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SEPTEMBER 29TH - OCTOBER 8TH 2000 |
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organised by  (ISCM Luxembourg Section) Information: info@worldmusicdays.com |
Ari Ben-Shabetai
(Photo: Liora Ziv-Li)
Ari Ben-Shabetai was born in 1954 in Jerusalem. He received the "Advanced Studies"
diploma at the Guildhall Scholl of Music (London) in 1979, and has studied composition and
music theory at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music with Mark Kopytman (1980-1983).
From 1984 to 1989, he studied composition at the University of Pennsylvania with George
Crumb and Richard Wernick.
Ari Ben-Shabetai is currently employed at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music as
Chairman of the Theory, Composition and Conducting department and as an assistant
professor of composition and theory of music.
Delusions
On Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus
Delusions attempts to present a very personal statement, expressing the deliberations of a
contemporary composer, while contemplating the gigantic universality and the divine,
spiritual vastness of Mozart. On the one hand, there is the composer's constant, incessant
struggle to be original and to write "new" music – not to mimic the styles and/or content
already written by other composers, while on the other hand, there is the boundless
admiration of Mozart and the nostalgia for the music of the past.
Delusions is in five movements "a la concertante", played without a break. The first
movement is fast and with a decisive character. The second movement is slow and melancholic.
The third movement is the fastest one and is written as a toccata. The fourth movement
is played by the strings alone, depicting a delusive state of mind with a "nightmarish"
atmosphere, and the fifth movement ends the work with a slow, distorted rendition of
Mozart's motet Ave Verum Corpus like an unreal reflection through a crooked mirror.