Pedja Muzijevic: Live at Tippet Rise
Right off the bat, three of Domenico Scarlatti’s 555 sonatas offer an 18th century musical depiction of a turbulent drama, heartfelt operatic duet, and a cheeky chase, all in the space of eight minutes. Talk about efficiency!
Pianist Pedja Muzijevic
Highly Biased Thoughts on the Program Sometimes programs seem like a dinner with an appetizer, main dish, and a dessert, and sometimes they resemble a series of small dishes at a tapas bar. This program is definitely the latter. But make no mistake: Small dishes do not mean small flavors.
We then go to the new world—both as in the United States and the new world of sound-making in Henry Cowell’s Aeolian Harp. Our friends playing string instruments got to make unorthodox sounds on their instruments—plucking the strings, making the sound with the wooden part of their bow, playing behind the bridge, etc.—starting in the 17th century. We only got to reach inside the piano in the 20th century. So when Henry Cowell asks us to strum and pluck the strings, we finally felt like the cool kids! Let’s go back to Spain and the music of Enrique Granados. Spain, you might say? But that guy, Scarlatti, wasn’t he Italian?
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Sort of. Scarlatti was born in Naples, but spent most of his life as the music instructor of the Portuguese princess, and later on Spanish queen, Maria Barbara. Granados wrote his epic piano cycle Goyescas between 1909 and 1912, and it consists of six works full of pathos and passion inspired by drawings and paintings by Francisco Goya. I play the second work in the cycle, “Conversation at the Window.” We can’t really speak about Spanish composers of this period without mentioning Paris. But wait! We just got to Spain. I know, I know… Granados, like so many other Spanish composers of the time, studied in Paris, which takes us to the music of Erik Satie and Claude Debussy in this program. The moment I think of music in Paris in the early 20th century, I can’t help but think about the salon of Princesse de Polignac (born Winnaretta Singer, the heiress of the Singer sewing machine fortune). So much of this music got its private first perfor-
mance, or avant-premières, there (including Debussy’s L’isle joyeuse from this program). Next up—John Cage! You just never know what you will get with Cage. And that’s so much fun! It could be the most original sounds coming out of a piano with screws and bolts placed between strings, it could be a radio or a blender, silence or lack of silence. Or it could be In a Landscape—one of the most serene nocturnes ever written. When I first entered Tippet Rise and saw those (as advertised!) big skies, Cage’s In a Landscape was the first music that came to my mind. Time to go back to Europe. Germany in the 1830s, to be a bit more precise. I first learned Schumann’s Carnaval in 1982 and have played it on and off ever since. I never get tired of this procession of finely defined characters, book-cased with a grand overture and even grander final march. Some of these characters are real, some are imagined, but, hey, what is actually real? It’s a piano concert, after all.
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The Piano
Tippet Rise is many things. It is a 12,000-acre working ranch. It has awe-inspiring land sculptures.It has one of the most perfect chamber music halls anywhere. It is also an unofficial kingdom of pianos. There are 11 Steinway grand pianos at Tippet Rise and three Steinway concert grands with four different sounds in the concert hall in thw Olivier Music Barn. Huh, you say? Well. One of the pianos—we call it by its serial number, CD–18—has two different actions…New York and Hamburg action. Since piano action consists of keys and hammers and piano sound is created when hammers meet the strings, that piano has two completely different sounds It is that particular piano, made in 1940, with New York action in it that I played in this concert. Most of us pianists don’t travel with our own pianos. As you may have guessed, it’s kind of
impractical. That means that we play on different pianos all the time. Many concert halls have only one concert grand, and I’ve trained myself to instantly fall in love with it. It’s just easier that way. Some places have more than one piano, and then you have to select and commit to one of them. That’s hard! I first played at Tippet Rise in 2017. I tried all the pianos in the hall, and CD-18 and I didn’t hit it off. I laid my hands on it and, well, it just didn’t work out. I ended up playing a New York Steinway we call Seraphina. She is a distinguished lady of a certain age (born in 1897…don’t judge me for revealing a lady’s age) and exquisite elegance. When I came back in 2018, I was looking forward to hanging out with Seraphina again. All the pianos were prepared for the selection by our amazing piano technician, Mike Toia, so I felt obliged to try them all again.
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And then the unexpected happened! I started playing CD-18 with the New York action and couldn’t stop. So that’s the piano I play in this recording. What piano did I play in 2019, you might wonder? Patience, patience….
The Event
This program was recorded in concert on July 13, 2018, at the Olivier Music Barn at Tippet Rise Arts Center. It contains the freshest and most heartfelt mishaps and wrong notes I could offer on that particular day. They happened then, there and never again. That’s the beauty of live performance. I promise to make all new mistakes next time.
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Friday, July 13, 2018, 6:30 PM The Olivier Music Barn Pedja Muzijevic, piano DOMENICO SCARLATTI: Sonata in F Minor, K. 519 Sonata in C-sharp Minor, K. 247 Sonata in F Major, K. 17 HARRY COWELL: Aeolian Harp ENRIQUE GRANADOS: “Coloquio en la Reja” (Conversation at the Window) from Goyescas ERIK SATIE: Les trois valses distinguées du précieux dégoûté (Three Distinguished Waltzes of a Jaded Dandy) CLAUDE DEBUSSY: L’isle joyeuse INTERMISSION JOHN CAGE: In a Landscape ROBERT SCHUMANN: Carnaval, Op. 9 Préambule – Pierrot – Arlequin – Valse noble – Eusebius – Florestan – Coquette – Réplique – Papillons – A.S.C.H.-S.C.H.A (Lettres dansantes) – Chiarina – Chopin – Estrella – Reconnaissance – Pantalon et Colombine – Valse Allemande – Paganini – Aveu – Promenade – Pause – Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins 9 Live at Tippet Rise
Pianist Pedja Muzijevic
has defined his career with creative programming, unusual combinations of new and old music, and lasting collaborations with artists and ensembles. Pedja’s symphonic engagements include performances with the Atlanta Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica in Montevideo, Residentie Orkest in The Hague, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Shinsei Nihon Orchestra in Tokyo, and Zagreb Philharmonic. He has played solo recitals at Alice Tully Hall in New York, Mostly Mozart Festival Little Night Music series, 92Y and The Frick Collection in New York, Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, MI, Terrace Theater at Kennedy Center, Dumbarton Oaks, the Phillips Collection and National Gallery in Washington, DC,
for Carolina Performing Arts at UNC Chapel Hill, and Honens Festival in Calgary, Toronto Summer Music, Music in the Morning in Vancouver, McGill University in Montreal, Casals Hall and Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile, Da Camera of Houston, for Arizona Friends of Chamber Music in Tucson, Lane Series at University of Vermont, Spoleto Festival USA, Bay Chamber Concerts, Aldeburgh Festival in Great Britain, and many others. His Carnegie Hall concerto debut playing Mozart Concerto K. 503 with Oberlin Symphony and Robert Spano was recorded live and has been released on the Oberlin Music label. His festival appearances include Spoleto USA Festival in Charleston, Ravinia, Tippet Rise Arts Center in Montana, Ottawa Chamberfest, Verbier Festival Unlimited series, Orchestra of St. Luke’s Bach Festival and Lincoln Center’s
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Mostly Mozart and White Light festivals in New York, Bay Chamber Concerts in Maine, Moab Music Festival and Maverick Concerts in Woodstock. Pedja’s interdisciplinary projects include touring with Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project throughout the United States, South America, Europe, and Asia and with Simon Keenlyside in Trisha Brown’s staged version of Schubert’s Winterreise at Lincoln Center in New York, Barbican in London, La Monnaie in Brussels, Opera National de Paris, as well as Holland, Lucerne, and Melbourne festivals. In 2018 he premiered Framing Time— collaboration with dancer/choreographer Cesc Gelabert and lighting designer Burke Brown on music of Morton Feldman for Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival in New York and consequently performed it in Leverkusen, Germany and Barcelona, Spain and in 2019, he performed with Heginbotham Dance in a dance theater
work called Herz Schmerz, based on texts by Robert Walser. Combining his two passions, music and food, Pedja performed works by Ravel and Mussorgsky followed by a multicourse dinner prepared by chef David Bouley in his Test Kitchen in New York. Pedja’s solo recordings include Haydn Dialogues (live recording of a recital program of four Haydn sonatas interspersed with works by Jonathan Berger, John Cage, and Morton Feldman) and Sonatas and Other Interludes (juxtaposing Sonatas and Interludes by John Cage with composers ranging from W. F. Bach and D. Scarlatti to F. Liszt and R. Schumann). His discography also includes the aforementioned Mozart Piano Concerto K. 503 with Oberlin Symphony and Robert Spano, recorded in concert at Carnegie Hall, and two CDs on 18th and 19th century fortepianos—a Schumann Salon and Mozart and Beethoven Quintets for piano and woodwinds.
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Pedja Muzijevic was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and studied piano with Vladimir Krpan at the Academy of Music in Zagreb. He came to the United States in 1984 to continue his education at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Juilliard School in New York. His mentors included pianists Joseph Kalichstein and Jerome Lowenthal and harpsichordist Albert Fuller. Pedja is the artistic administrator at Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York, artistic advisor to Tippet Rise Arts Center in Montana, and he also directs a residency at the Banff Centre in Canada called Concert in 21st Century. In all these roles he looks at the concert experience, both in programming and presentation, and questions what we can do to make it more relevant today. He lives in New York City and, in his free time, he enjoys cooking for friends and seeing performances in all disciplines. Pedja Muzijevic 12
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Technical Specifications Recorded Live on: July 13, 2018 Recording Engineers: Monte Nickles, Jim Ruberto, Philip Tock Sound Editor: Jim Ruberto Mixed and Mastered by: Monte Nickles Performer: Pedja Muzijevic Piano: CD-18 Recorded in Auro3D format for immersive playback mixed down to stereo in 32bit 384kHz DXD. Microphones used: Main array: Left: DPA 4041a Right: DPA 4041a Center: DPA 4041a Sur L: DPA 4041a Sur R: DPA 4041a Height FL: DPA 4006a with 50mm APE Height FR: DPA 4006a with 50mm APE
Height RL: DPA 4006a with 50mm APE Height RR: DPA 4006a with 50mm APE Spot Microphones: DPA 4006a’s inside piano DPA 4006a’s as tail side ORTF Microphone preamps: Grace M802's Converters: Merging Technology’s HAPI and HORUS with Premium converter cards DAW: Merging Technology’s Pyramix
Flip Book Design and Layout: Craig M. White Photography: Erik Petersen, Emily Rund Text: Pedja Muzijevic Pianist: Pedja Muzijevic
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On Friday, April 10th, Pedja Muzijevic’s solo piano recital, performed at Tippet Rise
Art Center in the Olivier Music barn on July 13, 2018, was live streamed!
Enjoy this film, which features additional commentary from Pedja and Tippet Rise co-founder, Peter Halstead. tippetrise.org/films/pedja-muzijevic-tippet-rise-art-center-july-13-2018
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The Tippet Rise Downloads Library Frequently Asked Questions Peter Halstead
How to play a track 1. Click on the arrow on your chosen track and listen. Many computers after 2016 can play high-quality sound.
If no sound Your computer may not be able to read the chosen track. You can upgrade your sound by adding a converter and headphones (see the lists under FAQs).
Here’s how to attach them to your computer:
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To add a converter and headphones 1. Plug the items in: Computer + USB cable + converter + headphones 2. Double-click on the TRACK you’d like to hear. 3. Go have lunch while it downloads. It could take five minutes to half an hour, depending on your internet speed. 4. You’ll see the ICON for the track in your downloads window. You can play it from there. 5. If it feels more convenient, drag it to your desktop. 6. Double-click the ICON. You might see a PLAYBACK WINDOW with controls to pause, stop, play. 7. Figure out how to turn the sound up and down on your computer. 8. Put the SOUND down LOW. 9. Put on the headphones. 10. Push PLAY in the PLAYBACK WINDOW. 11. Turn up the sound until you can hear the music comfortably, on both the converter and your computer. (Note that you may have turn up your computer’s sound in its PREFERENCES window in its SETTINGS.)
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I can’t hear the tracks that I’ve downloaded. - Make sure you can hear other things, like YouTube. Make sure the volume is up. Check Settings: Sound. If you still can’t hear anything, your computer may not be able to play DXD files. You can simply add a converter (see our converter listings below). You can then plug headphones into the converter.
I can’t get the sound loud enough on my computer. - Make sure the sound bar is all the way up in Setting: Sound, and on your computer dashboard. If it’s still too quiet, you can simply add a converter (see our converter listings below). You can then plug headphones into the converter. The headphone volume control on the converter will provide excellent volume.
What is the advantage of “high resolution”? - It sounds like you’re actually there in the room with the musicians in a good recording session. If it’s a great piano or violin or cello, you can tell.
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What are the kinds of high resolution? - There’s 16/44.1, 24/88.2, 24/96, 24/192, 24/356, 32/384, and 32/768 (the highest). The first number shows the length of each digital “word,” such as 16 bits. The second number shows how many thousand times a second the word “samples” (that is, records) the original sound. “44.1” means the track visits the sound 44,100 times a second. 16/44.1 is the measurement (or resolution) of the sound on a CD.
What is a sampling rate? - The higher the sampling rate, the more accurate the description. The computer actually visits the original master tape as many as 768,000 times a second. This is written 768 kHz (kiloHertz, or a thousand vibrations), as in 32/768.
What is DXD? - It’s short for Digital Extreme Definition. DXD is a recording format that uses a very high sampling rate of 24/352.8 to 32/384. Merging Technologies and Pyramix incorporated the DXD format into their workstations to provide a higher standard than was available at that time. Initially it was used as a master file from which lower resolutions were extracted. DXD Data is transferred three
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times faster than with DSD64, and is eight times larger than a CD’s transfer rate. It has a more exacting sonic response and lower noise than other formats. The Norwegian recording company 2L has pioneered its use and its marketing. The Pyramix System is used by a few high-end studios and symphony orchestras.
Is DXD better than vinyl? - Originally, performers were recorded in 17 channels by RCA. But no one could figure out how to put more than one channel into the side of each groove. So vinyl became mono and then stereo (two channels). After a few plays, vinyl begins to sound scratchy. It also thumps as the physical vinyl disk wobbles, because the plastic mold warps over time. Dust on the disk causes pops. DXD has the same warmth as the original master tape, but without the pops, thumps, and scratches of vinyl. It also has the potential to play back as many as 10 channels.
Are headphones better than loudspeakers? - A cheap $60 pair of Dr. Dre “Beats” headphones sounds as good as a stereo costing an awful lot. Headphones sound better than speakers generally because their sound goes immediately into your ear, with no friction from the air or from distance to degrade the sound waves. When you sit 10 feet from a speaker, you lose a surprisingly large amount of the sound by the time it reaches you.
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There are great headphones from Sony, AKG, Sennheiser, Bose, Beyer, B&W. Grado, Focal, Audeze, Stax, Shure, HiFiMan, and Sonoma make more expensive headphones, with diminishing returns.
Can I just plug headphones into my computer? - Yes. Apple computers can play files up to 32/384. Using the headphone miniplug, just plug in your headphones and hit play on the computer. Other computer brands may need a converter plugged into their USB port (with head phones attached) to play resolutions higher than 24/96.
What is a converter? - A converter is a unit which converts sound waves from digital modes (which the ear can’t hear) to analogue waveforms (which is what our ears can hear). Digital files, vinyl records, compact disks, DVDs, and Blu-rays need to be translated into the waveforms which our ears hear as frequencies. The technical term for a converter is a Digital-to-Analogue Converter, or DAC. Today, you can plug a DAC the size of a pencil sharpener into one of the ports of your computer and then plug headphones (or speakers) into that DAC. - Many headphones sound just fine by themselves. Other kinds require a boost in volume. Many DACs have amplifiers in them, so you just plug and play.
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Is there a difference in quality between cheap and expensive DACs? - Not always. For instance, the iFi Nano “LeDAC,” for $139, can handle files up to 384 kHz. You can spend thousands of dollars for a DAC with the same chip and the sound will be exactly the same.
What is a “chip”? - A chip is a minuscule wafer with wires in it. The wires form an integrated circuit, which conducts electricity. Sometimes wires aren’t full conductors, like copper, but can be made of very inexpensive materials like silicon (sand) or even biomaterials which use human biological material. There are various bands. Sabre chips can make an inexpensive converter sound as good as an expensive one which also uses Sabre chips. Burr-Brown chips, now made by Texas Instruments, are also very good. Different models of these chips are hard to tell apart. The Topping DX7 retrieves more detail from complicated classical files, and thus produces greater depth in the music. Crystal, ESS, and AKM all produce fine chips.
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Why are some DACs more expensive? - Using different materials and different designs of circuits will produce different results, so you pay for the “room” or the configuration in which the chip is seated, not the chip. For instance, a moderately sized engine in a Tesla or a Lexus will produce faster acceleration than a Ferrari, because an electric motor has no gears and thus no friction to slow it down.
How can I hear multichannel sound? - Headphones and cellphones can produce only two channels of sound for our two ears. But a stereo system or a home theater nowadays may have five or more speakers to create the effect of being surrounded by sound.
Is multichannel sound better than stereo? - Two stereo channels over headphones can capture so much accurate and deep sound that you don’t need a room with a dozen speakers. That being said, if you have guests for dinner, the most practical way to listen to music or a movie is to have a stereo system so everyone can hear at once.
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If you have more speakers, the music seems to come from everywhere, rather than just one point. This creates the psychological effect of being in the original hall where the music was recorded. The music vibrates more, and is thus more “reverberant” or “resonant.”
What about room sound? Curtains, rugs, and couches absorb sound. Concrete walls and floors make sound bounce back and thus reflect sound, although they can be harsh sounding. If your room has a nice balance between being absorptive and reflective, then your speakers will sound better. Too much furniture absorbs too many frequencies. Cement walls echo too much. So you need to compromise, and have a room that is well “tuned,” or “balanced.” Then you need good amplifiers with the same power on every speaker, and good speakers. Speakers are mostly directional, so the chairs have to be in the “sweet spot,” where all the frequencies come together. The incredible sound from DXD surround makes it worthwhile, if you want to feel like you’re in the original hall.
But is an expensive stereo better than headphones? - $70 headphones and a good $140 DAC will sound as good, if only one person is listening.
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Can two people listen on headphones at the same time? - Yes. You can buy a “splitter,” which splits the signal to two different sets of headphones. Some headphone amps and DACs come with two jacks for two sets of headphones.
Can I hear high resolution on my mobile phone? Apple phones can play “FLAC completely lossless,” “ALAC uncompressed lossless,” and “AIFF lossy” codecs. But this requires fast bandwidth transmission speeds. Apple Music transmits at 256 kbps (thousand bytes per second), so that any cell phone can play Apple’s streams. Deezer Premium, Spotify, Slacker, Tidal Premium, and Google Play require 320 kbps. Napster requires 320 kbps for the ideal quality in streaming its files. Pandora requires 300 kbps for the best results. But you can have mediocre results at 150 kbps. Deezer Elite requires 5 mbps for FLAC files, and 10 mbps for multiple FLAC streams. Tidal HiFi requires 1.411 mbps.
Can I use a DAC on my cellphone? - The Apple “Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter” has a built-in lightning port, which works on Apple cellphones.
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Are there other kinds of formats for high resolution? - There’s Sony’s DSD, or Direct Stream Digital, which uses a “Delta Sigma” waveform, which is digital, but strangely has the same shape as a similar audio wave. SACDs use this DSD format. The wave shapes we use aren’t DSD, but PCM (pulse-code modulation), which we feel conveys more dynamic range and accurately conveys sudden shifts in volume, such as a sudden drum beat or a lunge at the piano during a Beethoven sonata. Many of the DACs recommended below also read DSD high-resolution files, which many people prefer for their smoothness.
Here is an incomplete list of some converters that I’ve run across which provide high resolution and cost below $1,000: themasterswitch.com has up-todate listings for all sorts of audio components, such as speakers, amps, and DACs. Audiolab MDAC Nano ($195) 32/384 kHZ Audio Adapter HD ($199) 32/384 Resonessence Herus ($350) 384kHz FiiO Q1 Mark II ($100) 384kHz TEAC NT-503 ($899) 384kHz Chord Mojo Portable DAC ($579) 768kHz
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iFi Audio xDSD ($399) 768kHz iFi Nano iOne DAC ($199) 384kHz iFi Micro iDSD Black Label ($599) 768kHz iFi Nano iDSD Black Label DAC and Amp with MQA ($199) 384kHz iFi xDSD Portable DAC Amplifier with Bluetooth ($409) 768kHz, MQA, DSD 256 iFi Nano iDSD LE DAC ($139) 384kHz iFi Nano iDSD DAC ($199) ifi Micro DAC2 ($379) 384 kHz Optoma NuForce High-Res Mobile uDAC5 ($199) 384kHz Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus ($349.99) 384kHz Pro-Ject Pre Box S2 Digital Preamplifier and DAC ($399) 768kHz Pro-Ject DAC Box S2 Plus ($249) 768kHz NuPrime uDSD USB DAC ($179) 384kHz  HEADPHONES AKG K240 semi-open pro studio headphones ($69) Sennheiser closed open-back studio headphones ($150) Sennheiser HD 202 II Professional Headphones ($139) Sennheiser HD200 Pro Headphones ($68) Grado SR80e Prestige Series Wired Open Back Stereo Headphones ($99) Audio-Technica ATH-M30x Pro Monitor Headphones ($76)
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Pedja Muzijevic: Live at Tippet Rise