HANS OTTE
'BOOK OF SOUNDS'
('DAS BUCH DER KLÄNGE')
CONOR HANICK, PIANO
MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2022 | 8pm
ZIPPER CONCERT HALL, LOS ANGELES
200 S GRAND ST, LOS ANGELES, CA 90012
( Co-presented with our friends at Piano Spheres )
ZIPPER CONCERT HALL, LOS ANGELES
200 S GRAND ST, LOS ANGELES, CA 90012
( Co-presented with our friends at Piano Spheres )
Hans Otte
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Das Buch der Klänge album cover (1984)
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PROGRAM:
John CAGE - 'BUT WHAT ABOUT THE NOISE OF CRUMPLING PAPER...' (1985)
Hans OTTE - 'BOOK OF SOUNDS' (1979-1982)
PERFORMERS:
ECHOI, percussionists (CAGE)
Conor Hanick, piano (OTTE)
John CAGE - 'BUT WHAT ABOUT THE NOISE OF CRUMPLING PAPER...' (1985)
Hans OTTE - 'BOOK OF SOUNDS' (1979-1982)
PERFORMERS:
ECHOI, percussionists (CAGE)
Conor Hanick, piano (OTTE)
THE COMPOSER SPEAKS:
"I would say that behind my artistic work, as an aim or hope, is the need to find myself.
In other words: despite all the separating structures, the division of all the work, the ideologies, fixed ideas, systems,
despite the state and everything that ceaselessly tries to separate and divide us, I fundamentally want to be complete."
— Hans Otte
ABOUT THE WORK:
"I would say that behind my artistic work, as an aim or hope, is the need to find myself.
In other words: despite all the separating structures, the division of all the work, the ideologies, fixed ideas, systems,
despite the state and everything that ceaselessly tries to separate and divide us, I fundamentally want to be complete."
— Hans Otte
ABOUT THE WORK:
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Classified as a 'masterpiece of restraint' by composer Terry Riley, The Book of Sounds, a twelve-movement work lasting approximately seventy minutes, is a profoundly meditative work of sonic beauty and harmonic richness.
Conor Hanick is regarded as one of his generation’s most elegant and inquisitive interpreters of music new and old whose “technical refinement, color, crispness and wondrous variety of articulation benefit works by any master.” (New York Times) Hanick has recently been presented by the Ojai Music Festival (where his performance of this very work received an extended ovation), the New York Philharmonic, the Gilmore Festival, Death of Classical, Caramoor, Cal Performances, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and countless others. A fierce advocate for the music of today, Hanick has premiered over two hundred pieces and has collaborated with leaders in the field of contemporary music such as Pierre Boulez, Kaija Saariaho, and Steve Reich, as well as emerging luminaries of his own generation including Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Tyshawn Sorey, Matthew Aucoin, and Christopher Cerrone. He is the director of Solo Piano at the Music Academy of the West and serves on the faculty of the Peabody Institute and The Juilliard School. In the words of Hans Otte himself, “this Book of Sounds rediscovers the listener as a partner of sound and silence, who in the quest for his world, wishes for once to be totally at one with sound. It rediscovers the piano as an instrument of timbre and tuneful sound with all its possibilities of dynamics, colour and resonance. The Book of Sounds rediscovers playing as the possibility of experiencing oneself in sound, becoming at one in time and space with all the sounds around one. It rediscovers a world of consonant experience which could only now be written because of a totally changed consciousness of sounds on earth.” We at Monday Evening Concerts and Piano Spheres cannot wait to share this sublime cult classic with you. See you at the concert! |
OTHERS WEIGH IN:
"This work, a masterpiece of restraint, reflects the musical imagination of
someone who has spent long periods in the quiet recesses of the mind."
-- Terry Riley
For Otte, composing was a slow process of perfection,
taking place through the deepest levels of personality, musicality, individuality and consciousness.
With The Book of Sounds, all the musical experiences and beliefs he gained over many years
culminated in a single large cycle for his beloved, true instrument, the piano.
After the age of mathematical serialism, the composer felt a great need to return to the
traditional powerful dichotomy between consonant and dissonant harmony,
letting the colours slowly fill the heavens in a most natural, unbridled and ultimately peaceful way.
His efforts resulted in an intensely personal and intimate document of a human being:
a book of sounds celebrating life in all its colours. A true labour of love.
— Ralph van Raat
BIOGRAPHY OF THE PERFORMER:
"This work, a masterpiece of restraint, reflects the musical imagination of
someone who has spent long periods in the quiet recesses of the mind."
-- Terry Riley
For Otte, composing was a slow process of perfection,
taking place through the deepest levels of personality, musicality, individuality and consciousness.
With The Book of Sounds, all the musical experiences and beliefs he gained over many years
culminated in a single large cycle for his beloved, true instrument, the piano.
After the age of mathematical serialism, the composer felt a great need to return to the
traditional powerful dichotomy between consonant and dissonant harmony,
letting the colours slowly fill the heavens in a most natural, unbridled and ultimately peaceful way.
His efforts resulted in an intensely personal and intimate document of a human being:
a book of sounds celebrating life in all its colours. A true labour of love.
— Ralph van Raat
BIOGRAPHY OF THE PERFORMER:
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Pianist CONOR HANICK is regarded as one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music new and old whose “technical refinement, color, crispness and wondrous variety of articulation benefit works by any master.” (New York Times) Hanick’s playing, “a revelation of clarity and bite,” reminds the Times’ Anthony Tommasini of a “young Peter Serkin.” His performance of John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes was, according to the Times’ critic David Allan, “the best instrumental concert I have seen all year”; praise echoed by the Boston Globe, which named the performance “Best Solo Recital” of 2019.
Hanick has recently been presented by The Gilmore Festival, the New York Philharmonic, Caramoor, Cal Performances, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Park Avenue Armory, and performed with the Seattle Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. A fierce advocate for the music of today, and “the soloist of choice for such thorny works” (NYT), Hanick has premiered over 200 pieces and collaborated with composers both emerging and iconic; among them, Hanick has worked with Pierre Boulez, Kaija Saariaho, Steve Reich, and Charles Wuorinen, in addition to the leading composers of his generation, including Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Tyshawn Sorey, Matthew Aucoin, and Christopher Cerrone. In the 22-23 season, Hanick premieres a new piano concerto by composer Samuel Carl Adams with the San Francisco Symphony and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen; appears with soprano Julia Bullock at the Aix en Provence Festival in Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi; and presented in recital by the Library of Congress, Hancher Auditorium, Ensemble Music Society of Indianapolis, the 92nd Street Y, and elsewhere. He is a founding member of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), a group of artists focused on developing discipline-colliding work. With that group, Hanick will serve as co-artistic director of the Ojai Festival in 2022 and present work the Spoleto Festival, Carolina Performing Arts, Saint John the Devine, and LaMaMa Theater. Since 2014 Hanick has been a faculty artist at the Music Academy of the West and in 2018 became the director of its Solo Piano Program. He has given lectures and masterclasses in Asia, Europe, and throughout the US, including Northwestern University, the New England Conservatory, UCLA, The University of Washington, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the University of Iowa. He is a member of the piano and chamber music faculty of The Juilliard School and the Peabody Institute of Music. A Yamaha Artist, Hanick a graduate of Northwestern University and the Juilliard School, and lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife, son, and Westies. 
Conor Hanick photographed by Anneliese Varaldiev
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