Jusqu'à l'aurore Mondrian Ensemble & Thomas Wally

• Thomas Wally (b. 1981):
• 1Caprice12:52
• 2Transfiguration I02:09
• 3Les îles des nombres III (2 X 12 X 12 X 4)10:56
• 4Transfiguration II03:59
• 5Soliloquy II: You Made Your Excuses and Left.14:15
• 6Transfiguration III01:26
• 7... Jusqu'à l'aurore ...: Caprice (IV) bleu14:22
• 8Transfiguration IV02:23
• 9Postscriptum (2 × 11 × 12): The Melancholy of Perfection[Ism]04:53
• Total Runtime01:07:15

Info for Jusqu'à l'aurore

The compositions of native Viennese Thomas Wally (1981), which the fabled Mondrian Ensemble have so marvelously put down on this, the composer’s first portrait recording, might just be considered the dawn of the latest in new music. We can marvel at the unique language and character in Wally’s works from the last ten years – among them two piano quartets, a string trio, and a 15-minute long piece for solo violin – and at his keen desire for experimentation and liberty which he combines with the utmost of conceptual seriousness. We can hear playful curiosity and profound knowledge at work in these compositions, seamlessly conjoined. A wealth of detail and vision; poetry coupled with absolute clarity. In that sense, and many others, Thomas Wally’s music is “visceral; even displaying a downright haptic quality”, as his renown Swiss colleague Dieter Ammann lauds Wally’s music in the liner notes.

Wally has an innate sense for dramatic trajectories throughout; ditto for proportions, for the pliability of individual musical ideas ... in short: for shaping time with sound. All the works on this disc have another thing in common: beneath the surface, vividly shaped by often powerful gestures – that layer of primary, principally audible information – hides a carefully assembled wealth of ideas. It is an artful, but never artificial music. It allows for many things, without ever becoming indiscriminate. Wally himself speaks of composing as “hard work”, but he also mentions the “almost childlike joy of playing with the material; an ultimately very positive underlying emotion.”

His music allows us to experience both and, depending on your subjective response to it, dear listener, probably much more still. You might, therefore, want to lend your ears to these recordings not just for a first listening, but several repeat listenings. You will not regret it!

To call the recording at hand a life-time project would be a bit far-fetched. But it certainly is the project of a decade, in more than one way. For one, there are the compositions that are included on it, which span roughly ten years, from transfigurations for piano quintet, which was premiered at the 2008 Bregenz Festival, to my second piano quartet, Les îles des nombres III (2 × 12 × 12 × 4). Further, this recording was made almost exactly ten years after I first got in touch with col legno. And finally, there is an element to this recording that tells of a friendship that began a little over ten years ago in Vienna and extends now to the whole Mondrian Ensemble. [...]

Ivana Pristašová, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Karolina Öhman, cello
Tamriko Kordzaia, piano
Thomas Wally, violin (Tracks 2, 4, 6, 8)

Mondrian Ensemble
There is a growing gap between the New Music industry with its compulsive devotion to world premières on the one hand, and the established Classical scene that primarily embraces music from Bach to Stravinsky on the other hand. It is this gap repertoire to which the Mondrian Ensemble has been committed since 2000 and, above and beyond, it endeavours to link up different historical eras, regardless of whatever chasms might have to be crossed to achieve it. The Mondrian Ensemble’s commitment to both new and newest music is thus just as important as its engagement to the Classical-Romantic repertoire. It takes particular pleasure in experiments that illuminate cross-connections that one would not notice at first glance – such as those that exist between Liszt’s late oeuvre and drone improvisation, or between Franz Schubert’s sense of temporal organisation and that of Morton Feldman. Shortly after its foundation in 2000, the Mondrian Ensemble won the Nicati Competition for the interpretation of contemporary music, and in 2003 the third prize in a chamber music competition organized by the Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund. There followed debuts at the Zurich Tonhalle (2003), at the Lucerne Festival (2005), at the Musikverein in Vienna (2006) and the Wigmore Hall in London (2007) as well as participation in many festivals and tours. Most recently, the Mondrian Ensemble was awarded a Working Year Scholarship by the City of Zurich. Numerous composers have written works for the Mondrian Ensemble, which it has endeavoured to keep in its repertoire beyond their first performances. These include Dieter Ammann’s Gehörte Form – Hommages (performed around forty times) and works by Wanja Aloe, Jürg Frey, Rudolf Kelterborn, Detlev Müller-Siemens, Roland Moser, Felix Profos, Michel Roth, Martin Jaggi (long-time cellist of the Ensemble) and many others. In 2004 the Ensemble was featured in a CD by Grammont Portrait; in 2007 the Ensemble made recordings for a Grammont Portrait CD of Felix Profos and in 2010 for a portrait CD of Dieter Ammann. All the pieces on the portrait CD of Detlev Müller-Siemens, recorded by WERGO in 2013, are played by the Mondrian Ensemble. On the portrait CD of Jürg Frey that was also released in 2014 the Mondrian Ensemble is present with several pieces. In 2015 the Ensemble presents music by Rudolf Kelterborn, Roland Moser and Michel Roth (NEOS) and will also contribute to a portrait CD of Martin Jaggi. The Mondrian Ensemble has been admitted to the partnership program of the Fondation Nestlé pour l’Art in 2015.

Thomas Wally
is an Austrian composer, violinist and senior lecturer of music theory courses at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. His music has been performed in Europe, New York, Canada, Argentina, Iran, Hong Kong and Tokyo by ensembles and orchestras such as the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy Symphony Orchestra Hong Kong, Klangforum Wien, PHACE, OENM, Mondrian Ensemble, ensemble mise-en, Ensemble Zeitfluss, Ensemble Kontrapunkte, ensemble LUX, Ensemble Platypus, Ensemble Reconsil, Ensemble Wiener Collage, Hugo Wolf Quartet, Nouvelle Cuisine Big Band, Studio for New Music Ensemble Moscow, Trio Frühstück, Webern Symphonie Orchester, Wiener Concert-Verein and the Zalodek Ensemble.

His compositions have been broadcasted by Ö1, Radio Orange, radio klassik Stephansdom (Austria), Kulturradio RBB (Germany), RAI Bozen (Italy) and NHK (Japan). Thomas Wally has been awarded numerous prizes and scholarships such as the Austrian state scholarship for composition (2009, 2012, 2018), the Helmut Sohmen composition prize 2009, the Outstanding Artist Award 2010 by the Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture and the Förderungspreis of the City of Vienna 2012. 2015 his composition loop fantasy was awarded the 2nd prize at the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award, Tokyo. 2016 he received a Theodor Körner Förderpreis for Caprice (VII) ultrajaune. Thomas Wally is recipient of the Musik-Preis der Stadt Wien 2016 ("Music Prize of the City of Vienna").

As a violinist, Thomas Wally dedicates himself to the performance of contemporary music, inter alia as co-founder and violinist of ensemble LUX. Since 2002 he is a frequent substitute with the Vienna Philharmonic and since 2001 in the Vienna State Opera.

Thomas Wally studied composition with Dietmar Schermann, Erich Urbanner, Chaya Czernowin and violin with Josef Hell at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. In 2005/2006 he spent an exchange year at the Sibelius-Akatemia Helsinki as a student of Paavo Heininen.

Booklet for Jusqu'à l'aurore