Samuel Beckett: Stirrings Still (with music by Trevor Bača) JACK Quartet

• Trevor Bača (b. 1975): Stirrings Still:
• 1 Bača: Stirrings Still: I. 05:23
• 2 Bača: Stirrings Still: II. 04:21
• 3 Bača: Stirrings Still: III. 05:21
• 4 Bača: Stirrings Still: IV. 03:42
• 5 Bača: Stirrings Still: V. 03:35
• 6 Bača: Stirrings Still: VI. 04:21
• 7 Bača: Stirrings Still: VII. 03:23
• 8 Bača: Stirrings Still: VIII. 05:43
• 9 Bača: Stirrings Still: IX. 02:33
• 10 Bača: Stirrings Still: X. 01:19
• 11 Bača: Stirrings Still: XI. 04:13
• 12 Bača: Stirrings Still: XII. 02:37
• 13 Bača: Stirrings Still: XIII. 03:14
• 14 Bača: Stirrings Still: XIV. 03:07
• 15 Bača: Stirrings Still: XV. 04:21
• 16 Bača: Stirrings Still: XVI. 02:28
• 17 Bača: Stirrings Still: XVII. 01:59
• 18 Bača: Stirrings Still: XVIII. 02:42
• Total Runtime 01:04:22

Info zu Samuel Beckett: Stirrings Still (with music by Trevor Bača)

Stirrings Still war Samuel Becketts letzte Prosaarbeit. Sie wurde 1987 vollendet und im darauffolgenden Jahr erstmals veröffentlicht. Eher ein Monolog als eine Erzählung, ist es der Text eines Erzählers an der Schwelle zwischen dem Leben und dem, was jenseits davon liegt – vielleicht ein weites, schwarz-weißes Weizenfeld, vielleicht aber auch ein Strudel tastender Erinnerungen. Beckett schätzte die Musik sehr, insbesondere die Lieder und Streichquartette von Franz Schubert. Sein Schreiben ist musikalisch – in seiner sorgfältigen Sprachgestaltung, seinem Einsatz von Wiederholungen und häufig auch in seiner Form. Stirrings Still ist dafür ein Beispiel: eine Komposition aus Verflechtungen und Entwicklungen.

Die Musik, die der Komponist Trevor Bača eigens für diese Veröffentlichung geschaffen hat, versteht sich nicht als Begleitung, sondern als ein paralleler Klangstrom. Im Wechsel mit den Worten erklingt sie, spiegelt und betrachtet das, was diese zu sagen haben. Für die außergewöhnliche Musikalität des JACK Quartetts konzipiert, zieht dieser Klangstrom die Hörenden immer wieder zu sich her – nicht fort von den Worten, sondern durch ein anderes Medium tiefer in sie hinein.

Stirrings Still wurde 2023 und 2024 im Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in Lugano aufgenommen und von Manfred Eicher produziert, der seit Langem von der Musikalität fasziniert ist, die dem Schreiben Samuel Becketts innewohnt.

Paul Griffiths, Sprecher
JACK Quartet:
Christopher Otto, Violine
Austin Wulliman, Violine
John Pickford Richards, Viola
Jay Campbell, Violoncello

JACK Quartet
Deemed "superheroes of the new music world" (Boston Globe), the JACK Quartet is "the go-to quartet for contemporary music, tying impeccable musicianship to intellectual ferocity and a take-no-prisoners sense of commitment." (Washington Post) "They are a musical vehicle of choice to the next great composers who walk among us." (Toronto Star)

The recipient of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award, New Music USA's Trailblazer Award, and the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, JACK has performed to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall (USA), Lincoln Center (USA), Miller Theatre (USA), Wigmore Hall (United Kingdom), Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (Netherlands), IRCAM (France), Kölner Philharmonie (Germany), the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), La Biennale di Venezia (Italy), Suntory Hall (Japan), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Festival Internacional Cervatino (Mexico), and Teatro Colón (Argentina).

Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell, JACK is focused on new work, leading them to collaborate with composers John Luther Adams, Chaya Czernowin, Simon Steen-Andersen, Caroline Shaw, Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Reich, Matthias Pintscher, and John Zorn. Upcoming and recent premieres include works by Derek Bermel, Cenk Ergün, Roger Reynolds, Toby Twining, and Georg Friedrich Haas.

JACK operates as a nonprofit organization dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and spread of new string quartet music. Dedicated to education, the quartet spends two weeks each summer teaching at New Music on the Point, a contemporary chamber music festival in Vermont for young performers and composers. JACK has a long-standing relationships with the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program, where they teach and collaborate with students each fall, and the Boston University Center for New Music, where they visit each semester. Additionally, the quartet makes regular visits to schools including Columbia University, Harvard University, New York University, Princeton University, Stanford University, and the University of Washington.

John Luther Adams
This week celebrates the music of the Pulitzer Prize and GRAMMY-winning composer John Luther Adams, whose innovative works are the products of a uniquely American viewpoint, with emphasis on the natural world, the Alaskan wilderness, and the culture of the arctic Inuit people and other indigenous populations. Adams has composed for a wide range of settings including chamber ensembles, orchestra, film, television, voice, and electronics. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in recognition of his orchestral piece Become Ocean, which was also awarded a GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. He received a second GRAMMY for his percussion piece Inuksuit. Adams served as Associated Professor of Composition at Oberlin Conservatory, was named a Rockefeller Fellow, and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. He was the recipient of the 2010 Nemmers Prize in Music Composition, cited by the selection committee for “melding the physical and musical worlds into a unique artistic vision that transcends stylistic boundaries.”

Booklet für Samuel Beckett: Stirrings Still (with music by Trevor Bača)