lockenhaus, St. Petersburg, and Tokyo.  He has been a soloist with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Luciano Berio, Sergiu Comissiona, Riccardo Muti, Zoltan Pesk, Josep Pons, David Shallon, Giuseppe Sinopoli, as well as with prestigious orchestras such as the Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Accademia of Santa Cecilia in Rome, RAI Orchestras, ECYO, London Sinfonietta, SWF Baden - Baden, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin Bayerischer Rundfunks, Mnchener Philharmoniker, and others.

             He is a passionate interpreter of New Music and has collaborated with composers who have written some of the most important works in the flute repertoire for him including; Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Aldo Clementi, Franco Donatoni, Ferneyhough, Jean Franaix, Toshio Hosokawa, Ernst Krenek, Gyrgy Kurtg, Gyrgy Ligeti, Olivier Messiaen, Ennio Morricone, Luigi Nono, Goffredo Petrassi, Henri Pousseur, Jean-Claude Risset, Nicola Sani, Giacinto Scelsi, Salvatore Sciarrino, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Toru Takemitsu, and Isang Yun.

             Roberto Fabbriciani has been instrumental in innovating many contemporary flute techniques and multiplying the instrument's sonorous possibilities through his personal research.

www.robertofabbriciani.it

 

            The HyperBass is the largest of the instruments in the flute family. The instrument was conceived by Mr. Fabbriciani in 1976 and constructed in 2001 in Germany. The lowest note sounds a C, four octaves below the C flute. The HyperBass flute does not have a series of keys but has six registers based on the fundamental pitches of C0, G1, D2, A2, E3 and C4. These permit one to alternate between one series of harmonics and another.

            The exploration of extreme low sounds has always intrigued Mr. Fabbriciani and with this instrument he has discovered not only a new sonic universe for the flute but new ways of sound production. The rich and colorful dynamic range of the instrument is enormous and allows one to move fluidly from softest breath sounds to the loudest of percussive effects. From multiphonics to vocal polyphony, the expressive possibilities for this instrument are extraordinary.

 

           The New York Times calls Esther Lamneck an astonishing virtuoso. Winner of the prestigious Pro Musicis Award, she has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras, with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, and with renowned chamber and music improvisation artists throughout the world. A versatile performer and an advocate of contemporary music, she is known for her work with electronic media including interactive arts, movement, dance, and improvisation. Ms. Lamneck makes frequent solo appearances at music festivals worldwide and maintains an active solo career performing and presenting masterclasses in universities and conservatories throughout the United States and Europe. An artist who is sought after by the leading composers of our times, her collaborations have led to hundreds of new compositions in many genres including solo works for the clarinet and the trogat.

           She is artistic director of the New York University New Music and Dance Ensemble, which is an improvising flexible group, and works in electronic settings using both fixed media and real time sound and video processing. Ms. Lamneck has worked together with choreographer Douglas Dunn for many years creating multimedia productions for Festivals in the US and Italy.

           Ms. Lamneck is involved in many projects involving improvisation in electronic music settings as well as on going sonic exploration with performers of unique instruments and places that offer particular acoustic possibilities. An internationally renowned recording artist, she has recorded for Amirani Records, Bridge Records, Capstone, Centaur, CRI, EMF, Music and Arts, Opus One, SEAMUS, Romeo/Qualiton, New World Records, and  innova.

pages.nyu.edu/~el2/

 

            The Trogat has one of the most beautiful sounds of any woodwind instrument. It was introduced to Esther Lamneck by Hungarian musicians, to whom she remains ever grateful. The sound evokes the echoes of its past, and features an unrestrained timbre with unique flexibility.

            The Trogat is a single reed instrument with a conical bore, (the shape of today's soprano saxophone) rather than the cylindrical bore of the clarinet family. It uses fingerings which are similar to the oboe's and has a scale which is non-tempered. The small number of keys allows for expressive glissandi not characteristic of most woodwind instruments. Since it was primarily a rustic instrument, and taken up by folk or Gypsy musicians whose music in handed down orally, there are few works specifically composed for the instrument. Ms. Lamneck performs on a Hungarian Stowasser Trogat.

 

Recorded 2008,

Studio Montevarchi (Arezzo, Italy)

Sound engineer: Valter B. Neri

 

 

innova is supported by an endowment

from the McKnight Foundation.

Philip Blackburn: director, design

Chris Campbell: operations manager