logo

In the meantime next Monday's concert begins with an altogether different-sounding piece - Rotation 90N a serene and

Posted by admin   ·     ·   Jump to comments

In the meantime, next Monday's concert begins with an altogether different-sounding piece - Rotation 90N, a serene and meditative work for low strings, inspired by a visit Bachmann made to the North Pole in 1990."Seeking a spot as far removed from civilisation as possible, I set up my tent at the pole in order to experience a sense of elemental solitude," he says. Certainly the world premiere of Uluru with fireworks was already a unique experience - a strange mix of Australia and the Alps, with the lake's surrounding high crags allowing for long, resonating echoes from both Uluru's high- energy sound and the detonating fireworks themselves.In his next visit to the UK to work with the RPO early next March, Bachmann promises "with the aid of complex sound installation, a live airing of a section of Uluru" as a prelude to his account of Bruckner's Fifth Symphony, from which Uluru quotes. Bachmann talks of working with a Swiss pyrotechnics expert to produce a "fireworks score", which minutely parallels his musical one, and which he hopes can be exported to any interested parties."These days, in order to explore new ground the artist also has to be an entrepreneur," he says. "For some time I didn't know but, visiting Ayers Rock, I found a visual parallel: a huge natural object, itself made up of ever-smaller particles. Seeing a fractal process in action then seemed further to animate the rock, especially when its mystical function in Aboriginal mythology entered the equation."The ongoing expansion of the Uluru project is, of itself, neatly "fractal", giving rise to a number of versions into which various soloists and other media can be incorporated. Over the coming months Bachmann returns to the studio to produce, with the mezzo-soprano Christina Ascher, Uluru, the vocal version, subtitled Songlines.And, in fact, it was by the shores of Lake Lucerne that I recently witnessed Uluru's newest incarnation - a recorded airing of the music, which is written for an orchestra of 108, to the accompaniment of a lavish fireworks display.

Bachmann went straight to the heart of the matter, launching into active discussion not only with the deviser of fractal geometry, Benoit Mandelbrot, but also the physicist Gerd Binnig and the mathematician Mitchell Feigenbaum. "How could these important contemporary theories - fractal geometry, catastrophe theory and their offshoots - be applied to music?" he asks. I was associated with the Fluxus group, but the avant-garde musical happening lost its appeal and its cultural place. For me, further learning came through listening and via solitude." He is not overtly prolific as a composer, and is the author of a still- growing number of books on diverse subjects to boot. Bachmann's deeply philosophical engagements with the world gradually led to what is (and, via reworkings, continues to be) his magnum opus, the Uluru Symphony.So far the Uluru concept has preoccupied him for six years, and still does. An immediate focal point of inspiration was a visit he made to Ayers Rock, but the symphony's intellectual genesis is fractal geometry (and its subtitle - The Fractal Symphony). "Stockhausen, Ligeti and others became invaluable friends and profound intellectual influences for me," he reflects, "but soon I also knew I had to forge out on my own.

At about the same time he made a decision to compose as well, and still pursues both activities in tandem, in his words "allowing for a profitable and symbiotic relationship, for when one is steeped in a tradition, it is possible in one's own work to continue and question it simultaneously." So, in his twenties, the enquiring Bachmann headed to Darmstadt. International recognition came early when, aged only 21, he carried off the prestigious Concours de Jeunes Chefs d'Orchestre prize in Besancon. Bachmann, who was born in Switzerland in 1944, showed musical talent from an early age and studied at the Lucerne and Berlin Conservatories, soon being accredited by Rafael Kubelik as an outstanding conducting talent. Bachmann's programme consists of his own Rotation 90N, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and Bruckner's Seventh Symphony.

readers comments

Comments are closed.

NBA

NBA

MLB

MLB

NFL

NFL

NHL

NHL

WWE

WWE

Your sideblock text goes here