Biruta

The phenomenal cellist Ernst Reijseger improvised a 30 minute piece with a cello orchestra at the 2001 New Directions Cello Festival. He brought a number of short, open-ended, notated pieces, and in rehearsals he also taught us a number of techniques and musical elements. When we got on stage, he picked and chose from these bits to construct an entire continuous multi-movement piece—some of it is really quite extraordinary. My favorite section is a piece of Ernst's entitled Biruta—while the cello orchestra repeatedly plays a very quiet, simple arco melody, Ernst solos pizzicato. You can hear it in either QuickTime (slower but better sounding) or RealPlayer (faster but a little like you're listening through a phone) format.