Cori O'Lan

Performed live by Maki Namekawa and Dennis Russell Davies, 14. 2. 2021

After our first collaboration on The Sacre du Printemps in 2013 we realized a completely new version that was supposed to premiere at the Musikhaus Innsbruck in Jan. 2021. But due to the Cororona restictions the performance in Innsbruck had to be postboned and so the first presentation took place as the opening concert of the second season of Ars Electronica’s Home Delivery Concerts.

Video of live performance by Yazdan Zand and the team of Ars Electronica Home Delivery.

Performed live by Maki Namekawa

The first time I heard Maki Namekawa playing the Passacalglia I wanted to visualize it and for the Ars Electronica Festival 2020 we got the opportinity to present it in the “Deep Space” with its amazing 8k resolution.
A second presentation took place for the second season of Ars Electronica’s Home Delivery Concerts on Feb. 21st, 2021.
Video of live performance by Yazdan Zand and the team of Ars Electronica Home Delivery.

here is a video from the performance in the Deep Space in Sept. 2020:

Performed live by Maki Namekawa

Originally the realtime-visualizations for this beautiful three pieces had been concived for the AIxMusic festival of Ars Electronica in 2019 at the St. Florian monestary. But at the end the program was too packed to fit in also the projection equipment and so the first public presentation took place during the Ars Electronica Home Delivery Concerts 2020 and as part of Maki Namekawas concert in the Deep Space during Ars Electronica Festival 2020.

Midwayer:

Ab Ovo:

Hanging D:

Video from the Performance at Deep Space, Sept. 2020: (Joep Bevings pieces start at 16:10)

Commissioned by WDR for their program „Augen auf! Beethoven“ in the frame of Beethoven Jahr 2020: (Editor: Tuula Simon)

I had the great pleasure to be invited as one of 6 visual artists to participate in this program.

WDR Sinfonieorchester, conducted by Günter Wand

On the real-time visualization of Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture

The aim is to express the ambivalence, disruption and inner restlessness of Collins Coriolanus, which Beethoven very significantly expressed in his overture.
But it is also about Shakespeare’s strong motif of Coriolanus’ fateful entanglement and his struggle for independence and identity.
Hence the doubling or mirroring of the graphics, whose elements then move in very different and contradictory ways. These differences come purely from the sonic difference between the left and right channels of the stereo recording.
In general, all movements are directly and exclusively triggered and determined by the sound of the music.

The graphics refer to three characters of the story:

Coriolanus (the black multi-segment vector),

the Volsker (the blue and orange polygons)

and the women and the family (the fine curved lines).

They act together in a kind of ballet in which the music itself takes over the choreography.

 

On May 1st, 2020 Ars Electronica, in response to the Corona lock-downs, started its Home-Delivery Program with the first of a long series of concerts performed by the piano-duo Maki Namekawa and Dennis Russell Davies and accompanied by realtime visualisations from Cori O‘Lan.

The concerts took place in the „piano-room“ of the AIxMusic exhibition of the Ars Electroncia Center which is equipped with an exquisite  Bösendorfer grand piano and a two screen panorama projection. All the concerts were streamed live on youtube and facebook. Between the pieces Maki and Dennis had live conversations with friends and colleagues (like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Charles Amirkhanian, Laurie Anderson … ) and also the audience could ask questions and send comments.

Home Delivery Concert #1 – May 1st, 2020 

Maurice Ravel

• “Ma Mere L’Oye” (piano four-hands)

Ludwig van Beethoven

• from Fidelio: „O namenlose Freude“ (arranged for piano four-hands by Alexander von Zemlinsky)

Home Delivery Concert #2 – May 8th, 2020

Philip Glass

• Etude for Piano #4, #9, performed by Dennis Russell Davies
• Etude for Piano #11, #12, performed by Maki Namekawa
• Elergy for the Present, performed by Dennis Russell Davies
• Stokes, (arranged for piano four-hands by Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa)

Home Delivery Concert #3 – May 15th, 2020

Igor Stravinsky

• „L’Oiseau de Feu (The Firebird) – Suite“ (arranged for piano four hands by Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa)

Dmitri Shostakovich

• “Walz” (piano four-hands)
• “Polka” (piano four-hands)

Home Delivery Concert #4 – May 22nd, 2020

Steve Reich

• Piano Phase

J.S. Bach

• Chorale Prelude – Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, BWV 106
• Chorale Prelude – Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 525

arranged for piano four-hands by György Kurtag

Home Delivery Concert #5 – May 29th, 2020

Ludwig van Beethoven

• 3 Marches for piano four-hands op. 45

Arvo Pärt

• Hymn to a Great City, for two pianos
• Pari Intervalo, for piano four-hands

J.S. Bach

• Chorale Prelude – O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig, BWV 656
  arranged for piano four-hands by György Kurtag

Home Delivery Concert #6 – June 5th, 2020

Philip Glass

• Etude for Piano #5, #10 performed by Dennis Russell Davies
• Etude for Piano #16, #20 performed by Maki Namekawa
• Orphée (Interlude), for piano four-hands
• Voyage (Interlude), four piano four-hands

Home Delivery Concert #7 – June 12th, 2020

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
aus „Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)“, arranged for piano four-hands by Alexander von Zemlinsky

• Act II Finale, „Bald prangt den Morgen zu verkünden“
• Act II Aria, „Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen“
• Act II Aria, „In diesen heil’gen Hallen kennt man die Rache nicht“
• Act II Adagio „Marsch“

Home Delivery Concert #8 – June 19th, 2020

John Cage

• The Seasons
  Prelude I, Winter
  Prelude II, Spring
  performed by Dennis Russell Davies
• Suite for Toy Piano
  performed by Maki Namekawa

• Experiences I (for two pianos)

Laurie Anderson

• Song for Bob
  performed by Dennis Russell Davies

Elliot Goldenthal

• Gigue Diabolique
  performed by Maki Namekawa

Home Delivery Concert #9 – June 26th, 2020

Kurt Schwertsik

• „6 Macbeth Pieces for Piano four-hands“ (20.10 min)
  Realtime Visualisation: Gregor Woschitz

Joep Beving

• Midwayer
• Hanging D

Ludwig van Beethoven

• from Fidelio: „Euch werde Lohn in besseren Tagen“arranged for piano four-hands by Alexander von Zemlinsky

Home Delivery Concert #10 – July 14th, 2020

Igor Stravinsky

• „L’Oiseau de Feu (The Firebird)“
  Arrangement for piano four hands: Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa, (50.00 min)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
aus „Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)“, arranged for piano four-hands by Alexander von Zemlinsky

• Act I, „Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja“

Performed live by Maki Namekawa

Realized for the Ars Electronica’s Home Delivery Concerts 2020.
Video of live performance by Yazdan Zand and the team of Ars Electronica Home Delivery.

A completely new version was created for the performance in the Deep Space for the Ars Electroncia Festial 2020.

Created for the encore of the visualization-concert with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra on Aug. 19th, 2020.

for the Pianographique Concert at the Ars Electronica Festival 2020 we performed also a piano version of it:

This beautiful piece from Philip Glass had its world premiere at the Ars Electronica Home Delivery Concert in the midst of the rigid covid-lock-downs all over the world, which hit New York very hard.

The idea for the visualization was very simple, record images from the many public web cams in NYC and mix it live to the performance of Dennis Russel Davies. The effect became very dramatic when it started to rain just before the recording of the videos the day before the concert.
(Video footage came from the webams of EarthCam – earthcam.com)

Piano: Dennis Russell Davies

Recorded live at the Ars Electronica Home Delivery Concert on 19.6.2020

Toy-Piano: Maki Namekawa

Video: Yazdan Zand and the team of Ars Electronica Home Delivery

Visualization only (recorded with music from the rehearsals)