August 08, 2008
Meeting with the composer at AsiagoFestival: A day with the words and music of Krzysztof Meyer
August 10, 2008 Asiago City Hall Council Chamber.
For its fourth AsiagoFestival event, AsiagoFestival dedicates the day of Sunday, Aug. 10, to Krzystof Meyer’s meeting with the renowned Polish composer, known as a distinguished lecturer and essayist. Meyer, in fact, will be the protagonist of the Asiago morning on Sunday, August 10, when (beginning at 10:30 a.m.) he will be the guest of the Sala Consi- gliare of the Asiago Town Hall to tell about his life and art and meet with the audience that usually crowds numerous and attentive these very special mo- ments established by Asiago Festival to “bring” its demanding pla- tea closer and closer to the protagonists of its precious stages.
After the morning meeting with the composer, AsiagoFestival will then offer a se- ral encounter with his music: the church of San Rocco, at 9 p.m. will host pianist Pietro De Maria, violinists Maddalena Reszler and Anna Tifu and cellist Julius Berger (artistic di- rector of the Asiago Festival) who will perform some of Meyer’s compositions. Of note is the first-ever performance from the duo for two violins that Mayer com- posed on commission from Asiago Festival, entitled “Duet.” In addition to this brand-new page, “Misterioso” (1994) and “Capriccio interrotto” (2000) for violin and piano; “Sonata a solo” (1975) for violin and “Sonata a solo” (2007) for cello will be offered. An unmissable opportunity, then, to get to know “new music” and those who create it, but also – in the evening concert – to hear soloists of extraordinary caliber, in the somewhat informal (and precisely for this reason all the more fascinating) dimension of a vacation of a few o days or a few hours on the Plateau.
ASIAGOFESTIVAL is organized by the Cultural Association “Friends of Music of Asiago” – “Fiorella Benetti Brazzale”, in collaboration with the Parish of St. Matthew, with the contribution and collaboration of the City of Asiago, Department of Tourism and Culture and the decisive support of Banca Popolare di Vicenza, Burro delle Alpi – Alpilatte, Gran Moravia, Bassan Bernardo and Sons and Rigoni di Asiago.
KRZYSZTOF MEYER was born in Krakow on August 11, 1943. From the age of five he began studying piano, and from 1954 theory and composition with Stanislaw Wiechowicz. After promotion to the Fryderyk Chopin State Music School in Kraków he entered the Kraków College of Music where he received two honorable mention degrees: in 1965 in composition under Krzystof Penderecki (after Stanislaw Wiechowicz’s death) and in 1966 in theory. In 1964, 1966 and 1968 he went to France to study with Nadia Bou- langer. In 1965-67 he participated as a pianist in the contemporary music group “MW2 Ensemble” giving concerts in partria and abroad, in major European countries, also performing his own solo piano compositions. From 1966 to 1987 Krzystof Meyer taught composition at the Krakow Academy of Music.
In the years 1972-75 he was deputy and then director of the Music Theory Department. Since 1987 he has taught music composition at the Musikhochschule in Cologne. He has lectured on contemporary music abroad (Soviet Union, East and West Germany, Austria, Brazil). In the years 1985-1989 he was president of the Union of Polish Composers. He won numerous prizes, such as first prize at the Competition for Young Composers in France (1966), second prize at the Competition for Young Polish Composers with the first symphony (1966), the Aaron Coopland Scholarship (1966), Honorable Mention for the second symphony (1967), and first prize for the third symphony (1968) at the Young Composers’ Competition in Fitelberg, the Prix de Composition Mu- sicale at the Prince Pierre de Monaco Foundation for the work “Cyberiada” (1970), twice a special mention at theLa Tribune Internationale des Compositeurs UNESCO in Pari- gi for his String Quartets no. 2 and no. 3 (1970, 1976), Second Prize at the Artur Malawski Competition in Kraków for the “Chamber Concerto for Oboe, Percussion and Strings” (1972), twice the prize of the Ministry of Culture and Arts (1973, 1975), First Prize at the Karol Szymanowski Competition in Warsaw for the Fourth Symphony (1974), twice the medal awarded by the Brazilian Government for the String Quartet no. 4 and for the “Retro Concerto” (1975, 1977) the Gottfried-von-Herder Prize (Vienna, 1984), the Annual Prize of the Union of Polish Composers (1992), the Alfred Jurzykowski Prize (New York, 1994) and the Johann-Stamitz Prize (Mannheim, 1996). He is a member of the “Freie Akademie der Künste” in Mannheim. Krzysztof Meyer’s compositions have been performed all over the world. They have been performed at international contemporary music festivals such as the “Warsaw Autumn,” “Musicki Biennale Zagreb,” “Holland Festi- val,” “Musikprotokoll Graz,” “Aldeburgh Festival,” “Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival,” “Lucerne Festival,” and many others. Many of his works have been commissioned by leading soloists (the “Flute Concerto” for Aurèle Nicolet, the “Chamber Concerto” for oboe for Lothar Faber, the “Pezzo capriccioso” for Heinz Holliger, the “Trumpet Concerto” for Ti- mofei Dokshitser, the Cello Sonata for David Geringas, the “Canti Amadei” for Ivan Monighetti). His Symphony No. 1 was one of the three contemporary pieces obliged at the International Courses for Conductors” held by Igor Marke- vich in Munich in 1971, as was his “Hommage à Johannes Brahms” which was performed at the “Interna- tional Course for Conductors” in Dublin in 1999 conducted by Gerhard Markson.
Krzysztof Meyer is the author of the first Polish monograph on the life and work of Dmitri Shostakovich, which has been translated several times in the West . He has also written numerous articles and essays, mainly on contemporary music, published in the journals “Melos,” “Muzyka,” “Ruch Muzyczny,” “Das Orchester,” “Sovetskaya Muzyka” and other periodicals.
PROGRAM SUNDAY, AUGUST 10
10.30 a.m. Council Chamber of City Hall
“MEETING WITH COMPOSER KRZYSZTOF MEYER”
9 p.m. – St. Rocco Church Piano: Pietro De Maria Violin: Maddalena Reszler Violin: Anna Tifu
Cello: Julius Berger
Music by: Krzysztof Meyer
first performance of the duo for 2 violins
Free admission
Public info: 0424.464081 – www.asiagofestival.it
UPCOMING APPOINTMENTS
Tuesday, Aug. 12, 9 p.m. – ASIAGO – St. Rocco Church piano:Pietro De Maria
violin:Magdalena Reszler
cello:Julius Berger
music by: Schubert
Thursday, August 14 – ASIAGO – Church of S.Rocco
10:30 a.m. Council Chamber of the City Hall
Julius Berger
CD presentation ” Birth of the Cello”
Historical musicological introduction and performance of a selection of pieces from the RESEARCHES of Gianbattista Degli Antonii and Domenico Gabrielli
9 p.m.00 Church of S.Rocco
cello ensemble: “Cello Passionato”
Julius Berger, Hyun-Jung Berger, Anna Grendene, Alberto Brazzale Music by: Pachelbel, Suslin, Fitzenhagen, Kancheli, Bartok, Haydn
Friday, August 15, 9 p.m. – ASIAGO – St. Matthew’s Cathedral choir: Coenobium Vocale
director: Maria Dal Bianco
cello : Julius Berger and Hyun-Jung Berger
music by: Bonato, Perotinus, Miskinis, Lauridsen,
first performance of: “O lilium convallium” for 2 cellos and spatialized male choir.
Wednesday, Aug. 20, 9 p.m. – ASIAGO – St. Matthew Cathedral Organ: Anton Guggemos
soprano: Cecilia Tabellion
mezzo soprano: Gabi Steck
music by: Mouret, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Biechteler, Liszt, Rheinberger, Boellmann, Terziani, Salome, Saint-Saens, Mozart, Senaille, Bach
Free admission, allowed only while seats last, but no later than the beginning of the concert.
www.asiagofestival.it