Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Sylvain Cambreling with the Klangforum Wien before and after yesterday’s performances at the Kollegienkirche in Salzburg during the Salzburg Festival.

Birtwistle’s Cortege, Secret Theatre, Tombeau in memoriam Igor Stravinsky and 9 Settings of Celan were on the programme.

The exceptional Berlin based chamber orchestra Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop will perform Georges Lentz’s Birrung on 1 August at the 68th Hitzacker Summer Music Festival.

The title Birrung (a word that comes from one of the Australian Aboriginal languages and can be translated as ‘stars’) underlines the composer’s “fascination for the vast empty spaces of the Australian landscape with its radiantly beautiful night skies” (Lentz), whereas the piece itself is a small section of Lentz’s large-scale work-in-progress ‘Mysterium’ (Caeli enarrant... VII), a cycle of works that reflects the composers interest in astronomy as well as his religious beliefs.

Georges Lentz: Birrung
for 11 strings | 9’
vln(6), vla(2), vc(2), cb(1)
1/8/2013, Hitzacker; Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop

View the full study score:

Here are some upcoming Universal Edition highlights from the Arcana Festival 2013, which runs from 25 July until 6 August.

Georg Friedrich Haas: de terrae fine
for violin solo | 17’
Johannes Maria Staud: Towards a Brighter Hue
for violin | 9’
Beat Furrer: Lied
for violin and piano | 12’
30/7/2013, Stiftskirche Admont; Ernst Kovacic, vln; Mathilde Hoursiangou, pno

Mauricio Sotelo: Como llora el agua ...
for guitar | 12’
31/7/2013, Stiftskirche Admont; Juan Manuel Cañizares, guit

Georg Friedrich Haas: String Quartet No. 6
for string quartet | 20’
1st violin; 2nd violin; viola; violoncello
1/8/2013, Kulturhaus Liezen; Quatuor Diotima

Johannes Maria Staud: Par ici!
for ensemble | 10’
1 0 1 1 - 1 1 0 0 - perc, pno, vln, vla, vc, cb
4/8/2013, Helmut List Halle, Graz; Arcana Ensemble, Dir. Peter Rundel

The website of The Artbassador, our Greek representative, has launched. Feel free to rummage through their (bilingual!) website: The Artbassador.

If you can’t be at the Salzburg Festival this year to see Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain: Ö1 offers a live stream on their homepage:

Ö1 Webradio, listen live

The stream starts today, 26 July, 19:30 (cet/cest).

Harrison Birtwistle: Gawain
opera in 2 acts | 150’
3 3 3 3 - 4 3 3 3 - 2. Horn in F offstage, 4. Horn in F offstage, timp, perc, vib, hp, mar, cimb, vln, vln, vln, vln, vln, vln, vln, vla(2), vc(2), cb(2)
Austrian prem. 26/7/2013, Felsenreitschule; ORF RSO Wien, cond. Ingo Metzmacher

View the full study score of Zwielicht

We just received a recording from the world première of the Cologne version of Jay Schwartz’s Zwielicht.

The first performance of the work – which concerns itself with the phenomena of the transformation between different times, but also between life and the afterlife and the boundaries between light and darkness – took place earlier this month, on 11 July in Cologne, with the composer conducting the Kölner Vokalsolisten. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday David Fennessy!

Ingo Metzmacher and the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien at the rehearsals for the Austrian première of Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain at the Salzburg Festival on 26 July 2013.

The opera in 2 acts will open this year’s opera programme; an interview with Harrison Birtwistle about Gawain is available in our Musikblätter 5.

Harrison Birtwistle: Gawain
opera in 2 acts | 150’
3 3 3 3 - 4 3 3 3 - 2. Horn in F offstage, 4. Horn in F offstage, timp, perc, vib, hp, mar, cimb, vln, vln, vln, vln, vln, vln, vln, vla(2), vc(2), cb(2)
Austrian prem. 26/7/2013, Felsenreitschule; ORF RSO Wien, cond. Ingo Metzmacher
Further performances: 29/7/2013, 2, 8 and 15/8/2013

Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel is featured in the trailer of Alfonso Cuarón’s upcoming hollywood movie Gravity:

We just sent out our latest Newsletter, featuring the opening of the opera programme of the Salzburg Festival with Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain and 4 world premières of Universal Edition composers at the Festival.

Find out more.

If you want to subscribe to our newsletter, you can do so here: Newsletter Universal Edition

Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten for string orchestra and bells and Spiegel im Spiegel for violin and piano will be performed at the Aspen Music Festival. This year, the festival in the Colorado Mountains runs under the theme Conscience and Beauty.

Here’s an excerpt of Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten:

Arvo Pärt: Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten
for string orchestra and bell | 6’
21/07/2013, Benedict Music Tent; Aspen Festival Orchestra, cond. Leonard Slatkin

Arvo Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel
for violin and piano | 10’
7/8/2013, Harris Concert Hall; Anne-Marie McDermott, pno; Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, vln

The programme of Wien Modern #26 is now online. Highlights of the festival will be the world première of Luke Bedford’s Wonderful Four-Headed Nightingale by the Arditti Quartet (a piece that was commissioned by Wien Modern) on Monday, 28 October and the performance of Johannes Maria Staud’s orchestral work Maniai on 15 November.

Find out more: Wien Modern 2013

Happy Birthday Harrison Birtwistle!

We are amazed to see how many of your works will be performed at the Salzburg Festival! A full list is available here, some of the highlights:

Harrison Birtwistle: Cortege
for 14 musicians | 15’
1 1 1 1 - 1 1 0 0 - pno, bass tpt, b.d, vln(2), vla, vc, cb
31/7/2013, Kollegienkirche; Klangforum Wien, cond. Sylvain Cambreling

Harrison Birtwistle: Gawain
opera in 2 acts | 150’
3 3 3 3 - 4 3 3 3 - 2. Horn in F offstage, 4. Horn in F offstage, timp, perc, vib, hp, mar, cimb, vln, vln, vln, vln, vln, vln, vln, vla(2), vc(2), cb(2)
26/7/2013, Felsenreitschule; Christopher Maltman, Gawain; John Tomlinson, The Green Knight/Bertilak de Hautdesert; Laura Aikin, Morgan le Fay; Jennifer Johnston, Lady de Hautdesert; Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, King Arthur; Andrew Watts, Bishop Baldwin; Brian Galliford, Fool
Salzburger Bachchor, ORF RSO Wien, cond. Ingo Metzmacher
Further performances: 29/7/2013, 2, 8 and 15/8/2013

Harrison Birtwistle: Secret Theatre
for chamber ensemble | 28’
1 1 1 1 - 1 1 1 0 - perc(1), pno, str(1 1 1 1 1)
31/7/2013, Kollegienkirche; Klangforum Wien, cond. Sylvain Cambreling

Harrison Birtwistle: Tombeau in memoriam Igor Stravinsky
for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet | 3’
fl, cl, hp, vln(2), vla, vc
31/7/2013, Kollegienkirche; Klangforum Wien, cond. Sylvain Cambreling

Happy Birthday Vykintas Baltakas!

Find out more about the composer, whose latest work Eselsbrücke for ensemble will be premièred on 24 August by the Scharoun Ensemble at the Salzburg Festival, here.

Vykintas Baltakas: Eselsbrücke
for ensemble | 10’
world prem. 24/8/2013, Mozarteum; Scharoun Ensemble of the Berliner Philharmoniker, cond. Matthias Pintscher

Our latest newsletter, focusing on Jay Schwartz’ 2 upcoming world premières – watch an interview with the composer, view the full study scores for Zwielicht and M or listen to music by Jay Schwart.

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