Beethoven | Deutsche Welle Folgen

Cologne's Minguet Quartet, one of the finest of the younger generation, plays 15th century music at the Beethovenfest.Johannes Ockeghem (approx. 1420-1497) Quatre Chansons (Four Songs) Minguet Quartet MP3 recorded at the Beethoven House, Bonn on September 24, 2010 by Deutsche Welle (DW) Johannes Ockeghem was a Flemish composer and cleric. His contemporaries described him as a generous and fair man, and his music was praised and enjoyed universally. The Cologne-based Minguet Quartet is one of the most in-demand younger generation string quartets. It consists of Ulrich Isfort and Annette Reisinger (violins), Aroa Sorin (viola) and Matthias Diener (cello). Educated in Essen and Cologne, the four musicians received important artistic impulses from Walter Levin of the LaSalle Quartet and from the Amadeus, Melos and Alban Berg Quartets. In acknowledgment of their status, the Arts Foundation of North Rhine-Westphalia donated a set of valuable instruments to the Minguet Quartet. Author: Suzanne Cords (gsw) Editor: Rick Fulker

Performances by percussionists are somewhat of a sporting event: with an armada of instruments, Martin Grubinger & Friends are as interesting to watch as they are to listen to.Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) Pleiades for 6 percussionists: (IV.) Peaux Martin Grubinger (percussion) Leonhard Schmidinger (percussion) Rainer Furthner (percussion) Sabine Pyrker (percussion) Rizumu Sugishita (percussion) Slavik Stakhov (percussion) MP3 recorded in the Beethoven Hall, Bonn on September 25, 2010 by Deutsche Welle (DW) The panoply of a multi-percussionist is impressive: in addition to conventional drums, there are all sorts of unusual instruments like bells, whistles, stones and sirens. To watch how often and deftly Martin Grubinger and his fellow percussionists move among their vast array of instruments is an exercise in fascination. The Greek composer Iannis Xenakis was one of the first to extract the percussion section from a symphony orchestra and assign it a role of its own. In "Pleiades," he created a sound both serious and celebratory, as Greek mythology can be, and yet there's something reminiscent of Asian rituals in it - a sound that sets one's teeth on edge, inescapable, louder than at a rock concert, a sound with which the listener's body itself seems to resonate. Autor: Rick Fulker Editor: Louisa Schaefer

Surround sound in real-time with no electrical transformation: Martin Grubinger & Friends let their music flow through the Beethoven Hall and give a breathtaking performance.Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) Persephassa for 6 percussionists Martin Grubinger (percussion) Leonhard Schmidinger (percussion) Rainer Furthner (percussion) Sabine Pyrker (percussion) Rizumu Sugishita (percussion) Slavik Stakhov (percussion) MP3 recorded in the Beethoven Hall, Bonn on September 25, 2010 by Deutsche Welle (DW) Two percussionists stand at the left and right of the stage, four more stand left and right at the front and back of the hall - literally creating "surround sound." As a result, the best spots in the Beethoven Hall this time around were smack in the center. The first notes of "Persephassa for 6 percussionists" made it clear it would be a breathtaking concert. How could six musicians standing so far apart from each other achieve such an extremely precise, complete sound? An electronic metronome coordinated the whole event, with a click sounding in their ears that told them to speed up or slow the tempo. The programming of the metronome alone was a finely orchestrated feat, and a laborious process, percussionist Martin Grubinger told the audience. Numerous contemporary composers have written music for Grubinger, who was just 27 years old at this Beethoven Festival concert in September 2010. Blessed with a photographic memory, he can normally play without a score in front of him. But when it comes to composer Iannis Xenakis's music, "normal" just doesn't cut it… Author: Rick Fulker Editor: Louisa Schaefer