“If quartets are usually a conversation, drunken banter appeared to dominate the opening. But gradually, slowly, moments of captivating clarity began to appear, the blurred and often abrasive surface gave way to the cold, beautiful regions beneath.” (Guy Dammann, The Guardian, 21.01.2015)
Guy Dammann on the JACK Quartet’s recent performance of the String Quartet No. 8 by Georg Friedrich Haas at Wigmore Hall, London.
Find the full review on The Guardian.
That the orchestra accomplished so much in a single weekend […] is astonishing. Then again, it also makes perfect sense. That's what you do for someone you love. (Zachary Lewis, cleveland.com, 17.01.2015)
Each [of the five Notations] still seems as musically inevitable as the 1945 piano pieces did. Conductor and orchestra gave committed performances that surely would have pleased the French master. (Timothy Robson, bachtrack, 18.01.2015)
Find the full reviews of Franz Welser-Möst’s and the Cleveland Orchestra’s tribute concert to Pierre Boulez on 15 January by cleveland.com and bachtrack by clicking the respective links.
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It is with great pleasure that we present our tribute to Arvo Pärt in his 80th year. Tintinnabuli (from the Latin for ‘bell’) is the compositional style created by Arvo Pärt which informs every work on this recording. In all my searchings for inspiring contemporary music I have not come across anyone to rival him. (Peter Phillips) The Tallis Scholars’ “Arvo Pärt: Tintinnabuli”-CD will be released on 2 March 2015. The official release page is up and running: visit the website of Gimell to read the liner notes and listen to excerpts of the recording’s 23 tracks. |
Cornelius Meister and the ORF RSO will perform the Austrian première of Wolfgang Rihm’s Nähe fern 2 on 21 January at the Konzerthaus Wien.
Ö1 broadcasts a recording of the concert two days later, on 23 January, at 19:30.
We’ve just sent out our first newsletter of 2015:
– Manfred Gurlitt’s Soldaten [Soldiers] to be staged at the Theater Osnabrück
– Morton Feldman: The 1986 Darmstadt Lecture
– Study scores of Haas’ Traum in des Sommers Nacht, Rihm’s Tutuguri and Gurlitt’s Soldaten
It was not ingratiating, nor neo-Classical in the sense of offering hummable tunes in a definable style, but it was pleasing to the ear. […] The dense textures of the music were pulled apart like cotton balls to reveal the air between and around them. (Anne Midgette, The Washington Post, 15.01.2015)
Anne Midgette has reviewed the American première of Wolfgang Rihm’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which was recently given by Tzimon Barto and the NSO under Christoph Eschenbach at The Kennedy Center in Washington. A second performance of the concerto will take place this Saturday.
Read the full review on the website of The Washington Post.
Rolando Villazón’s production of Gaetano Donizetti’s Viva la Mamma premières tonight at the Volksoper Wien. For this occasion, Daniel Ender has recently interviewed conductor Kristiina Poska. Find the interview on the website of the Austrian newspaper derStandard.at.
Tonight, on 15 January, the Cleveland Orchestra presents a special musical celebration to salute Pierre Boulez’ 90th birthday, featuring his own music and works he has led to acclaim in performances with the orchestra.
Joela Jones’ performance of 12 Notations will be followed by Notations I-IV and VII. Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Cleveland Orchestra.
Watch the Cleveland Orchestra’s 90th birthday celebration concert preview on YouTube:
On 17 January the Ballett Zürich’s triple bill Strings with works of William Forsythe, Christian Spuck and Edward Clug will premiere. Among the works performed: William Forsythe’s workwithinwork, which uses 26 of Luciano Berio’s 34 Duetti.
Watch an excerpt of workwithinwork, performed by the Compañía Nacional de Danza:
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The New Year has started with three sold-out and highly acclaimed performances of Walter Braunfels’ Te Deum on 7, 8 and 9 January. The work was performed by soprano Simona Šaturová, tenor Dominik Wortig, the Prague Philharmonic Choir and the Czech Philharmonic (cond. Manfred Honeck) at the Rudolfinum in Prague. It was the first time that the Czech Philharmonic played a work by Braunfels. |
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Today Morton Feldman would have celebrated his 89th birthday.
As a small gift from our archives, here is an excerpt from his Darmstadt Lecture, which he held on 24 July 1986 at the 33rd International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt:
Taken from Yes Speak Out Yes (UNO-Cantata) by Spanish composer Cristóbal Halffter and American poet Norman Corwin, which was premièred at the 20th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1968.
Placing 38th in the overall most performed composers’ ranking of 2014, Arvo Pärt is the world’s most performed living composer for the fourth time in a row.
Find the 2014 Classical music statistics on bachtrack.
There’s also an infographic of 2014 available.
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“fascinating percussion works, meticulously performed” (Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 7.1.2015) Andrew Clements of The Guardian has reviewed Mode Records recently released “Karlheinz Stockhausen: Complete Early Works for Percussion”, which includes the UE works Mikrophonie, Zyklus, Refrain and Schlagtrio. Find the full review on The Guardian. |
Renaud Capuçon with Wolfgang Rihm rehearsing for the world première of Rihm’s Gedicht des Malers, which will premièred by Capuçon, Philippe Jordan and the Wiener Symphoniker this Friday, 9 January, at the Wiener Konzerthaus. A second performance of the orchestral work will take place on Saturday, 10 January.
The composer said that he imagined Max Beckmann portraying Eugène Ysaÿe when he composed the work (Beckmann had portrayed Max Reger one year after the composer’s death).
The soloist virtually embodies the painter’s brush as it moves across the canvas in sometimes faster and sometimes more deliberate ways.