PAUL MEFANO LP 2E2M-SCELSI-STOCKHAUSEN-HENRI POUSSEUR

$

30

PAUL MEFANO

MADRIGAL / ONDES, ESPACES MOUVANTS / EVENTAILS LP

CBS Masterworks

Gatefold cover 

Rare avant-garde album from the 70's from the founder of the 2e2m ensemble, Paul Mefano. In the vein of Giacinto Scelsi, Iancu Dumitrescu and similar.

Some info on the release: Original pressing of this ultra rare & great avant-garde album from Paul Mefano released on the CBS Masterworks label!! Beautiful works in the vein of Giacinto Scelsi, Gerard Grisey, Hughes Dufourt, Iancu Dumitrescu.

Paul Méfano pursued musical studies at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, and then later at the Paris Conservatory (CNSMP), where he was a student of Andrée Vaurabourg-Honegger, Darius Milhaud, and Georges Dandelot. He completed his studies in Basel at the courses taught by Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Henri Pousseur. He regularly attended the concerts of the Domaine Musical, as well as the seminars at Darmstadt, and enrolled in Olivier Messiaen’s class at the CNSMP. Messiaen described Méfano as "restless, intense, and always in search of radical solutions” (Pugin 2000, 15). In 1965 his music was performed publicly for the first time, at the Domaine Musical under the baton of Bruno Maderna. From 1966 to 1968 he lived in the United States, and then in 1969 he moved to Berlin at the invitation of the German Academy of Cultural Exchange (DAAD).

In 1970 he returned to France, signed a contract with Salabert, and devoted himself to composition, to conducting, and to musical life in general. In 1972 he founded the Ensemble 2e2m, a group which he regularly conducts, and with which he has premièred more than five hundred works by young composers and with which he has made more than forty recordings. Amongst those younger composers are Stéphane de Gérando, Laurent Martin, Thierry Blondeau and Marc André, Michael Finissy, James Dillon, Bruce Mather, and Claude Lefèvre, but he has also championed older composers such as Jean Barraqué, Brian Ferneyhough, Franco Donatoni and Luigi Nono, Aldo Clementi, Philippe Boesmans and Morton Feldman, Edison Denisov and John Cage, as well as participating in the rediscovery of Charles Valentin Alkan and the Czech composers who were interred at Terezienstadt in 1940. He is the founder of the Editions du Mordant for the publication of contemporary music, and of the Editions Musicales Européennes (dedicated primarily to young composers), and he has produced a number of notable radio series (Drake 2001).

In 1972 he was appointed director of the Conservatory of Champigny-sur-Marne, a duty which he performed until 1988. He also was professor of composition and orchestration at the Paris Conservatory until 2002. One of his conducting students was the Canadian composer Claude Vivier.

The EnsembLe 2e2m, founded in 1972 by the composer Paul Méfano, is one of the oldest French ensembles dedicated to contemporary musical creation.  Since that date, the initials that characterize the group and which mean études et éxpressions des modes musicaux" (studies and epressions of musical modes in French) have become an acronym, a motto even, warrant of plurality and open-mindedness.  Its long history has offered the audience the possibility of discovering many French and foreign composers and has allowed the creation of a repertoire of landmark works as well as the setting up of a know-how and a culture through its successive generations of performers.  In other words, the Ensemble has never overlooked what has been going on for over three decades. Mainly supported by the City Council of Champigny-sur-Marne, the Val-de-Marne Département, the Ministry of Culture - Ile-de-France Regional Direction of Cultural Affairs, but also by the Sacem, the City of Paris and the Ile-de-France Region, the Ensembe 2e2m is concerned about making sure that the diffusion of the works should be part of the social fabric. In residence at Champigny-sur-Marne since it was created, the Ensemble soon gained fame and got invited on national and international stages.  The list of works the group premiered and kept on performing is very long.  More importantly, it should be emphasized that 2e2m has endeavoured to pay attention to all generations of composers without neglecting any style or approach.  Without ever ignoring the classical (Bach, Schubert, Liszt,...), modern (Debussy, Ives, Ravel, Schönberg, Varèse or also Varèse,...) and recent (Jean Barraqué, Pierre Boulez, Sylvano Bussotii and John Cage, Morton Feldman, György Ligeti and Bruno Maderna, Olivier Messiaen, Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen) repertoires, the Ensemble has furthermore premiered more than six hundred scores.

However impressive this number might be, it could not betray the originality of the Ensemble.  Before any other group, 2e2m revealed to the public many composers who are regarded as essential today:  in 1974, the Ensemble compelled the recognition of both Brian Ferneyhough and Luis de Pablo; as early as 1977 the group has performed the music of Franco Donatoni (of whom six scores were premiered); two years later, the talent of Pascal Dusapin was discovered; from 1980 a keen interest in Sofia Goubaïdoulina has been taken, as well as in Giacinto Scelsi as of 1982 and Toshio Hosokawa as of 1989.  The Ensemble has performed at the festivals of Royan, la Rochelle, Metz, Strasbourg (Musica), Radio-France Présences. 2e2m plays in Germany, Spain, England, Italy, Japan, Russia, Taiwan  and throughout Eastern Europe.  The group has encouraged young talents (Laurent Martin, Thierry Blondeau, Oscar Strasnoy and Franck Bedrossian, Jérôme Combier, Aureliano Cattaneo and Karim Haddad, Noriko Baba, Octavio Lopez,...).  It is an integral part of the lyrical scene and has restored the voices of composers stifled by History (Klein, Ullmann).  Many a recording testify to this intense activity. 

Condition: Vinyl looks to be in mint condition, seems unplayed, while the cover lies in very good+ condition, as it was an ex-library copy an has a sticker on the front, otherwise it would be excellent.

Tracklist

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