REVIEWS
Selected Review Excerpts:
Articles de presse, critiques – Patricia Alessandrini
“ICE closes with mixed musical postcards from Paris”, Lawrence A. Johnson, Chicago Classical Review. 27.05.12
“The clear audience favorite was Patricia Alessandrini’s Omaggio a Berio, an ICE commission heard in its world premiere. Scored for six players (flute, clarinet, viola, cello, percussion and piano), Omaggio is an intimate theatrical piece as much as a musical work. In the opening bars pianist Cory Smythe and flutist Claire Chase create a barely audible rustling sound by playing the inside of the prepared piano, set against hushed notes by the cellist on the bridge of his instrument. Chase sings quietly into her flute and soon the violist stands up and walks over to join the other two at the piano, as does the clarinetist in a collaborative coaxing of refined, crystalline hues with a strange, otherworldly expression. Alessandrini studied at IRCAM and her homage to Berio is enigmatic and haunting, showing a distinctive and imaginative compositional voice.”
“Esquisses d’Artaud for voice, alto flute and live electronics by Patricia Alessandrini was receiving its World Première....It was a hypnotic and mesmerising piece.”
“Donaueschinger Musiktage, Wir suchen noch nach Identität“, Marco Frei, Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 19.10.2016
„Auf andere Weise hellhörig gerierten sich die «Leçons de ténèbres» von Patricia Alessandrini, realisiert vom Ensemble Recherche. Der Italienerin glückt eine feine Balance zwischen den geräuschhaften Klängen und der eingespielten Elektronik...“
“Leçons de ténèbres by Patricia Alessandrini, performed by Ensemble Recherche, turned out to be visionary in a different way. The Italian succeeded in achieving a fine balance between the noisy sounds and the finely-tuned electronics ... "
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Music review: Red Note Ensemble, Summerhall, Edinburgh”, Miranda Heggie, The Scotland Herald. 14.04.17
five stars
“PARLOUR Sounds, a new piece by Red Note’s Embedded composer Patricia Alessandrini, tells the tale of a 1960s housewife who explores and creates sound by utilising her standard, everyday surroundings. Presented as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, the staging, drama and sheer physicality of the work is crucial –it is most definitely a piece which could only work on a performative level. It’s almost operatic in its dramaturgy: soprano Peyee Chen takes the central role, her pure tones lending a vulnerable fragility to the performance. Her close tonal dialogue with flautist Ruth Morley is particularly unnerving, as voice and flute begin to fuse with one another. While much of the piece is entertaining and fun (a hoover playing a ‘moothie’ for instance), overall the work is deeply profound. The claustrophobia and sense of unharnessed potential energy is rife, leading the audience to question Chen’s character, and her need to create art from the mundane.”
“Xenia Pestova – an interpreter for all ages, at St.Andrew’s, Wellington”, Peter Mechen, In C Classical Music Reviews, Wellington, New Zealand. 30.07.2017
“Patricia Alessandrini’s “response” to this same D Major Sonata took the form of an Etude after Scarlatti, beginning with a pensive kind of dialogue set up by the pianist between the direct activation of exterior keys and interior strings, straightaway creating wondrously spacious atmospheres and amazing Cage-like silences! Pestova’s note on the music talked about “the changes of colour between (the gestures)”, evident in the “charged atmosphere” wrought by what framed these silences, a kind of dichotomy between focus and distance, resulting in something I found magical and elusive.”
“Ada Lovelace: Imagining the Analytical Engine review – where rhythms meet algorithms”, Erica Jeal, The Guardian. 03.11.2019
“Patricia Alessandrini’s gauzy Ada’s Song used AI to manipulate the piano strings and to generate new material for [mezzo-soprano] Fontanals-Simmons in real time”
“Die Klänge jenseits der Musik”, Stefan Schmöe, Online Musik Magazin, 21.08.2021
“Vielmehr wirkt die Komposition (die mit etwa sieben Minuten rund doppelt so lang ist wie Berios Song) wie ein Reflex auf eine sehr weit entfernte Musik, von der hier ein Nachhall eingefangen ist. sehr zart und voller Wehmut.”
“Rather, the composition [Omaggio a Berio] (which at about seven minutes is about twice as long as Berio's song) seems like a reflection of a very distant music, an echo of which is captured here. very tender and full of melancholy.”
“Porträtkonzert Patricia Alessandrini: Stil ist Gewalttat”, Ursula Decker-Bönniger, Magazin Klassik, 21.08.2021
“Patricia Alessandrini - sie ist Klangkünstlerin, Komponistin, Klangforscherin und Standford-Professorin. „Stil ist Gewalttat“ war ein Porträtkonzert im ehemaligen Salzlager der Zeche Zollverein - ein Konzert der besonderen Art zum Thema Liebe, in dem nicht nur das „Ensemble Modern“ die Werke Alessandrinis aufführte und die Künstlerin selbst mitwirkte. Spannend war vor allem die Gegenüberstellung von Original und Bearbeitung, wobei Alessandrini ihre Werke - unsichtbar für das Publikum aus dem hinteren Bereich des Raumes - live elektronisch begleitete und in einem kurzen Gespräch mit der Musikdramaturgin Barbara Eckle erläuterte.”
“Patricia Alessandrini - she is a sound artist, composer, researcher in Sonic Arts and Stanford professor. "Stil ist Gewalttat" [Style is violence] was a portrait concert in the former salt warehouse of the Zeche Zollverein - a special kind of concert on Thema Liebe, in which not only the Ensemble Modern performed Alessandrini's works but the artist herself participated. What was particularly exciting was the juxtaposition of originals and adaptations, with Alessandrini providing live electronic accompaniment to her works - invisible to the audience from the back of the room - and explaining them in a brief conversation with music dramaturge Barbara Eckle.”
“Aus Luciano Berio „Black is the colour“ (aus „Folk Songs (1964) - ein recht traditioneller Liebesgesang für Mezzosopran und 7 Instrumente - ist das Werk „Black is the colour…“ (omaggio a Berio, 2012) geworden für Flöte, Klarinette, Viola, Cello, Schlagzeug und verstärktes Klavier. Statt ausdrucksstarkem Liebesgesang. . .entfaltet sich bei Alessandrini eine rein instrumentale, vielstimmige, zart und zerbrechlich wirkende Farbkomposition..”
“From Luciano Berio "Black is the color" (from "Folk Songs (1964) - a rather traditional love song for mezzo-soprano and 7 instruments - comes the work "Black is the color..." (omaggio a Berio, 2012) for flute, clarinet, viola, cello, percussion and amplified piano. Instead of an expressive love song. . .Alessandrini unfolds a purely instrumental, polyphonic color-composition, delicate and fragile..”
“Alessandrinis Streichquartett "Forklaret Nat" greift den Gedanken des verklärten Dialogs auf. Zart und unaufdringlich weben Glissandi, quietschende Geräusche, farbige Spieltechniken und Flageolettklänge ein kunstvoll verschränktes Klangnetz, um ab der Hälfte zum Ausgangspunkt zurückzukehren.”
“.Alessandrini's string quartet "Forklaret Nat" takes up the idea of the transfigured dialogue. Delicately and unobtrusively, glissandi, squeaky noises, colorful playing techniques and harmonics weave an artfully intertwined web of sound, returning to the starting point from the halfway point .”
“Das Klangforum verband mit einem Uraufführungsreigen Moderne und Gegenwart”, Sandra Fleck, Wiener Zeitung, 30.06.2022
“. . .erobert Patricia Alessandrinis Komposition "Abhanden". . .mit einer gespenstischen Atmosphäre.”
“Patricia Alessandrini's composition "Abhanden" conquers. . .with a ghostly atmosphere”