Oscar Edelstein

Basel Sinfonietta commissioned a new work by Oscar Edelstein in 2009. The work premiered in Basel on the 24th January 2011, Stadtcasino, Basel, and at Franziskaner Konzerthaus, Villingen-Schwenningen (Germany): 15th February 2011. It is a work for full orchestra with electronic process of the Sonic Crystal, and was conducted by Venezuelan conductor José Luis Gómez Rios who won first prize in the 2010 International Conductor's Competition of Sir Georg Solti.

The electronic processes act like transparencies, Edelstein calls them " Dense Films and Machine Transparencies in the Mode of the Human Memory". They create an acoustic way to make a new edition that goes over the other, allowing the recovery of something that has happened earlier, but in a different way, time and space. "It's like a reminder of a dream - not as a machine memory - more human and diffused," says Edelstein.

The work is continuous with four movements: 1) Órgano colonial respirando / Colonial Organ Breathing, 2) En Otro Mundo: Como otro ruiseñor haciendo nido en la peluca de Voltaire / In Another world: Like Another Nightingale Making a Nest in the Wig of Voltaire, 3) Órgano Colonial Respirando Sumergido como en la Catedral de Santa Mónica de los Venados / Colonial Organ Breathing Submerged, like in the Cathedral of Saint Monica of the Venison, & 4) Cristal Estallado en Perspectiva Impura Memoria Navega de Fugas Futuro / Exploded Crystal in Perspective Impure Memory Navigates of Future Fugues

"Rivers and Mirrors: Part I" is a concert of piano, video and voice, subtitled "Monologue for Un-classic Piano, Perhaps in Six Parts with Two Impromptus - Like Lakes of Intuition - and an Invitation to Female Voice, Computer & Film."

The vocals and video were made by Deborah Claire Procter (Wales) with dancer Sandra Grinberg (Trisha Brown Dance Company) in the video. Music and images combine in a hypnotic way to create a strong atmosphere and sense of history. The concert meditates on the idea, "to be in the mirror or to cross the river."

The video was filmed in Buenos Aires in an abandoned factory, and the former national library made famous because it was where Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges worked.

Edelstein's particular distinction as a pianist is that he is a composer who plays the piano rather than a pianist. His non-standard "un-classical" approach to the piano is a search to open up new windows of sound and expression.

ILAMS (Iberia and Latin American Music Society) reviewer says, "[Edelstein] possesses a formidable pianistic technique%u2026There is an intensity to the work that rarely loses its edge."

In this performance the combination of sound and images creates a theatrical experience as much as a musical one. It is in line with Edelstein's project as a composer to investigate the "theatre of memory."

Protagonists: Monstruo I (Barítono) : Juan Peltzer; Monstruo II (Tenor) : Lucas Werenkraut; Blanca (Soprano) : Marisu Pavón; Quartet : María Verdi, Salome Inchaurrondo, Fernanda Inés Carrera & Anahí Fernández Caballero:

Actors: La Beibi :Michella Chale; El Gorompo : Ivan Romanelli

Musicians: Clarinet : Heldo Fonseca; Cornet : Nelson Bouzigues; Trumpeta : Matías Bahillo; Trombone : Gabriel Visa; Violin : Leonardo Minig; Cellos : Clara Asuaje & Luciano Falcón; Saxophones : Rosa Nolly & Martín Proscia; Double-bass : Marcelo Urban; Piano : Juan Pablo Montanari; ENS (Ensamble Nacional del Sur) - Electric Guitar : Pablo Chimenti; Sound Editor: Hernán Kerlleñevich; Electric Bass: Santiago Valiente; Percussion : Diego Romero Mascaró

Murga "Charles": "La Chacota" Álvarez - Héctor Del Pino, Pablo Luciano Di Franco, Daniela Gamarra, Nancy Alejandra Uranga, Andrés Martos de Isasa, & Manuel Benjamín Di Napoli

In 2006, Edelstein released his CD, Dos Improntus, a work for piano and accordion, recorded with Raul Barboza, the most famous popular folkloric accordionist in Argentina (born in Buenos Aires, the son of a chamamé artist of Guaraní origins Barboza is recognized as a chamamé artist of international status).

"Dos Improntus" is a dialogue between a piano and an accordion. The disc demonstrated how Edelstein continually pushes the musical line between the classical, the contemporary and the popular. Edelstein's motivation in asking Barboza to record with him was part of a desire to create a synthesis of the classical and the popular, to make an exchange where each could understand something new about the other. It was also a search for the "revolutionary Barboza" who he had listened to as a child, as well as an homage to his father who introduced him to Barboza's music.

It is the musical meeting of composer and pianist, Oscar Edelstein, and accordionist, Raúl Barboza. In this unique meeting, in February 2006, both musicians put all their history and experience of their instrument into one extremely focused recording session where each brings something entirely different to each instrument, create an new sounds and textures.

The music critic of La Nación called it "a collision of musical planets" in that it places the best of the popular and the best of the contemporary classical, side by side. The disc has caused much discussion about musical culture and it's divisions in Argentina and Latin America.

The work was made in memory of Juan Carlos Paz ( the composer who first brought ideas of the Second Vienna School to Argentina). It was inspired by the graphic design of Paz' score, Seis eventos [Six Events] - his last work that never musically realised. Edelstein says "I was interested in the moment when Paz chose, instead of the precise path, the labyrinth. I wanted to create from that act, from that "fact." This was the first work to pay homage to the famous Argentine composer

"The theatrical idea is deep and the musical realization is fascinating" Clarín

"A true experimental work that opens new horizons for musical theatre in Argentina." La Nacion

Electric Guitar - Richard Arce; Electric & Acoustic Bass - Gonzalo Serrano; Acoustic Piano - Mario Castelli; Keyboards - Mariano Cura; Percussion - Pablo Siroti; Electric Guitar - Nicolás Varchausky; Drums - Matías Gonzalez Goytia; Actors - Paula Ortega, Rodolfo Demarco, Poli Bontas; Images - Julián Teubal; Scenography - Julio Cardoso