PENTATONE OXINGALE SERIES: PRIMAVERA III the vessel
Matt Haimovitz, cello
Music by Josquin des Prez, Philip Glass, Annabelle Chvostek, Layale Chaker, Lewis Spratlan, Marcos Balter, Tamar-kali, Osnat Netzer, Phonodelica
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 2022, Baarn, The Netherlands
Talita Sakuntala, PR Manager +31 35 548 07 26
Digital Release Date
24 JUNE 2022
Released in digital formats for streaming
and high-resolution downloads.
Audio Resolution for digital files:
96/24 PCM stereo and 44.1k/16 PCM stereo
PRIMAVERA II the vessel is the third of six albums in a momentous series encompassing 81 world premieres for solo cello. This digital album presents 9 new commissions by The Primavera Project for groundbreaking, multi-GRAMMY nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz. Composers from diverse backgrounds respond to both Sandro Botticelli’s enigmatic painting, Primavera, and the prophetic large-scale triptych, Primavera 2020, by world-renowned contemporary artist Charline von Heyl. The Primavera Project is currently featured in collaboration with von Heyl’s Primavera 2020 in the 59th Biennale Arte 2022.
Referencing the time of Botticelli, PRIMAVERA III the vessel begins with Josquin des Prez’s Praeter Rerum Seriem, arranged for cello choir by Haimovitz and offering 500 years of perspective on the newly commissioned works. Stripped of the Latin text, Josquin’s repeating motives and ubiquitous canons are illuminated by the six celli (all recorded by Haimovitz at von Heyl’s artist studio in Marfa, Texas) in this contrapuntal tour-de-force.
The album includes two new works by legendary composer Philip Glass: the lyrical Philip’s Song, as well as Haimovitz’s haunting rendition of Glass’ Samsara which begins with the simplest of musical elements, winding its way as the cello metamorphoses into a tambura – the instrumental drone of raga. The themes of death and rebirth, darkness and light, possession and liberation permeate through the new works. Layale Chaker’s heartfelt lament Before Bloom takes the form of a Middle Eastern taqsim, evoking the flowers and leaves bearing witness to suffering, yet blooming defiantly each Spring.
Annabelle Chvostek’s (formerly of the Wailin’ Jennys) Your Shadow and Inflorescence invites the cello into a bluegrass realm as she grapples with internalizing the darkness of Zephyrus’ assault and regaining her own breath. Tamar-kali sparingly uses col legno,
pizzicato, and arco timbres in Little Bear Awakens to capture a dance of Spring. Lewis Spratlan’s One for Two leads us on a tour of the two paintings, the symbols, and figures. Marcos Balter’s ironically operatic Millefleur celebrates and demolishes the beauty of Botticelli’s elaborate garden. The sprightly overtones and microtones of Osnat Netzer’s Diaphanous Diaphony depicts the buoyancy and transparency of the three dancing Graces. Finally, Phonodelica transforms Botticelli’s cathedral forest into the drowning meadow of von Heyl’s Primavera 2020.
About Matt Haimovitz
Renowned as a musical pioneer, multi-Grammy-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz is praised by The New York Times as a “ferociously talented cellist who brings his megawatt sound and uncommon expressive gifts to a vast variety of styles” and by The New Yorker as “remarkable virtuoso” who “never turns in a predictable performance.” He brings a fresh ear to familiar repertoire, champions new music, and initiates groundbreaking collaborations, as well as creating innovative recording projects. In addition to his touring schedule, Haimovitz mentors an award-winning studio of young cellists at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montreal and is now the first-ever John Cage Fellow at The New School’s Mannes School of Music
in New York City.
Haimovitz made his debut in 1984, at the age of 13, as soloist with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic. At 17 he made his first recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, for Deutsche Grammophon. He has gone on to perform on the world’s most esteemed stages, with such orchestras and conductors as the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta, the English Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim, the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal with Kent Nagano. Haimovitz’s recording career encompasses more than 20 years of award-winning work on
Deutsche Grammophon (Universal), Oxingale Records, and the PENTATONE Oxingale Series. His honors include the Trailblazer Award from the American Music Center, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Grand Prix du Disque, and the Premio Internazionale “Accademia Musicale Chigiana.” He studied with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School and graduated magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard University. Haimovitz plays a Venetian cello, made in 1710 by Matteo Gofriller.
About Charline von Heyl
Charline von Heyl (German, b. 1960) studied at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and participated in the Cologne art scene in the 1980s before moving to New York in 1995. She is a painter whose practice encompasses drawing, printmaking, and collage. Von Heyl’s work takes inspiration from a vast and surprising array of sources – including literature, pop culture, metaphysics and personal history. She has been the subject of several survey museum exhibitions, most recently held at the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.; the Museum Dhont Dhaenens, Deurle; and the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg. Past survey exhibitions include the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston; the Tate Liverpool; Kunsthalle Nürnberg; Bonner Kunstverein; and the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia. Her work can be found in collections around the world, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Kunstmuseum Bonn; and the Tate Modern, London. Charline von Heyl lives and works in New York and Marfa, Texas.
About Pentatone
One of the leading classical music labels in the world, Pentatone presents a diverse range of world-class artists, and is dedicated to premium quality productions captured in exceptional sound. The label works together with today and tomorrow’s leading artists to provide timeless recordings of core, fringe, and lesser-known repertoire, with Pentatone’s uncompromising attention to the best possible quality in artistry, design and recording technology.
The label was founded in the Netherlands in 2001 by three former Philips Classics executives, with the ambition to offer classical music in the highest quality including surround sound. In its first years, Pentatone engaged Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton and Sophia Loren, in a Grammy-winning recording of Prokofiev’s Peter & the Wolf (released in Spanish with Antonio Banderas), with Kent Nagano conducting the Russian National Orchestra. Another early success was a recording of the official music performed during the wedding ceremony of the then Dutch crown prince (now king) Willem-Alexander to Máxima Zorreguieta. The Music from the Royal Wedding, sold more than 75,000 copies, thereby attaining the unique “triple platinum” status in the Netherlands.
During its first decade, the label released several award-winning recordings with violinist Julia Fischer and several complete cycles: Beethoven’s symphonies conducted by Philippe Herreweghe, Beethoven’s piano sonatas performed by Mari Kodama, and Bruckner’s symphonies under the baton of Marek Janowski. Violinist Arabella Steinbacher left her mark on these years and continues with several acclaimed recordings. Later, Pentatone recorded Wagner’s ten mature operas, the only such label to take on this task in the 21st century. From 2013, with a new management team, the label focused on embracing the digital era and expanding its repertoire. New artists and ensembles defined the label’s second decade, including conductors Vladimir Jurowski, René Jacobs and Esa-Pekka Salonen, singers Piotr Beczala, Lisette Oropesa, Javier Camarena, Ian Bostridge and Magdalena Kožená, pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Francesco Piemontesi, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, as well as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Czech Philharmonic.
In recent years, Pentatone has won multiple awards. In 2017, John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles won Best Opera Recording and Best Engineered Album at the 59th Grammy Awards. Two years later, the premiere recording of the Mason Bates opera, The (R)evolution
of Steve Jobs, won a Grammy for Best Opera Recording. Pentatone was awarded Label of the Year in 2019 by Gramophone Magazine and in 2020 by the International Classical Music Awards. Pentatone’s third decade promises to be even more exciting and innovative as we expand our growing and diverse roster of artists, producing the most thrilling recordings in the world.