Monday, May 18, 2009

MARSEILLE

I'm not quite sure that really happened. There are moments in life that, if forewarned of their imminent occurrence, would seem so impossibly unlikely as to invite incredulity. To have a ten-piece orchestra of professional classical musicians play six pieces of my music in front of a refined audience of three hundred or so at the venue Friche La Belle de Mai in Marseille is one of them.

Berlin-based outfit Zeitkratzer (led by Reinhold Friedl) and myself were invited by the venerable GMEM for Festival Les Musiques - an annual fortnight of mostly highbrow contemporary music and dance. Intertwined with my own pieces were four early works by Morton Feldman, and the juxtapositions were predictably dramatic, and for my perspective, worked surprisingly well. The musicians did an enormously impressive respectful job, and were a total pleasure to work with.

Anyway,
other than to say that it was emotionally moving and humbling, the experience was so unusual that I could do with more time to reflect upon it. But it certainly helps in the schizophrenic personal struggle of a preposterous, intolerable superiority complex versus a sense of shameful fraudulence.

5 comments:

Wrongly Wired said...

But completely deserved William. Congratulations

Jack Sargeant said...

This sounds incredible and raises several questions. Firstly - did you conduct them? Which 6 pieces did they play? Who chose the pieces? Was this recorded?

William Bennett said...

the pieces (which I suggested) were: Bia Mintatu - Scapegoat - The Avalanche - Munkisi Munkondi - Fairground Muscle Twitcher - Nzambi Ia Lufua; a 32-track recording was made in addition to GMEM's professional filming of the concert

Simon said...

"the schizophrenic personal struggle of a preposterous, intolerable superiority complex versus a sense of shameful fraudulence"

- oh how well I know that condition, and it's a relief to hear someone else express it.

SenzuriChampion said...

oh way cool, would love to hear that Avalanche, certainly one of my all-time favorites.