With Sarah Bob, James Borchers and Curtis Hughes
The HereNow New Music Festival was initiated and directed by Biliana Voutchkova in 2006. The three day festival had three editions culminating in it's final presentation in 2010 where three guests from the USA were invited. All editions of the festival were in partnership with the Red House Sofia, during the different years we were supported by the Ministry of Culture in Bulgaria, the Polish Cultural Center in Bulgaria, and the Trust for Mutual Understanding in New York. The festival presented a number of world premiered works and recorded life for the Bulgarian National Radio and Television. More information about the programs and performers is available here:
http://www.redhouse-sofia.org/Event.aspx?id=802
http://www.redhouse-sofia.org/Event.aspx?id=1275
http://www.redhouse-sofia.org/Event.aspx?id=5089
Original critics:
http://www.kultura.bg/bg/article/view/12129
http://www.kultura.bg/bg/article/view/13513
http://www.kultura.bg/bg/article/view/17677
Translation: HereNow third festival of Biliana Vouchkova, 23-25 October 2010
The sound as communication
The sound is beyond time, it is in us, it is everywhere in space. The sound is here and now. It is communication. The human being is a vibrating sound, which interferes with other vibrations: he communicates through sound. The sound is a creative piece of music, the most universal means of communication. To Biliana Vouchkova and associates the musical sound is an autonomous planet, the realm of free communication. This is the suggestion of the three-day festival, whose concept, organization and implementation is the work of violinist Biliana Vouchkova.
The HereNow formula is: I communicate here and now, sought sound vibrations are interfered here and now. The motto of the festival was defended by the piece of Chiyoko Szlavnitzs "Here and now . This is only here. This is only now."
On the first night (performers were Biliana Vouchkova and Daniella Strasfogel) sounded works, largely static, in which the significant was not so much the dramaturgy, the development of musical material but consolidating the sound lines, the sound vibrations. The interval, carefully sought and clarified, is important to
help trace this consolidation, the specific dialogue of musical sounds. Working in duo fascinates Biliana, in the process of preparation, of entry in the creation is sought the link of individualities. And, perhaps unexpectedly for the uninitiated, the result holds emotion. The program line of the concert moved from the infinite, timeless space of spirit, of the pure, cleanly audible sound communication (Caprice No 2 for solo violin by Salvatore Sciarrino and especially the airy acoustic emission of "Melodies for Harry Cullis" by Chiyoko Szlavnitcs) through the delicately hinted, almost imperceptible development of musical material using all sorts of sonoric techniques (James Dillon and Enno Poppe pieces) and again, a return to pure static music, enjoying the achieved sound communication (Duo for 2 violins by Christian Wolff). "Retrospective" was called this concert and that was first of all a trip to the piece of Wolff (it is from 50s of 20th century). Wolff himself is a charismatic figure in the field of that new attitude towards the sound which inspires Biliana and associates. Almost self-taught, his musical aesthetics he formed largely under the influence of John Cage and Morton Feldman. This is the realization of the musical happening¡ as a freedom of relationship "composer-performer-listener" and back, to the mutual collaboration between these three parties - participants in the music process. To activate such a musical collaboration, according to the composer, is required a change in the attitude towards the reality we live in. Another, a little surprising, retrospection back in time and a summary of the concert was a late opus by Sergei Prokofiev . Duo for 2 violins. This is a completely different musical world, as temperament and as contents of purely musical elements. For Biliana Vouchkova and Daniela Strasvogel, however, it is a beginning of precisely such attitude towards the idea of sound as important musical communication. Perhaps in another context the work would be perceived in a different way. But here and now it logically and convincingly fits in the concept of the festival as a realm of sound communication.
Man is a creative creature, he is realized in the process of creation. In his work he communicates with other human beings and creates unique relationships. This is not an attempt to translate in human language the basic postulate of Marxist political economy for industrial relations. According to composer Curtis Hughes, one of the associates and creators in the world of Biliana and festival guest. Creativity is a specific form of beauty in relationships and can have a purely musical equivalent. In fact, the perfect abstraction of music is often used as a model for completeness and harmony also in non-musical events. Artistic cohesion is achieved through continued collaboration. HereNow treats this particular form of beauty in the creative spirit of people, through the sound. In this sense, the second night was particularly convincing . audiovisual presentation of the audio-communicative. This was yet another touch to the artistry of Biliana, the ability to present sound image in a plastic way, the other side of its emotional nature. Not that on the first night the visual was missing, but on the second one it was elevated to a delicate attraction. For this purpose the Red House proved very suitable, with the specific allocation of space and the possibility of free movement and positioning of audience and performers. In the program intentions was explained that would be "momentary spontaneous compositions and improvisations of performers related to the place of performance,
the relationship between them, with the audience and all other conditions of the moment." The spontaneity of improvisation is possible precisely because of the continued collaboration between the performers (Biliana Vouchkova and trumpeter Rosen Zahariev), communication which is achieved by sought and repeatedly achieved general idea. The suggestion is that every work and creativity incorporates harmony and music: sound elevation in the finals of the improvisations of Biliana and Rosen suggest with the consolidation of sound this apotheosis of universal harmony, as the participants in the creative process feel it. The second night of the festival in many ways goes beyond the traditional music event. This is a performance, presentation of ideas, of aesthetics, protection of aesthetics beliefs, exactly in the spirit of universal harmony of intentions and creativity. The performance is free and can be interpreted freely. It may be an interesting intellectual exercise in otherness, in individuality, a possibility to present creative passionate impulses.
I would not attach visual-musical phenomena to the general concept of "experimental music" because they are, in fact, achieved goals, communication here and now. Perhaps they will stimulate the creation of new opuses to develop this kind of communication - the one that prompts aesthetics of Christian Wolff. Music is generally is a kind of communication. Modern music finds a variety of ways to perform this role. The recently finished festival "AmBul" for example presented communication as a process of making music. Its last part "Cobra" combined different improvisational intentions and possibilities around one idea, the memory of two great creative people, Julia Tsenova and Rumen Toskov. In the concept of Biliana Vouchkova and associates communication is somehow closer hedonistic: it is in the experience of pleasure from the sound itself.
Music Center "Boris Hristov" hosted the third night of the festival, concert of Biliana Vouchkova and pianist Sarah Bob, hailed as "sumptuous and eloquent" by the Boston Globe, also a confident performer of contemporary music. I would conditionally call this concert "a return to music" i.e. to its traditional sound-volume dimensions, themes, timbre, rhythm and other characteristics. Not that music was missing in the first two nights, but it was the music we carry in ourselves as abstract sound images, which "secretly", not directly act on our senses. On the third night we listened to music by five American composers from the East Coast, high quality, emotional and professional. The concert was "framed" by two Curtis Hughes works, loaded with frantic emotion: "Avoidance Tactics" for piano and electronics written for Sarah, and "Insult to injury" for violin and piano, written for both performers. In both pieces the emotional tension is extremely high, the texture very complicated with a virtuoso change of rhythms and contrasting dynamics, with poly-rhythmic and poly-metric layers (Bravo to the performers!). The short lyrical isles are like taking a breath before the next rush into the headlong race of the musical material. In the first piece the piano and electronic sound "compete" in various ways, timbre, rhythmic, etc., in continuous accelerando. "Insult to injury" is essentially a sonata in three parts with all elements of sonata development. The colossal energy and imagination of this work is tamed in a well-rationalized (and felt) shape. At the same time image associations are extremely bright. The end of the second part sounded like Farewell to Arms, and after a brief, but meaningful training merged into one innocent melody of the violin, a subject of almost violent, temperamental insults on the part of the piano. The work was the categorical and at the same time open concert final of the concept of this festival. Between the two "fire" pieces by Curtis Hughes we listened to a series of contrasting imaginations: Morton Feldman "To Aaron Copland" for solo violin, it is a timeless nostalgic dialogue with the memory of the great composer. Four very beautiful nocturnes, "Night Music II" for violin and piano by George Crumb carry imagination through cosmic spaces associated with the gentle air installations by Alexander Calder. For me, at least, he was the author with the most harmoniously controlled fantasy, with the most sophisticated sense of sound placement in space and time. The six paintings from "The old music box" for piano by the Israeli-born Lior Navok are six impressionistic contrast images invoked by the photos taken out of the old box. Tenderness and nostalgia, joy and tension are depicted succinctly, with a sense of measure, like a passing play of sounds. As if wrapped by the web of time, at the same time vivid and bright, they are framed by romantic nostalgia, abruptly interrupted by the next final "frame" of the concert, "Insult to injury" by Curtis Hughes.
James Borchers, he was among the festival guests, presented a different version of impressionistic imagery: "Weeping Water" for violin and piano, written for Biliana and Sarah, pre premiere. It was a mystical transfer in our time of the world of Debussy and Ravel, overgrown with numerous sound and emotional layers of almost a century, a mysterious and beautiful world. The fascinating fantasy of the author passes through several emotional waves, different phases of development of the impressionistic image. Every time has the right to its own impressionism, to the dream for imaginary return backwards or soaring somewhere in the unknown achieved by the vast possibilities of the musical sound, of music for communication beyond time.
Unfortunately, the audience dedicated to this type of spiritual pleasure is limited - a small community, audience and performers, some twenty people. Yes, this kind of activity is not intended for stadiums. Is it self-sufficiency? Maybe it is, but why not? It turns out that such a "lonely" activity can be loaded with emotion. Communication in time, filled with screaming sounds of loneliness, is a big success. Biliana Vouchkova achieves it, with charm, musicality and intelligence, both as a devoted chamber musician and improviser with a strong faith in contemporary art, as numerous critics note.
The third concert was repeated in Berlin on 26 October. The piece of James Borchers there had its premiere (we heard the so-called pre premiere here) together with the other "Snuffle and Snap" by Eric Chasalow written for Biliana, which had to be performed pre premiere, but we were promised another time. Well, we will hope for a more enlightened audience and new works for which Music Center "Boris Hristov" will be a prestigious place for a premiere.
Kultura, Bulgaria, by Natalia Ilieva
http://www.redhouse-sofia.org/Event.aspx?id=802
http://www.redhouse-sofia.org/Event.aspx?id=1275
http://www.redhouse-sofia.org/Event.aspx?id=5089
Original critics:
http://www.kultura.bg/bg/article/view/12129
http://www.kultura.bg/bg/article/view/13513
http://www.kultura.bg/bg/article/view/17677
Translation: HereNow third festival of Biliana Vouchkova, 23-25 October 2010
The sound as communication
The sound is beyond time, it is in us, it is everywhere in space. The sound is here and now. It is communication. The human being is a vibrating sound, which interferes with other vibrations: he communicates through sound. The sound is a creative piece of music, the most universal means of communication. To Biliana Vouchkova and associates the musical sound is an autonomous planet, the realm of free communication. This is the suggestion of the three-day festival, whose concept, organization and implementation is the work of violinist Biliana Vouchkova.
The HereNow formula is: I communicate here and now, sought sound vibrations are interfered here and now. The motto of the festival was defended by the piece of Chiyoko Szlavnitzs "Here and now . This is only here. This is only now."
On the first night (performers were Biliana Vouchkova and Daniella Strasfogel) sounded works, largely static, in which the significant was not so much the dramaturgy, the development of musical material but consolidating the sound lines, the sound vibrations. The interval, carefully sought and clarified, is important to
help trace this consolidation, the specific dialogue of musical sounds. Working in duo fascinates Biliana, in the process of preparation, of entry in the creation is sought the link of individualities. And, perhaps unexpectedly for the uninitiated, the result holds emotion. The program line of the concert moved from the infinite, timeless space of spirit, of the pure, cleanly audible sound communication (Caprice No 2 for solo violin by Salvatore Sciarrino and especially the airy acoustic emission of "Melodies for Harry Cullis" by Chiyoko Szlavnitcs) through the delicately hinted, almost imperceptible development of musical material using all sorts of sonoric techniques (James Dillon and Enno Poppe pieces) and again, a return to pure static music, enjoying the achieved sound communication (Duo for 2 violins by Christian Wolff). "Retrospective" was called this concert and that was first of all a trip to the piece of Wolff (it is from 50s of 20th century). Wolff himself is a charismatic figure in the field of that new attitude towards the sound which inspires Biliana and associates. Almost self-taught, his musical aesthetics he formed largely under the influence of John Cage and Morton Feldman. This is the realization of the musical happening¡ as a freedom of relationship "composer-performer-listener" and back, to the mutual collaboration between these three parties - participants in the music process. To activate such a musical collaboration, according to the composer, is required a change in the attitude towards the reality we live in. Another, a little surprising, retrospection back in time and a summary of the concert was a late opus by Sergei Prokofiev . Duo for 2 violins. This is a completely different musical world, as temperament and as contents of purely musical elements. For Biliana Vouchkova and Daniela Strasvogel, however, it is a beginning of precisely such attitude towards the idea of sound as important musical communication. Perhaps in another context the work would be perceived in a different way. But here and now it logically and convincingly fits in the concept of the festival as a realm of sound communication.
Man is a creative creature, he is realized in the process of creation. In his work he communicates with other human beings and creates unique relationships. This is not an attempt to translate in human language the basic postulate of Marxist political economy for industrial relations. According to composer Curtis Hughes, one of the associates and creators in the world of Biliana and festival guest. Creativity is a specific form of beauty in relationships and can have a purely musical equivalent. In fact, the perfect abstraction of music is often used as a model for completeness and harmony also in non-musical events. Artistic cohesion is achieved through continued collaboration. HereNow treats this particular form of beauty in the creative spirit of people, through the sound. In this sense, the second night was particularly convincing . audiovisual presentation of the audio-communicative. This was yet another touch to the artistry of Biliana, the ability to present sound image in a plastic way, the other side of its emotional nature. Not that on the first night the visual was missing, but on the second one it was elevated to a delicate attraction. For this purpose the Red House proved very suitable, with the specific allocation of space and the possibility of free movement and positioning of audience and performers. In the program intentions was explained that would be "momentary spontaneous compositions and improvisations of performers related to the place of performance,
the relationship between them, with the audience and all other conditions of the moment." The spontaneity of improvisation is possible precisely because of the continued collaboration between the performers (Biliana Vouchkova and trumpeter Rosen Zahariev), communication which is achieved by sought and repeatedly achieved general idea. The suggestion is that every work and creativity incorporates harmony and music: sound elevation in the finals of the improvisations of Biliana and Rosen suggest with the consolidation of sound this apotheosis of universal harmony, as the participants in the creative process feel it. The second night of the festival in many ways goes beyond the traditional music event. This is a performance, presentation of ideas, of aesthetics, protection of aesthetics beliefs, exactly in the spirit of universal harmony of intentions and creativity. The performance is free and can be interpreted freely. It may be an interesting intellectual exercise in otherness, in individuality, a possibility to present creative passionate impulses.
I would not attach visual-musical phenomena to the general concept of "experimental music" because they are, in fact, achieved goals, communication here and now. Perhaps they will stimulate the creation of new opuses to develop this kind of communication - the one that prompts aesthetics of Christian Wolff. Music is generally is a kind of communication. Modern music finds a variety of ways to perform this role. The recently finished festival "AmBul" for example presented communication as a process of making music. Its last part "Cobra" combined different improvisational intentions and possibilities around one idea, the memory of two great creative people, Julia Tsenova and Rumen Toskov. In the concept of Biliana Vouchkova and associates communication is somehow closer hedonistic: it is in the experience of pleasure from the sound itself.
Music Center "Boris Hristov" hosted the third night of the festival, concert of Biliana Vouchkova and pianist Sarah Bob, hailed as "sumptuous and eloquent" by the Boston Globe, also a confident performer of contemporary music. I would conditionally call this concert "a return to music" i.e. to its traditional sound-volume dimensions, themes, timbre, rhythm and other characteristics. Not that music was missing in the first two nights, but it was the music we carry in ourselves as abstract sound images, which "secretly", not directly act on our senses. On the third night we listened to music by five American composers from the East Coast, high quality, emotional and professional. The concert was "framed" by two Curtis Hughes works, loaded with frantic emotion: "Avoidance Tactics" for piano and electronics written for Sarah, and "Insult to injury" for violin and piano, written for both performers. In both pieces the emotional tension is extremely high, the texture very complicated with a virtuoso change of rhythms and contrasting dynamics, with poly-rhythmic and poly-metric layers (Bravo to the performers!). The short lyrical isles are like taking a breath before the next rush into the headlong race of the musical material. In the first piece the piano and electronic sound "compete" in various ways, timbre, rhythmic, etc., in continuous accelerando. "Insult to injury" is essentially a sonata in three parts with all elements of sonata development. The colossal energy and imagination of this work is tamed in a well-rationalized (and felt) shape. At the same time image associations are extremely bright. The end of the second part sounded like Farewell to Arms, and after a brief, but meaningful training merged into one innocent melody of the violin, a subject of almost violent, temperamental insults on the part of the piano. The work was the categorical and at the same time open concert final of the concept of this festival. Between the two "fire" pieces by Curtis Hughes we listened to a series of contrasting imaginations: Morton Feldman "To Aaron Copland" for solo violin, it is a timeless nostalgic dialogue with the memory of the great composer. Four very beautiful nocturnes, "Night Music II" for violin and piano by George Crumb carry imagination through cosmic spaces associated with the gentle air installations by Alexander Calder. For me, at least, he was the author with the most harmoniously controlled fantasy, with the most sophisticated sense of sound placement in space and time. The six paintings from "The old music box" for piano by the Israeli-born Lior Navok are six impressionistic contrast images invoked by the photos taken out of the old box. Tenderness and nostalgia, joy and tension are depicted succinctly, with a sense of measure, like a passing play of sounds. As if wrapped by the web of time, at the same time vivid and bright, they are framed by romantic nostalgia, abruptly interrupted by the next final "frame" of the concert, "Insult to injury" by Curtis Hughes.
James Borchers, he was among the festival guests, presented a different version of impressionistic imagery: "Weeping Water" for violin and piano, written for Biliana and Sarah, pre premiere. It was a mystical transfer in our time of the world of Debussy and Ravel, overgrown with numerous sound and emotional layers of almost a century, a mysterious and beautiful world. The fascinating fantasy of the author passes through several emotional waves, different phases of development of the impressionistic image. Every time has the right to its own impressionism, to the dream for imaginary return backwards or soaring somewhere in the unknown achieved by the vast possibilities of the musical sound, of music for communication beyond time.
Unfortunately, the audience dedicated to this type of spiritual pleasure is limited - a small community, audience and performers, some twenty people. Yes, this kind of activity is not intended for stadiums. Is it self-sufficiency? Maybe it is, but why not? It turns out that such a "lonely" activity can be loaded with emotion. Communication in time, filled with screaming sounds of loneliness, is a big success. Biliana Vouchkova achieves it, with charm, musicality and intelligence, both as a devoted chamber musician and improviser with a strong faith in contemporary art, as numerous critics note.
The third concert was repeated in Berlin on 26 October. The piece of James Borchers there had its premiere (we heard the so-called pre premiere here) together with the other "Snuffle and Snap" by Eric Chasalow written for Biliana, which had to be performed pre premiere, but we were promised another time. Well, we will hope for a more enlightened audience and new works for which Music Center "Boris Hristov" will be a prestigious place for a premiere.
Kultura, Bulgaria, by Natalia Ilieva
