On Wednesday, November 8, BlackBox Ensemble and The Noguchi Museum will present an original four-part concert program of sonic landscapes designed to explore our relationship with space, time, objects, and memory. The program will feature the world premiere of the English-language version of “Borrowed Landscape,” a narratorio by playwright duo tauchgold (Heike Tauch und Florian Goldberg) and composer Dai Fujikura, as well as compositions by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, inti figgis-vizueta, and Toru Takemitsu.

The play “Borrowed Landscape” tells the story of three special instruments: a famous Stradivarius walled up for years in a cellar in Budapest, a double bass left behind in 1939 when fleeing from Poland to Erez Israel, and a piano silenced after the Hiroshima bomb killed its young owner. The musicians of a trio approach the stories of their three special instruments. What secrets are hidden in them?

What meanings do we assign to instruments, or objects, that become tied to our own experiences? What is memory, and how is it embodied in objects? What does it mean when those objects are forgotten and uncovered? Can an instrument remember, and does it remember those who have played it?

These are the questions the musicians of a piano trio explore when they are invited to a memorial concert in Hiroshima. They tell the story of their historic instruments, which for decades they were considered lost. As they are rediscovered and played again, their stories - a singular archive where individual experiences intersect with historical narratives - are revealed.

Conceived by the German playwright duo tauchgold as a “narratorio” - a dramatic play based on the musical structure of an oratorio - this piece was originally broadcast as a radio play in 2022. This performance will be the work’s live premiere.

PROGRAM
Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Ró

Toru Takemitsu: Rain Spell

inti figgis-vizueta: Form the Fabric

Dai Fujikura/Tauchgold: Borrowed Landscape