Monday 21st May, 10:30pm, Festivalcafé

Portræt af stilheden

Trio ZOOM takes the stage

Six bull's-eyes from China, England, France and Denmark. Trio Zoom delivers a distillate of today's music.

Trio Zoom's programme for this concert covers a lot of ground – musically as well as geographically – presenting us with a wide array of musical modes and moods.

The unusual combination of instruments – saxophone, piano and percussion – is a sure sign that the trio has no intention of playing it safe by sticking to the traditional repertoire – for such a repertoire does not exist. What does exist is a number of new works which the trio plays with an equal measure of impeccable technique and infectious enthusiasm – and often with more than a hint of humour.

Karsten Fundal's A Portrait of Silence is written especially for Trio Zoom and explores a paradox: The portrait of silence is drawn by means of the contrasting sounds of the instruments – thus deepening our awareness of the beginning and end of silence.

The English composer Graham Fitkin's Hard Fairy has become a popular showpiece among saxophonists. The energetically rhythmic piece is ”non-programmatic” according to the composer, so the attempt to make sense of the absurd title is bound to fail – although the cover of the CD recording of the work does depict an old-fashioned fairy, complete with wings, magic wand – and a pair of cool sunglasses!

Niels Rønsholdt's Hammerfall is a piece of performance or music theatre where traditional music making gives way to whispering and breathing, the sound of the pianist's nails across the keys, the breaking of glass and the whiplashes of the percussionist, directed against objects wrapped in black plastic.

In Guo Wenjing's Drama, all three members of the trio become percussionists for a while, for the piece is a display of the manifold means of expression of Chinese cymbals.

There are three versions of Christian Winther Christensen's Being Apu Sarkar – a mini opera, a version for the performance collective Dygong, of which the composer is a member – and then the Zoom version for prepared piano, percussion (glass) and saxophone. In the opera, Apu Sarkar is being eaten by the protagonist because he wants to be like him – but not to worry: the cannibalism is a symbol of something completely different: meeting people with an open mind.

Christian Lauba is a French composer of Tunesian origin. He uses the alias Jean Matitia when he writes jazz and ragtime, and his Devil’s Rag is a genuine rag, fast and funny, for saxophone and piano.

Trio Zoom
Stefan Baur – saxophone
Tanja Zapolsky – piano
Ying-Hsueh Chen – percussion

Program

KARSTEN FUNDAL (b. 1966): A Portrait of Silence (2011)
GRAHAM FITKIN (b. 1963): Hard Fairy (1994)
NIELS RØNSHOLDT (b. 1978): Hammerfall (2006)
GUO WENJING (b. 1956): Drama, 6. Sats (1996)
CHRISTIAN WINTHER CHRISTENSEN (b. 1977): Being Apu Sarkar (2009)
JEAN MATITIA (b. 1952): Devil’s Rag