New Music Concerts and The Music Gallery present CAPUT

New Music Concerts and The Music Gallery present CAPUT

The first concert of New Music Concerts' 2000-2001 season presents Iceland's CAPUT ensemble in their first North American tour. They will offer a panorama of Icelandic music with works dating from 1919 to the present.

CAPUT was founded in 1987 and has since grown to be Iceland's most prominent contemporary chamber ensemble. Their name refers to the Latin word for "head" as well as the expression "kaput." From their beginnings as a quartet, when the group feared they might indeed lose their heads for having the audacity to enter into the risky business of presenting such challenging repertoire, they have grown to a chamber orchestra of 20 players. They have toured extensively in Europe and have recorded several CDs which have brought them international praise for the brilliance and integrity of their performances.

Seven of the key members of the group (Sif Tulinius, violin; Eydís Franzdóttir, oboe; Daníel Thorsteinsson, piano; Gudni Franzson, clarinet; Kolbeinn Bjarnason, flute; Sigurdur Halldórsson, cello; Valur Pálsson, double-bass) will perform at the Church of Saint George the Martyr on Friday October 27th. This will be the second stop of their first North American tour, sponsored by the Leifur Eiriksson Millennium Commission of Iceland. Their appearance as the opening event of New Music Concerts' 30th anniversary season is presented in co-operation with The Music Gallery. The Church of Saint George the Martyr is located at 197 John Street at the corner of Stephanie and McCaul and is the principal concert venue for the Music Gallery this season.

For a nation with a population of a mere 280,000 souls, the Republic of Iceland has a remarkably high percentage of accomplished contemporary composers. Pre-eminent among them was Jón Leifs (1899-1968), who set Icelandic music in motion at the end of the Second World War. Leifs founded the Icelandic Composers' Association in 1945 and the national performing rights organization, the Icelandic Music Bureau STEF, in 1948. He also set an example of an indigenous Icelandic musical style by researching and incorporating into his music the irregular metres of medieval Icelandic sagas and the tonal nuances of his country's folk songs.

The story of Jón Leifs' tumultuous career in Nazi Germany is the subject of Hilmar Oddsson's Tears of Stone, a feature length film which will be shown before the concert in a special screening at 5:00 pm. The concert begins at 8:00 pm with Leifs' early piano piece Torrek (1919) and closes with a new arrangement by Atli Heimir Sveinsson (b. 1938) of Leifs' Rímnadansar (1931) Icelandic dances.

Thorsteinn Hauksson's new Sextet, commissioned especially for this tour, is dedicated to Native Americans. Hauksson (b. 1949) studied at the University of Illinois and at Stanford University following his training as a pianist and composer at the Reykjavik College of Music, where he has taught composition and computer music since 1985. Áskell Másson (b. 1953) began his musical studies on clarinet in Reykjavik and studied percussion under the eminent English pedagogue, James Blades. The concerto he composed for Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie has received numerous international performances. His new work, Hymni 2000, is scored for the full septet.

Two solo string works form a part of the program. Sveinn Lúdvík Björnsson's (b. 1962) Ego is Emptiness (1997) is a short work for violoncello with voice. Jónas Tómasson's (b. 1946) Vetrartré (Winter Trees, 1983) is a suite in four movements depicting the solitary, wind bent trees around the composer's home in the remote village of Ísafjördur. Jón Nordal's duo for clarinet and piano, Ristur, was composed in 1985. Nordal (b. 1926) studied in Reykjavik, Zurich, Copenhagen, Paris, Rome and Darmstadt and has made an important contribution to Icelandic musical life as a composer, pianist, teacher and as director of the Reykjavik College of Music from 1957 to 1992.

The Trio Animato for clarinet, cello and contrabass by Haukur Tómasson (b. 1960) was composed for CAPUT in 1993. Tómasson is a graduate of the Reykjavik College of Music and has studied with Ton de Leeuw in Holland and Brian Ferneyhough and Roger Reynolds in San Diego. Atli Ingólfsson's (1962) quintet for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano The Elves' Accent (1998) originated as an arrangement of a solo viola piece entitled The Elves' other Self, composed in 1994. Leifur Thórarinsson's (1934-1998) intent in his Trio for flute, cello and piano was to amalgamate the rigours of total serialism with the rhythmic verve of Charlie Parker. In 1999 CAPUT recorded a memorial album of Thórarinsson's music on the GM label produced by the composer's close friend and mentor, Gunther Schuller, to whom this score was dedicated in 1975.

The concert of the CAPUT ensemble takes place at The Church of St. George the Martyr at 197 John Street on Friday October 27, 2000. The 8:00 pm concert is preceded by a special screening at 5:00 pm of Hilmar Oddsson's feature length film on the life of Jón Leifs, Tears of Stone. At 7:15 NMC artistic director Robert Aitken will host an Illuminating Introduction with members of the ensemble.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for students and seniors.

A timely reminder: It's still not too late to subscribe to our season! Subscriptions to all eight events of the 2000-2001 season are still available for $90 and $45 and may be purchased at the concert or by calling our office. For further information please call New Music Concerts at (416) 961-9594 or visit our web site at http://www.interlog.com/~nmc.