OXYMORON

Anna Stein­kog­ler &
Valen­tin Butt

From the very first moment they made music tog­e­ther, accor­dio­nist Valen­tin Butt and har­pist Anna Stein­kog­ler felt a strong musi­cal bond, and the exci­ting desi­re to crea­te some­thing power­ful, ent­hral­ling and inten­se­ly emo­tio­nal tog­e­ther. Sin­ce then they have con­ti­nued to deve­lop new per­spec­ti­ves together.

True musi­ci­anship and dedi­ca­ti­on are the key to their own com­pel­ling arran­ge­ments.  They are cer­tain­ly not loo­king for imi­ta­ti­on, but the crea­ti­on of new colours, fric­tion and ten­si­on. The dif­fe­ren­ces bet­ween the per­so­na­li­ty of both musi­ci­ans and instru­ments seem to blend into each other on sta­ge, yet they mana­ge to main­tain both extre­mes at all times.  Their music is an orga­nic and refres­hing take on the encoun­ter of the well-known and the new.

The lack of musi­cal tra­di­ti­ons or role models for this uncom­mon instru­men­ta­ti­on allows Anna Stein­kog­ler and Valen­tin Butt to deve­lop their own indi­vi­du­al musi­cal lan­guage, to explo­re and expand their aes­the­tics. Love for free­dom, lust for expe­ri­ments and a wide ran­ge of gen­res the musi­ci­ans can revert to result in an uncon­ven­tio­nal sound.

OXYMORON — oppo­si­tes attract

Life IS an oxy­mo­ron. Becau­se life is not per­fect and will never be. The­re is no such thing as life without con­tra­dic­tions, fric­tion and ambi­guous­ness. Anna Stein­kog­ler and Valen­tin Butt want their music to media­te bet­ween tho­se extre­mes and to inter­con­nect. Trans­forming oppo­si­tes into ele­gan­ce, into magi­cal moments is the aim.

OXYMORON also means, in this case, the abolish­ment of cate­go­ries like so-cal­led “serious” and “popu­lar” music. Any kind of music deser­ves to be trea­ted like cham­ber music in the tru­est sen­se of the word: per­fect ensem­ble play­ing, care­ful inter­ac­tion, lis­ten­ting, trust. Fee­ling the same pul­se makes the groo­ve come ali­ve in every musi­cal gen­re. OXYMORON is all about exchan­ge, an offer for dia­lo­gue. Dia­lo­gue as a way of life, not only on stage.

 

Valen­tin Butt — Vita

Valen­tin Butt, born in Saint Peters­burg, stu­di­ed at the Hoch­schu­le für Musik Hanns Eis­ler Ber­lin. He was awar­ded several pri­zes in natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal com­pe­ti­ti­ons and is a regu­lar guest at fes­ti­vals all over the world. He has worked with the Ber­lin Phil­har­mo­nic Orches­tra as well as with big thea­tres in Ber­lin such as the Schau­büh­ne, Ber­li­ner Ensem­ble and the Deut­sches Thea­ter as a musi­ci­an, com­po­ser and musi­cal direc­tor. He also par­ti­ci­pa­tes in radio plays and film music record­ings and is a mem­ber of several bands such as SkaZka Orches­tra, Hol­ler my Dear and Di Meschugeles.

Reper­toire (excerpt)
Par­vis Andrés, Parvis
Lui­gi Boc­cheri­ni, Fan­dan­go (sound­cloud)
Clau­de Debus­sy, Dan­se sacrée et Dan­se profane
César Franck, Pre­lude, Fugue et Varia­ti­on Op. 18
G.F. Hän­del, Suite in c‑moll BWV 446
Astor Piaz­zol­la, Tan­gos: Obli­vi­on, Libertan­go, Remin­s­zenz (Video)
Mau­rice Ravel, Ma mère l’Oye (watch: Excerpt (Video))
Video

Audio

PANAMOUR

Anna Stein­kog­ler &
Liam Mallett

Flu­te and Harp — or the light­ness of being. This com­bi­na­ti­on of instru­ments has been bles­sed throughout the ages with music full of ele­gan­ce, fines­se, and grace by com­po­sers all over the world. Liam Mal­lett and Anna Stein­kog­lers’ reper­toire is full of diver­se colours and sounds, mea­ning­ful and yet floa­ting melodies.

 
The musi­ci­ans are united by the con­vic­tion that cham­ber music is a timeless art form that needs to be pro­mo­ted and expe­ri­en­ced live in order to sur­vi­ve. Like muse­um cura­tors they choo­se their pro­gram­mes with gre­at care, and gui­de their audi­en­ces through con­certs with a mix of charm and wit. Pana­mour are espe­cial­ly inte­res­ted in the jux­ta­po­si­ti­on of epochs and styles, crea­ting a rich­ness of colour and tex­tu­re that allows both the flu­te and harp to shine.

 

Liam Mal­lett — Vita

Liam Mal­lett (flu­te), born in Whanga­rei (New Zea­land), stu­di­ed flu­te at the Hoch­schu­le für Musik Frei­burg im Breis­gau, at the Musik-Aka­de­mie Basel and at the Uni­ver­si­tät der Küns­te Ber­lin. His main inte­rests are orches­tral music, late Roman­ti­cism and con­tem­pora­ry music.

Sin­ce his stu­dies Liam Mal­lett has been working as a free­lan­ce musi­ci­an. He has worked with inter­na­tio­nal orche­s­tras such as the Gothen­burg Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra, the Gothen­burg Ope­ra Orches­tra, the Pots­dam Cham­ber Aca­de­my, the NDR Elb­phil­har­mo­nie Orches­tra, the Comic Ope­ra Orches­tra, the Ber­lin Phil­har­mo­nic Orches­tra, the Came­ra­ta Bern, the Basel Sym­pho­ny Orches­tra and with renow­ned con­duc­tors like Sir Simon Ratt­le, Chris­toph Eschen­bach, Nee­me Jär­vi and Gus­ta­vo Dudamel.

As a cham­ber musi­ci­an, soloist and lec­tu­rer he has given con­certs in Ame­ri­ca, Mexi­co, Ukrai­ne and many Euro­pean coun­tries. He was a mem­ber of the Aca­de­my of Komi­sche Oper.

Reper­toire (excerpt)

Bar­tok, Rumä­ni­sche Volks­tän­ze
Bertho­mieu, Cinq Nuan­ces
Bizet, Car­men Suite
Cou­perin, Le Ros­si­gnol en Amour
Debus­sy, En Bateau
Elgar, Salut d’A­mour
Fau­ré, Fan­tai­sie Op. 79
Fau­ré, Sici­li­en­ne
Got­kovs­ky, Eolièn­ne
Ibert, Ent­r’ac­te
Jon­gen, Dan­se Len­te
Marais, La Folia
Mol­nar, Phan­ta­sie über japa­ni­sche Volks­lie­der
Piaz­zol­la, His­toire du Tan­go
Ros­si­ni, Andan­te und Varia­tio­nen
Rust, Sona­te
Satie, Gym­no­pé­die
Sibin­ga, Trois Images
Shankar, L’Au­be Enchan­tée
Tak­e­mit­su, Towards the Sea

Vide­os

Audio

Harp duo

Anna Stein­kog­ler &
Lucie Del­haye

Lucie Del­haye and Anna Stein­kog­ler are both con­vin­ced that the­re is still much to be done for their beloved instru­ment when it comes to pro­mo­ting the harp bey­ond well-known cli­ches.  When per­forming as soloists, both per­for­mers were often struck by the audience’s sur­pri­sed reac­tion to the harp: the­re is so much more to it than ange­lic ethe­re­al sounds!

Reper­toire, ampli­tu­de, sono­ri­ty, play­ing tech­ni­ques and colours are much more diver­se than expected.

Inspi­red by the many ques­ti­ons they often have to ans­wer after a solo reci­tal, and the posi­ti­ve sur­pri­se and inte­rest they awa­ken in their audi­ence, Lucie Del­haye and Anna Stein­kog­ler set them­sel­ves two goals when star­ting to work together.

On the one hand: play­ing cham­ber music at a very high level and enjoy­ing the gre­at pos­si­bi­li­ties of reper­toire that open up when com­bi­ning two harps, which is like mer­ging two cham­ber orche­s­tras into one big sym­pho­ny orchestra.

 

Reper­toire (excerpt)

G.F. Hän­del: Kon­zert in B‑Dur
Boc­cheri­ni: Fan­dan­go
Schu­bert: Sere­na­de / Vier Länd­ler
Ravel: Ma mère l’Oye
Gra­na­dos: Spa­ni­scher Tanz Nr. 5
And­res: Par­vis
Debus­sy: Clair de Lune
Debus­sy: Dan­ses sacrée et profane

Video

NEWSLETTER

SAITENBLICKE — BEHIND THE SCENES

AUF der Büh­ne zu ste­hen ist fan­tas­tisch — gebün­del­te Ener­gie die einen Augen­blick lang sicht­bar wird!

Was jedoch nicht im Schein­wer­fer­licht statt­fin­det, das WIE und WARUM, beleuch­te ich in die­sem Newsletter…