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Hilary Hahn & Hauschka at Aria Poster
Minneapolis (01/12/14)
Liquid Music Schedule
02/13/14 Olga Bell: Origin/Outcome
Read More02/14/14-05/11/14 Sisyphus 03/21/14-03/22/14 Timo Andres: Work Songs 05/06/14 Daniel Bjarnason and Nadia Sirota 06/03/14 Ethel: Documerica
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This wasn’t your grandmother’s classical music.
The second season of the very successful Liquid Music series continued this past weekend with a compelling and sold-out performance from American violin virtuoso Hilary Hahn and German “prepared pianist” Hauschka (aka Volker Bertelmann) at Aria (the former Jeune Lune Theater) in Minneapolis, as co-presented by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Schubert Club’s Mix.
The series aims to "expand the world of classical music through innovative new projects, boundary-defying artists, and unique presentation formats" and that was certainly the case with this improvisational duo that comes separately from very different backgrounds, but meets in the middle with a collective sound that is urgent, flowing, and alive in the ether with a newborn freshness.
The 80 min. performance was only inspired by their collaborative 2012 album Silfra (Universal/Deutsche Grammophon) rather than a live interpretation of. Instead, most of the evening bore the fruit of new and spontaneous improvisations which seemed to excite and keep on-edge the two performers creating the work, as much as the audience witnessing it all.
Hahn, a two-time Grammy-winning precise protégé who began playing violin via the Suzuki method at age 3, is no stranger to boundary-pushing and collaboration, working in 2005 with singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau, who in turn, introduced her to Hauschka.
The album, Silfra was recorded in Iceland in 10 days, after more than two years of preparation and produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson, who has worked with Bjork, Sigur Ros, and Tim Hecker, among others.
Hauschka inexplicably began his musical career in a hip-hop duo with his cousin, continuously exploring sounds and music, and after becoming frustrated, started putting random objects into and between piano strings, hammers, and dampers, and manipulating that with digital technology, to create something bigger.
Currently touring separately, both met in Minneapolis for this rare live collaborative experiment, akin to two artists painting on the same canvas or each working with divergent ephemera to create something new. Results, as with any improvisation were slightly mixed, yet always interesting to witness and felt overall as very “in-the-moment”.
A slightly unsettling point came just over halfway through, with Hauschka dis-assembling and discarding most of the “found objects” inside his piano used to create the manipulated sound; bottle caps, wooden sticks, string, and wadded tape were strewn about the stage after their use was done, as Hahn gently had bow to string, as a soundtrack.
The rest of the performance had Hauschka chiefly relying on his core skills on the Steinway (which were no less impressive), with both still displaying a jaggedness and immediacy to the remainder of their set. In the end, the live experiment was much more satisfying than not, and a treat to see these two seemingly so different musicians, come together on one stage to create something so unique, right before our eyes.
The Liquid Music series continues next with Olga Bell and friends, Thursday Feb. 13th at the Walker Art Center.
The second season of the very successful Liquid Music series continued this past weekend with a compelling and sold-out performance from American violin virtuoso Hilary Hahn and German “prepared pianist” Hauschka (aka Volker Bertelmann) at Aria (the former Jeune Lune Theater) in Minneapolis, as co-presented by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Schubert Club’s Mix.
The series aims to "expand the world of classical music through innovative new projects, boundary-defying artists, and unique presentation formats" and that was certainly the case with this improvisational duo that comes separately from very different backgrounds, but meets in the middle with a collective sound that is urgent, flowing, and alive in the ether with a newborn freshness.
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Hahn & Hauschka
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Hilary Hahn
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The album, Silfra was recorded in Iceland in 10 days, after more than two years of preparation and produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson, who has worked with Bjork, Sigur Ros, and Tim Hecker, among others.
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Hauschka
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Currently touring separately, both met in Minneapolis for this rare live collaborative experiment, akin to two artists painting on the same canvas or each working with divergent ephemera to create something new. Results, as with any improvisation were slightly mixed, yet always interesting to witness and felt overall as very “in-the-moment”.
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"found objects"
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The rest of the performance had Hauschka chiefly relying on his core skills on the Steinway (which were no less impressive), with both still displaying a jaggedness and immediacy to the remainder of their set. In the end, the live experiment was much more satisfying than not, and a treat to see these two seemingly so different musicians, come together on one stage to create something so unique, right before our eyes.
The Liquid Music series continues next with Olga Bell and friends, Thursday Feb. 13th at the Walker Art Center.
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Hilary Hahn and Hauschka at Aria, Minneapolis (12 Jan 2014) |
