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Release Date: 25-05-1998
Label: Erdenklang Musik
Catalog Number: EK81032
Barcode: 723091810326
Musical Style: Contemporary Classical
Track Listing:
| Disc 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 Triostücke für 3 Trautonien (1930) | 2 | Konzertstück für Trautonium mit Begleitung des Streichorchesters (1931) |
Description:
On 20th June, 1930 an 'Electric Concert' was given in the Large Hall of the Berlin Music University. The main attraction was the world premiere of 'Trio-Pieces' by Paul Hindemith for Friedrich Trautwein's electric musical instrument, the Trautonium. On one of the three instruments Hindemith himself played the top part, his pupil in composition and partner of F. Trautwein, Oskar Sala, played the middle voice and the piano-teacher Rudolph Schmidt the bass part. The present recording of the Triostücke was made in 1977 by Oskar Sala on his Mixtur-Trautonium. Hindemith's top part can be heard in the centre of the room, Sala's original middle voice to the left and the bass part first performed by Rudolph Schmidt comes from the right. The lively response to the successful premiere induced Hindemith to experiment with the Trautonium as a solo instrument. Hindemith's 'Concert Piece for a Trautonium with String Orchestra Accompaniment' was given its first world performance at a concert during a convention for radio-music in Munich in July 1931. The string orchestra was conducted by Hindemith himself. The recording was produced in 1976/77 in the Bavarian Radio studios with the Munich Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hans Stadlmair. The soloist on the Mixtur-Trautonium, just as in 1931, is Oskar Sala. Oskar Sala's 'Elektronische Impressionen' are a product of his studio and result from the close connection between tape recording art and the interpretative art at the Mixturtrautonium.
Biography:
Oskar Sala, born in 1910 in Thuringia, studied composition under Paul Hindemith at the Berlin Academy of Music. He also became acquainted there with Dr. Friedrich Trautwein who was working on an electronic musical instrument called the Trautonium. Nineteen-year-old Oskar Sala was so fascinated by the project that he began studying with Trautwein and within a very short time gained sufficient knowledge to take over development of the prototype into a playable instrument. Every morning Oskar Sala now walks to his small studio in Charlottenburg, Berlin where he composes. Here the only functioning Mixturtrautonium in the whole world exists, securely protected by an alarm system. At the beginning of the 1930s Sala had made it his task to master and develop this unique instrument.
