Première of a New German text
for Stravinsky's "The Soldier's Tale"
for Stravinsky's "The Soldier's Tale"
It's such an honour to be invited to create live kinetic paintings with such eminent artists as bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff (Narrator), the amazing actress Katja Riemann (the Devil) and of course the indefatigable creative spirit Daniel Hope (violin and the Soldier) and ensemble, all directed by Leonhard Koppelmann with the text-writer Peter Jordan. We are just one part of June 23rd Gala programme in Essen Philharmonie entitled: Ein Sommernachtstraum: Heimat (A Midsummer Night's Dream: Homeland). Check that link.
I've performed this piece several times before - here's another Link to my blog from a Stockholm performance in 2014. The original story conceived by C.F. Ramuz in 1918 is well-known, but this totally new German version of The Soldier's Tale by Peter Jordan has inspired quite a number of new kinetic images. The stills without the story-telling and music are nothing more than teasers.
Marching on the zigzagging roads home
Stravinsky's score is alternately humorous, wistful, crazy and full of irony. It seems to me to reflect the visual art style Cubism, where the subject is fragmented then re-structured as geometric forms, seen from multiple viewpoints. Stravinsky must surely have seen Picasso's early Cubist works in Paris, ten years before he composed The Soldier's Tale in Switzerland in 1918. By then the first signs of Art Deco were also taking shape and this awareness had an influence on my designs and cut-outs, through which my mysterious and ever-surprising fluid paint flows.
I've performed this piece several times before - here's another Link to my blog from a Stockholm performance in 2014. The original story conceived by C.F. Ramuz in 1918 is well-known, but this totally new German version of The Soldier's Tale by Peter Jordan has inspired quite a number of new kinetic images. The stills without the story-telling and music are nothing more than teasers.
Stravinsky's score is alternately humorous, wistful, crazy and full of irony. It seems to me to reflect the visual art style Cubism, where the subject is fragmented then re-structured as geometric forms, seen from multiple viewpoints. Stravinsky must surely have seen Picasso's early Cubist works in Paris, ten years before he composed The Soldier's Tale in Switzerland in 1918. By then the first signs of Art Deco were also taking shape and this awareness had an influence on my designs and cut-outs, through which my mysterious and ever-surprising fluid paint flows.
On home-leave just before the end of World-War 1914-18, the Soldier trudges along a long and dusty road, takes a break (the Petits Airs) and encounters the Devil who persuades him to exchange his violin (his soul) for an illegible book that nevertheless makes him unbelievably rich. We feel the Soldier's hope, disillusionment and despair.
Petits Airs
On hearing that the king's daughter is terribly sick - possibly from listening to the Devil's violin playing - the Soldier heads to the royal palace, retrieves his violin and using his musicianship as therapy, get's the Princess to open her eyes and dance with him to Tango, Waltz and Ragtime. It's a long story and of course the Devil wins in the end.
The deadly ill Princess
Towards the end of the "Petit Concert" the Princess starts to open her eyes
The Soldier's Tale is the Essen Philharmonie finale of a festive Midsummer Night's Dream. Especially magical for me, because all being well, the morning after, on Midsummer's Day (June 24th) I celebrate my 85th birthday. What a wonderful birthday present. Thank you Daniel!
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