Iancu Dumitrescu

Ansamblul Hyperion

Forthcoming 12/20/2024

Purchase HERE

It's a miracle that some records ever get made. Right in the middle of Ceaușescu's ultra-repressive dictatorship, composer Iancu Dumitrescu managed to arrange for his first LP, a compilation of radical new music by Dumitrescu and three of his Romanian colleagues, all older than him: Ocavian Nemescu, Stefan Niculescu, and Corneliu Cezar. Dumitrescu was – and remains – one of the most iconoclastic figures in contemporary music. Often referred to as a spectralist (though he distances himself from the approach taken by the French spectralists) and self-described as an adherent of "acousmatic" music (though again he situates himself at a remove from the French electroacoustic composers) and highly influenced by deep studies in phenomenology, Dumitrescu's music often focuses intensely on one sonorous object, penetrating it until it is entirely blown open. He formed Ansamblul Hyperion, a chamber group featuring adventurous young musicians, in 1976. Four years later, against all odds, in a radio studio in Bucharest, they recorded this groundbreaking compilation for Electrecord, the state record company. The program starts with one of Dumitrescu's most important works, the breathtaking, string-centric "Movemur et Sumus" (1978), translated from the Latin as "move and exist." Nemescu's "Combinatii In Cercuri" (1965) was composed for the ensemble together with an electronic component that was added to the piece in 1980. Composed in 1979, Niculescu's "Sincronie" features Dumitrescu himself on piano, as well as conducting, as he does on all the works; written for an indeterminate number of performers between 2 and 12 (here featuring 9) it utilizes fixed elements in the score together with openly improvised elements, expanding from a core vibraphone part to encompass an almost ecstatic meditation on stasis and motion. Cezar's work "Rota" (1976) combines Romanian, Balkan, and other Eastern melodic resonances with electronics (some of them startlingly video-game-like) and preparations on various instruments, lending an ear to the natural sounds of wind, waves, and seagull calls. This historically charged document, released in 1981 in Romania and available for the most part only there, has never been reissued in any form. Gorgeously remastered from the original tapes, it appears here with its original cover design.

1. Iancu Dumitrescu, Movemur et Sumus (II + V) (1978/13:37) for cello, double bass, and percussion
2. Octavian Nemescu, Combinații În Cercuri (1965, version IV, 1980/11:53) for chamber ensemble and electronics
3. Ștefan Niculescu, Sincronie (1979/9:09) for chamber ensemble
4. Corneliu Cezar, Rota (1976/12:31) for chamber ensemble and electronics

Ansamblul Hyperion conducted by Iancu Dumitrescu

Ansamblul Hyperion:

Aurelian-Octav Popa, clarinet (2–4)

Voicu Vasinea, flute (2–4)

Mihai Tănăsilă, bassoon (2–4)

Mihai Sofonea, viola (2–4)

George Georgescu, cello (3)

Ștefan Thomasz, double bass (1, 2, 4) Alexandru Graur, trombone (2, 4)

Costin Petrescu, percussion (2, 4)

Iancu Dumitrescu, percussion (1), piano (3)

with

Dimitrie Râpeanu, cello (1, 2)

Cristian Văleanu, Olga Popov, Georgeta Radu, percussion (3)

Originally recorded in 1980 in Bucharest, Romania, and first released on Electrecord (ST-ECE 01754, 1981).

Engineered by Vladi- mir Plopeanu.

LP produced by Adriana Velincov-Dan.

Original cover design by Cristina Angelescu.

CD mastered by Alex Inglezian.

CD design by David Khan-Giordano.

CvsDCD115