I. Nocturnal Sounds (The Awakening) 0:17 II. Wanderer-Fantasy 6:00 III. The Advent – Hymn for the Nativity of the Star-Child 11:19 IV. Myth 19:58 V. Music of the Starry Night 26:43 Antek Olesik, Noel Q. Holloway, percussion Piotr Kozłowski, Shih-Man Weng, pianos https://www.pkozlowski.com Recorded on April 28th 2023 at the Frost School of Music, University of Miami George Crumb (1929-2022) was an American composer who studied with Boris Blacher and Ross Lee Finney. His influences include poetry by Federico García Lorca as well as music of Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler, and Charles Ives.1 Crumb’s oeuvre has been described as atmospheric, vividly expressive, and ritualistic— expressions that are normally descriptive of the graphic arts or theater. He explored the sonic possibilities of instruments of the percussion family with fervor, creating new, extended techniques and unique combinations of sounds.2 Makrokosmos III is a five-movement composition for two amplified pianos and percussion (including 2 players). Crumb states in his notes: "The combination of two pianos and percussion instruments was, of course, first formulated by Béla Bartók in his Sonata of 1937, and it is curious that other composers did not subsequently contribute to the genre. Bartók was one of the very first composers to write truly expressive passages for the percussion instruments; since those days there has been a veritable revolution in percussion technique and idiom and new music has inevitably assimilated these developments. The battery of percussion instruments required for Summer Evening is extensive and includes vibraphone, xylophone, glockenspiel, tubular bells, crotales (antique cymbals), bell tree, claves, maracas, sleighbells, wood blocks and temple blocks, triangles, and several varieties of drums, tam-tams, and cymbals."3 The piece was dedicated to Gilbert Kalish, James Freeman, Raymond DesRoches, and Richard Fitz.4 The performance takes approximately forty minutes, and it encompasses three extended movements: Nocturnal Sounds (Awakening), The Advent, and Music of the Starry Night, which interlace two intermezzi: Wanderer-Fantasy and Myth. Three larger movements are preceded by poetic quotations by Salvatore Quasimodo, Blaise Pascal, and Reiner Maria Rilke which “find their symbolic resonance in the sounds of Summer Evening.”5 These references together with “a sort of mosaic design,”6 produce a one-of- a-kind edifice that defies divisions between the genres of art. Work on Makrokosmos III has been especially meaningful as it combines the poetry of a word, sound, and time. ~Piotr Kozłowski 1 Richard Steinitz, “Crumb, George,” Grove Music Online, 2013; accessed November 21, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2249252. 2 Thomas Siwe, Artful Noise: Percussion Literature in Twentieth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2020), 127. 3 George Crumb, “Music for a Summer Evening,” in George Crumb & The Alchemy of sound: Essays on His Music, ed. Steven Bruns, Ofer Ben-Amots, Michael D. Grace (Colorado Springs, CO: The Colorado College Music Press, 2005), 311. 4 Ibid., 310. 5 Ibid.: “’Nocturnal Sounds’ is inscribed with an excerpt from Quasimodo: ‘Odo risonanze effimere, oblío di piena note nell’acqua stellat’ (‘I hear ephemeral echoes, oblivion of full night in the starred water’); ‘The Advent’ is associated with a passage from Pascal: ‘Le silence éternel des espaces infinis m’effraie’ (‘The eternal silence of infinite space terrifies me’), and the last movement, ‘Music of the Starry Night,’ cites these transcendentally beautiful images of Rilke: ‘Und in den Nächten fällt die schwere Erde aus allen Sternen in die Einsamkeit. Wir alle fallen. Und doch ist Einer, welcher dieses Fallen unendlich sanft in seinen Händen hält.‘ (‘And in the nights the heavy earth is falling from all the stars down into loneliness. We are all falling. And yet there is One who holds this falling endlessly gently in His hands.’).” 6 Ibid., 311.

Piotr Kozłowski, piano https://www.pkozlowski.com Recorded on April 3rd 2017 at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Poland

Koncert Stypendystów Société Générale BEETH250VEN – piano and chamber works JUDYTA KLUZA skrzypce / violin FILIP SPORNIAK wiolonczela / cello PIOTR KOZŁOWSKI fortepian / piano Ludwig van Beethoven (1772–1827) Sonata na skrzypce i fortepian G-dur nr 8, op. 30 nr 3 / Violin Sonata No.8, Op.30 No.3 I. Allegro assai II. Tempo di minuetto, ma molto moderato e grazioso III. Allegro vivace Sonata fortepianowa As-dur nr 31, op. 110 / Piano Sonata No.31, Op.110 I. Moderato cantabile molto espressivo II. Allegro molto III. Adagio ma non troppo – Arioso dolente – Fuga. Allegro ma non troppo Sonata na wiolonczelę i fortepian C-dur nr 4, op. 102 nr 1 / Cello Sonata No.4, Op.102 No.1 I. Andante – Allegro vivace II. Adagio – Tempo d'andante – Allegro vivace Koordynatorem programu stypendialnego Société Générale jest mgr Mateusz Stankiewicz. Koncert zarejestrowano 17.05.2021 w Sali Koncertowej UMFC w Warszawie. Realizacja nagrania audio: Pedro Lopes, Nelson Santos Braz, Wojciech Rymuza Opieka dydaktyczna nad nagraniem audio: dr hab. Ewa Lasocka, prof. UMFC Realizacja dźwięku: Maciej Zadroga Realizacja nagrania video: Waldemar Bala Obsługa sceny: Piotr Kosiński, Jakub Osmański, Kacper Chabrowski #UMFChopin #koncertyUMFC #ludzieFryderyka #ChopinGóreckiFestival

Jodi Levitz, mentor The elite Stamps String Quartet is comprised of four outstanding young string musicians. Join us for their final concert presenting works by Schumann and Shostakovich with exceptional pianist Piotr Kozłowski, funded by the Stamps Scholars Program.

Provided to YouTube by NAXOS of America Trio for Piano, Violin & Cello: I. Adagio non troppo - Allegro vivace · Piotr Kozlowski · Emilia Jarocka · Krystyna Wiśniewska Interwar Retrospections ℗ 2021 Sarton Records Released on: 2021-10-01 Artist: Piotr Kozlowski Artist: Emilia Jarocka Artist: Krystyna Wiśniewska Composer: Leonard Bernstein Auto-generated by YouTube.