Programs

Solo Concert Offerings for 2008-2009:

  1. MISSING PEACE
  2. FREDERIC RZEWSKI:  "A LIFE ~ Celebrating A Human Realist" - 70th Birthday Tribute
  3. FIREWORKS
  4. UNITIES:  Music of Pride and Celebration

MISSING PEACE

Anthony de Mare, piano

 

Originally presented in June 2007 on the series Concerts of Impermanence at the The Rubin Museum of Art in New York, Anthony de Mare has created an eclectic program of works chosen in response to the current exhibition, The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, traveling to museums around the globe over the next several years. Having generated enthusiastic responses at its premiere, Missing Peace offers a compelling series of musical tableaux including works that best reflect the Dalai Lama’s aesthetics of compassion, impermanence, peace and unity of all things. The program features the performer’s signature style of multi-disciplinary performance and includes a selection of corresponding visual works from the exhibition, carefully chosen by Mr. de Mare, for projection during the concert.

The program includes James Mobberley’s “Missing Peace” (written for this project), in addition to several movements from Mobberley’s Phenomena (a Fromm Foundation commission); piano-vocal adaptations of Laurie Anderson’s “Statue of Liberty” (from Life of a String, 2001) and Meredith Monk’s “urban march – shadow” (from her acclaimed collaboration with Ann Hamilton, mercy, 2001), in addition to Anthony Davis’ Middle Passage, Giacinto Scelsi's Suite No. 9 “Ttai” (1953) and works by J.S. Bach and Debussy. 

Missing Peace
Artists Consider the Dalai Lama

Program:

Tableau I
- Prelude in C Major (BWV 846) J.S. Bach
- China Gates (1977) John Adams
- In B (2007) James Mobberly

Tableau II
- La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (1913) Claude Debussy
- Suite No. 9 “Ttai” (Peace): Mvt. IV (1953) Giacinto Scelsi
- Sonata No. 4 (1903) Alexander Scriabin

Tableau III
- urban march (shadow) (“mercy”) (2001) Meredith Monk
          (transcription by Anthony de Mare)
- Statue of Liberty (“Life on a String”) (2001) Laurie Anderson
                        (transcription by David McIntire and Anthony de Mare)  

Tableau IV
- Fugue, Interlude and Finale (2003) Bruce Stark       

Tableau V
- Makrokosmos, Vol. I (1972) George Crumb
          - Proteus
          - Pastorale (from the Kingdom of Atlantis, ca. 10,000 B.C.)
          - The Magic Circle of Infinity

Tableau VI
- Missing Peace (2007) James Mobberly
- Piano Piece No. 4 (1977) Frederic Rzewski


Projections of representative works from the exhibition include:

Kisho Mukaiyama:  Sanmon WCC – yupotanju + nupotanje, 2005
Katarina Wong:  Terminus, 2005-2006
Bill Viola:  Bodies of Light, 2006
Era and Donald Farnsworth:  Dharmakaya, 2004
Richard Avedon:  His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Monks, 1989
Dario Campanile:  La Pace E Con Noi (Peace is With Us), 2005
Yoshiro Negishi:  Untitled, 2006
Salustiano:  Reincarnation, 2005
Adriana Varejao:  Andar com fe, 2000
Michal Rovner:  Spiral-Link, 2004
Laurie Anderson:  From the Air, 2006
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith:  Who Leads Who Follows, 2004
Jenny Holzer:  “IT IS IN YOUR SELF-INTEREST TO FIND A WAY TO BE VERY TENDER,” 1983-85
Filippo di Sambuy:  Possible Painting Impossible Sculpture No Ending Energy, 2004
Seyed Alavi:  Sign of the Times, 2006
Losang Gyatsu:  Tenzin Gyatso, Ocean of Wisdom, 2005
Sylvie Fleury:  The Dalai Lama’s Shoes, 2005

FREDERIC RZEWSKI:"A LIFE ~ Celebrating A Human Realist" - 70th Birthday Tribute

Anthony de Mare, piano

In celebration of Frederic Rzewski's 70th Birthday during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons, Anthony de Mare performs a variety of programs reflecting one of the most significant, groundbreaking contributions to the piano repertoire in the second half of the 20th Century and into the 21st.  This bountiful body of work, now globally renowned and embraced by pianists everywhere for its political, emotional and vital human spirit encompasses a total synthesis of the keyboard's potential and the performer's mettle.

Various programs may be assembled from the lists below which would include thematic groupings of Rzewski's works.  These would be tailored specifically to each venue, festival, or event reflecting the scope and trajectory of Frederic Rzewski's life at the piano. Additional short works by composers who have influenced his creative output collaboratively may also be included -- John Cage, Alvin Curran, Cornelius Cardew, Christian Wolff, among many others.

Solo Keyboard Works:

Works for Speaking/Singing Pianist:

*written for Anthony de Mare

QUOTES from FREDERIC RZEWSKI - from the post-concert panel discussion after Anthony de Mare's June 22, 2006 performance of UNITIES: Music of Pride and Celebration at Lincoln Center:

"When you're confronted by a mad genius like Tony de Mare, all the traditional criteria fall apart and one is confronted with this "thing" ... what is it? ... this was an amazing program ... absolutely amazing! This whole program was extraordinary!"

"Music is fundamentally a form of auto-erotic activity ... why? ... because it feels good ... there is something very important about doing things that feel good and music makes you feel good ... it is a form of activity that for thousands of years has been something that people do because it feels good."

FIREWORKS

Anthony de Mare, piano

In this splendid array of works that have long held great personal meaning for him, Anthony de Mare brings together three very diverse early 20th Century masterworks -- Claude Debussy's luminescent second book of Preludes, Arnold Schoenberg's soulful and emotionally driven Opus 11 Klavierstucke and Henry Cowell's haunting, string piano classic The Banshee -- with two of today's most intriguing creators.  The first half of this international program is framed by two milestone works written in the same year by two of America's most influential mavericks -- Philip Glass's spirited Mad Rush and Frederic Rzewski's industrial blues powerhouse Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues.

Presented together, these works juxtapose contradictory emotions and style with dynamic displays of sound color.  Listeners will appreciate why Philip Glass once compared his music to "the motor on a space machine," as they hear elements of jazz, expressionism, minimalism, Eastern influences, and lush pianistic imagery spin this surprising program into scintillating motion.

Program:

Mad Rush (1979)                                               Philip Glass
Drei Klavierstucke, Op. 11 (1909)                Arnold Schoenberg
The Banshee (1925)                                         Henry Cowell
Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues (1979)             Frederic Rzewski

--Intermission--

Preludes, Book II (1913)                                   Claude Debussy
Brouillards
Feuilles mortes
La Puerta del Vino
Les Fees sont d'exquises danseuses
Bruyeres
General Lavine - eccentric
La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune
Ondine
Hommage a S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C.
Canope
Les tierces alternees
Feux d'Artifice

UNITIES:  Music of Pride and Celebration

Anthony de Mare, piano

Originally presented by The New York Public Library of the Performing Arts in June, 2006, UNITIES: Music of Pride and Celebration explores diverse social, political and intimate perspectives that have inspired gay musicians and writers across the generations. Enthusiastically received by The New York Times, the program includes works by gay American composers Lou Harrison, Leonard Bernstein and Fred Hersch in addition to a brand new work by the young Philadelphia composer Joseph Hallman entitled Aphorisms (written especially for this program) featuring texts by Garcia Lorca, and a short polyrhythmic tribute entitled   "I wish Ligeti was my boyfriend ...".  Included also is a work  by Canadian composer Rodney Sharman entitled The Garden, a gay parable of love and sex with original text by playwright Peter Eliot Weiss. Works by two important American heterosexual composers who continue to support civil rights for everyone are featured as well -- Jerome Kitzke's moving Sunflower Sutra (based on Allen Ginsberg's poem), and excerpts from Frederic Rzewski's timeless political masterpiece The People United Will Never Be Defeated.

"The pianist Anthony de Mare specializes in new music, often with a theatrical twist, and he likes building his concerts around themes that make them into something more akin to a show than to a recital...Mr. de Mare gave a spicy performance of "Cool" from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story (1957), as well as eloquent readings of Lou Harrison's gently exotic "Largo Ostinato" (1937) and Fred Hersch's "Little Midnight Nocturne" (2002)." - Allan Kozinn, The New York Times

"...a performance which conceals its skill, its virtuosity and its brilliance in service of a very genuine dedication to an expressive  task...the overall impact was original, genuine and refreshing." - The Sydney Morning Herald

Program:

The People United Will Never Be Defeated (1975) (excerpts)  
Frederic Rzewski
Largo Ostinato (1937)                                        Lou Harrison
Aphorisms (2006) *                                            Joseph Hallman
                                                                                       (text:  F. Garcia Lorca)
i.          fabulita
ii.                   speaking in tongues
iii.                  "I wish Ligeti was my boyfriend..."
iv.                  "in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity"
v.                    despedida

The Garden (2001) *                                             Rodney Sharman
                                                                                       (text:  Peter Eliot Weiss)
Little Midnight Nocturne (2002)                        Fred Hersch
Cool (1957)                                                             Leonard Bernstein
Sunflower Sutra (1999) *                                    Jerome Kitzke
                                                                                  (text:  Allen Ginsberg)
* - written for Anthony de Mare

QUOTE from JEROME KITZKE - from the post-concert panel discussion after Anthony de Mare's  June 22, 2006 performance of UNITIES: Music of Pride and Celebration  at Lincoln Center:

"Tony doesn't just play the piano as he does and speak as he does ... if you go to a lot of his concerts, you become aware of how he programs his events ... that in itself is a real art form and he is a real master of that. Whether the pieces are gay, straight or whatever tonight, the way Tony chose them and ordered them was masterful."

See previous programs in the Program Archive.