UMD Percussion Ensemble - Sandström, Kroumata Pieces (1995)

UMD Percussion Ensemble
Dr. Lee Hinkle, music director

Live Performance
December 8, 2014
Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
Dekelboum Concert Hall

Audio by Antonino D'Urzo

Performers:
Jonathan Clancy
Laurin Friedland
Zachary Konick
Mario Perez
Robert Schroyer
Maurice Watkins

Kroumata Pieces (1995) by Sven-David Sandström (b. 1942) is a work
for six percussionists. Each percussionist plays three groups of instruments: skin or wood drums, wood and metal. Kroumata Pieces was written for the Swedish percussion group Kroumata to serve as the finale to a concert in Stockholm. Written by Sandström in a mere ten days, the work is a tour-de-force for the percussionists. The music is a powerful display of sonorities; as powerful as could be had without amplification. The work moves from areas of rhythmic clarity to sections of dense polyrhythmic intensity and often features raucous unison playing. Incredibly physically demanding, Kroumata Pieces leaves the audience and performers exhausted at its close.