No. 2 — sedgeflowers | MANTRA

Artists

Repertoire

John Liberatore — Sedgeflowers (2017-18) for two pianos

Yi-wei Angus Lee — Rage Over Lost Time (2020)

Dante De Silva — Too Sedated to Rage (2020)

Aida Shirazi — RAGE: Screamed, RAGE: Stolen, RAGE: Silenced (2020)

LJ White — Rage is the Bodyguard of Sadness (2020)

Andrew Zhou — Con variazioni (2020)

Christopher Castro — Beethausenstro—Castockhoven (2020)

Laura Cetilia — sense of missing (2020)

Christopher Stark — Foreword (2017) for two pianos and electronics

Karlheinz Stockhausen — MANTRA (1970) for two pianists and ring modulators

HereNowHear
Ryan MacEvoy McCullough & Andrew Zhou, pianists

Reviews

The duo’s recording of the work is one of immense value, not only for its rarity but for being so thorough in its presentation. Needless to say, immense reserves of concentration had to be called upon by the pianists for the performance, and no corners were cut in this realization.

—Ron Schepper, Textura

Notes on the Album

Recording Details

Stockhausen MANTRA and Liberatore Sedgeflowers
Recorded August 2022 at Oktaven Audio in Mt. Vernon, NY
Audio engineered and mastered by Ryan Streber
Session produced by Ryan Streber and John Liberatore
Audio edited and mixed by Ryan MacEvoy McCullough

Lee, De Silva, Shirazi, White, Zhou, Castro, and Cetilia
Recorded November 2020 at Olin Recital Hall, Bard College, and Lincoln Hall, Cornell University
Audio engineered, edited and mixed by Ryan MacEvoy McCullough
Audio mastered by Ryan Streber

Stark Foreword
Recorded January 2018 in Lincoln Hall, Cornell University
Audio engineered, edited and mixed by Ryan MacEvoy McCullough
Session produced by Christopher Stark
Audio mastered by Ryan Streber

Acknowledgments

With a yearslong project this complex, we have depended temendously on the generous support of friends, family, mentors, and institutions willing to help us develop and fulfill our artistic vision. 

Thanks first and foremost to Prof. Xak Bjerken, our mentor at Cornell who made every part of this possible by creating an environment conducive to exploration. Thanks similarly to Prof. Kevin Ernste for his endless technical support and artistic encouragement. Further thanks to Profs. Annette Richards, Roger Moseley, and the Cornell Center for Historic Keyboards for supporting the RAGE: Vented project, as well as helping to fund equipment purchases for MANTRA. Thanks to Ellen Corver and Benjamin Kobler, whose tireless coaching and artistic guidance completely transformed our understanding of MANTRA. Thanks as well to Kathinka Pasveer and the Stockhausen-Verlag for being such an extraordinarily generous resource over the years. Thanks to Jan Panis for encouragement and advice on the electronics for MANTRA. Thanks to the Fromm Foundation for funding John Liberatore’s Sedgeflowers, and partially funding the production of this album. Endless thanks to Sō Percussion for lending us their crotales for our recording of MANTRA. Thanks to Paul Miller for his gorgeous and insightful notes on MANTRA. Thanks to Elaine Fitz Gibbon for copy-editing this booklet. Thanks to the Avaloch Farm Music Institute for early support on Christopher Stark’s Foreword. Thanks to John Liberatore and Christopher Stark for their amazing work as diffusionists for MANTRA, and for their timeless music featured on this album. And finally, profoundest thanks to our life partners, Ryan Grajo and Lucy Fitz Gibbon, for their love and patience (and for being emergency equipment mules).

And finally, in memory of Gabriel Henriques, who departed this world too soon, and in honor of Cecilia, who entered it singing (only a day after her daddy finished editing this recording).