Overtones by Eline Groslot

Various composers

Eline Groslot

Overtones

Price: € 14.95
Format: CD
Label: Antarctica
UPC: 0608917735024
Catnr: AR 050
Release date: 05 May 2023
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Label
Antarctica

UPC
0608917735024

Catalogue number
AR 050

Release date
05 May 2023

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

Eline Groslot: In June 2021, I embarked on a fascinating journey with my GPS for the harp repertoire. I chose this well-known acronym because it best describes how I navigate the peculiar structure of the harp repertoire. I’ve made a list of compositions that I consider important for understanding the harp repertoire. These are pieces of exquisite quality, well-written, and having withstood the test of time. One 21st-century piece that has particularly touched me because of its compelling composition is Two Japanese Folk Songs by Toshio Hosokawa. This music expresses the serenity of nature, but also the power it has over us; it’s 21st-century music rooted in Japanese tradition.

Even when I try to dampen every sound that no longer fits the harmony, many overtones continue to resonate. Hence, damping can be somewhat deceptive in a way because the resonance of the instrument in the room persists. This resonance is the essential aspect of In a Landscape, a piece written for piano or harp by John Cage. The silence in-between notes is crucial to fully grasp the composition: for him, the spaces between notes contain not silence but time.

Looking at Gordon’s repertoire, you'll notice immediately that he has a fascination for non-mainstream instruments. During our correspondence, he revealed to me that he dreamed of composing a harp concerto based on a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, called Eolian. From the very start, Eolian's character is evident: glissandi, bisbigliandi, and many ‘classical’ harp techniques, all with a contemporary twist, full of emotion, speed, and expression. You can feel the wind, thunder, primal power, and love.

James MacMillan, too, understands the power and narrative strength of glissandi. Knockroon Waltz plays with flageolets and glissandi, contrasting the left and right hands rhythmically during the waltz in such a way that it seems to shift, much like a sculpture which shifts and suddenly consists of two parts.

Eline Groslot: Im Juni 2021 habe ich mich auf eine faszinierende Reise mit meinem GPS für das Harfenrepertoire begeben. Ich habe dieses bekannte Akronym gewählt, weil es am besten beschreibt, wie ich mich in der eigentümlichen Struktur des Harfenrepertoires zurechtfinde. Ich habe eine Liste von Kompositionen erstellt, die ich für das Verständnis des Harfenrepertoires für wichtig halte. Es handelt sich dabei um Stücke von erlesener Qualität, die gut geschrieben sind und den Test der Zeit überstanden haben. Ein Stück aus dem 21. Jahrhundert, das mich wegen seiner fesselnden Komposition besonders berührt hat, ist Two Japanese Folk Songs von Toshio Hosokawa. Diese Musik drückt die Gelassenheit der Natur aus, aber auch die Macht, die sie über uns hat; es ist die Musik des 21. Jahrhunderts.
Selbst wenn ich versuche, jeden Ton zu dämpfen, der nicht mehr zur Harmonie passt, schwingen viele Obertöne weiter mit. Die Dämpfung kann also in gewisser Weise trügerisch sein, weil die Resonanz des Instruments im Raum bestehen bleibt. Diese Resonanz ist der wesentliche Aspekt von In a Landscape, einem von John Cage für Klavier oder Harfe geschriebenen Stück. Die Stille zwischen den Noten ist entscheidend, um die Komposition vollständig zu erfassen: Für ihn enthalten die Räume zwischen den Noten nicht Stille, sondern Zeit.
Wenn man sich Gordons Repertoire ansieht, merkt man sofort, dass er eine Faszination für Instrumente hat, die nicht zum Mainstream gehören. Während unseres Briefwechsels verriet er mir, dass er davon träumte, ein Harfenkonzert mit dem Titel Eolian zu komponieren, das auf einem Gedicht von Samuel Taylor Coleridge basiert. Von Anfang an ist der Charakter von Eolian offensichtlich: Glissandi, Bisbigliandi und viele "klassische" Harfentechniken, alles mit einer zeitgenössischen Wendung, voller Emotionen, Geschwindigkeit und Ausdruck. Man kann den Wind, den Donner, die Urkraft und die Liebe spüren.
Auch James MacMillan weiß um die Kraft und erzählerische Stärke von Glissandi. Knockroon Waltz spielt mit Flageoletts und Glissandi, wobei er die linke und rechte Hand während des Walzers rhythmisch so kontrastiert, dass er sich zu verschieben scheint, ähnlich wie eine Skulptur, die sich verschiebt und plötzlich aus zwei Teilen besteht.

Artist(s)

Eline Groslot (harp)

Eline Groslot has been solo harpist of the Brussels Philharmonic since 2001. She is an exceptionally experienced and valued orchestral musician, chambristian and soloist, with a commitment to the development of young musicians and with a broad interest in all forms of art. As a musician, Eline finds the creation, performance and promotion of new music a particularly important task. Eline has played the world premiere of Robert Groslot's Concerto for Harp and Orchestra at the World Harp Congress in Sydney, which has been with Brussels Philharmonic on the Naxos label in autumn 2019. Eline has performed at numerous festivals, such as the Festival Camac in Marseille, the international harp festival Seduced by harps, the Festival van Vlaanderen, Festival de Wallonie, Festival Brigittines, and...

As a musician, Eline finds the creation, performance and promotion of new music a particularly important task. Eline has played the world premiere of Robert Groslot's Concerto for Harp and Orchestra at the World Harp Congress in Sydney, which has been with Brussels Philharmonic on the Naxos label in autumn 2019.
Eline has performed at numerous festivals, such as the Festival Camac in Marseille, the international harp festival Seduced by harps, the Festival van Vlaanderen, Festival de Wallonie, Festival Brigittines, and soloed with the Vlaams Radiokoor, Dvorak Collegium and Brussels Philharmonic, among others.

She is a member of several permanent chamber music ensembles. With other more various and fluid ones, she plays a repertoire of all style periods, sometimes combined with other art forms.

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Brussels Philharmonic

“The world needs symphonic music. And symphonic music needs the world.” That is the firm belief of the Brussels Philharmonic. As a symphony orchestra founded in 1935 under the auspices of the Belgian public broadcaster, unveiling the symphonic world as best we can is deep in our DNA. By innovating while maintaining full respect for the value of the past, we keep the symphonic music of the past, present and future relevant and inspiring – for ourselves and all of society. We do this from the historic Studio 4 at Flagey in Brussels, together with our music director Kazushi Ono: he shares our open and adventurous spirit and our rock-solid belief in the need for cross-fertilization between art, life and society.

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Karen Kamensek (conductor)

Composer(s)

James MacMillan

James MacMillan is one of today’s most successful composers and is also internationally active as a conductor. His musical language is flooded with influences from his Scottish heritage, Catholic faith, social conscience and close connection with Celtic folk music, blended with influences from Far Eastern, Scandinavian and Eastern European music.
MacMillan first became internationally recognized after the extraordinary success of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the BBC Proms in 1990.
His prolific output has since been performed and broadcast around the world. His major works include percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, which has received more than 400 performances, a cello concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich and three symphonies. Recent major works include his St John Passion co-commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Radio Choir, his Violin Concerto, Viola Concerto, St Luke Passion and, most recently, his Percussion Concerto No.2 for Colin Currie, co-commissioned by the Philharmonia Orchestra, Edinburgh International Festival, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.
MacMillan enjoys a flourishing career as conductor of his own music alongside a range of contemporary and standard repertoire, praised for the composer’s insight he brings to each score. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic until 2013 and was Composer/ Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic from 2000-2009; he has conducted orchestras such as the Baltimore Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony, Danish Radio Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and NHK Symphony Orchestra among others. MacMillan was Composer in Residence at the 2012 Grafenegg Festival and a London Symphony Orchestra Portrait Artist in the 2009/10 season.
In spring 2014 MacMillan conducted three projects with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, culminating in a ground-breaking tour to India with Nicola Benedetti performing in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi including public concerts, schools concerts and outreach work. In the 2014/15 season, MacMillan conducts orchestras including the Bergen Philharmonic, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia. In January 2015 he conducts a new production of his opera, Inés de Castro, at Scottish Opera and elsewhere this season conducts choral concerts in Sao Paulo and with the BBC Singers. In October 2014 MacMillan founded his music festival, The Cumnock Tryst, which takes place in his native Ayrshire.

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Toshio Hosokawa

John Cage

John Cage was an American composer and music theorist. He was a pioneer in the implementation of indeterminacy in music, as well as in his use of non-standard musical instruments and electroacoustic ways of generating sound. He was one of the leading composers of the 20th century and propelled the post war avant-garde movement. His teachers included Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg, both known for their radical innovations in music, but Cage's major influences lay in various East and South Asian cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of aleatoric or chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951.
Cage is perhaps best known composition 4′33″ (1952), which is performed in the absence of deliberate sound; musicians who present the work do nothing aside from being present for the duration specified by the title. The content of the composition is not "four minutes and 33 seconds of silence," as is often assumed, but rather the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance. The work's challenge to assumed definitions about musicianship and musical experience made it a popular and controversial topic both in musicology and the broader aesthetics of art and performance. Cage was also a pioneer of the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by objects placed between or on its strings or hammers), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces.

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