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Up-close / Michel van der Aa, composer, film and stage director.
Van Pelt - Ormandy Music and Media Center Music DVD 2002
Available
- Format:
- Video
- Language:
- English
- No linguistic content
- Subjects (All):
- Cello with string orchestra.
- Concertos (Cello with string orchestra).
- Mixed media (Music).
- Music theater.
- Genre:
- Operas.
- Filmed performances.
- Nonfiction films.
- Physical Description:
- 1 videodisc (31 min., 11 sec.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in.
- Place of Publication:
- [Amsterdam] : Disquiet Media ; [Amersfoort] : Distributed by Challenge Records Int., ©2011.
- System Details:
- DVD; PAL, all regions; aspect ratio, 16:9 (anamorphic widescreen format); PCM stereo., Dolby Digital stereo. or DTS surround.
- Summary:
- "Part cello concerto, part film opera, Michel van der Aa's Up-close explores the human condition through reflected and overlapping sounds, images and plotlines. The actions of the woman and the cellist come closer and closer until at the end they mimic one another, without ever completely connecting. Images and music leak from screen to stage and back again in a poetic exploration of the rituals of communication"--Container.
- Michel van der Aa's cello concerto Up-close, the traditional interaction of soloist and ensemble is reflected by a mysterious, mirror reality seen on film. When the piece begins, a solo cellist and string ensemble sit on the right of the stage; on the left stands a large video screen. On the screen we see an elderly lady sitting among an arrangement of chairs and music stands that parallels the real-life version on the other side of the stage. It soon becomes clear that this is only one of a variety of interactions across a hall of mirrors created by the soloist, ensemble and film. Up-close, commissioned by the European Concert Hall Organization and featuring the Argentinean cellist Sol Gabetta and Amsterdam Sinfonietta, is thus a cello concerto duplicated and magnified until it reaches the boundary of video opera. Are the elderly woman and the cellist playing out the same role? The film is seen in excerpts 'inserted' into the music, so is the music driving the film, or the film the music? The music never 'narrates' the film, but somehow the two layers seem to extend one another around a common subject. Furthermore, the live instruments are augmented with an electronic soundtrack, which at some times seems closely related to their music and at others appears to derive from the 'concrete' sounds of the action on screen. Are these plural realities or versions of a single experience. Much is left unexplained and the course of the piece, including a striking coup de théâtre towards the end, provides no easy answers. One theme that does emerge, however, concerns loneliness. As in other Van der Aa pieces - such as the video opera One or the ensemble piece Mask - elements of an uncanny, inscrutable ceremony are never far away, and in Up-close these become part of the difficult ritual of human to human contact. Visual references recall the methods of the Dutch Resistance of World War II, but it is the spirit of secrecy, protocol and adversity that pervades, rather than any specific historical setting.
- Participant:
- Sol Gabetta, violoncello ; Vakil Eelman, actress (on film inserts) ; Amsterdam Sinfonietta.
- Credits:
- Director of photography, Joost Rietdijk ; lighting design, Jurgen Kolb ; gaffer, lighting design, Wietse Vos ; video editor, Michel van der Aa ; executive producer, Joggem Simons.
- Credits for film inserts that form part of the performance: director & script, Michel van der Aa ; director of photography, Joost Rietdijk ; light design, Wietze Vos.
- Notes:
- Musical work for solo violoncello, string orchestra, film and soundtrack.
- Ed. performed: Boosey & Hawkes.
- Recorded Mar. 15, 2011, Amsterdam Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ.
- Program notes ([24] p. : ill. ; 18 cm.) inserted in container.
- Contains:
- Aa, Michel van der, 1970- Up-close.
- OCLC:
- 801368339
- Publisher Number:
- 608917400427
- DQM 04 Disquiet Media
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