Konus Quartett
La Bocca, I Piedi, Il Suono (2006)
item number CR363
CD Edition
released December 23, 2006
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Is it the whispering of the wind? The pitter-patter of the rain? A distant waterfall? Or just the breathing, interspersed with sighs, of someone close by? One might be forgiven, and mistaken, for thinking that the sound of a hundred saxophones would be deafening. Clearly Salvatore Sciarrino, born in Sicily in 1947, focuses on the literal meaning of “winds” as wind instruments. In the composition La Bocca, I Piedi, Il Suono ([The Mouth, the Feet, the Sound]) he surrounds the audience with one hundred saxophones and four soloists in the subtlest of ways.
Audio
Part I
Part II
Part II
Bio
As a chamber music ensemble whose instrumentation changes frequently, the Konus Quartet engages its audience with highly expressive and idiosyncratic sounds. Contemporary original compositions are interpreted predominantly by the quartet, but these are also contrasted with pieces from past centuries and arrangements for saxophone instrumentation. The radical nature of its concert programmes has seen the quartet become established over the past 10+ years as an important voice for new contemporary and experimental music.
Composition commissions are awarded regularly to well-known artists by the quartet; to date such artists have included Barry Guy, Urs Peter Schneider, Tomas Korber, Phill Niblock, Makiko Nishikaze and Jürg Frey.
Three musical highlights serve to showcase the remarkable range of the Konus Quartet: In 2006, "La bocca, i piedi, il suono", a composition by Salvatore Sciarrino for four soloists and a hundred saxophonists, was performed in the French Church in Bern (Release 2006, Cubus Records).
A collaboration with the filmmaker and composer Phill Niblock gave rise to the composition entitled "To Two Tea Roses" which was premiered in 2013 in Switzerland in the presence of the composer.
The piece "Music für ein Feld" (Music for a Field) was the result of a composition commission awarded to the Zurich-based musician Tomas Korber (Release 2014, Cubus Records).