Date / Place I
15 January 2018 Gare du Nord, BaselDate / Place II
16 January 2018 Gare du Nord, BaselSeries
PhoenixTitle
“USA – different!”Program
Elliott Sharp (*1951) “Points & Fields” for nine instruments (2009) – 11’ Eric Chasalow (*1955) “On That Swirl of Ending Dust” for chamber ensemble and electronic sound (2011) – 19’ John Zorn (*1953) “Cobra” from “On the Edge: Improvisation in Music” for variable ensemble (1984) – 30’Musicians
- Jürg Henneberger
- conductor
- Christoph Bösch
- flute, alto flute, piccolo
- Toshiko Sakakibara
- clarinet, bass clarinet
- Raphael Camenisch
- saxophone
- Jens Bracher
- trumpet
- Michael Büttler
- trombone
- Daniel Stalder
- percussion
- Maurizio Grandinetti
- electric guitar
- Samuel Wettstein
- synthesizer
- Friedemann Treiber
- violin
- Martin Jaggi
- cello
- Aleksander Gabryś
- double bass
- Thomas Peter
- electronics
- Christof Stürchler
- sound design
Program description
Who associates the USA of our time with exuberant creativity, real artistic freedom, unlimited space for experimentation?
We dedicate this program with the three greats Elliott Sharp, Eric Chasalow and John Zorn to exactly this America!
All three composers belong to the middle generation of New York’s experimental avant-garde scene. Improviser and bandleader John Zorn wrote several “game pieces” in the eighties, a kind of musical card games that are a kind of “guided” improvisations. The most famous of these is probably “Cobra”, which is not fixed in terms of both instrumentation and duration.
Guitarist and composer Elliott Sharp is difficult to classify stylistically, as his music moves between the genres of rock, jazz and new music, making it stand for itself and be distinctive.
Eric Chasalow – also a joyful border crosser between the genres – studied composition with Mario Davidovsky and teaches at Brandeis University in Boston. He is artistic director of the festival for electroacoustic music BEAMS.
Jürg Henneberger