Georges Aperghis – Luna Park – World Premier performance – June 8, 2011 – Radio France Musique – Live Broadcast –
Since the entire purpose of Past Daily is to be reminded and to discover the new and the unfamiliar, I thought I would take the Mid-Week concert out of the comfort zone this week and go on an adventure. It’s the 2011 world premier of Luna Park, the latest piece by Georges Aperghis, whose work has been revolutionary, controversial, confrontational but never boring and certainly never passive. It is work that gets straight under your skin and doesn’t leave.
You are either going to love it or hate it – I don’t know anyone who would be ambivalent – it’s just not what the music of Georges Aperghis is about nor what it prompts. The contemporary American composer Harry Partch used to talk about “the corporeal aspects of Music” – Georges Aperghis fully embraces that, and Luna Park is a perfect example.
At just a little over an hour, in addition to an interview with Georges Aperghis, this is the world premier. Interesting that some accounts list it as taking place on June 11th, this one is from June 8th and is a live performance, complete with dead air and an almost blown intro. Whether this was a “sneak peek” or an incorrect date is up for confirmation. All I know is, I was mesmerized by this work – dropped everything to give it my undivided attention and wanted to share it.
Here is the program as it was laid out by Radio France Musique for the June 8th broadcast:
Concert
Festival Agora/Aperghis/Furrer,Saunier,Dubeslki,Schmidt
en direct de l’Ircam à Paris,
dans le cadre du Festival Agora à Paris
Georges Aperghis qui viendra avec Grégory Beller, son réalisateur en informatique musical, et l’un des interprètes du
spectacles (nom à déterminer)
la chorégraphe Myriam Gourfink
et Frank Madlener pour une introduction
Georges Aperghis Luna Park, nouveau spectacle
«Luna Park» est une oeuvre de théâtre musical, d’une durée d’environ une heure, écrite par Georges Aperghis, mise en scène par
Daniel Levy, et dont l’informatique musicale est réalisée par Grégory Beller.
Le thème général de la pièce aborde la façon dont la télé-surveillance et le recueil massif de données numériques personnelles font
de notre monde d’aujourd’hui, un gigantesque parc d’attraction, d’où le titre de l’oeuvre.
Eva Furrer, flûte octobasse
Johanne Saunier, percussion
Richard Dubeslki, percussion
Michael Schmidt, flûte basse
Réalisation de l’informatique musicale IRCAM : Greg Beller
Lumière, dispositif scénique, vidéo : Daniel Lévy
Like I said, you are either going to love it or hate it; there appears to be no middle-ground. People have often complained about the inaccessibility of contemporary music, that it is too much of an intellectual exercise and lacking in heart or emotion. I would tend to not agree, but I can see your point. All I’m asking is for you to give it a listen and form an opinion and to either use it as a stepping-off point to make more discoveries or to politely decline and go back to regular programming.
In any event, hit the play button and stand back.
