<<<  <<  -- 4 --  Howard Smith    COMPOSITIONAL INTEGRITY

Ladyboy (violin, viola and cello -- thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds) is intended as an expression of Gesamtkunstwerk -- a fusion of the arts, devised by the ancient Greeks and reinvented by Wagner. Launched in full at the Zyklorama exposition in Zurich, this comprehensive art work utilized music, text and visualization.

Starting out with growing rhapsodic intensity, the work develops along quasi-elegaic lines with the three instruments in close accord for the first three minutes and twenty seconds. Then, after gruff interjections, the strings return to closely knit unity, beginning in a high register.

Five minutes and twenty seconds into Ladyboy, Fortmann introduces a forward-driving rhythmic segment lasting a minute and ten seconds and returning us to the opening theme. After a lyrical viola solo we find ourselves in step with a quick march eventually settling to a more deliberate rhythm -- a brief ponticello moment brings the trio back firmly to Ladyboy's opening motif [listen -- track 12, 11:07-12:59].

Amiata Ensemble was founded in Tuscany by composer Fortmann (born Bern, 1951) in the 1990s and during subsequent concert tours it has established a reputation for programmes with works of Messiaen, Bartók, Fortmann, Zappa, Piazzolla and Walton.

The ensemble has made many radio broadcasts and given rise to the creation of Accademia Amiata with its Festival Toscano delle Culture.

Thomas Fortmann has crossed the divide separating pop from modern classical music. Best of all, he hasn't plummeted into the chasm separating both, and littered with the fallen.

For help listening to the sound extracts here, please refer to our questions & answers page.