Piano+ 2011 & Iannis Xenakis 1922 – 2001

The pianist Catherine Vickers is curator of the concert series Piano+ which, in four concerts, presents central positions of contemporary piano composition. These pieces burst the borders of the instrument, and expand into the medial, theatrical, or electroacoustic fields. The individual concerts offer different focal points and perspectives. The opening evening begins with audiovisual compositions by Bodijar Spassov, Martin Messmer and Michael Beil. Along with the three core pianists in the festival, Catherine Vickers, Rei Nakamura and Sebastian Berweck, the trombonist Mike Svoboda also appears as a guest at the concert. The following concert focuses on the aspect of the mechanical in the compositions of Conlon Nancarrow as well as the minimalist Phillip Glass, including a participative new piece by Ludger Brümmer, Chair of ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustics (IMA), which influence the playing of pianist Maki Namekawa. This year, too, Piano+ presents extraordinary performances that expand the canon of piano music. Along with two works by Iannis Xenakis, also compositions by Martin Iddon (with midi-piano) and pure-data actionist Johannes Kreidler will be premiered by Rei Nakamura. The pianist Sebastian Berweck, a specialist in the combination of electronics and piano, presents a program of compositional masterpieces from recent years by Orm Finnendahl, Enno Poppe, Maximilian Marcoll and Hans Tutschku. "Keyboard Study #2" by Terry Riley was also newly arranged for the space of the Klangdom.

In the context of Piano+, an evening of two concerts is dedicated to the visionary Iannis Xenakis, who moved between mathematics, architecture, and music: rarely played piano works, such as "Evryali", "Six Chansons", "Mists" and "À.r.(Hommage à Ravel)" as well as "Dikhthas" for piano and violin will be confronted by electroacoustic compositions. Under the heading "Xenakis today", the piano work of Iannis Xenakis will juxtapose new works by young composers of algorithmic music. Xenakis will be interpreted by the three pianists Martin von der Heydt, Axel Gremmelspacher and Catherine Vickers. A two-day symposium with Xenakis specialists focuses the future of his electronic compositions under the aspects of exhibition practices and their importance for contemporary algorithmic compositional practice.