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 opera and vocal music 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, Perspectives of New Music and The Journal of Music Theory, and some of his recent works pioneer a compositional technique involving micro-temporal measurements of recorded performances. Mr. Beaudoin is a member of the Faculty of Music at Harvard University.
New Recordings
[Microtimings cover image: Glenn Brown, The Real Thing, 2000, Oil on panel, 82 x 66.5 cm, © 2012 Glenn Brown]
MICROTIMINGS—Mark Knoop and Kreutzer Quartet
This 2-CD set includes the first recordings of Richard Beaudoin's music based on microtiming. The discs include eleven recent works, all recorded in England, including pieces based on micro-temporal measurements of Martha Argerich playing Chopin, Alfred Cortot playing Debussy, and Maurizio Pollini playing Webern.
Click here to listen to Mark Knoop’s recording of Étude d’un prélude IV—Black Wires (2009)
The discs are accompanied by a full-color 20-page booklet which includes photographs, an essay on the pieces, and miniature reproductions of pages from the scores.
Disc One includes six piano pieces played by Mark Knoop. These include works in the Étude d'un prélude series (Chopin desséché, Black Wires, Latticed Window and four28), as well as The Artist and his Model I—La fille floutée and nach Webern, nach Pollini.
Disc Two includes five string quartet works played by the Kreuzter Quartet. These include Étude d'un prélude X—Second String Quartet (comprised of Flutter echoes, The Real Thing, Kertész Distortion and 28four) and The Artist and his Model II—la durée sans contacts s'affaiblit.
This 2-CD set is being released by New Focus Recordings in New York, and distributed by Naxos of America. The release date is 24 April 2012.
Available internationally, including at Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Amazon (Germany), Amazon (France), Amazon (Japan), Archiv, iTunes, New Focus Recordings.
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Upcoming Performances
REPURPOSE—Mark Knoop at The Forge, London, 1 May 2012
The pianist Mark Knoop (“one of the most brilliant pianists of the contemporary repertoire” The Sunday Times) is premiering three of Beaudoin's works at The Forge in London on 1 May 2012: nach Webern, nach Pollini (2009-10) and The Artist and his Model I—La fille floutée (2010) and Now anything can hang at any angle (2011). This concert will be the UK release event for the 2-CD set Microtimings. The programme also includes music by Adam de la Cour and a new 40-minute work by Michael Finnissy.
CLAUDE, RICK, MIKE and JOHN—Rosman and Knoop at The Red Hedgehog, London, 19 August 2012
Carl Rosman and Mark Knoop present an afternoon of old and new music for clarinet and piano, culminating in a rarely heard version of Brahms’ clarinet quintet for clarinet and piano.
Claude Debussy: Premiere Rhapsody for clarinet and piano (1910)
Richard Beaudoin: The Artist and his Model I—la fille floutée (2010)
Richard Beaudoin: The Artist and his Model IV—la tradition française (2011, premiere)
Michael Finnissy: Marilyn, Brian, Mike and the cats (2004)
Johannes Brahms: Duo für Clarinette und Pianoforte nach dem Quintett opus 115 (1891/93)
[Photograph of Mark Knoop by Marco Melchiorre]
In Development
Mr. Beaudoin’s recent works inaugurate a new compositional process involving micro-measurements of recorded interpretations. His methodology,created in collaboration with Dr. Olivier Senn of the Hochschule Luzern in Switzerland, has links to both photography and the musical tradition of cantus firmus. Performances of these works began in 2009 and will continue during the 2012-13 season; eleven of these works were released in 2012 on the 2-CD set, Microtimings (New Focus Recordings, New York).
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The Artist and his Model
The Artist and his Model I — La fille floutée, for solo piano (2010, 9')
The Artist and his Model II — La durée sans contacts s'affaiblit, after Paul Valéry, for string quartet (2010, ca. 23')
The Artist and his Model III — La fille rythmée, for solo percussion (2011, 6')
The Artist and his Model IV — La tradition française, for clarinet and piano (2011, 8')
The Artist and his Model V—Brûlage, for solo soprano saxophone (2011-12, 10')
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nach Webern, nach Pollini
nach Webern, nach Pollini, for solo piano (2010-11, 9')
I. Neuordnung nach Dauern (Reorganization according to Duration)
II. Bewegungen in Zeitlupe (Movements on Slow-motion, or Magnified Time)
III. Neuordnung nach Lautstärken (Reorganization according to Volume)
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Études d'un prélude
The new approach 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 Chopin’s birth. Mr. Beaudoin has given lectures on these works 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), The New England Conservatory (16 April 2010), Harvard University (20 September 2010), Dartmouth College (6 October 2011) and the Hochschule, Luzern - Musik in Switzerland (3 May 2012). Completed works in this series include:
Étude d'un prélude I — Chopin desséché, for solo piano (2009, 7’30”)
Étude d'un prélude II — Flutter echoes, for string quartet (2009, 8’30”)
Étude d'un prélude III — Wehmut, for voice and piano (2009, 3’)
Étude d'un prélude IV —Black Wires, for solo piano (2009, 7’)
Étude d'un prélude V — Photorealism, for orchestra (2009, 12’30”)
Étude d'un prélude VI — The Real Thing, for string quartet (2009, 5’)
Étude d'un prélude VII — Latticed Window, for solo piano (2009, 1’51”)
Étude d'un prélude VIII — Kertész Distortion, for string quartet (2009, 7’30”)
Étude d'un prélude IX — And they talked about Chopin again (2009, 10’)
Étude d'un prélude X — Second String Quartet (2009, ca. 38’)
Étude d'un prélude XI — four28, for solo piano (2009, 22’15”)
Étude d'un prélude XII — The After-Image, for two voices and ensemble (2010, ca. 20')
