Catherine Kontz has a newly made film to share – a teaser for her suite for piano Voyage with Don Quixote:
The filmed premiere performance is by Cathy Krier at Mierscher Kulturhaus. Luxembourg.
As the composer tells us, this suite for piano is based on Thomas Mann’s diary, Voyage with Don Quixote;
On his first Atlantic crossing in 1932, the Mann read Cervantes’s Don Quixote de la Mancha and recorded his thoughts. The imposing ocean and slow, reflective pace of the journey offer a nice contrast to the knight’s strange, impulsive adventures: as the journey and book intertwine in the musical narrative, the scenes from the novel are projected onto the changing seascape.
The complex character of Don Quixote is reflected in the diversity of the nine pieces of this suite – at times playful, stubborn, romantic, deranged, thoughtful, noisy, and always adventurous. The pianist takes on the role of a musical knight who must fight not only upon the keys but within the belly of the piano – even, at one point, taking on a dramatic depiction of the famous windmills. As such, the performer must wear a ‘scabbard’ (or other similar implement) upon their back to hold the beaters required for this musical jousting.
Voyage with Don Quixote is proudly available through our online shop as well as other works by Catherine Kontz.
Tags: Catherine Kontz, Cathy Krier, Don Quixote, Suite for Piano, Voyage with Don Quixote