The three concerti on this disc were written in three consecutive years, all to commission. Another point they have in common is that each work takes as its starting point some kind of programme, which significantly determined both the method of composition and the sound. Eötvös also drew freely on his own musical and extra-musical experiences in depicting the dramatic situations, and presenting emotional states, using even illustrative musical elements.
Seven, a violin concerto written in 2006, is in memory to the seven astronauts who died in the tragic accident of space shuttle Columbia on 1 February 2003. Eötvös was deeply affected by the catastrophe. Because the seven astronauts were selected so as to represent the cultural diversity of the world, Eötvös saw their death as the tragedy of an ideal.
Levitation is reflecting on Eötvös' recurrent childhood dream of rising up in a kneeling position, gliding through the air, over the objects on the ground. To this memory are added the memories of levitation scenes familiar from sci-fi movies, and the closing scene of Stravinsky's Petrushka, where the figure of Petrushka floats over the roof. Eötvös's conviction is that music is naturally able to give a suggestive representation of abstract situations, and so is able to give a sense of floating or even weightlessness.
The basic idea for CAP-KO (an abbreviation of Concerto for Acoustic Piano, Keyboard and Orchestra) is a texture Bartók was fond of and often used in his piano concertos, in which the two hands of the pianist move in parallel in fast tempo, but at varying intervals. In CAP-KO the soloist can accomplish this with one hand with the help of the MIDI piano and a technician. Thus the audience sees one soloist, but actually hears the playing of two of them, feeling the illusion of a kind of 'hypervirtuosity'. The five-movement work has no actual quotations from Bartók, yet almost every sound somehow reflects Bartók's music.

Track Listing

• Seven - Part I.Cadenza with Accompaniment - First Cadenza (for Husband and McCool)
• Seven - Part I.Cadenza with Accompaniment - Second Cadenza (for Anderson)
• Seven - Part I.Cadenza with Accompaniment - Third Cadenza (for Clark and Brown)
• Seven - Part I.Cadenza with Accompaniment - Fourth Cadenza (for Chawla and Ramon)
• Seven - Part II.
• Levitation - First Movement
• Levitation - Second Movement ('langsam, schwebend')
• Levitation - Third Movement ('barcarola')
• Levitation - Cadenza
• Levitation - Fourth Movement ('Petrushka's Resurrection')
• CAP-KO (Concerto for Acoustic Piano, Keyboard and Orchestra) - First Movement
• CAP-KO (Concerto for Acoustic Piano, Keyboard and Orchestra) - Second Movement
• CAP-KO (Concerto for Acoustic Piano, Keyboard and Orchestra) - Third Movement
• CAP-KO (Concerto for Acoustic Piano, Keyboard and Orchestra) - Fourth Movement ('Bartók crosses the Ocean')
• CAP-KO (Concerto for Acoustic Piano, Keyboard and Orchestra) - Fifth Movement

Additional Details

Label: BMC Records

Genre: Classical

Run Time: 63 mins

Release Date: 12/12/14

UPC: 5998309301704