Maciej Bałenkowski Space-time

PROGRAMME NOTES CONTINUED

Maciej Bałenkowski Space-time

For some time I had been looking for an element in Beethoven’s output that would inspire me in a special way to make my own creative attempts. Beethoven was the first composer to use dynamic contrasts on such a large scale, and I decided to use this feature of his music and combine it with another inspiration present in my music almost from the very beginning: space-time. This piece became a kind of experiment, because I used the orchestral texture in a very unusual way. During the first minutes of the piece, each instrumental line carries out individual dynamic cycles at a separate time from the others. Unusual manipulation of dynamics in the wind instruments results in the appearance and hiding of subsequent threads, their overlapping at different moments causing a sense of movement inside the orchestra. Another very important element of this composition are its timbres and methods of producing sound. I used timbres such as molto sul ponticello, a ‘pendulum’ effect, and the noise of the air extracted from wind instruments. All these effects are aimed at gaining space in music. In the fast second movement, the interlocking threads continue. A parallel narrative takes place here, introducing an apparent but controlled chaos in music, which is intended to reflect certain features of space-time.

Maciej Bałenkowski

born 1993 From 2017–20 Maciej Bałenkowski studied at the Academy of Music in Kraków, becoming the last student of the late Krzysztof Penderecki. From 2012–17 he studied composition under Robert Kurdybacha at the Academy of Music in Wrocław, graduating in 2017 with distinction. He also honed his skills during exchange studies at the Hochschule der Künste Bern and the Conservatorio superior de música ‘Joaquín Rodrigo’ in Valencia. Maciej’s works have been performed worldwide, and he is the winner and finalist of over 25 international composition prizes including the 2018 Respighi Prize. His compositions have been perfomed by the Chamber Orchestra of New York, Vancouver Chamber Choir, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, Glasparlenspiel Sinfonietta, Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra (New York City), Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra (Budapest), Sinfonietta Cracovia, Sound Factory Orchestra and many others, in such significant concert halls as Carnegie Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, Moscow Conservatory Concert Hall, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Utrecht Philharmonie, and many others.