Richard Beaudoin
The music of Richard Beaudoin (b. 1975) has been performed by some of the finest musicians in Europe and America, including the soprano Annette Dasch, the Kreutzer, Lydian and Chiara String Quartets, pianists Marilyn Nonken, Mark Knoop, Constantine Finehouse and Wolfram Rieger, organist Clive Driskill-Smith and tenor Joseph Kaiser. Mr. Beaudoin’s works have been premièred at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Wiener Konzerthaus, New York’s Weill Recital Hall/Carnegie Hall and London’s Royal Festival Hall. He has received commissions from the Konzerthaus-Dortmund, the Staatstheater-Kassel and the Boston Lyric Opera. His writings on music have been published in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism and Perspectives of New Music, and his latest works pioneer a compositional technique involving micro-measured interpretations. Mr. Beaudoin currently holds the post of Lecturer on Music at Harvard University.
In Development
New works involving Musical Photorealism
Mr. Beaudoin’s recent works inaugurate a new compositional process called 'Musical Photorealism'. His discovery, made in collaboration with Dr. Olivier Senn of the Hochschule Lucerne, has links to both photography and the musical tradition of cantus firmus.
— The Artist and his Model —
The current works-in-progress engage with Alfred Cortot's 1931 recording of Debussy's La fille aux cheveux de lin [The girl with the flaxen hair], from Book I of his Préludes, published in 1910.
— nach Webern, nach Pollini —
The subject of this solo piano work is Maurizio Pollini's 1976 recording of Webern's Op. 27, composed in 1936. The movements include Neuordnung nach Dauern (Reorganization according to Duration), Bewegungen in Zeitlupe (Movements in Slow-motion, or Magnified Time) and Neuordnung nach Lautstärken (Reorganization according to Volume).
— Études d'un prélude —
The new technique was inaugurated by Mr. Beaudoin’s Études d’un prélude [Studies of a prelude], which engage with Martha Argerich’s 1975 recording of Chopin’s Prélude Op. 28/4, published in 1839. These works commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Chopin’s birth.
Mr. Beaudoin has given lectures on this process at Cambridge University's Centre for Music and Science (23 March 2010), The Royal Academy of Music, London (19 March 2010), The Steinhardt School at New York University (4 Feb 2010) and at The New England Conservatory (16 April 2010). Premières included concerts by Mark Knoop (at King’s Place, London) Marilyn Nonken (at CNMAT, UCBerkeley), and the Kreutzer Quartet (at Wiltons Hall, London), and will continue throughout 2010-2011. Completed works in this series include:
Étude d'un prélude I — Chopin desséché, for solo piano (7’30”)
Étude d'un prélude II — Flutter echoes, for string quartet (8’30”)
Étude d'un prélude III — Wehmut, for voice and piano (3’)
Étude d'un prélude IV —Black Wires, for solo piano (7’)
Étude d'un prélude V — Photorealism, for orchestra (12’30”)
Étude d'un prélude VI — The Real Thing, for string quartet (5’)
Étude d'un prélude VII — Latticed Window, for solo piano (1’51”)
Étude d'un prélude VIII — Kertész Distortion, for string quartet (7’30”)
Étude d'un prélude IX — And they talked about Chopin again (10’)
Étude d'un prélude X — Second String Quartet (ca. 32’)
Étude d'un prélude XI — four28, for solo piano (22’15”)
Featured Performances
Annette Dasch sings Nach-Fragen in Hamburg, Ljubljana, Linz and Schwetzingen in 2011
In 2009, Mr Beaudoin fulfilled a commission from the Konzerthaus-Dortmund for the renowned German soprano Annette Dasch (Elsa at Bayreuth 2010). The work, entitled Nach-Fragen, was premiered by Ms Dasch and pianist Wolfram Rieger at the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Konzerthaus-Dortmund in March 2009. The work received glowing reviews during these première performances.
Nach-Fragen (which loosely translates as “The Inquiries”), is a 30-minute song cycle which sets prose passages adapted by the composer from Christa Wolf’s 1968 novel Nachdenken über Christa T. The 17-song cycle is organized into three sections, and is punctuated by three settings of the epigraph of Wolf’s novel: “Was ist das: Dieses Zu-sich-selber-Kommen des Menschen?” (What is it: this coming-to-oneself?).
Annette Dasch and pianist Ulrich Naudé will perform Nach-Fragen on 25 January 2011 at the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, organized by the Elbphilharmonie Konzerte, on 2 February 2011 in Ljubljana, on 8 February 2011 at the Brucknerhaus in Linz and on 30 April 2011 at the Festspiele in Schwetzingen. The work is dedicated to Ms Dasch, whose program will also include lieder by Beethoven and Brahms.
