Stefan Ender of the Austrian newspaper Der Standard reviews Entarteopera’s production of Franz Schreker’s Der Schatzgräber [The Treasure Hunter] at the Tabakfabrik in Linz: find the (German) review on Der Standard. Ender’s final appeal: “play more Schreker in Vienna”.

The Wiener Zeitung states that the Der Schatzgräber is the “most fascinating opera production of the city”, praising the effectiveness of Werner Steinmetz’ reduced arrangement.

Franz Schreker: Der Schatzgräber
opera in 1 prelude, 4 acts and an epilogue | 145'
1 1 1 1 - 1 1 1 0 - perc(2), hp, cel, harm, pno, vln, vln, vln, vln, vla(2), vc(3), cb
reduced version; arranger: Werner Steinmetz
17/9/2013, Tabakfabrik, Linz; Israel Chamber Orchestra, cond. Martin Sieghart

Happy Birthday David Sawer!

Read more about David Sawer, listen to excerpts from his works and find background information and reviews of his works.

From the reviews of this year’s The Lighthouse Keepers, which premièred on 4 July in Cheltenham:

It is a superbly atmospheric piece with sympathetic portrayals of father and son by William Oxborrow and Thomas Howes. The 11-strong ensemble under Martyn Brabbins’ fine direction demonstrated that you don’t need a huge symphony orchestra to conjure up a storm.
Roger Jones, Seen and Heard International, 5 July 2013

Sawer’s music is often brilliantly inventive, evoking the gathering emotional and physical storm, and mingling live sounds with their distorted echoes. The two actors Thomas Howes and William Oxborrow did all they could to loosen the work’s joints and make it speak.
Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph, 5 July 2013

The United States Coast Guard Band performs Arvo Pärt’s Fratres for chamber ensemble this Sunday, 15.09.2013, for free at the Leamy Concert Hall, New London.

Find out more on their homepage.

Arvo Pärt: Fratres
for chamber ensemble | 10'
1 1 1 1 - 1 0 0 0 - perc, str(1 1 1 1 1)
15.09.2013, Leamy Concert Hall, New London; United States Coast Guard Band

On 11 August, Simon Rattle performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 with the National Children’s Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela at the Salzburg Festival.

“When I first conducted the Infantil Orchestra 3 years ago in Caracas, I could not believe that children as young as 9 and never older than 14 could not only play all the notes, but also could make such wonderful music. […] This is, quite simply, the future of music. Those of you lucky enough to hear the concerts will see why” (Simon Rattle, Salzburg Festival)

And here it is, a live recording of the full concert at the Felsenreitschule – to quote Rattle once more (from his interview on Haas’ in vain): “Thank God for YouTube”.

Happy Birthday Arvo Pärt!

Today, 11 September 2013, the composer celebrates his 78th birthday, and Tõnu Kaljuste and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra dedicate a birthday concert to him at the end of the Nargenfestival’s Arvo Pärt days.

Among the works performed will be Tabula rasa, which had its world première more than 35 years ago in Tallinn (with Alfred Schnittke on the piano) and Spiegel im Spiegel for violin and piano.

Arvo Pärt: Orient & Occident
for string orchestra | 7'
Arvo Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel
for violin and piano | 10'
Arvo Pärt: Tabula rasa
for 2 violins, string orchestra and prepared piano | 27'
Arvo Pärt: Trisagion
for string orchestra | 12'
11.09.2013, Tallinn; St. John's Church, Harry Traksmann, vln; Robert Traksmann, vln; Marrit Gerretz-Traksmann, pno; Leho Karin, vlc; Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, cond. Tõnu Kaljuste

Horkheimer and Adorno in April 1964

Theodor W. Adorno, sociologist, music theoretician and composer, was born 110 years ago on 11 September 1903, in Frankfurt-am-Main.

His mother, a singer, early on established for her son a musical background. Until 1921 Adorno studied philosophy, psychology, sociology and musicology in his town of birth, and from that time began his occupation as a music critic. In 1925 he went to Vienna, where he undertook composition studies with Alban Berg. Adorno was a member of the editorial staff for the music journal Musikblätter des Anbruch in which he covered the circumstances of the modern idiom in countless articles.

Universal Edition has issued articles by Adorno in the following publications (all in German):

Musikblätter des Anbruch – facsimile edition on CD-Rom (UE 45014)

Studien zur Wertungsforschung:
Volume 1 - Symposion für Musikkritik (UE 26801)
Volume 2 - Essays: Konzeption eines Wiener Operntheaters (UE 26802)
Volume 12 - Adorno und die Musik (UE 26812)

Parts of Friedrich Cerha’s Eine Art Chansons will be performed on 13 September at the Dominikanerkirche Krems as a side event to Marianne Maderna’s exhibition Humanimals. The concert is for free, but one has to register for the event, which is organized by Zeit Kunst Niederösterreich.

Friedrich Cerha: Eine Art Chansons
for chansonnier, percussionist, piano and double bass | 65'
13.09.2013, Dominikanerkirche, Krems; Agnes Heginger, v; Rainer Keuschnig, pno; David Christopher Panzl, perc; Josef Pitzek, cb

A new recording of Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire and Evangelisti’s Die Schachtel has been released on the Italian label Stradivarius, featuring soprano Livia Rado and the Ensemble Prometeo under Marco Angius. In his recent review on The Guardian, Andrew Clements argues that it is hard to “think of a better, more lucid recording of Pierrot Lunaire currently available on CD”.

Stradivarius offers quite a few excerpts of the recording.

In March 1912, seven months before the première of Pierrot, Schönberg wrote in his diary: “And I am unconditionally approaching a new kind of expression – I can sense it. The sounds now are virtually becoming a bestially direct expression of sensual and intellectual feelings – almost as if everything had been directly propagated.”

Tim Ashley of The Guardian reviews the Prom 67, which was “subtle, electrifying and attain[ed] a tragic nobility”: Paavo Järvi conducted the Orchestra de Paris, with Arvo Pärt’sCantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten and Britten’s Violin Concerto – followed by Berlioz and Saint-Saëns – on the programme.

The full review is available on The Guardian.

We just uploaded an updated version of the study score of Friedrich Cerha’s Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra. You can find the full score here.

Upcoming performances of the Concerto:

Friedrich Cerha: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra
for percussion and orchestra | 35’
3 2 3 3 – 6 4 4 2 – timp(2), perc(4), hp, cel, sop.sax, str(14 12 10 8 6)
10/9/2013, Lübeck, Germany
15/9/2013, Lucerne, Switzerland
17/9/2013, Frankfurt, Germany
18/9/2013, Cologne, Germany
Martin Grubinger, perc; Vienna Philharmonic, cond. Lorin Maazel

Further peformances:
prem. 20/9/2013, Helsinki; Martin Grubinger, perc; Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. John Storgårds
prem. 25/10/2013, Casa da Musica, Porto; Martin Grubinger, perc; Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Musica, cond. Eivind Gullberg Jensen
24/11/2013, Philharmonie, Munich; Martin Grubinger, perc; Munich Philharmonic, cond. Lorin Maazel

Here is our latest newsletter, focusing on this year’s Lucerne Festival (16.08.–15.09.):

Jacques-Émile Blanche’s rendition of the Groupe des Six – Germaine Tailleferre, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, and Louis Durey (top to bottom left); Georges Auric and Francis Poulenc (top to bottom right) – together with Marcelle Meyer in the middle and Jean Cocteau on the bottom right of the painting.

Find out more about Darius Milhaud.

Happy Birthday Julian Yu!

Find out more about the composer and listen to his music.

Here are two excerpts from reviews of David Sawer’s The Lighthouse Keepers, which premièred on 04.07.2013 in Cheltenham. Martyn Brabbins conducted the BCMG. Click on the respective links for the full reviews:

It is a superbly atmospheric piece with sympathetic portrayals of father and son by William Oxborrow and Thomas Howes. The 11-strong ensemble under Martyn Brabbins’ fine direction demonstrated that you don’t need a huge symphony orchestra to conjure up a storm.

Roger Jones, Seen and Heard International, 5 July 2013

Sawer’s music is often brilliantly inventive, evoking the gathering emotional and physical storm, and mingling live sounds with their distorted echoes. The two actors Thomas Howes and William Oxborrow did all they could to loosen the work’s joints and make it speak.

Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph, 5 July 2013

David Sawer on The Lighthouse Keepers:

The Rokko Philharmonic Orchestra will perform Kurt Atterberg’s Symphony No. 6 – sometimes referred to as “The Dollar Symphony” (go here to find out why) – this Sunday, 01.09.2013, at the Kobe Bunka Hall in Tokyo.

Listen to an excerpt and find out more about the piece.

Kurt Atterberg: Symphony No. 6
for orchestra | 32'
3 2 2 2 - 4 3 3 1 - timp, perc, hp, str
01.09.2013, Kobe Bunka Hall, Tokyo; Rokko Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Koichi Mori