In November 2013, the eminent US ensemble, Duo Montagnard, gave six European performances of Silver Wound, version for soprano saxophone and guitar.
Duo Montagnard (Joseph Murphy, saxophones and Matthew Slotkin, guitar) gave six performances of Silver Wound during their European tour (November 2013), including Berlin, Warsaw, Cracow, and Szczecin (Stettin). Silver Wound was written in 2009 for the Swiss duo Degré 21 (Laurent Estoppey, saxophone and Antonio Albanese, guitar) who premièred it in Vevey, Switzerland on 25 September of the same year. Then, having become acquainted through my friend, Canadian composer Charles Stolte, with what I call absolute interpretive mastery of the Duo Montagnard, I sent the score to them – and in them the music has found its incomparable fulfilment. I have no words to describe how I felt when Joseph and Matthew sent me their recording… It was a revelation. Based on a simple idea of presenting (almost) the same, nostalgically emotive/emotively nostalgic, material in a series of “distorted repetitions” based on time stretching and squeezing, the music assumed new, even deeper, even broader, dimensions. In November 2013, Duo Montagnard included the piece in the programme of their European tour, appearing, among others, in Berlin, Cracow and Warsaw – a rare treat to New Music composer who “attends a première to hear the last performance of the piece”, as another great Canadian composer, Quenten Doolittle once dryly put it.
Related links: Duo Montagnard