Chaya Czernowin: Shifting Gravity

the works here, all of which are parts of large-scale instrumental cycles, suggest that there is a vivid physical presence about Czernowin's music, a fascination with sounds as objects in space,... — The Guardian, 29th April 2011, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 28th Mar 2011
Catalogue No: WER67262
Label: Wergo
Length: 56 minutes

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Czernowin: Anea Crystal: I. Seed I

Work length7:00

$1.50

$2.10

Quatuor Diotima, Ensemble Ascolta, Ensemble Nikel
Jonathan Stockhammer, Titus Engel

Czernowin: Sahaf for Four Instrumentalists

Work length7:14

$1.50

$2.10

Ensemble Nikel, Quatuor Diotima, Ensemble Ascolta
Jonathan Stockhammer, Titus Engel

Czernowin: Anea Crystal: II. Anea

Work length9:26

$1.50

$2.10

Quatuor Diotima, Ensemble Ascolta, Ensemble Nikel
Jonathan Stockhammer, Titus Engel

Czernowin: Sheva for Seven Instrumentalists

Work length7:44

$1.50

$2.10

Ensemble Ascolta
Jonathan Stockhammer

Czernowin: Anea Crystal: III. Seed II

Work length8:17

$1.50

$2.10

Quatuor Diotima
Jonathan Stockhammer, Titus Engel

Czernowin: Winter Songs III

Work length16:49

Album only

Ensemble Courage
Titus Engel

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Wergo presents first recordings of chamber music works by the Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin. The eponymous series of works, Shifting Gravity, from 2008 connects the string quartets Anea Christal with the compositions Sheva and Sahaf. The second part of the CD consists of the Winter Songs III (2003).

This Wergo production shows a different side of the artist who was born in Haifa in 1957 and who, up to now, has been appreciated mainly for her stage works, in particular for the much noticed music theatre play "Pnima … Ins Innere" or her adaptation of Mozart’s "Zaïde / Adama".

The instrumental works were all created after the music-theatre plays, associating notions like paralysis, adherence, proliferation. The field of tension resulting therefrom corresponds with Czernowin's own descriptions: "Anea is the imaginary name of a 'music crystal' created from a latticework of corresponding musical gestures according to the model of an ionic crystal". Winter Songs are described by her as follows: "The whole cycle reflects the aspect of winter which is about being pulled into the inner cave… At the same time, underneath, in the ground, the roots of life slowly grow stiff and blindly start to search for a path between the stones".

Chaya Czernowin was born on 7 December 1957 in Haifa and was brought up in Israel. She commenced studies in composition at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv and from the age of 25 has lived in Germany, Japan, the USA and Austria. Thanks to her teachers Abel Ehrlich, Dieter Schnebel, Brian Ferneyhough and Roger Reynolds and also a series of scholarships and prizes, she was able to devote herself intensely to the development of her musical language. Czernowin’s compositions have been performed at more than forty festivals throughout the world including the 20th Century Music Festival in Mexico, at the Wien Modern in Vienna, the Asia Pacific Triennial in Australia and in Huddersfield.

Reviews

29th April 2011

the works here, all of which are parts of large-scale instrumental cycles, suggest that there is a vivid physical presence about Czernowin's music, a fascination with sounds as objects in space, and the different ways in which they can be given their own connective logic. Winter Songs III is...sombrely coloured music, which for all its apparent complexity and sometimes bewildering logic is uncompromisingly direct in its impact.

20th May 2011

Theres a challenging unpredictability in the selection of works here, all written between 2003 and 2008...The sound-world is extremely free-ranging, but there can also be a sense of containment in the manner of expression, as if something is being held back, even repressed. This makes the moments of violent outburst even more shocking.

Chaya Czernowin: Shifting Gravity

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