Video

A video series fea­tur­ing Con­rad Stein­mann by Chan­dra Rolf Mäder

Georg Philipp Tele­mann (1681–1767), Fan­tasie X in A minor: Tem­po giusto/ Presto/Moderato (trans­posed ver­sion of the Fan­tasie in F‑sharp minor from the “Fan­tasie per il Vio­li­no (sic!) sen­za Bas­so Tele­mann”, prob­a­bly 1732,TWV 40:2–13).

Con­rad Stein­mann, alto recorder by Eti­enne Holm­blat after an instru­ment by Johann Heytz, Berlin, around 1720.

You can read the fol­low­ing sto­ry about the ori­gin of this extra­or­di­nary instru­ment: “Schild­kröten­wege oder die Fir­ma Johann & Eti­enne”, in: Con­rad Stein­mann, Drei Flöten für Peter Bich­sel , vom Zauber der Block­flöte.

Record­ed on July 8, 2022 in the Gob­elinz­im­mer of the Wildtsches Haus, Basel.

An Entry/ La Beauford/ New Provo/ Nightingale/ Budro, an Irish Dance

With the excep­tion of “Nightin­gale,” first pub­lished in the “Pleas­ant Com­pan­ion: OR NEW LESSONS and INSTRUCTIONS for the Fla­gelet By Thomas Greet­ing, Gent. LONDON, the oth­er pieces are from “Apollo’s Ban­quet, Con­tain­ing Instruc­tions and a Vari­ety of the Lat­est Melodies, Ayres, Jig­gs, and Min­uets for the TRIPLE VIOLIN, now in Use in the Pub­lic The­aters and in the Schools of Danc­ing, most of them being in the Range of both Flute and Flagelet.

Fla­geo­let by Fred­er­ick G. Mor­gan, Daylesford/Australia, 1984, after an anony­mous instru­ment around 1800 in Hz. 415.

Record­ed on June 24, 2022 on the Mörs­burg, Switzerland.

After the madri­gal “Io son fer­i­to” by Palest­ri­na, ca. 1525 — 1594, and the diminu­tions by G. B. Bovi­cel­li, 1550 to ca. 1594, from his “Regole, pas­sag­gi di musi­ca”, Venezia 1594. Solo ver­sion by Con­rad Stein­mann 2020.

Instru­ment: recorder in g’ after Bas­sano by Taavi-Mats Utt, 2001; in mam­moth ivory.

Record­ings tak­en on Novem­ber 6, 2020 in the church of Schuders.

Ikt­suar­pok (2020) by Con­rad Stein­mann (*1951)
Plex­i­glas over­tone flute in F on 465 Hz. by Lukas Rohn­er, 2006

Ikt­suar­pok is a word from the lan­guage of the Green­landic Inu­it and describes the yearn­ing feel­ing of an Inu­it who steps out of his igloo to scan the wide hori­zon with his eyes, in the vague hope of dis­cov­er­ing a pos­si­ble visitor.

Record­ings tak­en on Novem­ber 6, 2020 in the church of Schuders.

Vir­go, sidus aureum from the Codex Las Huel­gas (Bur­gos), around 1300.
Pro­cess­ing Con­rad Steinmann.

Instru­ment: Sopra­no recorder (Rosen­borg) in 465 Hz. by Fred­er­ick G. Mor­gan, 1983; maple.

Record­ings tak­en on Novem­ber 6, 2020 in the church of Schuders.

Alrune (orig­i­nal ver­sion, 1979) by Roland Moser (1943*)
Con­rad Stein­mann, Ocarina.

Instru­ment: Oca­ri­na in c”, EWA Vien­na, around 1920, from the estate of Roland Moser’s grand­fa­ther; fired clay.

Record­ings tak­en on Novem­ber 6, 2020 in the church of Schuders.

Mandilá­tos
Trad. from north­ern Thrace/Greece, after a field pho­to 1973 with Nikos Strikos, lýra, and Ioan­nis Pouli­me­nou, daoúli.

Con­rad Stein­mann plays a sopra­no recorder in c” (Rosen­borg) by Evgenij Ilar­i­onov, Kiev.
Played in front of the 3‑part “Rorschach Screen” by Peter Ran­dall-Page on the occa­sion of his solo exhi­bi­tion in the monastery Schönthal/Langenbruck (Switzer­land)

Qale Gnizza
8th sound of the church Qale Gniz­za, ev. from the 6th cen­tu­ry, hand­ed down by the archdea­con Asmar from Beirut, with a com­ment of August 20, 2019 by Con­rad Steinmann.

Con­rad Stein­mann plays a Renais­sance bass recorder in C by Bob Mar­vin, 1991.
Played in front of the sculp­ture “Enve­lope of pul­sa­tion 1” by Peter Ran­dall-Page on the occa­sion of his solo exhi­bi­tion in the monastery Schönthal/Langenbruck (Switzer­land).

Con­rad Stein­mann: vivace e suave (2017)
for 1 alto recorder
with thanks to Sylve­stro (Ganas­si) and Ivo (Dim­chev) for inspiration

Plačí, plačí, naplačí se (trad. aus Bulgarien)

Wine, wine, Marí Máro ejo,
Cry your­self out,
Your girl­hood is over…

Con­rad Stein­man plays on a Rafi tenor flute by Evgen­ji Ilar­i­onov (Kiev)

Con­rad Stein­mann: alfa­bet (2010)
for a bass recorder
inspired by the poem “alfa­bet” by the Dan­ish poet Inger Chris­tensen and writ­ten for “Alif Beh” by the Egypt­ian artist Hazem El Mestikawy..

Jacob van Eyck (c.1590–1657):
Pavaen Lachry­mae from: The Fluyten Lust-hof, Utrecht 1644
after “Lachri­mae Anti­quae” by John Dowland.

Con­rad Stein­mann plays a Renais­sance flute in g’ from Mam­mut, by Taavi-Mats Utt (Esto­nia), 2003.

Con­rad Stein­mann: sopra il lamen­to di Reso per sopra­no solo (2014)
Para­phrase of the ” Lamen­to ” for flute solo by Reso Kik­nadze (Geor­gia)

Con­rad Stein­mann: 4pm (2013)
for a nar­row bored renais­sance flute in c”

Con­rad Stein­mann plays on a tenor flute by Evgen­ji Ilar­i­onov (Kiev) after a mod­el by Claude Rafi, Lyon, c. 1540, at the pitch of 465

This whole video series with Con­rad Steimann awak­ens in me what Hei­deg­ger calls “uncan­ny”. Not uncan­ny in the sense of spooky, but in the sense of non-native. When you sud­den­ly step into a com­plete­ly strange land­scape, in which every­thing you know dis­ap­pears and the struc­tures of what you are and know dis­solve, so that some­thing real­ly new can happen.
It is very beau­ti­ful how the tran­quil­li­ty of the artist’s pos­ture merges with the silence of the sur­round­ings and thus the music seems to come almost com­plete­ly out of the void. Almost as if the music here is a play­ing of what oth­er­wise pos­sess­es nei­ther lan­guage nor sound. Andrew Schaad