Reviews

Das alles ist kein aufgesetzter Bekenntnisdrang, sondern gehört zu einem kompositorischen ich, das selbst entfernte familiäre Wurzeln in der autochthonen Bevölkerung hat. Ein zweiter wesentlicher Bezugspunkt ihres komponierens ist das Arditti-Quartett, für das sie bereits mehrere Werke geschrieben hat. Als ehefrau von Irvine Arditti, dem ersten Geiger des ensembles, das Weltruhm in der interpretation neuer Musik genießt, hat sie gleichsam freien Zugang zu den Produktionsmitteln; eine gute kenntnis der instrumentalen Möglichkeiten und technische Gewandtheit sind damit selbstverständliche Merkmale ihrer Musik.
Das Arditti-Quartett war in den konzerten denn auch voll beschäftigt, wobei mit dem agilen countertenor Jake Arditti ein weiteres familienmitglied in erscheinung trat. Die von Hilda Paredes für countertenor und Streichquartett arrangierten evergreens „flow my tears“ und „in darkness let me dwell“ von John
Dowland aus dem 17. Jahrhundert bildeten den Rahmen für eine komposition von Paredes in gleicher Besetzung über ein Gedicht der kubanischen Dichterin Carlota Caulfield und für die „Canciones lunáticas“, einen düsteren mexikanischen Wiedergänger von Schönbergs „Pierrot lunaire“ nach texten von Pedro Serrano. im gleichen konzert erklang auch das jüngste Streichquartett von Paredes mit dem titel „Diálogos apócrifos“, ein klanglich radikales Werk von explodierender kraft. Da sich die Wiener Premiere
umständehalber nicht realisieren ließ, fand seine Uraufführung nun in Weingarten statt.
In den ensemblestücken „Revelación“ (mit elektronik) und „Señales“ mit einem horrend schwierigen Solopart für Irvine Arditti zeigte sich das idiomatische der Musiksprache von Paredes erneut in aller Deutlichkeit: eine Musik, die sich nach geheimnisvoller logik fortlaufend neue Wege sucht und dabei einen klanglichen Zaubergarten entwirft. Das londoner Riot ensemble brillierte in diesen
Werken.
Einen nachhaltigen Eindruck hinterließ die Matinee mit dem phänomenalen spanischen Pianisten Alberto Rosado und dem Bariton Guillermo Anzorena. „Sueños robados“ (Gestohlene träume) vergegenwärtigt die verzweifelte Situation eines Migranten mit seinem kind auf dem fluchtweg in die USA. in „Páramo de voces“ treten klavier, elektronik und Video in einen Dialog. Die fotografien von Graciela iturbide bringen darin mit
genauem Blick auf unscheinbare Sujets die Realität des heutigen Mexiko zur Darstellung. Das färbt auf die Musik ab. Sie wird zum mächtigen Sprachrohr einer schreienden Gegenwart. Max Nyffeler

The Arditti Quartet was also fully occupied in the concerts, with another family member, the agile countertenor Jake Arditti, making an appearance. Hilda Paredes’ everlasting ‘flow my tears’ and ‘in darkness let me dwell’ by John Dowland from the 17th century, arranged for countertenor and string quartet, formed the framework for a composition by Paredes with the same instrumentation on a poem by the Cuban poet Carlota Caulfield and for the Canciones lunáticas’, a gloomy Mexican revival of Schönberg’s ‘Pierrot lunaire’ based on texts by Pedro Serrano. At the same concert, also performed Paredes’ latest string quartet entitled ‘Diálogos apócrifos’, a sonically radical work of exploding power. As the Viennese premiere could not be realised due to circumstance its world premiere now took place at Weingarten.

In the ensemble pieces ‘Revelación’ (with electronics) and ‘Señales’ with a horrendously difficult solo part for Irvine Arditti, the idiomatic of Paredes’ musical language was once again revealed in all clarity: music that continually seeks new paths according to a mysterious logic and thereby creates a tonal magic garden.

The matinee with the phenomenal Spanish pianist Alberto Rosado and
the baritone Guillermo Anzorena left a lasting impression. ‘Sueños robados’ (Stolen Dreams) visualises the desperate situation of a migrant with his child on the escape route to the USA. In ‘Páramo de voces’, piano, electronics and video enter into a dialogue. The photographs by Graciela Iturbide depict the reality of today’s Mexico with
a close look at inconspicuous subjects. This colours the music. It becomes the powerful mouthpiece of a screaming present. Max Nyffeler

“Con sus 17:30 minutos de duración, Espacios intemporales (2017) es el cuarteto más largo de este compacto, y no es ello causalidad, sino un proceso muy meditado por parte de su creadora, Hilda Paredes, de hacernos experimentar diferentes formas de tiempo musical, así como de comprobar los vínculos entre tiempo, ritmo y materia. En el caso de Espacios intemporales, dos son sus extremos: por una parte, un slap que, seco, conciso y agresivo, hace del saxofón un instrumento percusivo, de naturaleza profusamente rítmica, como tiempo del instante; por otro lado, haces de luz en multifónicos que se expanden remitiéndonos a ese tiempo que trasciende al propio tiempo, con lo que la dicotomía entre el tiempo como marco y la finitud de cada evento dentro de dicho contexto queda servida.

Esa idea de gran marco temporal poblado por temporalidades efímeras, más o menos duraderas, se refuerza por la distribución espacial que la partitura nos plantea, con los cuatro saxofonistas rodeando al público y desplazándose en torno a éste, lo que nos hace sentir el tiempo como un fluido móvil, lejos de cualquier concepción estática del mismo. Es, ésta, una conformación de la topología acústica especialmente cuidada en la edición en disco compacto que hoy nos ocupa, en la que se percibe cómo las fuentes de sonido se desplazan en nuestros altavoces, así como sus halos: esos tan densos multifónicos que, en pedal y haciendo resplandecer los armónicos, nos envuelven durante la escucha. Entre esos dos extremos del slap y el haz lumínico del multifónico, Hilda Paredes despliega, a través de SIGMA Project, una rica paleta de técnicas extendidas y lenguaje armónico para mostrar las (dis)continuidades del tiempo, su expresividad (con pasajes que nos remiten a la danza), lirismo y violencia: formas de aprehender el tiempo que remedan las porosas fronteras entre éste, como concepto físico-matemático, y su vivencia, como subjetividad y suma de los febriles episodios que aquí van superponiendo momentos a ese gran trazo.”

A 17:30 minutes long, Espacios intemporales (2017) is the longest quartet on this CD, and this is no coincidence, but a very thoughtful process on the part of its creator, Hilda Paredes, to make us experience different forms of musical time, as well as to test the links between time, rhythm and matter. In the case of Espacios intemporales, there are two extremes: on the one hand, a slap that, dry, concise and aggressive, makes the saxophone a percussive instrument, of a profusely rhythmic nature, in an instant; on the other hand, beams of light in multiphonics that expand, referring us to time that transcends time itself, with which the dichotomy between time as a framework and the finitude of each event within that context is served.

This idea of a great time frame populated by ephemeral temporalities, more or less lasting, is reinforced by the spatial distribution that the score presents us with, with the four saxophonists surrounding the audience and moving around it, which makes us feel time as a mobile fluid, far from any static conception of it. This is a conformation of the acoustic topology that is particularly well cared for in the compact disc edition that concerns us today, in which we can perceive how the sound sources move in our speakers, as well as their halos: those dense multiphonics that, in pedal and making the harmonics shine, envelop us whilst listening. Between these two extremes of the slap and the luminous beam of the multiphonic, Hilda Paredes deploys, through SIGMA Project, a rich palette of extended techniques and harmonic language to show the (dis)continuities of time, its expressiveness (with passages that refer us to dance), lyricism and violence: ways of apprehending time that mimic the porous borders between it, as a physical-mathematical concept, and its experience, as subjectivity and the sum of the feverish episodes that here superimpose moments on this great design.

Scherzo, 16/03/2023 / Paco Yáñez.

Hilda Paredes’s song quintet, Canciones Lunáticas, in three movements, was composed in 2008/9 for her stepson, Jake Arditti, although the work did not receive a full three-movement premiere until 2011. These are songs based on a set of texts by her fellow Mexican, the poet Pedro Serrano. The poems are closely related in their imagery to the moon, the night and darkness but these form two distinct parts: the physical (of the landscape itself), and the metaphysical (of the human soul).

The first song (only named I) sets up the imagery for the rest of the cycle. Principally, the moon becomes the only witness to a despairing loneliness on a dark and lonely night. It is explicitly a landscape piece; it is a description that is cold and remote, of ‘slaughterhouse heavens’, ‘squalls of gales’, and landscapes that are laid to waste are ‘torn into tatters’. The moon itself is like ‘an unwonted Cinderella’, and goes ‘wandering, in rut, and adrift. At her mercy the waters and life’. The second song (II) deals with lunacy, so often a common thread in music over hundreds of years. But here, Paredes is playing with sound imagery as she uses the text to set up the idea of madness: the moonstruck must be locked up, the padlocks binding them should be heavy, and their eyes must be gouged out and tongue torn out so they do not wander off into a milky way that would give them enlightenment.

It’s the sound of the quartet here which gives substance to the madness in the text – extended instrumental techniques in the strings that add to the idea of fear and a kind of psychosis in noise. But the madness is entirely within the text and it’s through the voice that this has to emerge and where it did through Jake Arditti’s penetrating, deeply disturbing singing.

I’m not sure how often he has sung this work, but there was an uncomfortable resonance to the portrait of lunacy which emerged. Some singers simply skim the surface of the text; with Jake Arditti he really sunk quite convincingly into the recesses of darkness here; all hope was stripped back. This was very raw singing, a chasm between the beauty of the voice and the despair of the conviction with which it was all sung. Sometimes things are simply as they are, or as it is – the performance just couldn’t be done in a different way. This was one of those moments.

The drama of Arditti’s singing was really quite remarkable, both within the context of the music and as art itself. The language, Spanish, proved more than capable of conveying a phonetic picture of madness, but in poems where the theme of madness and lunacy is so clear vocal gestures like whispering sounded all the more suggestive of paranoia. Individual touches, like verbal tics, lip-smacks, the sudden leap in register, glissandos that swerved and bent like the wind were magnificently projected and stood out, especially when this was a voice also capable of holding a note with effortless purity, allied with a majestic power and vocal colour that is richer than many countertenors. In the last song (III), there is a sense that the singer has begun to control his madness – ‘the moon has broken free’. Arditti was as rhythmically buoyant, as free from the bondage of restraint, as he mirrored the dance of the quartet’s playing. No longer a danse macabre, there was some hope as Arditti climbed out of that reservoir of moonstruck despair. Again, it felt like one of those “as it is” moments.

This had been a really wonderful recital, however. Jake Arditti’s singing of Canciones Lunáticas and the playing in the Xenakis Trio will probably be two individual performances I will not find bettered this year. Just outstanding.

La tercera pieza del CD, es Espacios Intemporales de Hilda Paredes. La compositora comenta que la obra se inicia con una nota pedal compartida por los cuatro instrumentos, que en una ejecución en vivo “viaja” alrededor del público; parte del trabajo técnico en esta versión grabada ha consistido en intentar recrear esa espacialización sonora moviendo los instrumentos de un canal de audio a otro de acuerdo con lo planteado en la partitura. Esa cita ya nos aporta dos ideas a resaltar. La primera, que esta obra, tal y como nos sugiere el título, es una exploración sistemática del espacio y la movilidad de la fuente sonora. Un recurso que no habíamos visto en las otras obras, aunque en ciertos pasajes se puede intuir. La segunda idea, es que Paredes ha trabajado estrechamente con los intérpretes para conseguir la meta compositiva deseada. Algo que no pensemos que es lo habitual, ya que muchas veces los intérpretes solo buscan leer la partitura sin ninguna mediación del compositor (casi al estilo de un impersonal manual de instrucciones). SIGMA Project, por el contrario, busca la sinergia entre los compositores con los que colabora. No puede resultar más evidente el hecho de que las cinco obras de este CD son encargadas por ellos, han sido estrechamente desarrolladas con sus creadores y las graban por primera vez; como bien podemos leer en la contraportada de la carátula, donde leemos: Primeras grabaciones bajo la supervisión de los compositores.

La obra de Paredes con una duración de 17:30, es la más larga del disco con cierta diferencia, ya que la siguiente en más duración es la de Vázquez con 12:30. Este dato, aunque no implica necesariamente un uso de sonoridades más dilatadas de lo normal, si añadimos la información antes comentada sobre el tema del espacio, nos puede dar cierta pista sobre qué tipo de materiales sonoros emplea la compositora. En la búsqueda de una investigación sobre la relación entre el sonido y el espacio, Paredes utiliza en esta larga obra materiales que van desde los extendidos sonidos tenuto (que a veces son modulados microtonalmente), hasta los más rápidos sonidos picados y en escalas. Esta variada y contrastante paleta le ayuda a investigar sobre los efectos de la escucha y cómo el sonido se va moviendo entre los intérpretes. En ciertos momentos se puede casi ver el movimiento (en vez de escucharlo). En ese sentido, se ha de enfatizar la calidad de la toma sonora y cómo su ingeniero de sonido, Sylvain Cadars, ha diseñado y concebido todo el espacio musical del CD. Sin duda resulta muy logrado, con unas grabaciones muy nítidas y claras, algo que no es fácil en una instrumentación tan homogénea como el cuarteto de saxofón. No estamos ante un quinteto de viento madera (trompa, flauta, oboe, clarinete y fagot), donde cada instrumento es un mundo aparte, y por tanto, fácilmente distinguible. En el cuarteto de saxofón (como en el de cuerda) la especificidad tímbrica de cada instrumento es difícil de distinguir, aún así, en el CD se puede escuchar de manera clara y precisa.

Resaltar otra vez la estrecha colaboración de la compositora con SIGMA Project, que como podemos leer en las notas: Si bien la obra se estrenó en 2017, no fue sino hasta que tomó forma el proyecto de la grabación de este CD que la compositora y los saxofonistas realizaron un verdadero trabajo conjuntamente para dar su forma final a la partitura. Obra que se presenta como un auténtico work in progress, dado la buena colaboración que se produjo entre compositora e intérpretes. Como el título nos indica, la obra puede llevar a los oyentes a un estadio de intemporalidad sonora, para que se pierdan en la difusión espacial que invitan a disfrutar Hilda Paredes y SIGMA Project.

The third piece on the CD is Espacios Intemporales by Hilda Paredes. The composer comments that the work begins with a pedal note shared by the four instruments, which in a live performance “travels” around the audience; part of the technical work in this recorded version has consisted of trying to recreate this sound spatialisation by moving the instruments from one audio channel to another in accordance with the score. This quotation already gives us two ideas to highlight. The first is that this work, as the title suggests, is a systematic exploration of the space and mobility of the sound source. A resource that we had not seen in the other works, although in certain passages it can be intuited. The second idea is that Paredes has worked closely with the performers to achieve the desired compositional goal. This is something that we don’t think is usual, as often the performers only seek to read the score without any mediation from the composer (almost in the style of an impersonal instruction manual). SIGMA Project, on the contrary, seeks synergy between the composers with whom it collaborates. It could not be more evident that the five works on this CD are commissioned by them, have been closely developed with their creators and are recorded by them for the first time; as we can read on the back cover of the CD, where we read: First recordings under the supervision of the composers.

Paredes’ work, with a duration of 17:30, is the longest on the disc by far as the next longest is Vázquez’s at 12:30. This fact, although it does not necessarily imply a use of longer sonorities than usual, if we add the information mentioned above on the subject of space, it may give us a clue as to what kind of sound materials the composer uses. In the research of the relationship between sound and space, Paredes uses in this long work materials ranging from the extended tenuto sounds (which are sometimes microtonally modulated), to the faster chopped and scaled sounds. This varied and contrasting palette helps her to investigate the effects of listening and how sound moves between performers. At certain moments you can almost see the movement (rather than hear it). In that sense, one has to emphasise the quality of the sound shot and how the sound engineer, Sylvain Cadars, has designed and conceived the whole musical space of the CD. It is undoubtedly very successful, with very crisp and clear recordings, something that is not easy in an instrumentation as homogeneous as the saxophone quartet. This is not a woodwind quintet (horn, flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon), where each instrument is a world apart, and therefore easily distinguishable. In the saxophone quartet (as in the string quartet) the timbral specificity of each instrument is difficult to distinguish, even so, on the CD it can be heard clearly and precisely.

To highlight again the close collaboration of the composer with SIGMA Project, which as we can read in the notes: Although the work was premiered in 2017, it was not until the project of the recording of this CD took shape that the composer and the saxophonists carried out a real work together to give the score its final form. The work is presented as a real work in progress, given the good collaboration that took place between composer and performers. As the title indicates, the work can take listeners to a stage of sonic timelessness, so that they can lose themselves in the spatial diffusion that Hilda Paredes and SIGMA Project invite them to enjoy.

Cerró el segundo concierto del pasado sábado la compositora mexicana Hilda Paredes, con Siphonophorae (2016), sexteto inspirado en la escultura Siphonophora (2016), de Thomas Glassford, que provee sus modelos de unidad y discrepancia, utilizados por Paredes para estructurar toda la pieza desde motivos armónicos en progresivo desarrollo y colapso, de gran riqueza en cuanto a colores, timbres y texturas, como es habitual en la compositora de Tehuacán. Otro aspecto a destacar es el ritmo: impresionante por su riqueza y prolijas capas dentro del sexteto, añadiendo uno de los elementos que incorpora mayor vivacidad a Siphonophorae, junto con la profusión de técnicas extendidas que confieren color a las estructuras más puramente armónicas. La interpretación de los músicos residentes en el Festival de Takefu, con el especialista bachiano Masato Suzuki al frente, resultó abundante en matices, así como bellamente contrastada entre los tres grupos de cuerdas, vientos y piano. Destacar al flautista Mario Caroli, por su refinamiento en los pasajes de aire sin tono; a la clarinetista Nozomi Ueda, en su manejo de las tesituras oscuras del clarinete bajo; y al violinista Yasutaka Hemmi, que algunos compositores nipones me han definido como el “Arditti japonés”, así que huelga decir más. La precisión de su ataque, especialmente en cuanto a técnicas extendidas, creó ese refinado y prolijo mecanismo de contrastes que es Siphonophorae, dejándonos el punto compositivamente más alto de Nuevos horizontes III.

Paco Yáñez

Last Saturday’s second concert was closed by Mexican composer Hilda Paredes, with Siphonophorae (2016), a sextet inspired by Thomas Glassford’s sculpture Siphonophora (2016), which provides its models of unity and discrepancy, used by Paredes to structure the whole piece from harmonic motifs in progressive development and collapse, of great richness in terms of colours, timbres and textures, as is usual for the composer from Tehuacán. Another aspect to highlight is the rhythm: impressive for its richness and neat layering within the sextet, adding one of the elements that incorporates the most vivacity to Siphonophorae, together with the profusion of extended techniques that confer colour to the more purely harmonic structures. The performance by the resident musicians at the Takefu Festival, led by Bach specialist Masato Suzuki, was richly nuanced, as well as beautifully contrasted between the three groups of strings, winds and piano. Of particular note were flautist Mario Caroli, for his refinement in the tuneless air passages; clarinetist Nozomi Ueda, in her handling of the dark tessituras of the bass clarinet; and violinist Yasutaka Hemmi, whom some Japanese composers have described to me as the “Japanese Arditti”, so needless to say more. The precision of his attack, especially in terms of extended techniques, created that refined and neat mechanism of contrasts that is Siphonophorae, leaving us with the compositional high point of the concert New Horizons III.

El concierto tuvo su broche de oro con el Arditti Quartet y la compositora mexicana Hilda Paredes, presente en Takefu para darnos a conocer Hacia una Bitácora capilar (2013-14), una partitura de una calidad y un dominio de los materiales a la altura del cuarteto al que está dedicada, el propio Arditti, con motivo de su cuadragésimo aniversario. Hacia una Bitácora capilar explicita los vínculos artísticos y personales que unen a Hila Paredes y a Irvine Arditti, pues sus propios nombres son utilizados como clave cifrada para articular la estructura armónica de una partitura que los va entrelazando y desarrollando en lo que es una fusión de vida y arte de una belleza tan delicada como rigurosamente arquitectónica. Poseedora de un lenguaje ricamente personal (en el que Paredes integra diferentes acervos culturales que dan fe de su recorrido vital por México y Europa), esta partitura tiene algo —como su título explicita— de bitácora, de diario de esas relaciones de Paredes con el Cuarteto Arditti, mostrando desde un lenguaje armónico que integra melodías en progresiva disolución, cual rumores que se van filtrando a través del tiempo, a una profusa red de técnicas extendidas que incluyen percusión de las cuerdas con el tornillo del arco o un uso del glissando de una belleza imponente. Por otra parte, tiempo y movimiento se convierten en dos elementos cruciales para cohesionar y disgregar a un cuarteto en continuas búsquedas, encuentros y nuevas partidas hacia paisajes que no dejan de conquistar e integrar recursos, paisajes tímbricos y un diálogo entre ruido, armonía y melodía que sitúa a este cuarteto en lo más actual de los paisajes musicales de nuestro tiempo.

The concert was rounded off by the Arditti Quartet and the Mexican composer Hilda Paredes, present at Takefu to introduce us to Hacia una Bitácora capilar (2013-14), a score of a quality and mastery of materials up to the challenge of the quartet to which it is dedicated, the Arditti, on the occasion of their fortieth anniversary. Hacia una Bitácora capilar makes explicit the artistic and personal links that unite Hila Paredes and Irvine Arditti, as their names are used as a coded key to articulate the harmonic structure of a score that intertwines and develops them in what is a fusion of life and art of a beauty as delicate as it is rigorously architectural. Possessing a richly personal language (in which Paredes integrates different cultural collections that bear witness to her life’s journey through Mexico and Europe), this score has something – as its title makes explicit – of a logbook, of a diary of Paredes’ relations with the Arditti Quartet, showing from a harmonic language that integrates melodies in progressive dissolution, like rumours that filter through time, to a profuse network of extended techniques that include percussion of the strings with the screw of the bow or a use of the glissando of an imposing beauty. On the other hand, time and movement become two crucial elements to cohere and disintegrate a quartet in continuous searches, encounters and new departures towards landscapes that never cease to conquer and integrate resources, timbral landscapes and a dialogue between noise, harmony and melody that places this quartet in the most current of the musical landscapes of our time.

Con apenas una hora de margen y en otro punto del centro de la ciudad, el Espacio Turina celebraba una segunda sesión del Festival Encuentros Sonoros a cargo del grupo que lo estimula, Taller Sonoro, quien con la colaboración de la Fundación Siemens y el programa Ibermúsicas sacaba adelante el encargo y estreno absoluto de Epitafio (2021), de Hilda Paredes, presente en la sala y con quien el grupo había estado trabajando la obra durante los dos días inmediatamente anteriores. A pesar de ser ubicada al final de un relativamente extenso programa, la buena música siempre impone su protagonismo. Obra de gran compromiso emocional para la autora mexicana, Epitafio lo es en memoria de su madre, fallecida a muchos miles de kilómetros de distancia de ella durante el periodo de confinamiento por la pandemia de Covid-19. Necesariamente la música, sin asumir un evidente carácter luctuoso, sí que nace imantada por todas esas repercusiones sentimentales que debieron agitar a la compositora durante su escritura. Antes que la agitación tan significativa de muchas otras obras de Paredes, aquí esta se circunscribe más a la parte electroacústica (trabajada en el Experimentalstudio de Friburgo) que a la escritura instrumental; más avocada a la búsqueda de ecos y sonidos al aire, de espasmódicos unísonos y solos que parecieron configurarse como esbozos líricos, como lamentos sutilmente apuntados, no expresados. La presencia de Hilda Paredes volvía a constituir un acontecimiento, para el público y para los miembros de Taller Sonoro, conscientes de la importancia de tener ya en su repertorio una obra, de alcance, que deberán divulgar más en el futuro.

“With barely an hour to spare and in another part of the city centre, the Espacio Turina held a second session of the Festival Encuentros Sonoros run by Taller Sonoro, who with the collaboration of the Siemens Foundation and the Ibermúsicas programme premiered the commission of Epitafio (2021), by Hilda Paredes, present in the hall and with whom the group had been working on the work during the two immediately preceding days. Despite being placed at the end of a relatively extensive programme, good music always takes centre stage. A work of great emotional commitment for the Mexican composer, Epitafio is in memory of her mother, who died many thousands of kilometres away from her during the period of confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Necessarily, the music, without taking on an obvious mournful character, is born imbued with all those sentimental repercussions that must have agitated the composer whilst writing. Rather than the agitation so significant in many of Paredes’ other works, here it is circumscribed more to the electroacoustic part (worked on at the Experimentalstudio in Freiburg) than to the instrumental writing; more devoted to the search for echoes and sounds in the air, of spasmodic unisons and solos that seemed to be configured as lyrical sketches, as subtly pointed, unspoken laments. The presence of Hilda Paredes once again constituted an event, for the audience and for the members of Taller Sonoro, aware of the importance of already having in their repertoire a work, of a scope, which they will have to perform more in the future.

Noche de estrenos con Hilda Paredes

Taller Sonoro ofreció una rotunda selección de títulos muy recientes, destacando tres estrenos absolutos y la presencia de la imprescindible Hilda Paredes (****)

El XI Festival de Música Contemporánea Encuentros Sonoros llegó ayer no solo a su ecuador sino a su punto álgido, con tres estrenos absolutos, uno de ellos protagonizado por la compositora mexicana afincada en Londres Hilda Paredes, todo un referente de la música contemporánea y una de las figuras más destacadas del panorama actual, esta vez en estrecha colaboración con el conjunto sevillano, lo que da buena idea del nivel alcanzado por este incluso fuera de nuestras fronteras.

Hilda Paredes y otros dos grandes creadores

A night of premieres with Hilda Paredes

Taller Sonoro offered a resounding selection of very recent titles, with three world premieres and the essential presence of Hilda Paredes (****).

Juan José Roldán /Seville /21 Nov 2021

The XI Festival de Música Contemporánea Encuentros Sonoros reached yesterday not only its halfway point but also its climax, with three world premieres, one of them featuring the London-based Mexican composer Hilda Paredes, a benchmark in contemporary music and one of the most outstanding figures on the current scene, this time in close collaboration with the Seville ensemble, which gives a good idea of the level reached by this festival even outside our borders.

All set for the great premiere of the evening, Hilda Paredes was able to present a work very much influenced by the pandemic, as it is a commission from the Siemens Foundation and the Ibermúsicas Programme to be premiered in 2020, finally delayed until now by covid-19. This circumstance meant that the work took a very personal and tragic turn, inspired by an experience of loss and mourning suffered by the composer, which gives the ensemble a delicate and poignant traumatic aspect. With almost the entire cast on stage, the piece is conceived in collaboration with the ensemble, with whom Paredes has a long-standing professional relationship. For this reason, she plays with the possibilities of each and every one of the instruments, to which a new spectral accompaniment of electronic resources gives an atmospheric and enveloping aspect, an immersive experience that provokes the uneasiness sought after in the face of the devastating effects of the health crisis we are suffering. The Seville ensemble’s performance of the work was exemplary in every way, and its prestigious author seemed to appreciate it as well.

In four short acts and an epilogue-spanning just over an hour – the work comprises scenes from Tubman’s youth, her days as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, her role in the Civil War, and a troublesome origin and hopeful legacy of her daughter. The epilogue’s closing words – ‘The Underground Railroad has not yet arrived at its destination’- here accompanied salient images of notable momenta in the African American quest for freedom. Harriet not only offers a glimpse into this remarkable history, but also urges its audience to consider how we can continue to learn from it.”

“Anchoring the ‘monodrama’ is high soprano Claron McFadden, a proud figure in a severe black gown and Puritan neckerchief. It was McFadden’s suggestion to make an opera about Tubman, and Paredes has written dreamlike, stratospheric phrases for her extraordinary voice. McFadden shares the narrative with agile soprano Naomi Beeldens, combining lyrical recitative with Sprechstimme and snatches of well-known spirituals.  Bringing the story into the present, newspaper headlines chart the progress of the civil rights movement and the opera ends with a hopeful image of the young Barack Obama on the screen. Unvoiced is the thought that the current president could right now be undoing all that Harriet Tubman fought for.”

“Snatches of Steal Away, haloed with circles of marimba, accompany the escaping slaves; Harriet herself is gloriously celebrated in Go Down Moses; at the very end images of the sufferings and triumphs of black America are projected over fragments of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, as they gradually reassemble into the full theme. Ultimately Harriet does ample justice to a great American hero, not least because of a central performance from McFadden that combines dignity and authority with poignant sensitivity and supremely assured command of a demanding vocal range”.

“Bitácora translates to binnacle, the container that holds a compass on a ship. Paul Griffiths describes it as a ship’s log. He writes, “Moreover, her personal relationship makes this a ‘capillary log;’ recorded in the inest threads of her bloodstream.” A collection of pulsations littered the middle section of the piece, metaphorically connecting the heavy beats of two hearts, each instrumentalist introspectively emoting each tone. Careful sensitivity among players allowed each fragment and motif to converse seamlessly.”

“Other instruments, singly and in combination, have been subject to the gravitational pull of the evolving string quartet. This fact also was underlined by the concert at the Indiana History Center, which had as centerpiece a 2016 work for guitar and string quartet, “Son dementes cuerdas,” by Hilda Paredes. The composer’s program notes suggest the interest that idiomatic styles are juxtaposed and contrasted, and similar techniques, such as glissandi, are presented to expose differences in timbre between guitar and string quartet.”

“Hilda Paredes is probably one of the two or three more interesting composers with a consolidated artistic career of our time in the Spanish speaking community. Author of a wide and most diverse catalogue, this Mexican settled in London for a long time is one of the few women who regularly sees her music recorded on portrait CDs. Her latest entitled Señales is a good sample of her creative work.

The five pieces of diverse nature, structure and chronology, offer a good portrait of her enormous palette of resources. These five selected pieces encompass a period from 1996 to 2013 and are unified by their variety. We travel through the characterized glissandi, an idiomatic repetition of percussive notes or the effects of woodwind instruments. A versatile continuous tension and relaxation in this music from the pointillism in Páramo de voces (for piano and electronics, and a reference to the writer Juan Rulfo), to the lyricism of Homenaje a Remedios Varo for sextet, a work inspired by five canvases of the Hispano-Mexican artist. There are also more demanding works for soloists like  Intermezzo malinconico  for bass clarinet and for medium size scoring like those that open and close the programme: Señales a homage to Jonathan Harvery, enables the brilliancy of Irvine Arditti’s violin, the best performer of the music of his partner and wife, and of an ensemble of nine instruments, three of each family. Finally, the chamber music in Recuerdos del porvenir crowns this great CD in Mode’s label.”

“The first, “Corazón de Onix” (“Heart of Onyx,” 2005), for a sextet of winds, strings and piano, evoked a gemstone’s luster and mutability with sharp, glistening sounds, reshaped and refracted with microtonal smears and noisy outbursts.

“Señales” (“Signals,” 2012), newly commissioned by the Miller Theater, featured Irvine Arditti, the formidable English violinist who is also Ms. Paredes’s husband. From a lapping, splashing introduction, the music — played by a 10-member ensemble that included an ear-tickling mix of cimbalom, harp and marimba — rippled, surged and jolted ceaselessly around Mr. Arditti’s flashing exertions. Time stood still repeatedly during haunting interludes that paid homage to another composer, Jonathan Harvey.”

“Thus, two musicians of the ensemble (clarinet and horn) venture on the stage reserved for dancers to perform solos. In their turn the dancers mimic a strange production of the sound which gives the impression of an encounter between two parallel universes. Simple and beautiful is the choreographic idea of ​​building movements mirroring those of the conductor, true point of convergence between two twin arts. The abolition of the limits in the space reserved for each one is also manifested when the entry on stage of the musicians is dramatized by the dancers, thanks to the use of hats top-of-form, symbol of the man-character, the role to be played in the theater and in life, thrown to the ground before the music begins, with the exception of those of the soloists who on stage circulate between the two universes.”

“In Altazor, for example, it is the Altaigle piece or the Parachute Journey, by the Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro (1893-1948), who provided the material for a “monodrama” that gradually loses its semantic dimension to access at a purely musical level of phonetics “. Treated in real time with the technology of the Institute for Research and Coordination Acoustics / Music (IRCAM), the voice (baritone) of Altazor will make us listen to Hilda Paredes’ conception  of legacy: “A way of illuminating the soul in which one must draw one’s inner resources when one travels far from one’s own country.”

“Pierrot Lunaire is the obvious template but it doesn’t overwhelm her vision. The quality of the poetry from Pedro Serrano, the composition and the singing make sure of this. The first song is still and bare. For the singer, it must be like walking through the dark. The confident and vocally mature young countertenor Jake Arditti, however, navigated the lonely terrain with total conviction, never once tripping over the Ardittis’ atmospheric undercurrents or the sibilants and whispering.

With a lurch into madness we moved into a faster and punchier movement that the Ardittis invested with their characteristic intensity. There was a hint of early Birtwistle in the directness and fury of the string writing. But the anger evaporates in a cord of springy ricochets as the third song imagines a moon set free from its daily drill.”

“And while it would not be inaccurate to compare Paredes’ chamber works to those of Ligeti, Xenakis, or Tristan Murail, it is her attention to the relationship between communication and miscommunication, conversation and noise, that sets her work apart. In thinking about Paredes’ chamber works, we can borrow a phrase from the philosopher Michel Serres, “the miracle of harmony.”

“The idea dates back to Haydn’s quartets, but she gives it an Arditti-ish twist, and the work has a superb dramatic sweep. The Ardittis are joined by the pianist Ian Pace for Cotidales and by Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart for the magic-spell evocation of Can Silim Tun. Ah Paaxo’ob (Those Who Play the Music) is a colourfully detailed ensemble piece.”

“Watching the world premiere of Hilda Paredes’ chamber opera Phantom Palace, I had the sort of out-of body experience where you say to yourself “This can’t be happening in New Haven”. I simply couldn’t come to terms with the realization that I was seeing topflight European modern opera, performed by a major international company premiering a ceaselessly provocative, unexpectedly comic and altogether amazing work…just a few blocks from my home. This is the kind of thing you feel you can only travel huge distances to see. But there it is: New Haven should be talking about Phantom Palace – in a number of languages – for years to come.”