Scott Wollschleger's "White Wall" on PSNY

by Ted Gordon on Feb. 26, 2015, 11:33 a.m.

In the middle of winter, it's only natural for the mind to focus on the sharpness of the cold, the whiteness of the snow, and the stillness of sound. Scott Wollschleger's second string quartet, titled "White Wall", is, in the composer's words, "music written at the end of the world." Exploring the idea of "white noise", Wollschleger recasts the string quartet as a lone child, breathing and sighing to itself as the world fades to white. An organic whole, the ensemble becomes still in time, emitting patterns of sounds that are constantly under erasure. Wollschleger's play with duration, rhythm, and timing creates an evanescent temporality to his work, disappearing the moment it comes into sound. This echoes his other works, such as Blue Inscription for solo piano, and Brontal No. 3 for large ensemble.

Commissioned by the Mivos Quartet and premiered by them at the DiMenna Center in New York, the quartet was also performed at the 2014 International Music Institute at Darmstadt, Germany. Check out a beautifully recorded video below.  

Mivos Quartet Performs Mincek and Franzson

by Ted Gordon on Nov. 25, 2013, 11:47 a.m.

November has been a great month for new CD releases-- just in time for holiday gifts. (Who wouldn't want a new CD of new music?) In addition to the debut album by The Living Earth Show, which we previously wrote about, Carrier Records has released "Reappearances" by the Mivos Quartet performing works by Alex Mincek, Davið Brynjar Franzson, Wolfgang Rihm and Felipe Lara. 

On this new album, Mivos, whose consistently masterful performance of contemporary repertoire has brought them to the forefront of the new music scene, perform Mincek's String Quartet No. 3 ("lift - tilt - filter - split"), as well as Franzson's On Repetition and Reappearances, both available from PSNY. Mincek's quartet can also be heard performed by the Wet Ink Ensemble from a 2011 album, also on Carrier. Check out a video of Mivos performing Franzson's work in October 2013:

Mivos may be one of the busier string quartets in New York right now, having also recently released a full-length album of works by Patrick Higgins, but they still find time to perform live; they will play an album release concert on December 19th at the DiMenna Center in New York, also featuring a new work by Scott Wollschleger. 

The Summer of Alex Mincek

by Ted Gordon on June 13, 2013, 3:18 p.m.

Who knew that one composer could be so busy in such a short amount of time? Alex Mincek, recent recipient of the prestigious Alpert Award in the Arts , is quickly gaining an international reputation for his work, both written for chamber ensembles and for orchestra. His String Quartet No. 3, "lift - tilt - filter - split", has been recently performed by both the MIVOS Quartet and the JACK Quartet, MIVOS giving the Canadian premiere of the piece last month, and JACK performing it alongside the Arditti String Quartet at Wigmore Hall. JACK's performance garnered favorable reviews in The Guardian and severalblogs, and a live recording is available through Wigmore Hall's in-house record label. (The live recording, by the way, also includes recordings of Ligeti's Second String Quartet, as well as Matthias Pintscher's Study IV for Treatise on the Veil!)

The JACK Quartet have also recorded Mincek's String Quartet No. 3 on an album released by Carrier Records, which also has recordings of his Pendulum V, Pendulum III, Poco a Poco, and Nucleus. Be sure to follow us on twitter (@Schott_NY) where we'll be giving away two free copies of Alex's Carrier Records album!

For those of you who can't wait to get your hands on that beautifully recorded and crafted CD, here's a video of the MIVOS quartet performing the work at the Darmstat Summer Course for New Music last year: 

And in addition to the activity surrounding Mincek's String Quartet No. 3, the Ensemble Cairn, which in March commissioned a new chamber work from Mincek entitled "donegal", performed that work for a second time at the Hippodrome Douai-- an archived recording of which is still avaialble from Radio France. 

What's that? You demand even more work from this already-busy, internationally-accoladed composer? Well-- be on the lookout for loadbang, New York's bleeding-edge ensemble for "lung-powered instrumentation" (bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and baritone voice), performing Mincek's also-recently-commissioned piece, "number may be defined." And, if you find yourself at the Ostrava Days institute/festival this summer, keep your ears out at the final concert of the festival, which will include an excerpt from a brand-new large orchestral work, to be affiliated with Mincek's Pendulum works. So, keep Mincek's other pendulum works—two of which are available through PSNY— in mind!