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Zygmunt Krauze - Piano recitals
Zygmunt Krauze holds in his piano repertoire classical, romantic and contemporary works, however he specializes in the music of the 20th century. As he uses unusual dynamics, tempos and articulation his interpretations have a personal character and strong emotional expression. During his recitals he frequently improvises on classical and romantic works.
"Polish Music"
| W. Lutoslawski | Melodies Populaires (3 pieces) with improvisations |
| K. Szymanowski | Praeludium and Fuge (1905) with improvisations |
| I. Paderewski | Nocturne (1888) with improvisations |
| F. Chopin | Mazurka no. 4 in A minor op. 67 with improvisations |
| Intermission | |
| Z. Krauze | Refrain (1993) Nightmare Tango (1991) Stone Music (1972) Chanson du mal-aime (1989) Gloves Music (1972) |
"Chopin with improvisations"
I spent more time with Chopin than with any other composer. Learning Chopin's music, playing it, and at last giving concerts. In the course of time I began to deform this music, to change it, to interpret it in various ways. I started to improvise in a spontaneous, natural way, as was done in the age of pianist-composers.
My improvisation of Chopins' work is a modest attempt to personally look into his music, an attempt to transform his compositions in accordance with my sensibility and preferences. I believe that it is an extension of his thoughts, ideas and research.
| F. Chopin | Mazurka in A minor, op. 67 nr 4 with improvisations |
| Z. Krauze | Six Folk Melodies (1958) |
| F. Chopin | Nocturne in E flat major, op. 55 nr 2 with improvisations |
| Z. Krauze | Refrain (1993) |
| F. Chopin | Polonais in E flat minor, op. 26 nr 2 with improvisations |
| Z. Krauze | Stone Music (1972) |
| F. Chopin | Ballade in F major, op. 38 with improvisations |
| Z. Krauze | Gloves Music (1972) |
"Repetitive & Gloves Music"
Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt is an outstanding representative of repetitive music. Soloduiveldans is a master piece beloved especially by young audience. Boguslaw Schaeffer was one of the best innovators of avant-garde music in Poland. Non Stop, with duration time between 6 minutes and 8 hours, has a graphic score which realisation depends on the performer and consists of thearical and visual elements, but also makes use of prepared piano tunes.
| Simeon ten Holt | Soloduiveldans II (1986) |
| B. Schaeffer | Non-Stop (1960) |
| Intermission | |
| Z. Krauze | Refrain (1993) Nightmare Tango (1991) Stone Music (1972) Chanson du mal-aime (1989) Gloves Music (1972) |
"The Last Recital"
Theatrical piano recital with amplification. Theatrical elements are realized by gestures, movements
around the piano, short texts and generally by special way the music is performed.
During the interludes the pianist will play fragments of pieces by Bach, Haydn, Brahms, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Szymanowski, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky and others. The whole program is
performed with no interruption, lasting about one hour.
| Prelude | |
| K. Stockhausen O. Messiaen |
Klavierstück IX (beginnings) Canteyodjaya (3 fragments) |
| Interlude | |
| H. Cowell A. Webern |
Aeolian Harp Variations op. 27 (2 fragments) |
| Interlude | |
| L. Andriessen L. Harrison |
Registers Blue Jay Way (The Beatles) |
| Interlude | |
| J. Cage G. Ligeti |
Water Music 3 Bagatelles (no. 2) |
| Interlude | |
| Z. Krauze | Stone Music |
| Interlude | |
| Z. Krauze | Gloves Music |
"Piano and Film"
Piano recital with projection of the films and amplification.The films are produced by Polish Television and transfered into DVD.
| J.S. Bach | Praeludium in G sharp minor - (live) with improvisations |
| J.S. Bach | Praeludium in G sharp minor - film projection |
| Z. Krauze | Refrain (1993) Nightmare Tango (1987) |
| K. H. Stockhausen | Plus Minus |
| Z. Krauze | Stone Music (1972) - film projection Stone Music (1972) - live Gloves Music (1972) - film projection Gloves Music (1972) - live |
Selected reviews
"...Zygmunt Krauze is an interesting figure on the contemporary Polish and world musical scene: a composer and pianist, invariably a symbol of innovation and experiment, of bold proposals and surprising solutions conceived within an original artistic framework."
Elzbieta Widlak,
Polish Music Publishers PWM, Krakow
...the version of Stockhausen's Plus-Minus, realized by Zygmunt Krauze, dialoguing at the piano with a tape-recording that had been prepared earlier on other instruments, was recognized as an event, especially as this piece, rarely performed, in which a margin of invention is left to the performer, could not be placed in any hands. These, luckily, belonged to a composer who is distinguished by conscientiousness which adds to the formal clarity of his works and was of incomparable service to the undoubtedly exceptional interpretation. Zygmunt Krauze has acquired the ability of using an aleatory score in the best sense of the word...
Gérard Condé
Le Monde, 4 IV 1984
Krauze played eight of his piano pieces. His marvelous playing won our hearts and ears. A rich store of hue, shades and colours, like in a spectacular symphony. His special use of the pedals adds the dimension of bells and harmonics. His playing wakens the curiosity to listen to him in Bach and Chopin - in which he is regarded as a unique interpreter.
Ora Binur-Schmid
Ha-ariv, 28 X 1991, Jerusalem
...there is a moment in Krauze's biography at which we must stop, because it cannot be separated from his creative attitude. A case in point are his piano recitals that he has been giving since the mid-seventies, entitling them The Last Recital. In their programmes he placed, besides contemporary works, shorter or longer quotations from well-known classical and Romantic works, deforming their notation in an amusing way. It was surely a peculiar manifestation of a post-modern attitude and, at the same time, a textbook symptom of it: the composer played with the popular music of the past and at the same time revalued it ironically...
Elzbieta Szczepanska
Studio, 1998
Mr. Krauze wears enough hats to drive a Lewis Carroll hatter mad. Avant-grade pianist, of the distant far-out,
composer, focus of an upcoming Polish television film series, and head of a modern chamber group, he has the mercury
fingers, astute ear, and droll lack of inhibition that invite other composers to write for him, too.
His piano is a precious thing, different from the 88 keys our teachers showed us - virgin territory for
creating infinite sounds and fertile ground for adding them together. A performance becomes a theater,
sometimes absurdist. And the performer, an explorer who plays a creative role in making music decisions.
Linda Winer
Chicago Tribune, 27 IV 1972
The poet-musician, inspired by ascetic painting, evolves his unistic compositions from one turn, gesture, formula, motif; from a subtly nuanced material. I am attracted by the quaint gentleness of this music, which, after all, does not exclude the more forceful accents of energy and power as well as moments of tragic aspect. The fascinating thinness of the sound material continually spun out, in which neither the beginning nor the end are overemphasized. This does not mean that it is amorphous music, a shapeless stream of sounds. But it does not impose structure, construction, form. The notion of a similarly impressive or impressionistic music was once a guiding principle for Debussy at the start of the century.
Bohdan Pociej
Ruch Muzyczny
Zygmunt Krauze is a musician who possesses this inconceivable sense of theatricality. It is with him that I succeed in reconciling music, which must always play an important part, with my own principles concerning drama and dramaturgy. I met him while staging his opera The Star (twice: at the International Festival in Lille and then in Théatre National de la Colline). Since then, the idea of dramatic music, which has become our common language, has become clear for both of us in an obvious way: there should be nothing that is not connected with the demands of theatricality, whether decorative, or purely utilitarian. During my cooperation with Zygmunt Krauze I have always had the deep and attractive satisfaction of being able to combine and confront my own sensitivity with that of a deep and ingenious artist, who can play with a wide musical vocabulary with the utmost freedom, in any mode expression, with the most dynamic, agility - irrespective of the attitude he adopts towards it.
Jorge Lavelli, producer, director of Théatre National de la Colline