WNMD 2025 · CONCERT 3
Fleeting Time / Tempo efémero
31-05-2025 · 16h00
Casa da Música, Sala 2
Porto
Bilheteira · Box Office (CdM)
GET-TOGETHER 1
Meeting with the Composers
15h30–16h00
Participants: [names to be announced]
SOND’AR-TE ELECTRIC ENSEMBLE
Pedro Carneiro · conductor
Sílvia Cancela (flute) · Nuno Pinto (clarinet) · Vítor Vieira (violin) · Catarina Gonçalves (viola) · Luís André Ferreira (cello) · João Casimiro Almeida (piano) · João Dias (percussion) · Miso Studio (live electronics)
Pedro Carneiro · © Nuno Ferreira Santos
AGATA ZEMLA (Poland, 1994) YCA
To bee or not to bee? (2021), 12’
ISCM Polish Section
DMITRI KOURLIANDSKI (Russia, 1976)
Bagatelle 5 (2023), 5’
KRISTS AUZNIEKS (Latvia, 1992) YCA
Turning the Wheel (2022), 12’
ISCM Latvian Section
PATRÍCIA SUCENA ALMEIDA (Portugal, 1972)
Instabile Tempus (2016), 13’
RUI PENHA (Portugal, 1981)
Pendulum (2012), 8’
TATJANA KOZLOVA-JOHANNES (Estonia, 1977)
Ainult õhk (Just Air) (2023), 12’
ISCM Estonian Section
YCA · ISCM Young Composers Award candidate
[ENG]
Pedro Carneiro conducts the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble in a concert with works by the Portuguese composers Patrícia Sucena de Almeida and Rui Penha. But it is also a journey to the East of Europe with works from Poland, Russia, and Latvia: To bee or not to bee?, a piece by the composer Agata Zemla, who is also a biologist; Bagatelle, for eight musicians (with percussion and double bass) by the Russian composer Dmitri Kourliandski; Turning the Wheel, by the award-winning Latvian composer Krists Auznieks; and a recent piece by the Estonian composer Tatjana Kozlova Johannes, Just Air, for piano and ensemble.
[PT]
O maestro Pedro Carneiro dirige o Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble, num concerto em que ouviremos obras dos compositores portugueses Patrícia Sucena de Almeida e Rui Penha. Mas viajamos também para leste, com obras de criadores da Polónia, Rússia e Letónia: To bee or not to bee?, uma peça de uma compositora que é também bióloga, Agata Zemla. Bagatelle, para oito instrumentistas (com percussão e contrabaixo) do compositor russo Dmitri Kourliandski. Turning the wheel, do premiado compositor letão Krists Auznieks. E ainda uma peça recente da estoniana Tatjana Kozlova Johannes, Just Air, para ensemble e piano.
with the support of
PROGRAMME NOTES
AGATA ZEMLA (Poland, 1994) YCA
To bee or not to bee? (2021), for flute, clarinet, viola, cello and live electronics
ISCM Polish Section
— The piece reflects bees and their social structures as well as the cycle of their life, including the stages of the queen, workers, and drones. To bee or not to bee? aims to make the audience think about these small animals, insects, that we cannot live without on the planet Earth. Inspiration for this piece also encompasses the book by Maja Lunde – History of the Bees. The piece’s live electronics include the electric sounds of bees. The work’s premiere occurred at the Musica Electronica Nova Festival in May 2023, in Wrocław (Poland).
DMITRI KOURLIANDSKI (Russia, 1976)
Bagatelle 5 (2023), for ensemble
— Bagatelles is a cycle of pieces I started in 2016. Each piece focuses on a simple everyday object (ruler, knitting needle, wrapping paper, balloon, music box, etc.). The sound of each object generates free associations, which become the stimulus for the ensemble material. The ensemble complements or amplifies the sound properties of the object, entering into a dialogue with it or creating the environment in which the object exists. For me, this relationship must be built not on material analysis but on free association and intuition. The 5th Bagatelle is the first piece I composed in 2023, after a year of silence following the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine and my immigration.
KRISTS AUZNIEKS (Latvia, 1992) YCA
Turning the Wheel (2022), for chamber ensemble
ISCM Latvian Section
— In the Deer Park, the highest Wheel has been set in motion. It cannot be turned back. At that hour, at that moment, in an instant of time, the proclamation reached the world, and the Ten-Thousand World Systems shook and shook again. An immeasurable splendor was seen throughout the world, surpassing the splendor of all the gods.
PATRÍCIA SUCENA ALMEIDA (Portugal, 1972)
Instabile Tempus (2016), for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano
— Attention, so that you do not waste the moment that is only yours. Awakening, reflection. Awareness of time and its particularities. Past, Present and Future - a continuum that is not always linear. These are the pillars that support the piece Instabile Tempus, composed for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, which includes previously recorded audio excerpts, in which the Past 'is' nothing, the Future 'is' uncertain, the Present 'is' inconstant, Attention, so that you do not waste the moment that is only yours. The musicians, as well as conventionally playing, combine the vocal sound with the breath, simulating together with the recorded audio excerpts, a choir without bodies. In the first version, it was represented by a set of men's and women's 'props/suits' arranged on supports; in the second version, the representation was made only with hangers hung in a sculptural manner. Aiming for a cohesive and fully interactive result, this objective was achieved by harmonizing various elements of equal importance. The perception between inner and outer time, associated with the internal structure we build to guide us against adversity and the difficulty of identifying each moment in time, acts as a wake-up call so that we don't fall into inertia, into limbo, but remain vigilant and live fully in the time that belongs to us.
RUI PENHA (Portugal, 1981)
Pendulum (2012), for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, video and live electronics
— pendulum, for flute, bass clarinet, piano, violin, violoncello, real-time video and electronics, is a study on dynamic spatialisation. Digital models of physical elements are used to generate both spatial and musical gestures, being presented during the performance in a video controlled in realtime by the pianist. These models include simple pendulums, pendulum waves, multi-body gravitational systems and elastic systems. It was commissioned by Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble in 2012, and it has since been performed by several groups around the world. It is available as a recording by Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble, and it also exists as a multimedia installation that has been presented in art galleries in Portugal.
TATJANA KOZLOVA-JOHANNES (Estonia, 1977)
Ainult õhk (Just Air) (2023), for piano and ensemble
ISCM Latvian Section
— The work is inspired by an image, one part of which is “just air” – something neutral, cold, mystically cosmic, and perfectly empty. The other part is a “blower” or someone who “breathes life into” embodying something inevitably human – fragile, lonely, warm and vulnerable. It is not clear what the contact points between the “blower” and “air” are, or whether they are part of the same reality.