April 21, 2020
NEW PROJECT: GOLDBERG NIGHTS
Through the night with SIGNUM & Kai Schumacher
SIGNUM saxophone quartet
Kai Schumacher, Piano & Prepared Piano
Tranquillity and trance, ecstasy and exhaustion, dream and reality – with this new programme the SIGNUM saxophone quartet embarks upon an odyssey through the realms of possibility and contrast called: The Night. These four multi-award-winning and eclectic artists are among the groundbreakers of the young classical music scene. They virtuosically switch between styles and genres in order to celebrate the night in its most diverse musical facets. For their Goldberg Nights project, they have invited a fifth dream-loving night owl who is also at home in more than one artistic universe: the pianist and composer Kai Schumacher.
The guiding star in the nightly concert heaven is Johann Sebastian Bach, who composed brilliant night music with his Goldberg Variations. They were created for the harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg with the intention that these Variations would soothe into sleep his princely employer, the Count von Keyserlingk. SIGNUM and Kai Schumacher combine excerpts from the Goldberg Variations with the works of other night lovers in music history such as Franz Schubert and Frederic Chopin. For the Romantics, the night was the favourite habitat for melancholy, other-worldly soul excursions. By contrast, two American composers illustrate the sounds of the city that never sleeps: Steve Reich makes minimalist dream worlds pulsate in New York Counterpoint, while his compatriot George Gershwin allows his sleepless thoughts to fly over the brightly lit skyline on a rhapsodic night journey. Finally, Kai Schumacher, as a 21st century artist, includes in the mix the ecstasy produced by the sleepless nightclubs, the tireless laboratories of sound (album: “Rausch”).