
(1999)
for string quartet
Death and the
Iron Maidens
Anja Rohn - violin
Cordula Merks - violin
Evrim Bastas - viola
Jeff "Death" McAuley - violoncello
Kurt's Recording Comments:
This is by far the worst recording available for download.
There are some intonation issues and sloppiness, but this was
meant to be a joke and let's face it, the people involved are
otherwise serious musicians who had better things to be doing.
The comedy factor of the live presentation ended up having more
impact than the actual performance, which went over very well!
This recording was made just hours before the premiere. With the
exception of the fast guitar-like solos, much of this performance
was strictly sight reading after a rehearsal or two. Some of this
piece is very demanding and it is hard to expect a violinist,
for example, to put hours into learning a joke like this when
they should be working on their Brahms concerto. Since the performance
quality of this recording is not the best, I feel it is important
to point out that the musicians here are all very excellent. They
attended Northern Illinois University to study with the Vermeer
Quartet, most of them coming from outside the USA (Rohn-Germany,
Merks-Holland, Bastas-Turkey). Death and the Iron Maidens does
not really exist and was fabricated to further the joke of a heavy
metal string quartet. Their name is parody of Schubert's Death
and the Maiden quartet. I thank these otherwise very serious players
for letting their hair down and fulfilling my silly whim. As there
is an optional chorus in the middle, there are two versions of
this piece. Essentially these are both the same recording with
different middle sections spliced in. The version with the chorus
is sloppier and there are more tuning issues, but the comedy factor
is greater. The version without chorus is better performed and
the subtleties of the Maiden/Mozart fusion are more audible. In
these recordings you can hear Evrim laughing and making comments
at certain parts. We all had so much fun doing this silly piece.
program
notes
score
You must download the mp3s to listen to these
recordings.
You will need an mp3 decoder on
your computer to listen to these files. If you do not have one,
you can download Winamp (a popular shareware mp3 player) from
Nullsoft at their webiste http://www.winamp.com/.
Please note that these are personal
recordings made by the composer and while the quality is generally
quite good, they are not of a professional nature.
If you have any problems with these files,
contact:
Kurt
Mortensen
kurt@kurtmortensen.org
Recordings Copyright ]
1999 by Kurt Mortensen
All Rights Reserved
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