Marios Joannou Elia’s New CD Staubzucker: a Groud-Breaking Album of Guitar Music by Aesthis Records
Staubzucker is an alluring recording of nine works by the composer Marios Joannou Elia – 55 minutes of music, composed between 1999 and 2008, which adds new dimensions to guitar repertoire. The recording is neither typical contemporary music nor is it a mainstream classical guitar album, but it offers a manifestation of the endless possibilities of the guitar.
London, United Kingdom, November 08, 2015 --(PR.com)-- Elia studied the guitar with Marco Tamayo at the Salzburg Mozarteum and had masterclasses with Alvaro Pierri, Leo Brouwer and Aniello Desiderio; he studied chamber music with the violinist Rainer Schmidt of the Hagen Quartet. Up until the mid-2000s Elia was performing regularly in concerts across Europe and it is this specific musical background which has inspired his particular interest in composing music for the guitar in diverse instrumental combinations.
The compositional style of the works on this recording varies in terms of their musical substance and behaviour, expressing the composer’s distinctive musical values: his breadth of vision, technical craft, rhythmic drive, movement and gesture, and his profound expressivity and meta-theatricality, which have a spirit of restlessness and unexpectedness – often achieved through compositional techniques invented by Elia himself.
Characteristically, the instrumentation of the guitar within a mixed ensemble offers fresh perspectives and ground-breaking approaches to the presentation of his musical ideas. In With a Pair of Scissors and a Thousand Threads for violin and guitar, the guitarist simultaneously performs on two guitars. Cursed, which is for a classical and an electric guitar, develops on a single note, in stark contrast with Staubzucker for guitar quartet, where he transforms the guitar quartet into a percussion ensemble through the imitation of 23 different percussion sounds played on guitar, together with the addition of vocal elements.
The music on this recording is performed by virtuoso musicians who over many years have worked extensively with the composer: Kostas Tosidis, a specialist in Elia’s music (guitar); Ronny Wiesauer (electric guitar); Georges-Emmanuel Schneider (violin); Chih-Hui Chang (violoncello); Yorgos Nousis and Kostas Tosidis (guitar duo); and the Miscelanea Guitar Quartet, whose concert repertoire consistently includes Elia’s works.
The album, which was recorded at the ORF RadioKulturhaus in Vienna, will be released on 25 November 2015 and will be available through all the major online stores. It includes enlightening liner notes by the musicologist Dr Vera Grund of the University of Salzburg.
The compositional style of the works on this recording varies in terms of their musical substance and behaviour, expressing the composer’s distinctive musical values: his breadth of vision, technical craft, rhythmic drive, movement and gesture, and his profound expressivity and meta-theatricality, which have a spirit of restlessness and unexpectedness – often achieved through compositional techniques invented by Elia himself.
Characteristically, the instrumentation of the guitar within a mixed ensemble offers fresh perspectives and ground-breaking approaches to the presentation of his musical ideas. In With a Pair of Scissors and a Thousand Threads for violin and guitar, the guitarist simultaneously performs on two guitars. Cursed, which is for a classical and an electric guitar, develops on a single note, in stark contrast with Staubzucker for guitar quartet, where he transforms the guitar quartet into a percussion ensemble through the imitation of 23 different percussion sounds played on guitar, together with the addition of vocal elements.
The music on this recording is performed by virtuoso musicians who over many years have worked extensively with the composer: Kostas Tosidis, a specialist in Elia’s music (guitar); Ronny Wiesauer (electric guitar); Georges-Emmanuel Schneider (violin); Chih-Hui Chang (violoncello); Yorgos Nousis and Kostas Tosidis (guitar duo); and the Miscelanea Guitar Quartet, whose concert repertoire consistently includes Elia’s works.
The album, which was recorded at the ORF RadioKulturhaus in Vienna, will be released on 25 November 2015 and will be available through all the major online stores. It includes enlightening liner notes by the musicologist Dr Vera Grund of the University of Salzburg.
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Aesthis Records
Pedro Rodriguez
004475899654
www.youtube.com/user/aesthisrecords
Pedro Rodriguez
004475899654
www.youtube.com/user/aesthisrecords
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