The Goldberg Variations form a cornerstone of keyboard repertoire, yet we rarely question the mode of presentation for this piece. Austrian composer Karlheinz Essl offers a refreshing glimpse of a new performance practice through his unusual take in Gold.Berg.Werk (2013-16). Originally envisioned as a performance environment for string trio, there is now a version for piano and live electronics.

Gorgeous time-stretched harmonies are manipulated in real time and played back through spatialized loudspeakers in between the piano variations, bringing together Baroque and contemporary sound worlds. This new reimagining of Bach’s vision juxtaposes the variations in a new strictly symmetrical structure which reflects the binary form of the original aria (a microcosm within a macrocosm with binary divisions commonly found in digital systems). No two performances are the same due to the live generation of the electronic interludes. Gold.Berg.Werk transcends itself and becomes a new piece in its own right, creating a sense of space and grandeur through electronic distribution of the interludes. This magical performance invites and entices the audience to join us on a journey of discovery, opening and blossoming into a whole new universe of sound.

"Through these interventions, Essl creates two temporally separate soundscapes that are musically related and comment on each other... Essl then spins the Bachian idea of variation on another level and conveys the impression of spatial proximity and distance of these different sound spaces... Essl's live-electronic parts captivate through the richness of relationships... while at the same time going far beyond generating a new sonic-musical fabric." (Stefan Drees, klassik.com)

Concerts

Sat, 26 Mar 2022, 1pm

London, St John's Leytonstone (UK)

Piano Day – Gold.Berg.Werk with Xenia Pestova Bennett & Karlheinz Essl

Sun, 27 Mar 2022, 8pm

Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall (UK)

Gold.Berg.Werk: The Goldberg Variations Reimagined

Mon, 28 Mar 2022, 6pm

Birmingham, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (UK)

Xenia Pestova & Karlheinz Essl: Gold.Berg.Werk

Thu, 31 March 2022, 6pm

Wien, Künstlerhaus - FACTORY (A)

Release Concert Gold.Berg.Werk 2021

Ausstellungsbeteiligung

ex machina (2002)
for 6 percussionists encircling the audience
Studio Percussion graz, Dir. Günter Meinhart

après l'avant (2021)
soundtrack for an essay film by Kurt Brazda

FABRIC (2017)
video/sound/performance
A3 print-out of one page of the score

Eröffnungsmusik

Sonnez la cloche! (2003)
sound performance with bells

FABRIC (2017)
sound performance on Schubert

Some Way Up (2017)
sound performance on a painting by Rubens

200 anni dopo la sua scomparsa, E.T.A. Hoffmann – il grande scrittore, intellettuale e musicista tedesco, genio poliederico del fantastico e del meravigioso – torna sulla terra sotto le spoglie del suo alter ego, il Maestro di cappella Johannes Kreisler. Dopo un lungo viaggio nel tempo e nello spazio, approda a Contovello, un piccolo borgo vicino a Trieste. Accompagnato dal ricordo delle musiche di Bach, Mozart e Schubert, il suo spirito vaga tra i vicoli, le case, le alture e i boschi vicini. Con l’aiuto di computer e tecnologia, siamo riusciti a rendere udibili i suoni che Kreisler ha sognato e che il compositore viennese Karlheinz Essl metterà in scena per noi.
Saranno eseguite dal vivo le seguenti composizioni elettroniche: “Sonnez la cloche!”, “Mozart-Lamento”, “FABRIC” e un remix degli intermezzi elettronici di “Gold.Berg.Werk”, che sarà realizzato nella sua forma completa il 22 ottobre 2022 al Teatro Miela, nell’ambito delle giornate del festival a Trieste.

200 years after his death, E.T.A. Hoffmann – the great German author, intellectual and musician, a multifaceted genius of the fantastic and the wondrous – returns to earth in the guise of his alter ego, the Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler. After a long journey through time and space, he lands in Contovello, of all places, a small village near Trieste. Accompanied by memories of the music of Bach, Mozart and Schubert, his spirit wanders through the alleys, houses, heights and nearby woods. With the help of computers and technology, we were able to make audible the sounds that Kreisler dreamed up and that the Viennese composer Karlheinz Essl will stage for us.
You will hear live performances of the following compositions: “Sonnez la cloche!”, “Mozart-Lamento”, “FABRIC” and a remix of the electronic interludes from “Gold.Berg.Werk”, which will be performed in its complete form on 22 October 2022 at Teatro Miela, during the festival’s events in Trieste.

200 Jahre nach seinem Ableben kehrt E.T.A. Hoffmann in Gestalt des Kapellmeisters Kreisler wieder auf die Erde zurück. Nach einer langen Reise durch Zeit und Raum landet er ausgerechnet in Contovello, einem kleinen Dorf nahe Triest. Begleitet von Erinnerungen an die Musik von Bach, Mozart und Schubert streift sein Geist durch die Gassen und Plätze, den Park und die angrenzenden Wälder. Dank avancierter Computertechnologie ist es uns geglückt, jene Klänge hörbar zu machen, die Kreisler sich da zusammengeträumt hat und die der Wiener Komponist Karlheinz Essl für uns in Szene setzen wird.
Zu hören sind Live-Performances folgender Kompositionen: “Sonnez la cloche!”, “Mozart-Lamento”, “FABRIC” sowie ein Remix der elektronischen Zwischenspiele aus “Gold.Berg.Werk”, das in seiner vollständigen Form am 22. Oktober 2022 in Triest, Teatro Miela, im Rahmen des Festivals in der Stadt, gespielt werden wird.

200 let po svoji smrti, se E. T. A. Hoffmann - veliki nemski pisatelj, intelektualec in glasbenik, vsestranski genij fantasticnega in cudovitega - vrne na Zemljo v podobi svojega alter ega, kapelnika Johannesa Kreislerja. Po dolgem ¿asovnem in zemljepisnem potovanju pristane v majhni vasici blizu Trsta, na Kontovelu. Njegov duh se ob spremljavi Bachove, Mozartove in Schubertove glasbe sprehaja po vaskih ulidicah, med parki in bliznjimi gozdovi. S pomocio tehnologije in racunalnika smo ujeli Kreislerjeve zasanjane zvoke. Predstavil nam jih bo dunajski skladateli Karlheinz Essl. V zivo bomo lahko prisluhnili skladbam: Sonnez la clochel, Mozart - Lamento, FABRIC in tudi nekaj elektronskih izvleckov iz skladbe Gold.Berg.Werk, ki bo v celoti a sporedu 22. oktobra 2022 v gledaliscu Miela v sklopu jesenskega nadaljevanja festival Teatri del suono.

Programma

Sonnez la cloche! (2003)

in ricordo di Joyce

FABRIC (2017)

in ricordo di Schubert

Mozart-Lamento (2015)

in ricordo di Mozart

Gold.Berg.Werk REMIX (2004-2020)

in ricordo di Bach

Programm

H.E.A.R. (Head Explores Auditory Realms) (2021-2022)

an audiovisual journey through nature

Karlheinz Essl: composition, field recordings, lyrics

MONOCOLOR: video

Andrea Nagl: ASMR voice

Some Way Up (2017)

sound/performance on a painting by Peter Paul Rubens

Karlheinz Essl: computer & controllers

Peter Paul Rubens: Gewitterlandschaft (ca. 1620)
© Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

W.A.L.D. (2020-2022) - premiere

dance/sound/video/performance

Andrea Nagl: choreography, dance, objects, video

Karlheinz Essl: live-electronics, objects