Peter Schuback - - FOR CELLO

nosag cd 128 - [TT 72 mins]

Peter Schuback (b. 1947) is a formidable cellist and prolific composer, with international connections in Stockholm, Köln, Paris and the Americas. He has sent me three of his CDs and I have enjoyed them.

His compositions often focus on instrumental behaviour and "the possibilities of music in a meta-musical meaning" if you know what that means?

This selection is varied and includes Transdecendere which begins in virtuosic mode, to the limits of the playable (or not), reminding one of Ferneyhough's Time and Motion Study II, subsiding to end with 'almost inaudible gestures'.

His Impositioner [nosag cd 067] with pianist Davor Kajfes were recorded with "no preconceptions; they did not even discuss what they should play". A 76 minutes long tape resulted, out of which a selection of 60 minutes was extracted. They explain that "impositions" are something like improvisations; "the possible as it is making itself possible". They are intended "to be heard improvisationally - - without a comprehensive understanding of improvisation".

Worth exploring if you find that intriguing (as I did) more than off-putting. Interesting presentation !

Peter Grahame Woolf

Images: Cecilia Sa Cavalcante Schuback