Dear friends, I am very glad to present you with the 2018 issue of inventor-musicae, featuring my publications of 2017. This booklet includes extensive texts I wrote on the publications I released last year. I plan this publication to be informative and worth archiving. It is not intended as just a "Newsletter" of what I did but, rather, an instigation towards further productive discussion which may be started online by connecting with me on several social networks I am involved with. In 2017, I published a double CD featuring the "War Sonatas" (N.6,7,8 and 9) by Prokofiev; a CD entitled "The Young Brahms" with the Sonata N.3 op.5 and the Four Ballades opus 10 and the fifth volume of my ongoing project of the integrale of Beethoven Piano Sonatas, a CD and DVD joint release including Sonatas "Pastorale" and the first two numbers of opus 31 (with the "Tempest" Sonata op.31 N.2). This is a personal endeavor. Just with all my productions. I am a free, unbound, independent artist. I take all the hassle and risks for what I publish. All that music is totally or partially available to watch and listen free on Youtube. Let me expand somewhat about this. I believe everybody should be able to listen to my music, whether they are able to buy it or not. Then some will, hopefully, enjoy it and, if they really did enjoy, they would want it going on; i.e. me publishing more, so they would feel the urge to support my creations by buying my CD's and DVD's and printed music scores. Was Glenn Gould right when he stated, back in early eighties, that the public performance of music was dying? I am not positively sure about it. Yet, when we look at the programs offered in major music venues and facilities around the world, as well as to the operas and orchestras, we are forced to re-think about that. Are they offering programs interesting enough for the serious music lover like you or do they deal, almost exclusively, with the common programs, artists and repertoire to satisfy, attract, (just) the causal concert-goer? Taking into consideration the recent advances in digital media distribution, unknown to Gould when he prophetized the "agony" of the concert music as it is presented, the answer and the cure for classical music's growing disease can be there. I decided to take the bull by the horns and jump into the "new" track. I am therefore recording and publishing in my own, personal facilities which, thank G-d, I have the means to possess and operate and releasing all my work through the Net. Video, in the classical music was long neglected. True classical aficionados disdained with reason the video-tape. The sound quality of the typical VHS tape was so bad that even for Operas and Ballets, classical music lovers preferred the vinyl. This is not to mention the very poor sound reproduction capabilities of the typical TV-set, back then. Now TV started and did merge with the typical home stereo, offering a very high quality sound reproduction. In that context I envisioned conjoint production of CDs and DVDs. I upgraded my studio to offer full synced audio-video recording. I hope that the joint audio-video, CD-DVD releases of the Beethoven piano sonatas, the fifth volume presented in this issue, will met favorably with piano music enthusiasts and students alike. I hope you will enjoy reading, browsing or at least glancing though this booklet. As always I would be happy to connect with you and get your feedback.
About the Author: David Ezra Okonsar, pianist, composer, conductor and musicologist is the First Prize Winner at the International Young Virtuosos Competition, Antwerp, Belgium, 1982 and laureate of other prestigious international piano competitions such as the Gina Bachauer, Sixth Prize, Salt Lake City-UT, 1991 and J. S. Bach, Second Prize, Paris, France 1989. He is graduated from the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music on piano, composition and orchestration. He studied with Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden and Madame Jacqueline Fontyn. He has been a pupil of Alexis Weissenberg. David Ezra Okonsar performed in major concert halls in Europe, North America and Japan both solo and orchestral. He was special guest judge for the National Piano Competition of Japan (1999) P.T.N.A. (To-On). His researches in music related technologies were broadcast in a series of documentaries presented by the artist on the National Broadcast of Turkey (TRT). Mr. Okonsar is a prolific composer of orchestral, chamber, choral and piano music. His composing line is highly avant-garde and complex. Also a musicologist, writer and lecturer, Mr. Okonsar's writings are published in English and French and he is lecturing on music, composing and related technology. His recital programs are usually highly eclectic and often thematic mixing works by A. Webern, A. Berg, I. Stravinsky, K. Stockhausen, P. Boulez and L. Berio with the more traditional piano repertoire.