DE KOONING MOVEMENTS [2001]

[marimba, clarinet]

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Commissioned by the Kobe Shinbun Arts Foundation for Makoto Nakura

Premiered October 11, 2001. Matsukata Hall, Japan.

Makoto Nakura, marimba; Todd Palmer, clarinet.

DURATION: 8'

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Program note:

Lately, I have been looking at the work of Willem de Kooning, who came to the United States from his native Holland to later become one of America's most representative twentieth-century artists. I have always been impressed by the brutality, the energy, the dynamic forms, and the synthetic power of de Kooning's work, and have now composed a piece that, through its exploration of the dramatic power of rhythm and bold instrumental gestures, seems to conjure for me the experience of flipping through the pages of a printed catalogue of de Kooning's paintings. A journey that allows me to savor with each stop a graphic, perfectly assimilated and electric concoction of Matisse, Picasso, German Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism, and total abstraction. © 2002, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez

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Two pieces from Manuel de Falla's "El Amor Brujo," accented by Palmer's bright clarinet, were standouts, but the program's highlight was "De Kooning Movements," composed in 2001 by Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez for Nakura and Palmer. Competing lines for clarinet and marimba darted across each other in sharp counterpoint and hiccups of sound that ended in a raucous shriek. Every note of it aptly suggested the painter's controversial style.

L. Peat O'Neil © 2003 The Washington Post Company