Listen to pieces I did not compose but played

Listen to versions of myPlay Station Portable made by random people

Here are extracts of pieces which I did not compose but played (which happens). The most recent extracts are at the bottom because I add them as I go along.

Triolisme, John Menoud (whom we loudly applaud)
It’s a piece for saxophone, cello and balloon. John is playing the saxophone and the balloon (not at the same time, one of the two parts is pre-recorded, it’s the concept). I played this when I was young.

Patterns in a chromatic field (beginning), Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman’s famous 90 minutes piece for piano and cello. Here are the first 20 minutes. Why the first 20 minutes? Because it is the ppp part of the piece. Then it is ppppp until the end (for real). Lucie Mauch is playing the piano (bravo).

Trema, Heinz Holliger
Here is a very noisy recording, and yet the cellist that we can still hear is me.

La Chaconne, Heinz Holliger
So here I play Holliger’s Chaconne. One is still not sure if it has been written for Paul Sacher or for Tom and Jerry. The cracks of the parquet we can hear come from the dancer Alain Christen who was improvising a baroque chaconne on the piece. We had fun.

Go on living is impossible, Leung Xiao-Lan
So here my only responsibility was to play correctly, with the mixing table, Leung Xiao-Lan’s four tracks piece during the retrospective of hers that was taking place at the théâtre du grütli. Hell of a piece, if I may say.

La lugubre gondola, Franz Liszt
In a totally different style, here is one of Lucie Mauch and myself’s favourite pieces. She is playing the piano and I am on the cello, in March 2008 in Morges.

Aquila Altera, 1st movement and 2nd movement, Jacopo da Bologna
Here is a duet by Anne Gillot (recorder) and me (baroque cello). We play for one of le Car de Thon’s impro labs, whose name is “free improvisation, baroque obstructions”, in which we put together baroque pieces filtered and served with different amounts of contemporary sauce (in this precise case we are being quite nice: we add silences and a tremulating continuo), with free improvisations that are “framed”, let’s say with obstructions. All the pieces are in crossfade, so when you are done listening to these two movements, run to the "listen to pieces where I improvise" section and click on the matching extract of this very same lab, in order to hear the unbelievable improvisation that just followed this piece. A word to the wise is enough.

Aus den Sieben Tagen : Setz die Segel zur Sonne and Es, Karlheinz Stockhausen
On the 12th of April 2008, le Car de Thon was invited to the festival Archipel to play the full “Aus den Sieben Tagen”, from 2:30pm to 12:30am. It was cool, and with: Yannick Barman: trumpet and electronic; Brice Catherin: cello and electronic; Vincent Daoud: saxophone; Jean Keraudran: filters, spatialisation, sound engineer; Christian Magnusson: trumpet; Benoît Moreau: clarinet and piano; Luc Müller: percussions; Cyril Regamey: percussions; Jocelyne Rudasigwa: double bass. Here are two of the pieces.

Grand duo: 4th movement, Galina Ustvolskaya
That was on the 4th of April 2009 with Lucie Mauch on the piano and Brice Catherin on the cello in Carouge (Switzerland).

The last one of the 3 pieces opus 11, Anton Webern
That was on the 3rd of April 2009 with Lucie Mauch on the piano and Brice Catherin on the cello in Carouge (Switzerland).

Ricercare 1, Domenico Gabrielli
That was on the 3rd of April 2009 in solo in Carouge (Switzerland).

Le début de Two5 de John Cage
C'était le 7 juin 2009 avec Lucie Mauch au piano et Brice Catherin au violoncelle, à Morges (Suisse).

The beginning of Two2, John Cage
That was on the 7th of June 2009 with Lucie Mauch on the piano and Brice Catherin on the 2nd piano in Morges (Switzerland).