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Samuel Andreyev. Photo © 2015 Magali Lambert

In Paris, 2003, I spent 6 months holed up in a small apartment writing a piece called PLP, scored for lupophone (a rare model of bass oboe) and two pianos. This was a crazily ambitious piece for an unknown composer—intense, exotic, disorienting, utopian and extremely complex—and I wrote it without knowing if it could ever be performed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBezYS9pI6Q

ensemble proton bern performs La pendule de profil (2007-07) in Bern, Switzerland, 18 May 2015

It wasn’t until the brilliant Swiss oboist Martin Bliggenstorfer contacted me out of nowhere in 2011, inquiring about the score, that the premiere ultimately took place in Amsterdam. Having found a collaborator not only willing to perfect the smallest details of the score, but who shared my passion for rare instruments—we began collaborating on an ongoing basis together with ensemble proton bern, the contemporary music group Martin co-founded. This has so far resulted in pieces like Vérifications (2012) for six instruments, and more recently, Trio (2015) for oboe d’amore, viola and harp. The logical next step was to record a CD together.

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Martin Bliggenstorfer plays PLP. Photo © 2015 Magali Lambert

After years of work, hundreds of hours of rehearsals, and, of course, thousands of phone calls and emails, Proton is finally heading to Radio France in Paris to record eight of my pieces in spring/summer 2015. Having rehearsed intensively with Proton over the past few years, these recordings will be absolutely authoritative, with great attention to detail, each score a showcase for the abilities of some of the most talented and committed performers in Europe.

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ensemble proton bern plays A propos du concert de la semaine dernière (2013-15).

Photo © 2015 Magali Lambert

Ensemble proton bern’s CD of music by Samuel Andreyev