In addition to traditional solo and chamber music performances, Svetozar Ivanov designs and presents unusual concert formats combining music with other art forms (documentary footage, art films, animation, poetry, short stories, live dance, paintings,
lighting design, prerecorded material, live streaming, etc). These evocative
programs suggest one complete aesthetic idea that develops throughout the
recital.
Multimedia recitals for solo piano:
Romance Sentimentale - footage from Sergei Eisenstein's 1930 film "Romance Sentimentale" and Dimitri Kirsanoff's 1929 film "Brumes d'Autumne". Music by Berio, Scriabin, Schoenberg, Ustvolskaya, and Crumb. Dance by Bliss Kohlmyer.
Black Ten - inspired by Julio Cortazar's last poem Negro el Diez. Music by J.S.Bach, Robert Helps, Augusta Read Thomas, and David Del Tredici; Serigraphs by Luis Tomasello.
Perpetual Tango – a “three episode and an epilogue” recital inspired by Jean Cocteau’s film “The Blood of a Poet”. Music by Satie, Cage, Stravinsky, Barber, Cowell, and Scriabin. Dance by Bliss Kohlmyer.
Short Stories – Dada-like collage of piano music and film footage from the first half of 20th Century combined with live structured dance improvisation
A Century Begins – music, poetry, paintings and documentary footage from the years leading to World War I
Vers la flamme – piano music by Scriabin and special color lighting inspired by the composer’s “color hearing” principles used in his orchestral work “Prometheus”
Scriabin and Russian Symbolism – Lecture Recital exploring connections between Russian Symbolist ideas and Scriabin’s music and philosophy; performances of Scriabin’s late piano music, poetry, philosophical readings, and paintings by representatives of Russian Symbolism
Multimedia recitals for violin and piano (Stuart-Ivanov Duo):
Creating a System within a System - the violin/piano music of Nikolai Roslavets combined with documentary footage from Soviet Russia, poetry by Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva and Soviet animation
Last Year at Marienbad – violin/piano-harpsichord music from the early French Baroque and 20th Century combined with footage from Alain Resnais’ film “L’année dernière à Marienbad”
Dreamtigers – a collage of violin/piano works by 20th Century composers combined with poems by e.e.cummings and short stories by Jorge Luis Borges
