Dedication

Now that Henoch Kristianto's CD of my piano music is released, not only with 6 of my Rapsies but also with my other pieces each dedicated to someone, most compliments that I got are not only how good they are performed, but how lucky are those people who received dedications of my pieces. Well, perhaps some of them are. This issue brings me back many years ago, and I almost forgot about it. When I was in the beginning of my career, it was very important for me to receive a dedication from prominent composers. And of course one can't go around pulling the composer's shirts shouting "dedicate a piece to me pleeeaazzze", it just gotta come from the composer himself, or if you are rich, you can commission a composer to write one for you, like all those royal families in the past or the Medici family, or patrons of the arts have been doing. Or you can commission a composer to write something ABOUT and FOR your loved ones. The process is exactly the same as asking a painter to paint a portrait of yourself or your love ones. ............................................................................................................................................ Playing "my" pieces written by them indeed boosted the number of audience, my reputation and therefore my career. The audience are sick of the same Beethovens n Chopins in concerts and they always welcome new GOOD pieces of music. Many of those pieces dedicated to me are a kind of "portrait" of the characteristic of my playing which the composers see in me and not in other pianists, and that I somehow inspired them to do it. Therefore, I can mention pieces by European composers which sound pretty "Indonesian" because of, and written for me, such as "Many Returns to Bali" by Per Norgaard (Denmark), Little Passacaglia by Peter Sculthorpe (Australia), Alio Modo by David del Puerto, Kecak Sonata by Jesus Rueda, and even that celebrated hyper-virtuosic piece Anandamania by Santiago Lanchares and many others. I am indeed grateful that I have contributed something to the development of modern pianistic techniques. Of course as a pianist those dedications come with a (huge) responsibility, since it is my task to introduce those pieces to the audience, otherwise it won't mean anything to have them. Those pieces were then accepted by other pianists who later perform them, but the birth of the piece, and how it gives the first impression, is very important and I am responsible for it. Of course the attraction of the pieces play a major role in its popularity ; the hyper-virtuosic and noisy Anandamania was so much high in demand that I've played it, usually together with the Ligeti Etudes, in more than 100 concerts and not only in Spain or even Europe. That piece alone, breaks the record of my most frequently performed piece, even more than my own ones (writing this, I now wonder if I ever played it in Indonesia). Some of those composers then wrote more pieces of music for me either for professional reasons or just as a "token of gratitude", and somehow I became "identified" with their piano music and received contracts to record their complete piano music on CD. Ah, some of them were so sweet to write (sometimes more than) a few notes dedicated to my daughter, Alicia Pirena, knowing that she used to play the piano too. Needless to say, it wasn't written for her virtuosity, but just an act of love. Usually those composers did it because they have spent some time at our home in Cantabria so they got to know her too. ............................................................................................................................................ But some of my "dedication" pieces are written not for musicians, but purely out of friendship or gratitude. Even if they are for musicians, it can be for just as simple as that, not for professional purposes. You see, I hate going to department stores, let alone shopping malls to buy presents for birthdays or weddings, and I prefer staying in bed writing music. If I give someone my music, there are some advantages for both of us: 1. usually that person knows, and likes, my music, so (s)he would like my present. 2. Now don't say that I am not spending anything. I do spend my time, and time is money. But with music, spending doesn't mean losing, and we both receive, since I don't lose anything. My time writing it usually gives me pleasure, or even therapeutic for my Tourette/Asperger syndrome when it's concurrent. 3. That "present" hopefully will be beneficial not to the receiver, but to other people, coz if it turns out to be nice it will be played by many others, therefore it is a good material either for educational or concert purposes. It is in fact a tradition in Europe to do it, perhaps the most celebrated is Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations, where each movement is dedicated, in his own words to "my friends pictured within", each variation being an affectionate portrayal of one of his circle of close acquaintances. Leonard Bernstein wrote his charming short piano pieces "Anniversaries", with each bearing a simple title "For ...", filling the blank with the name of the (nick)name of the dedicatee. In fact, it is those pieces which triggered me to do those "musical cards" which at the moment sums up to around 40+ short pieces. And 4. now it's helping to save the earth, since a musical score doesn't have to be printed on paper anymore, although poco a poco I am including them in my "Alicia's Piano Books". ............................................................................................................................................ If I write for someone, usually something in that person triggered me to write, although there are a few cases that I found a manuscript I wrote ages ago, and decided I'd dedicate it to someone, sometimes for some random reasons. And if I get the character of the piece formed in my head, I would need a concrete material for it to be developed, and usually I use their names/initials to make a motif. But hey, it doesn't have to be that way. It could be the subject of our conversation, or the place or situation where we had our chat. And I don't care who is that person, as long as (s)he means something for me. A good friend, or someone who's been kind to me. Instead of sending flowers after a dinner invitation, I could just write a musical card, if something we talked during dinner could inspire me. That piece of music usually is a record, or musical photograph of what was happening around the writing process. And if I want to express something so deep that words are not able to do, well, music is always the best means to do it. Music is so powerful to express things that can't be done in words, and mostly it's about the pain so intense inside. And in writing music for and about someone, usually I realize more things about myself in that piece. That's why the act of composing can be so scary, sometimes. Sometimes. ............................................................................................................................................ Ah yes, I am also playing some of those "dedicatorial pieces" in my concert next October 20th. Still not sure which ones, though. I am doing a survey through twitter about which are the favorite ones. You can tweet me at @anandasukarlan ... just let me know which ones you like me to do in the concert. If more people want the piece, certainly I'll play it/them. More info about the concert, and ticket reservations, please contact my manager Chendra at 0818 891038 or ycep@yahoo.com

A cat has nine lives, composers do too. But not more.

I start enjoying myself preparing programs for my radio show, Eric & Ananda Classical Eve. Since next Monday (March 7th) will be the birthday of my favorite composer Maurice Ravel, I tweeted and asked which favorite piece of Ravel should I broadcast. It turned out to be unnecessary, since we all know what it is. Hundreds of replies through twitter vote for: BOLERO! ....

... which led to another composer who I knew & worked with, the late Russian Jew Alfred Schnittke. The reason was because he parodied "Bolero" in part of his music for the film "Meister und Margarita". And that led to another topic, a conversation I had with him in one of the dinners we had back in 1993. He talked about "the curse of the 9th symphony" ; he was at that time writing his 6th. "I have 3 more to go", he said, and when I asked why, "well, noone except 'that guy' survived to write a 10th". I must keep "that guy" a secret for now, since I will reveal his name in my radio show next Sunday and tell you that in fact the curse wasn't broken at all by "that guy". Someone did die from his 9th symphony. It was from Schnittke that I learned for the first time about that particular curse, that nobody could survive further than writing 9 symphonies. Since then I lost contact with Mr. Schnittke, partly because he was already weak (he had 2 strokes in the previous years) and of course partly since communication was not that easy then as it is now, with emails. So it was my last contact with him. I performed under his supervision, by the way, his amazing Piano Quintet dedicated in memory of his mother.

Now the greatest composer of all time (at least according to me) Gustav Mahler was so afraid of this curse, that he took every way he could to NOT write a 9th after he finished his 8th. He wrote "A symphony for tenor, alto and orchestra" which is called "Das Lied von der Erde" (The song of the earth) in 6 big (when Gus said big, he meant REALLY big. The 6th and last movement "Der Abschied" alone lasts for half an hour, almost as long as the total of the 5 preceding movements) movements. He thought he could get away with it. Therefore he wrote his real 9th afterwards, and ...yes you guessed it right. He died when he started writing his 10th. He finished one movement of the 10th, by the way, but it was just one farewell too many. He succumbed to the curse : a composer should leave the earth with his 9th symphony. Just like Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner, Dvorak, and more after him: Ralph Vaughan Williams (he died when he just started to write his 9th, therefore his "official" number was just 8), Alexander Glazounov, Roger Sessions and of course .... Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998). I think there are more names. I remember I had goosebumps when I learned Schnittke's death, especially because I talked with his publisher a few days after, asking what he was composing when he got the fatal stroke and died a few days later. He had the same fate as Vaughan Williams.

RIP, maestro Schnittke. I'll never forget our meeting, our working together and of course your great music.

This entry I dedicate to my good friends, Spain's most prominent composers of symphonies today David del Puerto and Jesus Rueda. Both of them, in their late 40s (Jesus Rueda will celebrate his 50th this year) had written 3 great symphonies. May they be granted long and productive musical lives !

Buzzing Rueda, buzzing Rueda, you'll come a-buzzing Rueda with me

Still warm, my newest CD released by NAXOS with (almost all) piano works of Jesus Rueda is creating a buzz. Honestly, perhaps this IS the CD that all piano lovers in Spain (and many abroad) have been waiting for these years. Anyway, I'll keep it short this time, since you can check it out at : http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.572075 . And I'll paste my article in the booklet of that CD here. Hope you enjoy the new 21st century pianistic adventure !


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesús Rueda (b. 1961)
Piano Music

A recording of Jesús Rueda’s piano works is long overdue. Rueda is today unquestionably the foremost living Spanish composer for the piano. Although he has never been a performer, his understanding of the resources and potential of the piano is nevertheless broader than that of most. His pianistic masterpieces would not have existed—as he himself openly acknowledges—had it not been for his intensive studies of the pianism of Chopin, Liszt, Ravel and Prokofiev; but it is his highly individual language that makes his music not only so new and radical, but highly expressive and communicative. He has successfully produced a mesmeric blending of ‘classical’ and contemporary elements: his compositions might ask the instrument to whisper in utmost secrecy or, in Walt Whitman’s words, to sound its “barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world”.

This ‘Rueda’ pianistic soundworld was launched with his First Piano Sonata, composed in 1990–91. Entitled Jeux d’eau, the sonata is clearly influenced by Ravel, its nine-minute gorgeous wash of sensuous music evoking radiating light, sweeping surges and powerful torrents of water. This is Rueda the master draughtsman at his most shimmering and seductive. The subtle use of pedal should always be observed by the pianist in order to take full advantage of the extensive palette of colours.

More than a decade separates Rueda’s first sonata from his Second, entitled Ketjak. This time—even more virtuosic than the first—the influences are jazz and Balinese Kecak dance rhythms, and I am so profoundly grateful for the honour of being its dedicatee. The motif of the whole piece is introduced in the very first bar, roaring in the lower registers of the instrument. This motif develops in many different ways throughout the piece, trembling with a textural density spanning from hollowness of unearthly splendour to dense cascades of pummelling electric charges.

The 24 Interludes are sophisticated short pieces which immediately engage us. The majority stem from true life experiences, and they contain the most ravishing musical expression Rueda has hitherto articulated. Their wealth of expression ranges from the most poignant anguish to the most ecstatic rapture and even ironic wit. Some were conceived and developed in Rome—where Rueda lived 1995–2000—evoking impressions of the city (Movimiento, Niebla, Grazioso, Corrente, Sospeso, Dibujo). Others are musical gifts for the new-born babies of close friends (Canción de cuna, Berceuse, and for my own baby daughter born in 1998: Il filo di Alicia sull’acqua). Rueda does not hesitate to look back in time, and in some numbers he indulges the inextinguishable romantic urge: Chopin is directly inspired by Prelude No. 16 of the great Polish composer; Vision is a Lisztian study borrowing the title from one of his Transcendental Etudes; Prokofiev’s ghost appears in Toccata; and Rueda was possessed by Scriabin’s spirit while writing Campo de Estrellas. Notturno in Bali depicts the fearful 2002 night when the terrorist bombs exploded in Bali; Seikilos is based on an old Greek epitaph; and Rueda conjured up impressions of his close friends in Retrato, Omaggio, Registros separados and Corale. These exquisite pieces sometimes also serve as studies or sketches for a larger future work.

Mephisto (1999) is one of the pieces originating from my invitation to a number of Spanish composers to write a ‘hommage’ for the seventieth birthday of Luis de Pablo, who had once been Rueda’s teacher. The piece’s gestation took place while Rueda was travelling in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Modelled on Liszt’s famous first waltz, it is certainly a terrifying tour-de-force for any pianist, fiercely erupting in a Dionysian catharsis in the third—and final—section of its five-minute countdown to the apocalypse.

Being a great composer, Rueda understands the piano so well that he can write—as composers of the past have done—(very) simple and highly attractive pieces for children to play. In 2003 he started writing these Inventions, dealing with basic piano techniques and ranging technically from the very simple to the moderately difficult. In this recording we hear nine of them. Bouncy Black is for black keys in intervals of a second, and Inner Piece is its counterpart for white keys. Then there is the Ligetian “blocked keys” technique in Watch Your Steps, the unending cascade of notes in To Be Continued and amusing rhythmic games in The Happiest Seconds. Rueda continues to add attractive short pieces to the approximately fifty he has already written; Inventions is thus an essential contribution to the musical education of the young.

Ananda Sukarlan

In memory of the victims of Bali terrorist attack, 12-10-02

In 2003 and 2004, I gave a series of concerts in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Scandinavian countries dedicated to the victims of this barbaric event. I wrote this article back then. Next November I will perform some of these pieces in Brisbane, Queensland, and so I retrieved this article I wrote for those concerts. This will be revised for Brisbane, and the original was as follows :

"Abashed the devil stood,And felt how awful goodness is." (John Milton, "Paradise Lost")

Unlike the previous centuries, literature music in the present day belong to the whole world ; the Mozarts and Beethovens of today live and create in every part of the world and are not concentrated in a few countries in West Europe. There is also a much wider range of expression, and much more influences to be absorbed and adapted to the musical language of each composer. Technology make it easy to listen and see, for example, a Maori dance in a living room in Scotland, and if that Scottish guy wants to see it again, he will just have to press a button. News travel faster than ever, and one can learn what had happened ten thousand miles away in just a few minutes difference, getting almost the same impact as those who were present at ground zero.Two powerful elements which contradict AND compliment each other are present in this concert ; both can be defined in just one place and one date : Bali, 12 October 2002. Before that date, Bali only meant one thing : paradise, and all that it embodies : peace, beauty and harmony. On the late evening of that date, a group of irresponsible, intolerant and ignorant terrorists brought hell to this paradise island, and therefore with all its components : evil, violence, ugliness, chaos, hate and horror. Afterwards, never before in history of mankind that a place could be perfectly associated with those two elements of good and evil. Naturally this event moved the emotion of the hypersensitive artists around the world. It brings horror, but it also serves as a catalyst for inspiration. Composers around the world now turn to the lost beauty of Bali and its culture, and with their own unique expressions, integrate it to their musical works which expresses their deep feelings far beyond anguish, anger and fear. Today we present only a few selected pieces created with that intense and traumatic memory and dedicated to the memory of the innocent victims of terrorism by the world's best composers, created not only as a manifestation of their repulsion against terrorism, but also as a wish to heal the pain and sorrow. And to heal, only our love, generosity and friendship could do.
"The excellence of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeables evaporate, from their being in close relationship with beauty and truth." (John Keats)

If I have to mention a part of the world which produces the most interesting, new, honest and exciting literature music, it will certainly be Australia and New Zealand in one extreme, and Spain in the other extreme. Spain has a unique history in the 20th-century music literature : its composers were so deeply rooted in traditional music that it took decades for the next generation to free themselves from this idiom. The death of Manuel de Falla in 1946 practically left Spain a vacuum in musical creation. There were certain talented mavericks such as Federico Mompou who was completely alone writing such intimate, introverted exquisite little pieces which were totally opposed to the nature of the fiery Latin temperament, the Les Six-influenced Xavier Montsalvatge, and the younger Anton Garcia Abril (b.1933) who looks back to the tonal possibilities or Gonzalo de Olavide (b.1934) who has been living in Switzerland and looks at the atonalists around him. But the real resurrection of Spanish music arrived just around the turn of the millenium, when suddenly a group of highly energetic, prolific, sharp and smart composers emerged bringing to an end of this uncertainty. Unlike their older generation who searched inside themselves for an identity, this new generation opened up and absorbed all what is around them like a sponge. Each of them is highly individual and none of their music could be easily pigeonholed, which baffled the musicologists (especially the Spanish ones who were still shocked !), most of them still doubting how to label their music. Some of the composers, although equally interesting, are not represented in this particular concert, such as Polo Vallejo, who is one of the world's most prominent etnomusicologist in African music ; too prominent that we sometimes forget his other side of being an accomplished composer who naturally integrated his deep knowledge of African rhythms and melodies into his characteristic music. In fact, it was Vallejo who introduced African music to David del Puerto (b. 1964). Del Puerto's tightly constructed rhythms owes a lot to his studies of the intricate and refined changing pulses of African music, which makes his music -- added with his unique and rigorous treatment of mosaic forms -- so exciting, both defining and defying gravity. His masterpieces include a Violin Concerto (1998) and a string quartet, while his "Alio Modo" will be extended into a full-range concerto for piano and orchestra called "Nusantara" to be premiered in 2005 which, listening to the 6-minute Alio Modo, promises to be another masterpiece. Jesus Rueda (1961) is certainly an incurable romantic but also the most radical in this generation. Some of his works employs instruments such as gasoline tanks or gongs dipped in and out the water, but he is too musical to let these gimmicks to be just pure gimmicks ; on the contrary, they serve to open a new world of sonic expression integrated into his deeply thought and moving masterpieces such as his three symphonies. His contribution for the pianistic literature is invaluable, and he certainly is one of the most important composer for this instrument of this last few decades with highly expressive and innovative works among others two sonatas and 24 interludes as well as many pieces written for young pianists, skillfully written with his lush and luscious harmonies.Santiago Lanchares (b. 1952) is the oldest of this generation. Born 6 years after the death of de Falla, Lanchares is comfortably integrated to this new generation since he is a late-beginner in composition ; his first works --which immediately gave a huge impact-- dated from 1985. Unlike Del Puerto or Rueda who already has a huge output in his late 30s, Lanchares works slowly and continuously revises his older works ; being hypersensitive to all what happens around him, his music absorbs a variety of influences without being ecclectic. His meticulosity manifest itself in the size of his best works : they are either short in duration or compact in instrumentation, such as the 7-minute "hommage to the Arabian culture" Maqam for 11 string instruments which was written in 1991 with a strong impact by the Gulf War, "Remembering Ma Yuan" for solo clarinet and electronics or the hyperactive and supercomplex Anandamania which, immediately after the sensational premiere, was selected for the UNESCO Rostrum of Composers.

Australia and New Zealand have the (dis?)advantage of being far away from everywhere, and practically they "go their own way". That's why such different and fresh kind of music have been and is still created there. Most of the victims of the 12/10 attack were Australians and New Zealanders, which provoked a strong reaction to the artists to honour their countrymen. Being very close to Indonesia, they have always turned to gamelan music for source of inspiration. Some of them : Gareth Farr, Jack Body from New Zealand and the Australians Betty Beath and Peter Sculthorpe have been deeply influenced all their lives by gamelan music, and they have studied gamelan profoundly and even have lived for short terms in Indonesia. Peter Sculthorpe (b. 1939) is considered as the first Australian composer who received worldwide fame and the first who could be defined as the composer writing Australian music, which is very much connected with Asian and Aboriginal music. His involvement with Balinese music is not limited to the gamelan ; his 8th string quartet, for example, employed ostinato patterns taken from a recording of Balinese women pounding rice. He was highly respected as a composition teacher as well, whose student include Barry Conyngham (b.1944), an equally prolific and highly respected composer who has also studied in Japan with Toru Takemitsu. It was in Japan that he wrote his most striking music : Ice Carving, for solo violin and four string orchestras, or Water ... Footsteps ... Time, for 4 amplified soloists and two orchestras. He once stated in the fascinating book of interviews "Composer to Composer" by fellow composer Andrew Ford : "I was committed to the notion by then [in the 1970s] of there being such a thing as Australian music. I got this from Peter [Sculthorpe] of course, and it meant far more than simply writing music in Australia -- it implied a music which consciously occupied itself with things that are unique to the country. ... I also came up with the idea that isolation and loneliness could be seen as a kind of metaphor for being Australian".Born in 1957 in Uzbekistan, Elena Kats-Chernin emigrated to Australia at the age of 18 and entered the NSW Conservatory, and in 1980 she moved to Germany and stayed there for 13 years, returning to Australia in 1994. Her music is characterized by chiseled rhythmic pulsation reminiscent of Stravinsky / Prokofiev and the bittersweet melodic / harmonic language of Kurt Weill ; some modernism adds an occasional dash of vinegar. She is highly renowned for her stage works, among others two operas Iphis (1997) and Matricide, the musical (1998).Jack Body (b. 1944) has always been highly regarded for his two double careers : as a composer and as a professor in Wellington University who has produced practically all the most interesting and stylistically highly diverse younger composers in NZ who have now equally achieve worldwide recognition of their own : from the rock and techno influenced John Psathas with his incredibly energetic, funky and well-crafted pieces, as well as the Buddhist / Zen influenced Ross James Carey (b. 1968) who now lives in Canada, and Michael Norris (b. 1973) who has found his own abstract, intricate, refined and expressive voice already in his young age. Jack Body's most moving work is perhaps the piano piece Sarajevo of 1991. In honoring the 12/10 victims, he collaborates with the Balinese composer I Wayan Gde Yudane in creating the piece, and Yudane himself plays gamelan with me in this piece. Gareth Farr (b. 1968) is certainly the most flamboyant of all : not only he is famous for his brilliant, elegant, attractive and exuberant orchestral works, he also performs singing, dancing and playing percussion (he was for many years percussionist of the NZ Symphony Orchestra, which explains the strong presence of percussive elements in his greatest works) as his alter-ego Lilith Lacroix, the highly seductive queen of the South Sea.

Nancy v.d Vate's music goes back to lyricism and modality though with still-not-so-traditional harmonies, although she too has been very much in the forefront of avantgardism in the 1960s and 1970s. Born in the USA, she is a highly prolific composer of operas and other stage works, although her output also includes many splendid orchestral, choral and instrumental works. An inveterate traveller as well, her music reflects a wide variety of influences of world cultures, especially Indonesia where she lived in the 1980s, during which her invaluable contribution to the (very) young local musicians including me was not only letting us discover the excitement of 20th century music but also to light the spark of enthusiasm and love for music. Her greatest works are many times strongly related to the world events that provoked their creation, such as the impressive Chernobyl or Krakow Concerto.
John McLeod (b. 1944) is the only Scottish representative in this program. He has, for the last few years, very much influenced by Asian music in general, perhaps due to his constant travels to Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and other Asian countries, and his idiom has developed into a unique kind of music which no man has heard before. Therefore, his master-pieces dated from the last few years : "The Chronicle of Saint Machar" for SATB and children choir, baritone solo and orchestra (1999), Symphonies of Stone and Water - a virtuosic concerto for piano accompanied by a highly original scoring of 3 saxophones, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones and percussion (2000) as well as a multi-media work for solo percussionist, electroacustic tape and film projection entitled The Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas.
Ananda Sukarlan, Sept 2003

Recording Jesus Rueda's "Ketjak"

So, Rueda's Sonata no. 2 "Ketjak" has highly enthused the public that I am asked to immediately record it. A CD of Rueda's piano music is of course long overdue, as he is, with Santiago Lanchares, the most important composer for the piano from Spain today. Lanchares' CD of his complete piano works (well, complete means until 2003) won the Best Recording of the Year last year, so a CD of Rueda should have at least the same impact, especially because Rueda has this sort of Scriabinesque passion in his music which appeals to the romantic music fans. Anyway, am planning a short period of rest and doing composition these 2 weeks, but I see that this is the best time to record it since it is still "in my fingers" as we say . And it will be good for my second performance of it in Mexico in September, since practising for a recording means meticulously dissecting the piece and really "assimilate" it . Also I would like to record Nancy van de Vate's beautiful piece she wrote in 2003 commemorating the Bali terrorist attack, "A Balinese Diptych" ; it will be released next year in Vienna Modern Masters, but since I am entering the studio recording, I'd better record it now. So, these 2 days I worked on and finished my piece "Psalm 148" for SSAATTBB choir, sent it to Vox Angelorum (who commissioned it) this morning and now back to my piano, boisterously practicing those exhilarating Ketjak rhythms. Again, my gratitude to Jesus Rueda is beyond words for writing this incredible piece of music. Am really, really honoured to be its dedicatee .

World premiere of Sonata no. 2 "Ketjak" of Jesus Rueda

YES !! I just premiered it about 5 hours ago in this historical place, La Residencia, in Madrid (Ravel, Poulenc, Stravinsky once did their Spanish premeires here). Very happy , although not really 100% satisfied, but hey, it's the first performance, right ?. Jesus Rueda's Second Sonata "Ketjak" (yes, it's based on the polyrhythms of the Kecak dance of Bali) aroused great, GREAT interest of the public. I hope they get it : not only its virtuosity, lots of noise, brilliance, ebullience .... but also the impressive mastery of the great composer in manipulating the musical material and the really solid structure of the piece.
Jesus Rueda is THE composer of the piano of today from Spain, and one of the best composers in the world, so expectation was high . And it's been 10 years since he wrote his -- equally successful -- First Sonata. But yes, I feel happy , after lots of work (from his and my part), at last it has been premiered with my interpretation as I expected, more or less. I hope to play it in Monterrey (Mexico) next September and Rome (Italy) next October. And more, and more, and more. I am sure this masterpiece will grow and have a life of its own. I am proud beyond belief, obviously, to be the dedicatee of this great piano work.
And a very nice concert as well. The "elite" society of music of Spain were there : David del Puerto (who just happily came back from New York, having his Second Oboe Concerto performed for the first time in the US), Santiago Lanchares and his wife, the critics Arturo Reverter, and of course Jesus Rueda himself being admired by the ladies ....

Now am going home, and I have to finish my composition for SATB choir, "Psalm 148". It is commissioned by the Vox Angelorum Choir in Jakarta and its director, Henry Sutjipto. My idea is to write really a happy (which, in my musical terms means "funky") piece, and I know some churches in Indonesia are not really eager to have a funky (and loud !) piece performed in their churches ... but I just want to write what I feel and believe. Why can't we be happy pronouncing "Laudate Dominum !" ? And I think God wouldn't mind at all people listening to a happy piece ....

A poetic birthday

Woke up very late today (even that was because a phone call from a friend wishing me a happy birthday and so I didn't have breakfast with my family), and then had breakfast in my back garden . I am 39 today !! Afterwards we had lunch in our garden ; my wife has bought many seafood yesterday from the beach, and fortunately it's such a beautiful day .

Many birthday wishes today, so I spent like 2 hours answering emails. My friend the choreographer Chendra Panatan made a short poem about the 88 keys of the piano for me ; you can check it out at his blog (if you speak Indonesian) : http://chendraefblogger.blogspot.com . But the most special for today is that the great Indonesian poet Sapardi Djoko Damono made especially a poem for me consists of 4 sonnets, and it is published along with some other new poems of his in "Kompas", the main newspaper in Indonesia. It is dedicated to "Andy the busker" (Andy, pengamen) . I like being called like that ! Anyway, those 4 sonnets are really new masterpieces of his . They have many "inner" meanings taken from our cyber-relationship and creative processes, they are sophisticatedly constructed, strong and so deeply touching -- as usually his poems are. Next week I will post them here in my blog. He also sent me a nice short email wishing happy birthday. The great poet also confessed that it wasn't easy to do those sonnets ; it took him several weeks to change and revise things until its impeccable final version . Thank you Maestro ! And thanks to all my friends !

In 3 days I will give the world premiere the Sonata no. 2 "Ketjak" by the great Spanish composer Jesus Rueda. Hope to meet the crème de la crème of Spanish music in that concert : Santiago Lanchares, David del Puerto, Polo Vallejo .... cool musicians and cool guys .

Birthday of the romantics tomorrow

Strange that I idolize the romantics, while I can't find anything romantic in myself !

And it is quite a coincidence that two of my romantic heroes have the same day as their birthdays, almost 2 centuries apart.

It's the birthday of the great poet Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892) tomorrow . I have set to music some of his poems, such as "Hours continuing long" as well as his poems related to animals, The Dalliance of the Eagles and A Noiseless Patient Spider, for soprano & piano. You know Vaughan Williams' great Second Symphony "A Sea Symphony" ? It's also based on his poems, obviously relating to one of his favorite themes, the sea. Ned Rorem and Oliver Knussen also did some music based on his music, as well as Leonard Bernstein in one of his songs from "Songfest". I still don't know what attracts composers to his poems ; it's just something natural, I guess ....

And also tomorrow will be the birthday of one of my favorite composer, very much alive, Jesus Rueda. He turns 46 . Exactly in 2 weeks time, I will give the world premiere of his Sonata no.2 , "Ketjak", inspired on the rhythms (and noise !) of the Ketjak dance of Bali . Jesus Rueda is one of the most admired and loved composers of Spain today, and certainly the most important composer for my instrument, the piano, coming from this country. I simply love, LOVE his music ; his Third Symphony was just premiered last month and am literally DYING to listen to it. He also has 3 string quartets, and the third is definitely a masterpiece . All of them have been recorded by my friends the Arditti Quartet ; in fact, it became historically important, since it was the last recording of the Ardittis with Rohan de Saram as their cellist. It is a double CD, where I also played with them his Piano Trio and Piano Quintet, as well as 4 of his Love Songs with the fantastic viola player of the quartet, Ralf Ehlers. I think Jesus Rueda has achieved in continuing the thread which was broken after the death of Britten and Shostakovich .

Happy Birthday to all those incurable romantics under the sign of Gemini .

Paths and highways

Am enjoying immensely practising the complete ballet of "Castor & Pollux" by one of my favorite composers, Santiago Lanchares. It is a work for piano & percussion (I will do it with my friend, the number one, second to none percussionist Miquel Bernat), 40 minutes of brilliant, exhilarating, inexhaustibly driving rhythmical work. We will do the complete work (12 episodes) for the first time in 3 weeks time in Portugal, and during the next season we will do it several times with the famous choreographer Dani Panullo in Madrid and several other cities.

The combination of piano and percussion produces a fascinating sound world ; especially in this ballet Lanchares uses 90% only marimba and vibraphone. The range of the character of the sound it produces is so wide, from the dark low register of the marimba to the ear-piercing resonating sounds of the combination of the piano and vibraphone. The dynamic range is also astonishingly wide, as well as their colourful sound palette and textures. Sometimes Miquel Bernat plays those two instruments simultaneously, each with one hand (that's a technique that he has developed through the years). You can hear the results of Miquel playing both instruments in http://www.youtube.com/ , if you search for Santiago Lanchares' name , where "Lamento de Pollux" is shown with the film by another friend of us, Chendra Panatan.

There is of course the problem of balance of loudness, since those percussion instruments are by nature louder than the piano, but Santiago Lanchares could deal with it in a clever way . He is, I consider, the best composer for piano coming from Spain of today together with Jesus Rueda. But Rueda takes his influence from the romantic tradition broken after Rachmaninov (although Rueda has many highly imaginative works for percussion ; in fact Miquel and his group "Drumming" will record a whole CD of his percussion works next year), and Lanchares follows the percussive path of Bartok and Britten. So, two composers each walking on their own paths, and the artistic result is equally valid and of the highest quality. Meanwhile, there are some music dictators out there who are "metaphorically killing" (a quote from Times magazine) future generation of composers who didn't follow their (presumably one and only) path. Even some of those dictators just ORDER other people to follow their path, while they themselves don't walk through it ; they don't compose, just dictate !!!
It reminds me of the period of Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia, when they built one highway to connect two cities. One HAS to pass through that one and only highway if you want to arrive at his destination. And of course he has to pay the toll . Now, what can Suharto do now with all that money ? I wonder ....

Orchestral spring

There has been a lot of world premieres of orchestral pieces here in Spain during this month, and I heard that they are very exciting. I haven't heard any of them (spent too much here among the hills writing my own music !), but hope to listen to them when the Radio Clasica broadcast them in a few weeks time.
The first was Apertura by Santiago Lanchares. The title, meaning "Opening" refers to the commissioner, which is the new Auditorium of Music in Valladolid to house the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon. The conductor was the Columbian Alejandro Posada
Then there was Hyperion II by Jesus Rueda, also commissioned by the same orchestra mentioned above and done by the same conductor. Jesus Rueda's "Tierra" ("Earth") will be premiered by the Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla next month with Pedro Halffter conducting. This piece, hopefully, will compliment the missing planet of Gustav Holst's "The Planets", although naturally the musical language of both composers are very different.
And in 3 days I hope to hear David del Puerto's Variaciones en memoriam de Gonzalo De Olavide , played by the Orquesta Nacional de España in Madrid. Also next month is the premiere of Santiago Lanchares' 3 episodes from Castor & Pollux, by the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, conducted by the woman conductor Gloria Isabel Ramos .

Here in Spain we are back in the period like in the 1950s, where everybody was excited to hear the new things of Britten, Shostakovich and Stravinsky. And another war is going on, unfortunately -- although not in Spain, but Spain is very much involved --, and not a cold one. But musically speaking, we are so lucky to have our brilliant composers hanging around here, writing brilliant masterpieces to be enjoyed equally as we enjoyed music by dead composers. And orchestras and musicians being enthusiastic in playing them, and those composers having lots of fans of their music.

Now, who said that the orchestra is a thing of the past ?? C'mon, get serious.

35th anniversary of Tante Ann & oom Eddy

Today I chatted (to be precise : gossipped) with Ruth, from the Jakarta Conservatory of Music, telling me that it's the 35th anniversary of tante Anneke and her husband. Tante Anneke is our sweet (well, most of the time) managing director, but also doing all the other jobs at the administration office, all the scheduling ..... in short, everything but teaching ! So, congratulations, tante & oom Eddy .

As a gift, I want to write a love song, so I browsed again the poems of Sapardi Djoko Damono, with whose poems I am having a big crush on these days (please check my entry a few days ago). Found 2 short poems which I would like to set into one continuous piece of music for mezzosoprano & piano, "to tante Ann & oom Eddy for their 35 years of happiness". Of course I haven't got permission from the great poet, but I just hope that I could get his email and ask him ( cross my fingers that he will give his permission, especially in uniting those 2 poems !) . Anyway, I set a target of writing 35 bars of music to be scanned and sent by email to the happy couple, and I managed to write 37. Am not going to tell you now which poems they are ... for superstitional reasons . The piece has to be finished first . I wrote this post right after I sent the email to them with those 37 bars.

By the way, I have also finished setting Chendra's poem "Saksi" two days ago, but in such a different character ! The piano part is very, VERY virtuosic. There is a prelude which last for perhaps 30 seconds, which is quite scary when I look at the finished page. Completely black full of running notes ! Well, it's inspired by the storm, so, what else can I do ? The piece wrote itself !

Tomorrow Rohan de Saram will arrive and will stay at my place (with his Guarneri cello which costs .....half a million euros !!! (that was the estimation of his cello in the year 2000 ... so, it has gone up since then ..). Make sure you turn on the alarm and lock the doors at night, Andy ...) before we travel together to Madrid on Sunday. So, 4 days of rehearsals. No musing and toying with other people's poems. By the way, we are premiering a work (another Love Song ! Everybody's talking about love these days ... or is it because we already are practically in the age of Aquarius ??) by Jesus Rueda and a 3-movement work by Geoffrey King.