The Finnish conductor Ari Rasilainen and the Lower Saxony State Orchestra present rarely performed treasures from Jean Sibelius’ extensive oeuvre and create a concert event for the eyes and ears together with video artist Tal Rosner.
The musical range spans from Sibelius' first symphonic poem En Saga (op.9) to the dramatic Night Ride and Sunrise (op.55). In between there are other pearls like Scene with Cranes from the incidental music Kuolema (Death); the rousing Ballade from the incidental music of King Kristian II; the mythical Swan of Tuonela, which orbits the dead island Tuonela in the Kalevala, with a famous solo for English horn; as well as two works for soprano and orchestra: the early Arioso (op. 3) and the later tone poem Luonnotar (op. 70) about the origin of the stars from the womb of the heavenly daughter of the same name.
The Israeli-British video artist Tal Rosner works with musicians and theatre makers from across the performing arts spectrum. He has realised concert projects in recent years for the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra London, and was celebrated by the press for this very concert: "Rosner counterpointed the score brilliantly".
As a commissioned work, he visually interprets the music of Jean Sibelius for for the first time.
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Composer: Jean Sibelius
Conductor: Ari Rasilainen
Soprano: Hailey Clark
With thanks to Stephan Zillias
Video Art + Raumkonzept: Tal Rosner
Lighting Design: Elana Siberski
Dramaturge: Swantje Köhnecke
Format: 5 channel, approx 80 min
Commissioned by Staatsoper Hannover Orchestra, 2021.
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Additional Animation: Darren Culley, Sam Munnings
Stage Manager: Anastasiya Bobrykova
Programmers: Matthias Jungnickel, Boris Lamers
Live Stream Director: Bernhard Fleischer
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Photos: Ralf Mohr
Le Tombeau de Couperin is a suite for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, composed between 1914 and 1917. The piece is in six movements, based on those of a traditional Baroque suite. Each movement is dedicated to the memory of a friend of the composer (or in one case, two brothers) who had died fighting in WWI. Toccata is the 6th and final movement.
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Composed by Maurice Ravel
Piano: Orion Weiss
Video by Tal Rosner
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Commissioned by Classical New York WQXR as part of its Artist Propulsion Lab.
ARTIST STATEMENT
When approaching Scriabin’s Prometheus: Poem of Fire, well known for its original conception as an audiovisual piece, I naturally began with a detailed analysis of the famously enigmatic “clavier à lumières” color-coded score. Once colors were allocated to every section, and sometimes every bar, I continued to develop imagery which felt right for the music, mostly as the tool in my hands (in this case: a video screen) allows me to explore more than color alone, but also shapes and forms, movement and animation.
Repeatedly listening to various recordings of Prometheus, I found the piece to be extremely complex and deceptively simple at the same time. Like a memory game or a jigsaw puzzle where the more you play, the more you believe you can decipher; however, the experience will prove to be as challenging on your next round. From that point on I accepted a certain element of magic or alchemy in my experience of the piece: ever elusive and never the same.
Through turbulent meanderings in space, whether outer—or an interior realm (open to interpretation of course!), I take the audience on a journey of color and also Creation, where stars are born and universes collide, where fire is the force that keeps us turning, but could easily bring us to our own demise. With a dash of humor, and a few secret codes, I follow the threads left for me by the omnipresent composer as if they were launch pads.
Associations, contemplations, dream-like states…all are at play in this truly monolithic piece of art, to which I humbly add another angle, graphic and personal to me. Implementing order in chaos, or vice versa, in a wild cosmic dance.
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Composer: Alexander Scriabin (1910)
Conductor: Louis Langrée
Video Artist: Tal Rosner
Format: 1 channel, approx 25 min
Commissioned by Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, 2020.
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Additional Animation: Darren Culley, David Shepherd
Programmer: Shawn Duan
Score: Wilbur Lin
Video Technical Director: Brandon Kraemer
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Photos: Mikki Schaffner
Lament is a sound and video installation that takes its inspiration from a 1969 poem of the same name by renowned Toronto artist bpNichol. Created collaboratively by video artist Tal Rosner and composer Christopher Mayo, the work is an homage to Nichol that incorporates the techniques of repetition and abstraction which are at the heart of the poet's intent, both in style of writing and in performance.
The installation also celebrates the work of Nichol's fellow poet d.a. levy to whom the original poem was dedicated. levy was charged with distributing obscenity relating to his poetry in his home city of Cleveland and died from suicide in 1968.
With an integration of music, spoken word, images, animations, and video, Lament highlights the repeated text "you are city hall, my people," and investigates the inherent themes of the poem: civic politics and the responsibility of each citizen for the actions of their government. The project realizes Nichol's original ambition for the work, which was to deliver this poem over the loudspeaker system at Toronto City Hall.
This project was created with the support of the Estate of bpNichol with thanks to the Estates of Viljo Revell, Eric Arthur, and d.a. levy, and the Toronto Public Library.
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Composer: Christopher Mayo (2018)
Video Artist: Tal Rosner
Format: 2 HD channels, 8 min
Commissioned by Nuit Blanche Toronto, 2018.
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Curated by Karen Alexander
Producer: Jeanne Holmes
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Photos: Andrew Williamson, Priam Thomas
In Foreign Bodies, visual artist Tal Rosner presents a hyper-synched video interpretation of the orchestral piece, drawing inspiration from action paintings and expressionist abstractions.
By animating textural shifts and instrumental gestures, and by manipulating live-feed images of both players and conductor on stage, the performance will in effect become a closed circuit – where the flow of sound and projected images are inherently intertwined.
The elemental yet simple approach is rooted in Salonen’s own reading of his composition, prioritising “the physical reality of the music, i.e. the sound itself”, and celebrates the wild rhythmical variety in the piece.
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Composer: Esa-Pekka Salonen (2001)
Video Artist: Tal Rosner
Format: 1 HD channel, with added live manipulation, approx 20 min
Commissioned by The New York Philharmonic, USA 2018. Performed live at Lincoln Center's Geffen Hall.
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Production
Technical Director, Video Software: David Shepherd
Technical Director, Video Hardware: Nick Joyce
Producer: Lizzie Pocock
Executive Producer: Sam Pattinson
Produced by Treatment Ltd
With thanks to Matt Swoboda at Notch
Special thanks to Disguise for the provision of their software on hardware solution, which has been used at the heart of the Foreign Bodies production.
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Photos: Chris Lee
In Disenchanted Island, composer Olga Neuwirth re-created the antiphonic acoustic space of the Venetian San Lorenzo church in a black-box gallery environment, webbed with multiple speakers. Tal Rosner’s digital assemblages, some simple and some complex, illustrate the soundscape with an additional perspective. Using photographic and imaginary fragments of San Lorenzo’s architecture and its surroundings as his base, he processes the forms in a way that allows new viewpoints, rooted in the principles of parametric design.
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Composer: Olga Neuwirth (2017)
Video Artist: Tal Rosner
Format: 2 HD channels, 20 min
Commissioned by IRCAM, France 2017. Part of Imprimer le monde exhibition at Centre Georges Pompidou.
With thanks to David Shepherd and Yann Philippe.
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Photos: Hervé Veronese, Markus Noisternig.
A video interpretation of Benjamin Britten’s Passacaglia (Op. 33b), commissioned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra to complement my existing video-set for the Four Sea Interludes. In the piece I continue to follow architectural elements into abstraction, this time in my home-town––from the Barbican’s brutalist silhouettes to Blackfriars Bridge. While operating the video live on stage, I became a part of the ensemble: visible to audiences and musicians alike. The piece premiered at Aldeburgh Music Festival in June ‘15 and made its London premiere at the Barbican Hall in February ‘16 .
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Format: HD, approx. 10 min. [approx. 30 min. with the Four Sea Interludes]
Direction, design and animation: Tal Rosner
Commissioned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Aldeburgh Music, UK 2015-16.
© Rehearsal photos: Garry Maclennan
Tehillim is a piece of video-choreography, set to Steve Reich's 1981 masterpiece. Utilising two channels of projection, artist Tal Rosner invites us to experience an ever-changing counterpoint of call and response, and dive into its musical world––surrounded by shapes and colours, patterns and pulses.
Following grammatical structures in the Hebrew text as they're sung, through repetition to abstraction, Rosner discovers codes of belonging in speech fragments, enhancing the hypnotic power in vocal canons and minimalist vernacular. His interpretation presents us with a journey from Israel to London, exploring psychogeographic and architectural themes from his respective old and newly-found homes.
In a sequence of playful discoveries, where each movement contains its very own microcosm of graphic rhythms and typographic explorations, Rosner conjures the interplay of positive and negative spaces, percussive and stringlike, and their logic, or form, as visual tools to access the inner world of Tehillim and his own interpretation of its emotional core.
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Format: 2 HD channels, 30 min.
Composer: Steve Reich.
Video Artist: Tal Rosner.
Commissioned by the Barbican Centre, UK 2016.
With thanks to Sophie Clements, Darren Culley, Kaan Alpagut, James Egelhofer and Steve Reich.
Recording: 1982 ECM Records GmbH.
© Installation photos: Garry Maclennan
A site-specific installation for Animated Exeter's LIGHTSTREAM.
Filmed on Fore Street, Exeter (UK), on February 15, 2014.
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Directed by Tal Rosner.
Choreographed by Cameron McMillan.
Music: Quartet No. 2 by Joby Talbot.
Recorded by the Duke Quartet.
Filming: Jules Shapter.
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Commissioned by Animated Exeter, supported by Arts Council England, with thank to the Ballet Boyz and Channel 4 Random Acts.
A video interpretation of Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes, commissioned by four leading American orchestras to celebrate the composer’s centenary. In the piece, four video/animation scenarios correspond to the four movements, which, in turn, are inspired by one of the four commissioning cities. Following the conductor as the orchestra plays, the visuals not only reflect rhythm changes and orchestration within the music, but also the rhythms of the panoramas and architectural details of the cities.
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Format: 5 synchronised channels (NWS acoustic sails) or 1 HD, approx. 17 min.
Design, direction and animation: Tal Rosner.
Commissioned by the New World Symphony Miami, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, USA 2013-14.
© Miami Photos: Rui Dias-Aidos
© San Francisco Photos: Kristen Loken
In Seven Days, Piano Concerto with Moving Image, is a multi-media piece for piano, orchestra and six video screens, which follows the Genesis tale of creation. The piece was commissioned by the Royal Festival Hall (then undergoing a massive regeneration) and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, and the source material was footage and stills of these two buildings. The material was then rendered into complex narrative-responsive animations that introduce new figurative forms in synch with the orchestration.
In collaboration with composer Thomas Adès.
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Format: 6 synchronised DV Channels or 1 HD (split-screen), 29 min.
Design, direction and animation: Tal Rosner.
Commissioned by the Southbank Centre London and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, UK-USA 2008.
Inspired by a poem by Josef Albers, Without You* is a visual exploration of London’s industrial suburbia. Focusing on an imaginary circle drawn at a 10 mile radius from Charing Cross, the film follows a colour-coded and surface-determined path where identifiable forms break down and merge into one another, and then periodically reveal themselves.
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Format: HD, 4 min 50 sec.
Design, direction and animation: Tal Rosner.
Commissioned by Animate Projects for Channel 4 in association with Arts Council England, UK 2008.
*Won Best Experimental Film at the London’s Short Film Festival, 2010.
Taking a very pure approach to the sound, this is a graphic representation of Conlon Nancarrow's Player-Piano Study no.7. Drawing inspiration partly from the music roll of the player piano and the experimental film and graphics of the 1920s, geometric elements are introduced, each 'set' representing a motif in the music. As these motifs reappear in the piece so do their graphic counterparts, each time changing and creating new geometric landscapes.
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Format: DV, 6 min 50 sec (film) or approx. 10 min (live performance).
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Directed by Tal Rosner, in collaboration with Sophie Clements.
Music by Conlon Nancarrow.
Commissioned by the Barbican London, UK 2007.
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World Premiere (live performance, arranged for two pianos by Thomas Adès): March 2007 / Pianos: Thomas Adès and Rolf Hind / LSO St. Luke's / London / UK.
A visual interpretation of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s solo violin work. Using images of power cables reminiscent of the violin's strings, Rosner plays with compositions stretching and expanding together with the instrument. But inside, a different world - chaotic and wild - electric currents making their way to our homes, secretly carrying charged magnetic energy. Images of a city-scape at night, all blurred and shaken, are showing us the way. The lines become alive, trembling in the dark, pulsating to the rhythm and the speed. Examining the distance between the two, the far and close-up, the structured and the wild, is inherently the core of the video piece.
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Format: HD, 9 min 45 sec.
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Directed by Tal Rosner.
Music by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Violin: Jennifer Koh.
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Commissioned by Jennifer Koh, Cedille Records, Oberlin Conservatory, 92nd Street Y and Carolina Performing Arts, UK-USA 2009.
Released commercially as part of Rhapsodic Musings: 21st century works for solo violin (© Cedille Records, 2009).
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World Premiere (live version): 29 October 2009 / Violin: Jeniffer Koh / Oberlin Conservatory of Music Ohio / USA.
World Premiere (screening): 22 April 2009 / Tribeca Film Festival / Experimental Collisions Section / New York / USA.
A visual interpretation of Stravinsky’s 2-piano concerto written in 1935. Using layers of footage to create all the graphic elements on the screen, the film turns into a rhythmic sketchbook in motion, constantly alternating between the graphic/abstract and the 'real'. The split-screen division in the first movement reflects both the harmony and the contrast encapsulated within the dialogue between the two piano parts.
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Format: DV, approx. 20 min.
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The piece is constructed of 4 movements:
1. Con Moto.
2. Notturno.
3. Quattro Variazione.
4. Preludio & Fuga.
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Directed by Tal Rosner.
Music by Igor Stravinsky.
Pianos: Katia and Marielle Labèque.
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Commissioned by KML Foundation, UK-France 2006-7.
One of America’s greatest poets, Langston Hughes was a social activist and early innovator of jazz poetry. Hughes distilled the experience of his generation of African Americans into poems that sang in his clear and unapologetic voice. In “In Time of Silver Rain: Seven Poems by Langston Hughes," composer Lior Rosner uses his music to liberate Hughes’ words from the boundaries of historical context. Rosner’s modern settings challenge us to consider the contemporary relevance of Hughes’ frank and often searing meditations on the universal themes of oppression, loss, frustration and love. While the emotions captured in these songs are indeed timeless, beneath the undeniable modernity of Rosner’s music, there are subtle harmonic nods to the jazz that provided the sonic backdrop for the Harlem Renaissance.
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Composed by Lior Rosner.
Soprano: Janai Brugger.
Directed by Tal Rosner.
DoP: Adam Woodhall.
Dancers: Cameron McMillan, Fiona Merz.
