Alvin Lucier - Music for Piano with Magnetic Strings (1995) (transcribed for the Magnetic Resonator Piano by Xenia Pestova Bennett) Xenia Pestova Bennett - Glowing Radioactive Elements (2018-19) Scott McLaughlin - Individuation Study #1 (2023, world premiere)
INTERVAL
Luke Mombrea - Aurora (2023, world premiere) Ollie Hawker - It’s not something I ever thought would be the case (2023, world premiere) Alvin Lucier - Music for Piano with Slow Sweep Pure Wave Oscillators (1992) Xenia Pestova Bennett - All Aglow: A Marginal Sea (2023)
The Magnetic Resonator Piano (MRP) is the brainchild of Andrew McPherson, who has been working on this instrument since 2009. Electromagnets are installed above the strings of a regular concert grand without physical contact with the action, allowing for control of minute details of shimmering resonance, fragile pitch bends, sliding crescendi from silence and sustained "bowed" sounds that the performer can shape directly from the keyboard. For a pianist used to the inviolable earth-bound principles of attack and decay, this magical instruments provides the fuel to grow wings and discover flight.
In this concert, Xenia presents her own works as released on her album "Atomic Legacies", as well as uncompromising renditions of radical new scores for the MRP including a world premiere by Scott Mclaughlin.
Described as “a powerhouse of contemporary keyboard repertoire” (Tempo), “stunning” (Wales Arts Review), “ravishing” (Pizzicato) and “remarkably sensuous” (New Zealand Herald) in the international press, Xenia Pestova Bennett has earned a reputation as a leading interpreter of uncompromising repertoire alongside masterpieces from the past.
Her widely acclaimed recordings of core piano duo works of the Twentieth Century by John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen with Pascal Meyer are available on four CDs for Naxos Records. Her solo recordings of works for piano and electronics include “Shadow Piano” (Innova), a “terrific album of dark, probing music” (Chicago Reader). Xenia's recent offerings include the complete piano works by Gayle Young (Farpoint) hailed as "a triumph" (John Eyles, All About Jazz) and "Gold.Berg.Werk" (Ergodos), a reimagining of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations described as "a sci-fi journey in the direction of 1741” (Luke Clancy, RTE Lyric FM).
Her full-length album "Atomic Legacies" features her own music for the Ligeti Quartet and the Magnetic Resonator Piano. Highlighted in Bandcamp's "Best of Contemporary Classical" in 2020, the album was described as "boldly conceived and brilliantly realised... a foretaste of things to come" in The Wire, "intoxicating, extraordinarily eerie and evocative” (Bernard Clarke, RTE LyricFM), "melancholy... heart-swells and proper feelings" (The Quietus) and "a nuclear musical reaction that produces that great, irradiated beauty" (Tom Service, BBC Radio 3). https://xeniapestovabennett.com
