About Mats Möller (by Anders Jansson)
Introduction
Only three works of importance for flute solo were written before 1913
- the Sonata in a minor by J S Bach, the 12 Fantasies by Telemann and
the Sonata in a minor by C Ph Em Bach. But what happened after "Syrinx"
was published in 1927? How can we explain the immense number of works
written for flute solo during the 20th century?
Since the Baroque era, the flute had been associated with and used in pastoral connections. Vivaldi, Gluck, Beethoven, Berlioz and others used the flute to depict birds, Elysian fields and flooded fields after thunderstorms, or to describe shepherds worshipping the child Jesus. Of course, music of good quality, and profoundly suitable for the instrument, but were these the limits of expression?
The combination of the three solo works by Debussy, Varèse and Jolivet, the new instruments, and the discipline of the French flute school were the determinant factors that led the composers on to new paths.
The cylindrical flute by Boehm, made of silver, and developed during the middle of the 19th century, made it possible for Louis Lot and his flute-makers in Paris to build instruments with a technical and sonorous flexibility previously not heard. And the masterly playing of the flautists of the French flute school, Taffanel-Gaubert-Moyse, proved that even a wind musician could attain solo status.
"Syrinx" was the first flute piece that put timbre in focus. "Density 21.5" brought an immense expression and dynamic variation, and the "Cinq Incantations" extended the form, showing that a piece for flute solo could have almost symphonic proportions.
The flute became increasingly important in contemporary orchestra and ensemble music, and composers such as Boulez, Messiaen, Jolivet and Fukushima wrote during the 40's and 50's pieces for flute and piano which also appeared in recital programmes.
The development of music written for flute, however, did not progress until Bruno Bartolozzi's book "New sounds for wood-wind" was published in 1967. The new techniques presented in this book (an EP-disc was enclosed) were an acoustic response to the new musical worlds created in studios. Especially the new sounds from the flute attracted attention of many composers.
One of the reasons why the repertoire for flute solo became so extensive is that the new flute sounds described by Bartolozzi and others were finely drawn and at a dynamic level that hardly could be audible if any other instrument participated.
Swedish composers have composed a large number of works for flute solo from the end of the 40's and beyond. During the war, international contacts had been less nu-merous and the musical life which was established in Sweden after 1945 was limited to few people.
The influence from the "Monday group" was of course strong, both from a stylistic-aesthetic and music-political point of view - which almost 50 years later has resulted in an undeserved "backlash". Important was also the fact that all the members of the group (except Blomdahl) were practising musicians.
Consequently the members of the "Monday group" Bäck and Lidholm, both violinists, composed one Sonata for flute solo each, as did pianists Sven-Erik Johansson and Hans Leygraf, also members of the same group.
There was great interest and enthusiasm among Swedish flautists for the music written by their colleagues. Let me mention names as Gunnar Malmgren, Håkan Edlén, Bengt Överström and Börje Mårelius, as well as the Norwegian flautist Alf Andersen, who performed numerous works by Swedish composers.
MATS MÖLLER
CD 1
[1] During the Autumn of 1913, Claude Debussy was asked to compose
stage music to the drama "Psyché" by Gabriel Mourey (1865-1943).
Mourey's idea was to use music which could be configured as the last tune
the god of Pan played before dying. The music was supposed to be performed
backstage and partially while the actor recited the words from stage.
Debussy wrote a short solo for flute called La Flûte de Pan and
the piece was performed by Louis Fleury. Fleury put it into his repertoire
and performed it frequently in concerts, where he usually had a screen
placed on stage, playing the solo behind it. The piece was not published
until 1927, after the death of Fleury, and with the title Syrinx. Mats
Möller: "I bought the music in Paris 1973, in a music shop named
'La Flûte de Pan', situated right opposite the former Conservatoire
of Paris. In those days I was not aware of the original title of 'Syrinx'.
I remember I was fascinated by the beautiful printed edition by Jobert,
and for a long time I had the music on the wall in my home, before I began
practising it. I wish to mention the important research on Syrinx made
by the Swedish flautist Anders Ljungar-Chapelon, which put the piece into
an even more central point of the flute repertoire."
[2] One May evening in 1905, at midnight, the French flautist George Barrère left Paris. He took a train to Le Havre, to continue his journey to New York by boat. When the train started, a dozen of his colleagues played the Marseillaise for him. Barrère made a successful career in the States, and having been a pupil of Altès and Taffanel, he brought the French flute school to America. In New York he later met Edgard Varèse, who had begun his work on extending the sounds of wind instruments. At the request of Barrère, Varèse wrote Density 21.5 in January 1936, for the inauguration of Barrères platinum flute (21.5 is the density of platinum). The first performance took place in Carnegie Hall, New York, in February 1936. The piece was revised ten years later. Mats Möller: "'Density 21.5' has nowadays been exceeded by the 'Incantations' by Jolivet. As the two pieces of music are composed in the same year by French composers, they can't avoid having certain resemblances - at the same time they are very different. Both pieces use a formula technique, and both use the d4, but 'Density' has more lyrical expression and longer phrases, and could be said to be more of a cantilena. To some extent this is a contradiction, as Jolivet refers to thoughts of 'magic and invocation' while Varèse chooses a physical title for his work. Well, Varèse uses the first modern flute technique ever - a couple of 'keyclicks'."
[3-7] In 1936 André Jolivet, Olivier Messiaen, Daniel-Lesur et Yves Baudrier founded the group "La jeune France". They rejected serialism and classicism and strived for a musical language established in the magic roots of music, wishing to revert to the primitive sources of music. "My art is dedicated to restoring music's original ancient sense, as the magical and incantory expression of the religiosity of human communities", Jolivet said. In this spirit he wrote the Cinq Incantations (Five Invocations), which was completed in the town of Chantemerle in August 1936. The 'Incantations' were first performed in January 1937, at the Sorbonne in Paris. It is remarkable that the first performance was made by an amateur flautist, the engineer Jan Merry Cohu. The reason for this was the very conservative attitude towards contemporary music among the rising soloists of the French flute school at that time, who mostly performed either transcriptions of old music, or newly-written works in a neo-classical style. Mats Möller: "When I first performed the 'Incantations', I only played No 2, 4 and 5, as is the custom in most concert programmes. I think this is against the purpose of Jolivet and his philosophy. You can't use an invocation as a spice, you have to bring the listener into the world of repeated formulas. Jolivet has emphasised the importance of repetition, which is frequently used in the first and third invocation - the two movements which are most often excluded. In this recording I have also been aware of the slurs between the first four invocations. This creates a kind of attacca performance which I sense strengthens the expression of the fourth invocation, which Jolivet himself said was the most essential."
[8-10] Like Jolivet, Sven-Erik Bäck belonged to a group of musicians and composers who had a great impact on the development of musical life in their respective countries. In the opposite to "La jeune France" Måndagsgruppen (The Monday Group) did not proclaim any manifesto. During World War II, Sweden had been isolated from the modernistic streams that were flowing on the continent, and the members of the group met - on Mondays - from 1944 and a couple of years onwards in the home of composer Karl-Birger Blomdahl to discuss their works, and works by composers such as Hindemith and Stravinsky. The Sonata by Bäck is inspired by Psalm 42:1 in the Book of Psalms ("As the deer panteth for the water, So my soul longeth after Thee") and was first performed by Georg von Knorring in Stockholm in November 1949. The Sonata is dedicated to Brita and Augustin Mannerheim, who often arranged concerts in their home in Gränsholm near Linköping. Mats Möller: "When I had played the flute for only a couple of months, I found a copy of the Swedish cultural magazine 'Prisma' from 1950, in which the handwritten 'Sonata' by Bäck was printed. Hence one of the goals for practising the flute was to master the 'Bäck Sonata'. Before I left the Academy of Music in 1980, I performed it in a student concert and Bäck was there! I still have a tape from that performance. Unfortunately this did not become the most unforgettable interpretation of Bäck's music. Later I recorded it for the Swedish radio, and I have also recorded it for the Radio DRS in Zürich. I have been in contact with Georg von Knorring, who premiered the 'Sonata', and he told me that Hilding Rosenberg had been listening to the very first performance. Bäck was a pupil of Rosenberg, and ten years later Rosenberg wrote his own 'Sonata for flute solo'."
[11] In the mid-50's Giacinto Scelsi wrote a series of pieces for solo instruments, and also for the first time chamber music with wind instruments. Like Messiaen, Scelsi was influenced by eastern cultures, but in a more philosophical and aesthetical fashion than using modes and rhythms from eastern music. Pwyll sounds like an improvisation, focusing around f-ab, but the piece is very exactly notated, with many rests (not fermatas on rests!), and with several changes of tempi. Mats Möller: "Actually one of my birthday songs, together with 'Le Marteau' by Boulez...both written the same year as I was born. If you play 'Pwyll' without comments, even without telling in which year the piece was composed, the audience often does not apprehend the music as contemporary. It is perhaps like the slow movement of the 'Sonata for flute solo' by C Ph Em Bach, but the other way round. The Bach piece is often called 'that modern piece'."
[12] Sequenza for flute is probably the most well-known flute piece from the modernistic era. It is the first of a series of 13 "Sequenzas" for different solo instruments by Luciano Berio, and it was written for Severino Gazzelloni who also originally performed it in Darmstadt in September 1958. The piece is written in a kind of "space notation", which gives the performer a certain amount of freedom. It is interesting that Berio in 1992 published a new version, with exact, metric notation. Mats Möller: "The 'Sequenza' is beautiful, and very challenging because you have to let the flute sing, even though most of the notes are played separated, staccato. I can't really understand why Berio made a new version, as the notation from 1958 is, in fact, brilliant. My recording is made from the first version. I have not performed the 'Sequenza' frequently, because of the difficulties of finding a position for it in a programme. It is concentrated, very short, and also demands total concentration from the audience."
[13-15] Hilding Rosenberg wrote his Sonata during a period when he was composing mostly chamber music, and before resuming his production of big orchestral works. He has said, about the "Sonata": "Music for flute must be composed in a playful way. With a piece like this, I will once again maintain the importance of melody. Everything else in music is only glitter." The "Sonata" was written for the Norwegian flautist Alf Andersen, and premiered by him at Fylkingen in Stockholm in April 1960. Mats Möller: "I think it is important to know Rosenberg's ideas about melody before studying this piece. The music is in one way simple, but it is sometimes hard to find the direction of it. In one sense the Sonata is very strict, and in another not. It is fascinating that Rosenberg uses quartertones and glissandi. They appear all of a sudden, and are very obvious."
[16] Cassandra was the daughter of Priamos, king of Troy. From Apollo she had received prophetic talent, but unaware of this gift, she was punished. Nobody believed in her prophecies. It is possible that Brian Ferneyhough named his first piece for flute solo Cassandra's Dream Song in order to focus on the situation for contemporary music as well as the relationship between composer and performer. Ferneyhough writes in the score: "The notation does not represent the result required: it is the attempt to realise the written specifications in practice which is designed to produce the desired (but unnotatable) sound-quality. ...Neverthless, a valid realisation will only result from a rigorous attempt to reproduce as many of the textural details as possible: such divergencies and 'impurities' as then follow from the natural limitations of the instrument itself may be taken to be the intentions of the composer...the audible (and visual) degree of difficulty is to be drawn as an integral structural element into the fabric of the composition itself." "Cassandra's Dream Song" was completed in May 1970, and first performed by Pierre-Yves Artaud at the Royan Festival in France in March 1974. Mats Möller: "The 'Dream Song' is an extremely complex piece of work, based on intellectual conclusions. But at the same time it is pure music with sounds, timbres and new flute techniques based on practical knowledge of the instrument. It's amazing that Ferneyhough as early as 1970 used effects - and was able to notate them so exactly - such as multiphonics, tongue ram mixed with keyclick, singing, whistle notes, aeolian sounds and microtones."
[17] While western music proceeds horizontally, Japanese music develops as a tree. Different processes are in progress on the same branch, or similar processes on different ones. And without space between the leaves, the tree cannot grow. The silence in Voice is sometimes more important to the musical process than the parts filled with music. Toru Takemitsu completed "Voice" in Tokyo in April 1971. The text which is recited by the flautist is a Haiku by Shuzo Takiguchi. Mats Möller: "Takemitsu was, in a positive way, an eclectic composer. You could hardly say he was influenced by western music with the significance we usually mean by 'influence'. He really stepped right into western music, bringing into it an eastern philosophy and conception of time. Most effects in Voice are recognized from Bartolozzi's book 'New sounds for woodwind', but Takemitsu adds the sound of the Japanese shakuhachi flute and mixes it with the new techniques - many of them well-known to a shakuhachi player. The piece could also be performed with amplification."
[18] The Finnish composer, harpsichordist and conductor Jukka Tiensuu wrote "Ouverture et Cadenza" for flute and harpsichord, and also published the flute cadenza as an independent work. The whole cadenza consists of one single note - the c above middle-c - only, but some microtonal changes are made. The Cadenza is notated in graphics. Mats Möller: "I performed the 'Ouverture and Cadenza' together with Eva Nordwall in Stockholm in 1989. I had forgotten that the cadenza could be performed as a solo piece until I met Tiensuu during the Stockholm New Music Festival, where I produced some concerts, ten years later. I have a feeling the 'Cadenza' is suitable as a conclusion of the era when composers and flautists investigated new playing techniques."
CD 2
[1] Jan W Morthenson is an author and artist as well as composer.
He preferred the academic world (aesthetics) to organised musical studies,
but he also studied composition with Ingvar Lidholm and others. He participated
in Darmstadt courses and studied with the Adorno specialist Heinz-Klaus
Metzger. In 1971-72 Morthenson lived in West Berlin, as an Artist-in-Residence
(DAAD). During a period focusing on "existential music", he wrote Down
for James Galway, who at that time worked in the Berlin Philharmonic.
Galway also premiered it three years later. Mats Möller: "I had listened
to some of Morthenson's orchestral works, and I participated in his 'Alla
Marcia' with the Radio Symphonic in Stockholm, when the producer and author
Ove Nordwall suggested I played Down in concert together with the harpsichordist
Eva Nordwall. We performed a programme where we mixed Morthenson, Petrassi
and Bach, and the audience loved it! The piece is a kind of struggle between
the demands from the written music and the flautist's effort to play what
is notated. 'Down' begins in the very top register (d4 - f4) of the flute
and... well, climbs downwards."
[2] Ebbe Grims-land has worked as viola player in the foremost orchestras of Sweden, amongst others the Swedish Radio Symphonic Orchestra, and is also one of the busiest mandolin players in the country. He began his musical studies in the 30's and continued his education in, among other cities, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Bratislava and Vienna. His compositions are mainly chamber-music. Grims-land has dedicated several works to Mats Möller, among them "Quintette" for flute and strings, and "Eloge for Bibbi Andersson" for flute and harpsichord or for guitar. He has written "Thema des Tages", as a series of pieces for different solo instruments and all of them are a kind of fantasy on different Swedish folk tunes. Thema des Tages (1) is written as a Theme and variations, but reversed (Variations and theme). Accordingly, the theme (a folk tune called "Om dagen vid mitt arbete") is not presented until the end of the piece. It is dedicated to Börje Mårelius, and the first performance was given by Mats Möller in 1983 in Stockholm. This piece may also be performed on piccolo. Mats Möller: "I have known Ebbe Grims-land since I was a little child, as he and my father shared the same desk in the viola section of the Swedish Radio Symphonic Orchestra. Ebbe was also one of the first musicians in Stockholm who bought a tape recorder, a Tandberg, at the end of the 50's. My family often gathered in his home to record music and funny stories. When I began playing the flute I was very eager to learn Ebbe's music, and I must say that the similarities between his music and his personality are striking - joyfulness, a sense of humour, artistic subtlety and artistry!"
[3-6] Torsten Nilsson, composer, organist and conductor, worked in churches in Köping, Helsingborg (the Maria church, which Buxtehude had attended) and the Oscar church in Stockholm. In the latter Torsten Nilsson created a kind of centre for contemporary church music during the years 1962-79. He collaborated with most serious musicians and singers in Stockholm, and many works - his own as well as those of others - for organ, or for soloists, orchestra and choir, as well as chamber music, were given their first performances in this church. The sonata Die Schäferin (The shepherdess) was first performed by Börje Mårelius in the Oscar church in March, 1978. Mats Möller: "I got to know Torsten Nilsson about 1991 when he wrote a piece for flute, digital harpsichord and recitation for me and Eva Nordwall. We performed the piece during the Stockholm Water Festival 1992, and Torsten recited the words himself. This work, 'Canti di Ragazza', was the last work he completed. Now and then he mentioned 'Die Schäferin', but unfortunately I did not study it with him. In fact, 'Die Schäferin' is one of the only two works on the cds which I have not ever performed before. But I hope I can bring some of Torsten's dynamic personality into this recording all the same."
[7] "I am the work of art in myself", Karl-Erik Welin often told people when they asked him to describe his music. With his great personality and media talent he often appeared on television and for interviews in magazines and newspapers, and he was familiar with and admired among people who normally do not take any interest in contemporary music. Welin was an organ player (he frequently collaborated with Torsten Nilsson) as well as composer. He had studied with David Tudor and as an organ and piano soloist he belonged to the foremost interpreters of avantgarde music and instrumental theatre, touring all over the world. Ligeti, Kagel and Swedish composers such as Bengt Hambraeus, Bo Nilsson, Torsten Nilsson, Ingvar Lidholm and Arne Mellnäs wrote music directly for Welin. As a composer, however, he turned to a romantic idiom, as in the Solo per flauto, first performed by Dutch composer and flautist Jos Zwaanenburg in Rotterdam in April 1984. Welin's three "Solos" for flute, oboe and bassoon were performed in the final round of International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition that year. Mats Möller: "I never got to know Welin personally, but I had of course listened to him as a soloist - I will never forget his performance of the piano part in Lidholm's 'Poesis' - and was aquainted with some of his music which was often broadcast. After his sudden death in May, 1992, some of his colleagues arranged a memorial concert in the cathedral in Stockholm and I was asked to perform 'Solo per flauto'. I had never listened to the piece nor did I possess the music, but the Swedish Music Information Centre had the music for the 'Solo'. It was a very special experience for me to perform this solo in the grand cathedral, abolutely crowded with people. Hans-Ola Ericsson gave a masterly performance of Ligetis 'Volumina' for organ and other artists performed more music by Welin and other works which Welin used to perform himself. I don't think anybody expected such a great number of people to attend the concert. Welin really was a work of art in himself."
[8] Anders Eliasson began to compose in his teens, as well as playing trumpet in a jazz band. He studied counterpoint and later composition at the Royal Academy of Stockholm, with Ingvar Lidholm and György Ligeti. Eliasson talks about "the self generating process of music" and his works often have a special emotional state, often of a feverish character, as the starting point. He focuses in the music, and uses the instruments only as a "screen on which the music is projected". Disegno per flauto belongs to ten independent "Disegni" (drawings) for different solo instruments and chamber music groups, and was written for Manuela Wiesler, who gave the first performance in Härnösand in February 1985. Mats Möller: "Eliasson uses no modern flute techniques in his 'Disegno', yet the piece is unique in the flute repertoire because of its immense energy and expression. I would say that in some way I have been possessed by this piece since 1987, when I began to practise it. I think all flautists will notice that Eliasson uses the same technique to create two independent parts as did Boehm and Briccialdi, for instance, in their works in the 19th century."
[9] Matzam was written as a birthday present to Mats Möller. "The 'theme', or rather the gesture, on which the piece is based, came to me as I was walking from the subway in Rågsved to my home at that time, in Snösätra. The footpath passed a playground and some running children gave me the melodic clue." These words by Stellan Sagvik show in a nutshell his working methods. The music is always in his head before he writes it down, and the musical ideas almost flash into his pieces. He often composes for special occasions, and with certain musicians in mind. His music, even his instrumental works, emanate from some kind of vocal ideas. Sagvik has studied with Gunnar Bucht at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, and with Arne Mellnäs and Miklós Maros. He has worked as a music teacher, musician, journalist, radio and record producer and has written chamber music, songs, stage music, symphonies, solo concertos and eight operas. Mats Möller: "Yes, Stellan brought 'Matzam' to my birthday party. He had written the piece the previous evening and he arrived a bit late, as he had to copy out the music. I gave the first performance in Stockholm in March 1986, and since then I have played the piece frequently. 'Matzam' is really a sparkling piece of flute music!"
[10-13] Together with Stellan Sagvik, Maurice Karkoff belongs to the most productive composers in Sweden. Since his debut in 1951 he has written more than 223 opuses, hundreds of shorter pieces for a pedagogic purpose not included. Karkoff studied with Lars-Erik Larsson at the Royal Academy of Stockholm, and later with composers such as Holmboe, Jolivet and Vogel. He has studied many techniques and has worked in different styles, but never devolved on eclecticism. His music is expressive and with a great feeling for melody and "vocal" writing, even in instrumental music. Suite was first performed by Mats Möller in a concert arranged by Samtida Musik (Society for contemporary music) in Stockholm in September 1989. Mats Möller: "Maurice Karkoff sent the music to me shortly before I was engaged for a chamber concert with mainly Swedish music, and I put it into the programme. I knew Karkoff since I was his student in theory of harmony before my studies at the Royal Academy, and I had seen his other pieces for flute solo. But the greatest impression of his music was his flute concerto, 'Il lungo viaggio', which was broadcast some years earlier, performed by my former flute teacher Börje Mårelius. I feel the 'Suite' reflects the same mood as the 'Viaggio' - ardent, suffering, melodious, but never sentimental."
[14] Since György Ligeti during the 60's had worked at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm as a guest professor, he adviced Miklós Maros to continue his musical studies in Sweden. Maros, son of the Hungarian composer Rudolf Maros, studied composition at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, and in 1968 he emigrated to Sweden. He studied with Ingvar Lidholm and also at the Electronic Music Studio in Stockholm. Together with his wife, singer Ilona Maros, he formed the Maros Ensemble, a chamber ensemble which became the leading contemporary ensemble in Sweden for two decades. His list of works comprises an imposing number of compositions, including chamber music and four symphonies, as well as vocal works and an opera. Cinguettio (Twitter) was written for Sarah Lindloff and Per-Erik Adamsson who also performed it for the first time in Uppsala in March 1996. Mats Möller: "I am very happy to include the 'Cinguettio' on this cd, not only because it is a unique piece in the repertoire of flute duets, but also because I was able to record it together with my flute teacher from the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, former solo flautist at the Royal Opera in Stockholm Stig Bengtson - who was also a member of the Maros Ensemble. I knew Miklós since my time at the Academy, when I studied electronic music with him, and later I performed his 'Causerie' for flute and piano, and 'Izé' for flute and percussion. Since Miklós sent 'Cinguettio' to me, I have performed it a couple of times, with Bengtson and with Erika Nilsson. The two flute parts are written in different keys, one in C and the other in B. The effect created by the velocity of the two flute parts is really amazing."
[15] Johannes V. Möller wrote his first compositions soon after his 12th birthday, and in 1996, when he was only 14, a cd with 60 minutes of his chamber music was released (nosag CD015). At the moment (autumn 2000) he studies with Miklós Maros in Stockholm. Johannes is also a guitarist and has so far given about a hundred solo or chamber music performances. Feng ("wind" or "lung" in Chinese) was written for Stig Bengtson and Christina Sönstevold and was first performed by them in the Sigyn hall, Turku (Finland) in April 1997. [16] Toccata was written for Mats Möller during the spring 1998 and was first performed by him in the church of Åker in May the same year. The title alludes to the improvisatoric and open character of the music, with scales finding their way with ups - and downs - in dialogue with each other. Mats Möller: "It would be impossible for me to exclude my son's music from this production. When Johannes was a child, I was often intensively practising the pieces which I now have recorded. And all of them must have inspired him to begin to write music himself. First he worked very intuitively, and fast, but for the last two years he has become more thoughtful in his composing. 'Feng' was swiftly written, but he worked with 'Toccata' over a long period of time, and presented several versions before the final one."
[17] When Csaba Deák arrived in Sweden 1957, he had already studied clarinet and composition at the Bartók Conservatory and composition with Ferenc Farkas at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. In Stockholm he studied with Hilding Rosenberg, and one of his first works was a "Sonatina" for clarinet solo. Since then Deák has essentially composed for wind instruments, and he is one of the most important composers of contemporary band music. He has also composed several chamber music works with winds and strings (such as "Ad Nordiam Hungarica" for wind and string quintets) and orchestral music (such as "Vivax" for symphony orchestra). Deák was one of the founders of the WASBE (World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles) and has also participated in the Swedish wind music consultant group as the representative of the Society of Swedish composers (FST). Fuvola ("flute" in Hungarian) was written for Mats Möller in June, 2000, and premiered by him in the little medieval county church of Yttergran, on June 25th the same year. Mats Möller: "I asked Csaba if he had any ideas about a piece for flute solo suitable for the last track on my cd project, as a kind of counterpart to Syrinx. He replied that he wanted to try some singing parts, in the same way as he had used voices in some of his brass works. One evening in June I found 'Fuvola' in my fax machine, and had the opportunity to perform the piece on 16 occasions during my summer tour."
CD1
|
[1] Claude Debussy (1862-1918) |
LA FLÛTE DE PAN/SYRINX (1913) 2'22 |
|
[2] Edgard Varèse (1883-1965) |
DENSITY 21.5 (1936/46) 3'31 |
|
[3-7] André Jolivet (1905-74) |
CINQ INCANTATIONS (1936) 17'23 |
|
[8-10] Sven-Erik Bäck (1919-94) |
SONATA (1949) 11'37 |
|
[11] Giacinto Scelsi (1905-88) |
PWYLL (1954) 3'35 |
|
[12] Luciano Berio (born 1925) |
SEQUENZA (1958) 4'42 |
|
[13-15] Hilding Rosenberg (1892-1985) |
SONATA (1959/65) 13'48 |
|
[16] Brian Ferneyhough (born 1943) |
CASSANDRA'S DREAM SONG (1970) 7'19 |
|
[17] Toru Takemitsu (1930-96) |
VOICE for solo flutist (1971) 6'36 |
|
[18] Jukka Tiensuu (born 1948) |
CADENZA (1972) 4'12 |
CD 2
|
[1] Jan W Morthenson (born 1940) |
DOWN (1972) 7'13 |
|
[2] Ebbe Grims-land (born 1915) |
THEMA DES TAGES (I) (1977) 4'43 |
|
[3-6] Torsten Nilsson (1920-99) |
DIE SCHÄFERIN, Sonata op 74 (1976-77) 14'13 |
|
[7] Karl-Erik Welin (1934-92) |
SOLO PER FLAUTO (1983) 8'51 |
|
[8] Anders Eliasson (born 1947) |
DISEGNO per flauto (1984) 7'37 |
|
[9] Stellan Sagvik (born 1952) |
MATZAM (1984) 3'46 |
|
[10-13]Maurice Karkoff (born 1927) |
SUITE op 168 (1989) 8'54 |
|
[14] Miklós Maros (born 1943) |
CINGUETTIO per due flauti (1995) 7'00 +Stig Bengtson, flute |
|
[15] Johannes V. Möller (born 1981) |
FENG for two bass flutes (1997) 6'14 |
|
[16] TOCCATA (1998) 4'10 |
|
|
[17] Csaba Deák (born 1932) |
FUVOLA (2000) 5'01 |
About the recording
Produced and recorded by Sforzando Productions, in the Hässlö
Hall, Västerås, spring 2000, with a Tascam DA-P1 and two Neumann
TLM 103. Edited and mastered by Sforzando Productions. Cover picture by
Agneta Gussander. Texts by Anders Bråtén and Anders Jansson.
Graphic design Sforzando Productions. Mats Möller plays an Oston-Brannen
flute nr 351, and an Altus bass flute. Stig Bengtson plays a Muramatsu
9K, and Christina Sönstevold a Philip Hammig bass flute. With thanks
to the Västmanlandsmusiken (www.vmu.nu) for supporting this production.
The works are published by Jobert (Debussy), Belwin (Varèse), Boosey
& Hawkes (Jolivet), Warner/NM (Bäck), Shirmer/Salabert (Scelsi),
Zerboni (Berio), Ed Suecia (Rosenberg), Peters (Ferneyhough), Salabert
(Takemitsu), Ed Musicales Transatlantiques (Tiensuu), Universal Edition
(Morthenson), Reimers (Eliasson), Da Capo (Karkoff). All other works are
available through Swedish Music Information Centre (www.mic.stim.se),
Box 27327, SE-102 54 STOCKHOLM, Sweden. Fax +46 8 783 95 10.
About Mats Möller
Mats Möller appears in many different guises in Swedish musical life.
Why not ask him to give a master class focusing on contemporary flute
music? Or give a lecture on fiscal legislation regarding artists, contracts
and other formalities in the field of concert production? Or give you
assistance with printed matters, from idea to final product? Perhaps you
need a webpage? No problem, he'll solve it for you. Or....
His personal record contains numerous forms of consulting commissions, collaborative projects and courses, of such a great number that you might easily forget that he is first and foremost a professional musician. He has freelanced in several Swedish orchestras, performed chamber music in different places around the world, often with recently composed works on the programme, and often as a result of close collaboration with the composers. The list of appreciative colleagues with whom he has performed is long.
Mats Möller has also at times been concerned with union matters affecting musicians, and has been entrusted with several com-missions for Swedish cultural life and affairs.
Thus his company is named Sforzando. And consequently his new CD covers a rich repertoire for solo flute. Half measures are certainly not in Mats Möller's line.
ANDERS JANSSON
