Contemporary classical music for two pianos

11 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Contemporary, JAZZ: Weird Jazz



Details:
GORISEK LAZAR two pianos â new album

Bojan Gorisek and Milko Lazar, Sloveniaâs most celebrated pianists, released their first album of compositions written exclusively for two pianos by Milko Lazar.
âGorisek Lazar two pianosâ are one of the rare piano duos in Europe. They started their creative collaboration as a piano duo in 2004, when they first performed together on the roof of Ljubljana Puppet Theatre. Since then âGoriÅ¡ek Lazar two pianosâ performed throughout Europe (Berlin/Germany, Budapest/Hungary, Klagenfurt/Austria) and in such prestigious venues as Merkin Concert Hall and Steinway Hall in New York and Kennedy Center in Washington. In 2006 they were guests of the European Dream Festival in New York, which presented leading creative voices and cutting-edge artistic visions in performing arts, film, and literature from 23 European countries at Prime New York venues.

In their concerts Bojan Gorisek and Milko Lazar perform music written exclusively for two pianos by Milko Lazar, whose music is a crossover between contemporary chamber music, improvisation and jazz, also referred to as modern classic.


GORISEK LAZAR, dva klavirja/two pianos, released in 2006 in collaboration with Slovene national radio programme (RTVSLO).

The album is the first recording of the piano duo and is the presentation of their creative collaboration in the past 2 years. The album contains a selection of Milko Lazarâs compositions for two pianos, written in the past 3 years. The album opens with âLargo Misticoâ and continues with three trilogies âStefbet Troligija no. 1â, âStefbet Trilogija no. 2â and âStefbet Trilogija no. 3â, which are based on Lazarâs previous creations and are newly composed for two pianos. The closing composition âMirrorsâ is a future reflection of their next CD project, due to be released in 2007.

1. Excerpt from the review »A virtuosic and harmonious duo« written by UroÅ¡ Smasek for »VeÄer«, daily newspaper, on January 10th 2007 (available in Slovene language at: http://www.vecer.si/clanek2007011005154010):
â[â¦] The titles of the majority of compositions respectively of three music complexes indicate to the better connoisseurs of Lazarâs work that these works refer to his creations with another one of his casts, again different in style, group Å tefbet Rifi, characterized as a mixture of folk music, jazz and modern chamber music. The first composition on the CD is for the most part mysteriously calm, but sometimes perceptibly violent, and with regard to its atmosphere appropriately named âminiatureâ Largo mistico. The above-mentioned complexes, entitled âsimplyâ Å tefbet trilogy no. 1-3 represent the bulk part of the CD. Every complex is composed of three different compositions that are either full of motion - full of vivacity, based for instance on the varied repetitive piano rhythm and sometimes almost âmade for dancingâ or also explicitly poetic.
GoriÅ¡ek and Lazar are masters in building virtuosic and harmonious music wholes, concluded with a six-minute long âmeditative-psychedelic poetryâ Mirrors that finally repetitively dies away into the silence and is the perfect ending. The authors confirm the opinion of not only classic musicians that the piano is so to say the mother of every instrument [â¦].â


2. Excerpt from the review »As basic as they come« written by Jože Å tucin for »Primorske novice«, daily newspaper, on December 5, 2006:

â[â¦] Milko Lazarâs music is just as basic as it gets: his musical inclinations form a complete image of personality, a complex mass of perception and a freedom of style and thought in its widest possible sense. As such, Lazar is a one man wonder: a jazz musician, a composer, an interpreter, an improviser, a thinker, a protagonist of the modern sound, a medium. Indeed, a medium. A musician who brings ritual and obsession back to music, an artist who speaks the language of Euterpe with all its permutations. His music does not present a problem for the listener, because it speaks to him directly, including him into its dialogue. Milko Lazarâs work thus gives an impression of a tamed and domesticated wilderness [â¦].â


MILKO LAZAR: short biography

Milko Lazar is a composer, pianist, harpsichordist, keyboardist and saxophonist and is currently working freelance in the fields of classical and jazz music. Milko Lazar studied classical and jazz piano and saxophone at the Music Academy in Graz, Austria and harpsichord and baroque music at the Royal Conservatory in Haag, Holland. For 15 year he was engaged with Big Band RTV Slovenia as solo saxophonist and composer- leader. Milko Lazar is still composing for two of the best symphonic orchestras in Slovenia, The Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra

Through his jazz career, he performed with many of his own groups (Quatebriga, Stefbet Rifi, Milko Lazar Quartet) and other well known jazz musicians like Maria Schneider, Herb Pomeroy, Peter Herbolzheimer, and Mathias Ruegg. Milko Lazar has recorded over 40 LPs and CDs with different groups and more then 10 solo projects.

Milko Lazarâs recent classical compositions have already been performed with many international ensembles all over Europe, and in such prestigious U.S. venues as Carnegie Hall in New York. Among the conductors of his orchestral works have been Walter Proost, David de Villiers, Olari Elts, George Pehlivanian and Marko Letonja. Besides orchestral and chamber works Milko Lazar is regularly composing for numerous film producers, theatres and dance performers in Slovenia.

Among other awards he has been awarded with the most prestigious national award for art Nagrada Prešernovega sklada in 2005 for his compositional work.


BOJAN GORIÅ EK: short biography

Bojan Gorišek is known around the world for recording the complete piano opus of Erik Satie for Blaricum Music Group which was rated among the best recordings ever made.

He graduated from the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and continued his studies with one of the most important European specialists for contemporary piano music Herbert Henck in Köln. In 2006 Bojan GoriÅ¡ek was appointed as regular professor for chamber music at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana.

During his career he has collaborated with Luciano Berio, Vinko Globokar, Jane Manning, Irena Grafenauer, John Edward Kelly, David Harman, Walter Proost, and others in various venes around Europe (Germany, Italy, Finland, Spain, Austria). Besides performing all over Europe, he often plays in the United States, Venezuela, Columbia, and China.

In collaboration with Blaricum Music Group Bojan GoriÅ¡ek also recorded 4 CDs of music by George Crumb, and the piano sonata âConcordâ of Charles Ives. For various record companies in Slovenia he recorded the complete piano opuses of Marij Kogoj, Aldo Kumar, and Milko Lazar. Milko Lazar in fact composed three piano concertos particularly for Bojan GoriÅ¡ek, which were recorded and performed many times in Slovenia and abroad.

Bojan Gorišek won several awards for his work, including the most recent prestigious national award for art Nagrada Prešernovega sklada in 2006.