KERTÉSZ DISTORTION - étude d'un prélude VII
2009
for string quartet
dedicated to Olivier Senn
duration: ca. 10 minutes
The twelve works in the Études d'un prélude series are all based on micromeasurements of timing and volume of Martha Argerich's recording of Chopin’s Prelude op. 28/4 in E minor, recorded in Munich on 22-25 October 1975 and released by Deutsche Grammophon as DG 2530 731, reissued as DG 415 836-2. The duration of Argerich’s original recording is 1'51".
Kertész Distortion was composed as an analogue to André Kertész’s photograph, “Distortion No. 172,” made in Paris in 1933. The photograph is of a nude as seen in a curved mirror. The composition treats the Chopin-Argerich material in an analogous fashion, curving the time (and the pitch) just as Kertész’s mirror curved the light. In both cases, one central area of the image remains in focus.