Fitkin - Circuit - BIS: BISSACD1517 - SACD or download

Noriko Ogawa and Kathryn Stott ride every unexpected twist and turn with panache. The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra is also impressive: it's no small feat for such a large band to groove as they do... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2010, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 1st Feb 2010
Catalogue No: BISSACD1517
Label: BIS
Length: 68 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Fitkin, G: Circuit

Work length20:07

Album only

$7.00

Noriko Ogawa (piano), Kathryn Stott (piano)
Tokyo Symphony Orchestra
Naoto Otomo
Recorded: September 2007
Recording Venue: MUZA Kawasaki Hall, Japan

Fitkin, G: T1

Work length7:47

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Noriko Ogawa (piano), Kathryn Stott (piano)
Recorded: September 2007
Recording Venue: MUZA Kawasaki Hall, Japan

Fitkin, G: Relent

Work length11:22

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Kathryn Stott (piano)
Recorded: September 2007
Recording Venue: MUZA Kawasaki Hall, Japan

Fitkin, G: Carnal

Work length11:51

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Noriko Ogawa (piano)
Recorded: September 2007
Recording Venue: MUZA Kawasaki Hall, Japan

Fitkin, G: From Yellow To Yellow

Work length1:40

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Noriko Ogawa (piano)
Recorded: September 2007
Recording Venue: MUZA Kawasaki Hall, Japan

Fitkin, G: White

Work length4:41

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Noriko Ogawa (piano), Kathryn Stott (piano)
Recorded: September 2007
Recording Venue: MUZA Kawasaki Hall, Japan

Fitkin, G: Furniture

Work length5:59

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Noriko Ogawa (piano)
Recorded: September 2007
Recording Venue: MUZA Kawasaki Hall, Japan

Fitkin, G: T2

Work length5:04

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Noriko Ogawa (piano), Kathryn Stott (piano)
Recorded: September 2007
Recording Venue: MUZA Kawasaki Hall, Japan

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About

While his music is sometimes described as 'post-minimalist', Graham Fitkin himself mentions sources of inspiration as diverse as Stravinsky, Miles Davis, Webern, Steve Reich, Frank Sinatra and Pet Shop Boys. A talented pianist, he has written a number of works centred on the piano, in singular and in plural: his work list includes pieces for one to up to as many as six pianos. Partly it is the 'black-and-white' nature of the instrument that attracts Fitkin - the fact that it forces the composer to articulate musical structures without hiding behind colouristic resources. Important among his tools as a composer are repetition, and manipulation of repetitive procedures. The result is music that is often energetic and highly rhythmically driven - aspects which are certainly present in Circuit, for two pianos and orchestra. The work was composed for Kathryn Stott and Noriko Ogawa, and, at its first performance (in 2003), it was described by one reviewer as 'exhilarating in the extreme' with 'its juxtapositions of motoric hyperactivity and sweet serenity, and a final, rip-roaring climax'. The serenity is otherwise mainly to be found in certain pieces for solo piano, such as the gentle miniature From Yellow to Yellow from 1985, the composer's earliest acknowledged work. Kathryn Stott has worked with Graham Fitkin over a number of years, and the solo piece Relent, which she performs on the present recording, was written specifically for her. She and Noriko Ogawa, her regular duo-partner, have recorded a number of discs for BIS, both on their own and as a team. The two now present a selection of Fitkin's numerous works for one and two pianos, as well as Circuit, in which they receive fine support from the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Naoto Otomo.

Reviews

July 2010

Noriko Ogawa and Kathryn Stott ride every unexpected twist and turn with panache. The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra is also impressive: it's no small feat for such a large band to groove as they do here. The acoustic is dry, giving great clarity

August 2010

Stott and Ogawa play with appropriate muscle...T1 moves its opening phrase...around various transcriptions - no rhetoric, no excess, just a winsome idea elaborated with purpose and restraint.

Fitkin - Circuit

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