Als driejarige vraagt Joseph Puglia (New York 1984) om een viool. Zijn ouders denken dat het een gril, is. Een jaar later krijgt Joseph een viool en begint hij te spelen, wat uitmond in een Master of Music diploma in Den Haag. Tien jaar geleden maakt Puglia kennis met het werk van Luciano Berio, wat voor hem de toegangspoort tot de twintigste-eeuwse muziek is. Puglia – hij treedt vaak als concertmeester met het ASKO|Schoenberg Ensemble op – is een warm pleitbezorger van de hedendaagse muziek. Dit album geeft een mooi beeld van het werk van Berio. Het album opent met Duetti per due violini, waarbij Puglia de 34 duetten met verschillende violisten van 7 tot 69 jaar (Vera Beths) speelt. Na de twee stukken voor piano en viool, speelt Puglia op imponerende wijze de hondsmoeilijke Sequenza VIII. Het album wordt afgesloten met Corale Su Sequenza VIII, waarbij het orkest op darmsnaren speelt. Een bijzondere ervaring bij een boeiend album.
Berio - Music for Violin
Ladder of Escape 14
Joseph Puglia (viool)
tekst van Joseph Puglia:
CD Project: Joseph Puglia plays violin music of Luciano Berio
At long last my Berio CD has been released and is available for sale by clicking on the picture below!
On the CD
Luciano Berio: 34 Duets for two violins
Luciano Berio: Due Pezzi for violin and piano
Luciano Berio: Sequenza VIII for violin
Luciano Berio: Corale for solo violin, string orchestra, and two horns
This CD is part of my project on the music of Luciano Berio, which also includes "bonus" recordings, masterclasses and performances of his violin music. The CD is also a landmark recording. It is the first time that the 34 Duets for two violins have been recorded as Berio intended: by many different performers, students and teachers of all ages and abilities. Berio writes about the violin Duets in the preface:
Some…can be played by beginners, others…by more advanced pupils, together with their teachers…If the Duets are performed in front of an audience, it is preferable to involve a large number of players of different age and proficiency.
The types of playing one hears from beginners and students are an integral to the pieces, they were crying out to be recorded with this in mind. The simplest Duets benefited greatly from being played by students with child-sized violins. I recorded the 34 Duets not only with a wide range of players—from 7-year-old violin students to members of the Juilliard and Brentano string quartets. A full list of all of my wonderful collaborators can be found at the end of this document—I can still hardly believe how lucky I was to have this amount of musical talent on one CD!
My student collaborators came from institutions which influenced my own development: the School for Strings in New York (one of the first music schools I attended), the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (where I received my master's degree), and Netherlands Youth Orchestra (where I had my first official teaching experience). We all spent months working together and I couldn't be prouder of the level of professionalism and respect that these students gave to the project!
Berio furthermore dedicates each duet to a friend, colleague, or person he admires. Because of this, I recorded other duets with friends, colleagues, and former teachers of mine. My colleagues from Asko|Schoenberg recorded with me, as did my former teacher Vera Beths, and many other friends in The Netherlands and New York.
The other pieces presented on this CD comprise the rest of Berio's solo and duo music for violin. Berio's Sequenza is slowly becoming a part of the standard violin repertoire. It is a maddeningly virtuosic work which is too often overlooked by violinists and audiences.
Berio's Due Pezzi for violin and piano are very colorful and humorous early pieces. Pianist Ellen Corver, with whom I have been performing for many years, and who herself had years of experience in contemporary music working closely with the great composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, recorded these with me.
I was joined by the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Utrecht and its conductor Johannes Leertouwer for the recording of Corale for solo violin, strings, and two horns. As an added challenge for both myself and the orchestra, we recorded the Corale on unwound gut strings. Although these string are not specifically called for in the piece, and are more often associated with music of the baroque and classical era, Johannes and I think they offer a fantastic array of colors to the Corale as well. Berio himself was always interested in discovering new sounds, and since the solo violin part is based on the Sequenza (I play almost exactly the same notes), we believe our performance in this version pushes the limits of color and possibility even further and in a completely different way than is heard in the Sequenza recording. This choice is also not without precedent: my very first project with Asko|Schoenberg was a collaborative performance of Berio's Rendering, which involved the Orchestra of the 18th Century performing much of that piece on gut strings. I believe unwound gut strings not only offer an historically informed choice in older music, but can also add new and interesting colors to any music.
List of collaborators
Recording engineers - Azazello: Guido Tichelman, Bastiaan Kuijt; FiveFour productions: Robert Friedrich
Corale for solo violin, string orchestra, and two horns
Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht (New Philharmonic Orchestra of Utrecht) Johannes Leertouwer, conductor
Due Pezzi for violin and piano
Ellen Corver, piano
34 Duets for two violins
Members of Asko|Schoenberg ensemble, where I have been a member since 2009
Ronald Copes (2nd violinist of The Juilliard Quartet, teacher at The Juilliard School, one of my former chamber music coaches)
Vera Beths (founder of L'Archibudelli, teacher at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, one of my former teachers)
Gordan Nikolic (concertmaster of Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra)
Mark Steinberg (founder and first violin of the Brentano Quartet)
Colin Jacobsen (founder of Brooklyn Rider Quartet, The Knights chamber orchestra, member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road ensemble)
Nicholas Mann (one of my former teachers at Juilliard and current chair of the string department at the Manhattan School of Music)
Laurie Smukler (founder of the Mendelssohn quartet, teacher at The Juilliard School)
Marc Destrube (concertmaster of Orchestra of the 18th Century)
Sasha Yudkovsky (director of School for Strings, one of the first music schools I attended, and my former chamber music coach for nine years)
Peter Brunt (Osiris Trio, former concertmaster Amsterdam Sinfonietta)
Heleen Hulst
Benjamin Gilmore
Hannah Shaw
Bas Treub
Timothy J. Crawford
Students from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague
Students from the Netherlands Youth Orchestra
Students from the School for Strings
