Philippe Manoury - Echo-Daimónon, piano and electronics concerto (2012)

00:00 Brusk, violent, piano rhythms, echoed by rapid tremolos in the strings and percussions, and then woodwinds (1:18 quasi cadenza)
02:55 Biting muted brass chords and string harmonics calm the atmosphere
03:41 The electronics almost imperceptibly sneak to color the rising orchestra (the demonic force begins its contamination); the orchestra descends into chaos
04:07 Subtle brittle textures...
05:22 allow the resonance of piano and electronics to speak, forming a gorgeously haunting soundscape
06:40 A return to the violence of the introduction, now enhanced by a more active orchestra (7:38 cadenza)
10:30 Awesome explosions of sound from the piano and electronics: distortions and echos of the piano. The soundscape is gradually colored in by the orchestra, and slowly fixes itself onto...
13:06 Toccata-esque tremolos as the music becomes more and more frantic, before fleeing away with bell-like bursts of color (14:49)
15:33 A fugue sneaks out of an accelerating staccato pattern in the electronics. A nebulous soundscape is created
17:08 The piano and electronic staccato pattern intertwine as an unnerving bass rhythm begins to press this nebulous soundscape forward
18:14 Ghostly electronic timbres and piano harmonics; a chromatic descent and re-ascent guide the music (19:56) (20:46) (21:16)
21:59 A piano cadenza begins a huge crescendo, culminating in a massive Shepard's tone
23:01 An energetic chase propelled by tremolos, becoming ever more manic and disturbed
27:30 Violent outbursts interweave with moments of calm
29:16 Extremely violent strikes before a lone piano harmonic rings out to close the piece (the piano timbre contaminated by electronics)


In this work, the role of the electronics is notably to create, through the loud-speakers, a world of ghost pianos, which little by little succeed in destabilizing the piano soloist.
The work takes its title, Echo-Daimónon, from the fact that the often discernible echoes in electronics are also a demonic force (Daimónon), which will eventually contaminate the piano soloist in the very last note, the only one that is not played solely on the keyboard but also in the strings, a harmonic with an almost electronic timbre. But the role of electronics is not limited to this: often it must also give the impression that the piano does not resonate through its own means, but through artificial means where the sounds may be distorted, for example by playing on the string chords, on the harmonics or on the micro-intervals ... without neglecting the role of "controlled freedom" due to the use of Markov chains in the distribution of the chordal progressions. As often in my music, writing comes from antagonistic "forces" and their "balance of power" presents itself here in three ways: the relationship between the piano and orchestra report, that between the piano and electronic and finally that of the electronics and orchestra. These different forces act at all the levels of the writing, infuse the work and give it its sense of drama, with particular attention to the electronic dimension, a real -invisible - third dimension of the work.

Score available from Durand-Salabert-Eschig: https://issuu.com/durand.salabert.esc...
Original audio:    • Manoury - Echo-Daimónon, for piano, electr...  

Composer: Philippe Manoury (June 19, 1952 –)
Piano: Jean-Frédéric Neuburger
Orchestra: Orchestre de Paris conducted by Ingo Metzmacher

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