Three Pieces for piano (1987-90)
(“Ballade”, “Album leave”, “Melody”) Listen to Ballade Listen to Album leave Listen to Melody
Stars Sonata (1986-99) for piano
Publications: IMC
Eight preludes (1986-89) for piano
Performances: Concerts in Moscow, in Germany (among them: Duesseldorf Theatre (08.08.95), Palais Wittgenstein (15.05. 96), Haus der Kirche (28.02.98) (“3000 Years Jerusalem”) a.o.) and in Israel (among them: Conservatory of Petah-Tikva (26.10.99), Musical Center Blumenthal (Tel-Aviv; 24.04.02), Musical Center Ein Kerem (Jerusalem; 21.04.03), Yad Lebanim Hall, Ashkelon (19.10.03), Yad lebanim Hall, Beer-Sheva 11.04.2000; Cultural Center, Jerusalem (Jewish festival 2003, (15.12.03)); 10.01.08 “A Walk” CD Presentation, Einav Cultural Center, Tel-Aviv; 21.02.08 Dunaevsky School of Music , Moscow ; 29.04.2009 Nomus Festival 2009 Novy Sad, Serbia; 22.04.10 “Divinamente NY” Festival (Italian Cultural Institute, NY, USA); 26.08.2010 Silenzio Musica Festival, Montefiore, Italy and more.
“Vesti” on “Tabula Rasa“
"…Improvisations on a “blank slate” combined in them supreme skill of all ensemble members with the finest taste, sensation of form and sense of humor…” “…Brener`s renderings of classic works cannot be labeled as simply “jazz arrangements”. They are in no way just “swinging around” some popular classical tunes, but rather deep and thought-through compositions in which at times it would take an expert to actually identify and appreciate the original source…” (Vladimir Mak, 2006
THE BUFFALO NEWS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19, 2008 Aviv String Quartet performs splendidly By Herman Trotter NEWS MUSIC CRITIC EMERITUS (on String Quartet Nr.1) “…For the listener, then, the evening’s main pleasure was in the quartets by Schulhoff and Brener…” “…Brener (b. 1974) is a Russian-born emigre to Israel. His five-movement Quartet No. 1 is built around a slow central Lullaby largely resting on slow ostinato patterns over which a yearning plaint slowly unwinds. It features angular, bubbling minor-mode lyricism, with slower counterthoughts and a lot of punctuating stressed attacks, while the jumpy and propulsive Scherzo also has heavy stresses with almost clock-like regularity. Its concluding movements are a slashing Fugato and a wandering Finale that seems to seek a resting place but is ambivalent about having found it…”
Concert review By Matti Edén, November 25, 2008 (on String Quartet Nr.1)
“…..The verge introduction to a color-saturated String quartet no.1 by a thirty-four-year-old Israeli Uri Brener is a concentrated non-vibrato. It is being followed by an enterprising chord flow with a rhythmically profiled melodic line in Shostakovich’s spirit. Brener studied as a child in Moscow and later in Germany, and, like Shostakovich, Brener uses Jewish folk-like intonations in his music. The intensity is increased by sudden silence breaks. The music is original despite its clear references…”
J.F.M Internet tidning Malmö Sweden, 26 Nov 2008 by Fredrik Sieradzki
“…Those who did not attend the culture ministry’s concert tonight missed a genuine artistic and at the same time an absolutely crazy experience… Uri Brener, a composer in kippa — who had written music for the project “Night at the Cinema 2008” especially for the Aviv quartet and top-trombonist Elias Faingersh, joined us on its world premier in Malmö… I believe no one in the auditorium has ever experienced anything similar neither in a live performance nor in recording… One could do nothing else than stand up and applaud “Bravo!” to a glorious eclectic experience full of humor and playful blessing…”
Plus ca change by Uri Epstein
“…Uri Brener displayed originality and a well-developed sense of artistic form and development. Brener gave shape to emotionally genuine introversion and agitation in the intellectually controlled piano pieces “Reverie”(1998) and “Light” (1995)…”
Concert Reviews BY Max Stern
“The Sinfonietta 2007-2008 season opened with refreshing energy in an impressive collage for piano and orchestra by Uri Brener, the new resident composer and soloist… Overall, the nearly half hour work holds one’s attention. It is a telling contemporary commentary about being human, holding on to sensitivity, and spiritual survival in a cruel and violent world…”
“Music of words” By Ben Shalev
“….In the album, Brenner’s love for jazz, his enchantment with the music of the Middle Ages and his tendency to create “sound pictures” in the spirit of ambient music are also evident. Even the clearly “classical” pieces in the album testify to Brenner’s tendency to blur boundaries between various musical worlds in a productive way…”
“Mr. Brener appreciates the ease with which a violin and a cello can be made to sing… the work really comes to life in its central scherzo, “Discussion”, a lively, humorous movement in which traces of Shostakovich’s accent and energy show Mr. Brener’s Russian roots.”
Special Award for operatorio “Shunamit” at a competition in Boston. Opera(torio) composed by Yuri Brenner, a libretto written by Esther Ettinger, was selected for performance at the Boston Metro Opera
The Violin Concerto by Uri Brener
… is if proclaiming without fear of it`s accession to the line of great Romantic concertos, those by Brahms , Tchaikovsky , Sibelius…
Hello Uri, your music is wonderful, the feelings and emotions during chase your notes. I am not easy to musical taste, I grew up listening to Thelonious Monk, Michel Petrucciani, Keith Jarrett, but your music is very beautiful. compliments. good music and good life.
Wonderful playing and a great piano rendering of that XII century tune Ramon Llull would most certainly be pleased to listen to your interpretation
nice your delicate sounds. its amazing. from japan
I absolutely love your cover of comptine d’un autre ete l’apres midi… I don’t know what makes your cover different, but it almost made me cry.
Your playing talks to my soul. Just beautiful and so moving.. 🙂
your music is sublime! 🙂
I think I’m going to run out and buy this right now! I like Brubeck and Guaraldi and I get the feeling Uri does too. However, UB is not a copycat, but has a distinctive sense of being at ease with sorrow.
Highly developed mind-piano connection. Beautiful tunes and playing, I wish you much success with your musical work. All the best,
Beautiful sorrow in your music…
Dear Uri, I wanted to take the time to thank you SO much for your CD. It is so versatile, different from your previous music.. I love the orchestral works. I think you have so much to give and innovate and it should be worldwide…
Thanks for the CD – listening to it with a tremendous pleasure. You are a wonderful composer !!!
I have many Israeli and Russian performers’ CD`s, but this disk, I am sure, will take a special place in my collection. For all the diversity of the disk (it includes both “full-length” works for orchestra (like Chamber Symphony) alongside with smaller chamber pieces for flute, cello and voice), everything in it is subordinated to some hidden idea, unrecognizable at the first glance. But at the completion of the album`s listening suddenly there is a desire to listen to it again and delve further and further into the world of Uri`s ideas. And then you catch yourself thinking that this is not just an exercise in composition, but a real high Music …
Great symphonic piece of music!!! Congrats my friend!!!
Great Composer
Can’t stop listening to these performances. Amazing!
It’s not just “contamination” between genres… there’s a deep union of classical-baroque concepts and jazz rhythm and harmony. Great.
This is great. It’s good to know that Jacques Loussier has some competition!
You play in a magic way! Very interestings uploads! Warm greetings from Sweden.
Mr.Brener, Greetings from Connecticut-USA. I am a Turkish composer/pianist/conductor. I was luckily found your recordings on youtube. Your style is very original and the way you use your folk music is in a very high quality. That is something that unfortunately we miss in modern music. I would like to congratulate you from bottom of my heart… Best regards
I thought that our time couldn’t produce a big composer. I was wrong. You have created such a rich, dramatic, truly Jewish piece, which is appealing to everyone. It’s fresh, thought provoking and beautiful music. Thank you. I am joining your fun club.
Outstanding and prolific composer bridging into the 21st century with brilliant compositions solidly founded on the most advanced music of the of 20th century. without doubt destined to be regarded as one of the greatest composers of this generation..
The Great music and superb performing!
Dear Uri, I’m just starting to hear the many works, but started with Auka and Exodus, and they are mighty impressive! Among other things, you have a great sense of organic form. And this is quite an achievement in the longer pieces, which are not segmented into movements. It’s hard to believe what you have accomplished at your young age!
Dear Uri, Your music is very convincing, self-sufficient and highly professional. Especially noticeable is your incredible sense of proportion and form. However I feel it is not so much about music, but rather about constructing your own, individual reality, which is a way deeper and more global then just a usual discourse about musical-stylistic esthetics. Here one can actually sense a kind of philosophical concept of your individual weltanschauung. But in order to penetrate and immerse in that reality, one really needs an entry ticket. It`s like a membership in an elite club: only for the chosen ones. Yet I wish you to acquire more and more “chosen ones”, so that eventually you reality might be transformed in a self-sufficient world. Voices are really great! With respect and adore to your mastery and hard-working,
…You have a great gift of lyrical and virtuosic writing…
The Chamber Symphony is written in an accessible musical language, based on solid musical tradition on one hand, but uses the finest composition sophistication on the other. An original tonal thinking together with a very personal musical language both characterize this work that exhibit a deep intuitive internal logic and a compelling landslide. Each of the five work`s movements make evident Brener’s superb sense of musical development and his refined taste when it comes to orchestration, thematic development and to the magnitude of the musical processes in general. Uri’s Chamber Symphony is written in a fascinating, dramatic and exciting manner, and creates with its emotional honesty a profound and shaking musical experience.
We are talking about a creative personality with a strong and original content. The combination of a high-level and mature performing skill and a composer of such impressive and varied profile display a talent welcomed in the most respected stages in Israel and around the globe.
Exceptional talent and a very high skill…
The numerous inspirational sources for Uri’s music reflect his multi-faceted, interdisciplinary and artistic personality: a gifted pianist well-versed in the most demanding repertoire, a jazz connoisseur, a most imaginative and erudite composer, an original orchestrator, a born performer, at ease both as a soloist and with ensembles.
Rarely one has an opportunity to express a professional opinion on an outstanding composer like Uri Brenner! Mr. Brener ‘s works are most impressive and exciting … they testify to the particularly unusual musical and artistic personality. An artistic development felt from his earlier works, which he wrote at age 16, up to his most recent works, is striking, and evoke a strong sense of an artist with rare qualities: a developed compositional technique, a personal statement, ability to take artistic risks and carry them out successfully, the combination of depth and simplicity with virtuosity and sophistication…
Mr. Brener surely belongs to the rare musical talents of the highest kind… His compositions are independent and display rigorous knowledge of instrumentation and feel of colour. His mastery of form is certain and imaginative.
No doubt this is one of the most outstanding talents I met in Israel … Uri is a composer and a highly skilled performer in the most original and artistic sense, a refreshing and intellectual personality with real depth.
The road taken, by MAXIM REIDER
“Composer / pianist Uri Brener has walked a long, winding road to get where he is today. He’s traveled far, both physically and spiritually. And it shows in his music. Brener released his debut album, A Walk, filled with piano reflecting his wide-ranging sound… A delightful solo piano blend of modern and ambient jazz”
Uri Brener (piano, accordion)
— Anton Dressler (clarinets, live electronics)
Duo’s repertoire is extremely diverse and includes many different programs – from purely classical to mixed programs featuring jazz treatments of classical pieces and crossover pieces, from different folk – (and particularly Jewish klezmer) traditional music down to avant-garde and free improvisation, as well as original works of the Duo members and those especially written for them. In its programs, AntUr also makes use of the live-electronics aside with a variety of additional tools arsenal – flutes and reeds, accordion, percussion, etc.
For biographic info please go to:
Collaborations
