Stefan Prins : Augmented. Nadar Ensemble, Klangforum Wien, Yaron Deutsch, Stephane Ginsburgh. Kairos [Album review]

Abstract

At the 2016 Darmstadt courses, the musicologist Ulrich Mosch presented a series of lecture-performances titled ‘Rückspiegel’ (‘rear-view mirror’) which highlighted a single representative piece from each decade of Darmstadt’s history. Somewhat boldly, Mosch even presented a concert to represent the 2010s – devoted to Stefan Prins’s Piano Hero series. This must be a very tricky situation for a younger composer to find themselves in. On the one hand, there’s the professional recognition and institutional approbation of being a classic, foundational subject of New Music’s current identity; on the other hand, well, you are a classic, and the plaudits about ‘critiquing received convention’ threaten to fall flat after you become precisely that. [excerpt]