Christine Berl

[biografia] [catalogo] [discografia]

CONTATTI

E-MAIL: cberl@hotmail.com

New York - Stati Uniti, 1943

Ruoli legati alle composizioni presenti in Banca Dati:
Compositore

Consulta il profilo anche nella Banca Dati Musicale Italiana

Biografia

ultimo aggiornamento: 31-10-2012

I was brought up to have a musical career by both parents. They were from Vienna, my mother a concert violinist, my father Paul Berl, the longtime accompanist of Victoria de los Angeles. By age three I began studying the piano with my father and by eleven I began private lessons in counterpoint and Schenkerian analysis with the late Ernst Oster, translator of Schenker’s most important work. From my eleven years with Ernst I had a pretty good idea of what composition was about. I went on to study piano with Nadia Reisenberg, winning the High Fidelity Award for most outstanding instrumentalist at the Tanglewood Music School at the age of 19. I continued my studies in Schenkerian analysis with Carl Schacter who has been a close friend all my life. He had also been a student of my father at Mannes.
Early performances of my music in the 70’s were given by Arthur Weisberg and the Contemporary Music Ensemble (with Ursula Oppens pianist) and Elegy for piano, written for my father in memoriam given its premiere by Andre-Michel Schub in 1976 on the Princeton University concert series. Since that time my music has been performed by notable performers including Peter Serkin, Frederica von Stade, Emanuel Ax, Richard Stoltzman, Richard Goode, Andre-Michel Schub and others.
The Lord of the Dance for piano solo was commissioned by Peter Serkin and the Ninety-Second Street Y in 1989. I and ten other composers were commissioned to write an 8 minute piece for Peter Serkin. The Chicago Reader said Christine Berl's Lord of the Dance is based on musical materials of southern India. Basically an aural depiction of the dance of the Hindu god Siva, this work makes chromatic use of the tritone and plays the lead tune in seconds and sevenths, creating the effect of out-of-tune octaves. But it was given a wonderful transparency of texture by Serkin's masterful playing and superb use of the sostenuto pedal, which is virtually a lost art among most contemporary pianists. The Los Angeles Times said Three of these 11 works that might impress on a second hearing are Lieberson's two-minute nocturne, Breeze of Delight, Berl's lyrical and melodious Lord of the Dance, and Berio's etudette, Feuerklavier, the only bright spot in the second half. And the New York Times said in a Review/Recital; Peter Serkin in a Showcase Of Original Pieces for Piano, Christine Berl's Lord of the Dance and Hans Werner Henze's aphoristic little Piano Piece seemed to embrice a language both affectionately pianistic and yet dignified in its bare outlines and austere tone.
Dark Summer based on the poem by Louise Bogan of the same name was written for Frederica von Stade and the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society which commissioned the work in 1988. It was a work for mezzo soprano and piano quartet and was premiered in April 1989 by Frederica von Stade, Richard Goode, Ani Kavafian, Walter Trampler, Fred Sherry. Speaking about a second performance of the work, the New York Times wrote Dark Summer (1989), which was given its premiere by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, is a setting of part of Louise Bogan's Blue Estuaries. Patricia Spence, a mezzosoprano, sang the angular vocal line with affecting intensity and appealing coloration. The work's loveliest moments, though, are not in the vocal music but in the shimmering dialogues between the strings, played by Ms. Kavafian, Mr. Neubauer and Mr. Haimovitz, and the piano, played by Ms. Berl. The Violent Bear It Away for full orchestra and optional chorus, based on the novel by the same name by Southern Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor was commissioned by the Bay Area Women’s Philharmonic in 1988, JoAnn Faletta conducting the premiere performance in San Francisco in 1989. It was arranged for 2 pianos and chorus and given a premiere by Peter Serkin and Emanuel Ax and the Cornell University Chorus conducted by Susan Davenny Wyner at The Music of Christine Berl concert on the Distinguished Artists Series of the 92nd Street Y in October 1990. The Music of Christine Berl was a concert presented in October 1990 by the 92nd Street Y on its Distinguished Artists Series. It was conceived of as an homage to me at the age of 47. Some of the participants had already performed the music on the program. The New York Times said in a review entitled A Composer and Some Celebrated Friends Christine Berl, a composer, assembled a starry group of musicians to perform her music at the 92d Street Y on Oct. 13. Among them were the pianists Peter Serkin, Emanuel Ax, Richard Goode and Andre-Michel Schub; the clarinetist Richard Stoltzman; the violinists Ani Kavafian and Lucy Stoltzman; the violist Paul Neubauer, and the cellist Matt Haimovitz. One had to regard their presence as an endorsement of Ms. Berl's music: these players are beyond being hired for vanity concerts, and most had performed her works in the past.Most of the seven works Ms. Berl presented . . . showed a well-developed compositional imagination. Two newly commissioned works were included in this concert. Sonata quasi una fantasia written and premiered by Andre-Michel Schub and Ab la Dolchor for mezzo soprano, piano and clarinet trio were commissioned works. Ballade for cello and piano was also premiered by Matt Haimovitz with the composer at the piano. At the suggestion of Lord Menuhin, who had seen the score of Dark Summer, Pierre Amoyal, French violinist, commissioned a work for violin and piano.
Masmoudi, based on middle eastern rhythms and maqams was to be premiered by him and Yehudi Menuhin’s son Jeremy. However, at this point serious life problems set in which were to damage my career possibilities for some time.
From 1990 to 95 I was the sole caretaker of my mother who had altzheimer’s disease. As I couldn’t work, we lived in very precarious conditions as long as rent control allowed us to keep the upper west side apartment. I continued to work on Masmoudi, however. In 1995 I share a concert presented by World Music at Merkin Hall with jazz pianist Cecil Taylor, both of us doing piano retrospectives. The Italian pianist Carlo Levi Minzi performed my complete piano works, which he then went on to record on Rusty Records, label of my Italian publisher Rugginenti. My mother died in 1995 and I was evicted from the apartment. I went to my home in the Ligurian mountains of Italy. Attempts to obtain teaching positions in Italy failed and I was given a small public assistance support grant. The life there was extremely arduous weatherwise and the effects of these difficult conditions were grave both on my creative output, my health, and my economic well being. In 2006 an Italian colleague asked me to come to Casablanca to teach piano at her school and from that time on I spent the winters in Morocco, quickly forming my own piano school. Masmoudi was finished in its final form just a few months ago. It is a long work for violin and piano and will be given its premiere by the Swiss violinist Thomas Wicky Stamm and the Italian pianist Carlo Levi Minzi. It will be recorded by M.A.P records, Milano, in early 2013.

Christine Berl

[biografia] [catalogo] [discografia]

Opere catalogate in BDCI: 17

3 Pieces for Chamber Ensemble (1975)

ensemble

Durata: 5' 00''

Ab la Dolchor (1979)

cantata for soprano, chorus and orchestra

soprano, coro, orchestra

And How That a Life Was But a Flower (1979)

coro

Arranged (1990)

mezzosoprano, clarinetto, violino, pianoforte