Pascal Meyer and Xenia Pestova, photo by Pierre Grandidier (download high resolution)

Why MANTRA?

The composer Karlheinz Stockhausen passed away on the 5th of December 2007, only months before his 80th birthday. As a tribute to the one of the most important musical innovators of the Twentieth Century, the Pestova/Meyer Piano Duo are presenting his rarely performed masterpiece MANTRA (1970) for two pianists and live electronics in the 2008 and 2009 concert seasons. This project is made possible with funding from the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture and the Creative New Zealand Arts Council, and was featured at the Philharmonie Luxembourg, Festival Archipel (Geneva), McGill University (Montreal), and Cork School of Music (Ireland) in 2008. Upcoming engagements include appearances in New Zealand, Festival Voix Nouvelles in Royaumont (France) and Festival Musikhost (Denmark) in 2009.

MANTRA is an exciting and highly virtuosic work that calls for an unconventional approach to piano playing. The pianists are required to play antique cymbals and woodblocks, as well as use their voices. The two grand pianos are processed electronically in real-time to create two "super-instruments" with scintillating and beautiful sonorities that approach the exotic sound worlds of the prepared piano of John Cage, high-energy electric guitar distortion, and mysterious Morse-code radio signals.

Our approach to this piece is original due to the fact that we will be using digital technology for the electronic processing, resulting in a contemporary reinterpretation of a classic piece on the verge of technological obsolescence with a simple set-up and arguably superior sound quality. The hardware and software for our version of this piece was especially designed by Mark T. Marshall (McGill University) and Jacob Sudol (UCSD). This equipment was tested during a career development residency at the Banff Centre in February 2007, and with Stockhausen's former sound projectionist and assistant Jan Panis in Luxembourg in January 2008.


The Duo:

The Pestova/Meyer Piano Duo formed in Amsterdam in 2003, when the two pianists were studying at the Conservatory of Amsterdam in the class of Håkon Austbø. Both musicians share a strong interest in contemporary music and are committed to programming new and non-standard works in their critically acclaimed recitals. Their most recent collaboration features Magnus Lindberg's explosive work Related Rocks for two pianos, percussion and electronics with United Instruments of Lucilin in Luxembourg and Riga. Upcoming engagements include the two-piano concerto Dialoge by Bernd Alois Zimmermann with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra and performances of MANTRA in the 2008-2009 concert season.


Further Information:

- Contact us
- Listen/watch: visit the MANTRAmedia page
- Download the complete MANTRA concert proposal file with performer biographies and technical requirements
- Download the article on our digitization process (in Proceedings, ICMC 2008)
- Build your own MANTRA controllers and interface - the drivers for the interface can be downloaded from this page
- Download the performance patch package in Max/MSP - documentation will be added soon. Please note that you will need to purchase the short wave radio sounds CD from Stockhausen Verlag, add the file and name it "morsecode.aif"
- View images from the Festival Archipel gallery
- View collage images from performances

- Find out more about Pascal Meyer or Xenia Pestova


Reviews and Interviews:

- Read a review (in French) of the April 2008 performance at Festival Archipel Geneva in Le Temps
- Read a review (in French) of the January 2008 performance at the Philharmonie Luxembourg in Luxemburger Wort
- Read a review (in German) of the January 2008 performance at the Philharmonie Luxembourg in Triersche Volksfreund
- Read a review (in German) of the January 2008 performance at the Philharmonie Luxembourg in Tageblatt
- Read an interview with the performers (in French) in La Voix