His music grows out of and into silence: Vadim Karassikov’s new ensemble composition in the flame of the dream, a work commissioned by Klangforum Wien, will be premiered in Vienna on 5 December 2008.
In Ekaterinburg, at the border to the Asian part of Russia, the composer Vadim Karassikov lives and works in great seclusion. His works are seldom heard in concert halls, but when they are performed, they elicit reactions ranging from complete astonishment to enthusiasm. Karassikov notates his scores with precise differentiation, “aspirates” the pages of music with a fragile pencil calligraphy which could also be shown in exhibitions of contemporary graphics. The vagueness of the extremely precise, yet sensitive notation corresponds with the music, for its dynamic level hovers around the border of the audible. If you compare the complex texture of the notated music with the result in performance, then you’re surprised at first, for the major part remains inaudible: Karassikov’s musical formulation defies convention of any kind.
His aim isn’t to avoid some conventions by simple negation, which then for their part become private conventions. Instead of this, the composer points out that in his music, he acknowledges a kind of analogy to that which surrounds us every day both inwardly and outwardly. Also from this, a major part remains below the threshold of awareness, but is nevertheless present and subliminally decisive. Many of the inaudible passages in his music are gesturally significant, for example, through the interpreters’ movement or facial expressions. Others are audible, yet are not evident gesturally; the gestural and the non-gestural, the audible and the inaudible – each in the finest gradations and internal relations – form decisive parameters of his art. As a result of this, the audience learns that the eye can hear and the ear can also see, both senses grow together to form a new one, and Karassikov’s musical dramaturgy is orientated towards this. During the performance, the ears and eyes seem to expand, so that as a listener, you are aware of even the slightest creak of the concert hall floor, the particular sounds of the room, with which this art seems to enter into a previously unheard dialogue. Thanks to the special emphasis on the gestural, performances of Karassikov’s works approach a theatrical act, without becoming music theatre. He himself describes his compositions, in the absence of a pre-existing term, as “stage art”.
For performers and public alike, an encounter with his art represents an enrichment, especially as one experiences the gestural as an integral part of a composition and its interpretation. This natural awareness of gestural-musical connections, which is natural, yet not always present, should also have a sensitising effect on encounters with traditional repertoire. Performances of his compositions will then above all be experienced as exceptional concert experiences and retained in the memory, if one approaches his music with an open mind, for in Karassikov’s works nothing is predictable, except for the fact that they are extremely quiet.
in the flame of the dream for ensemble is the title of Vadim Karassikov’s new work, commissioned by Klangforum Wien. It consists of pieces for one instrument which can be performed individually, or can be combined into duos, trios, quartets or tutti in every possible combination, and performed together simultaneously. On 5 December 2008, the parts of the works which exist at that date will be premiered in Vienna.
Michael Töpel
aus: takte 2/2008
Hearing eyes, seeing ears. Vadim Karassikov and his latest work
Review
At the festival MaerzMusik Berlin two versions of In the flame of the dream were premiered by the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (22.3.2009). +++ In the flame of the dream for Ensemble was premiered by Klangforum Wien in Vienna at the Konzerthaus (5.12.2008).