Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler at the Academy of Arts, Berlin, on 21 March 1950. Eisler was born exactly 115 years ago, on 6 July 1898.

Find out more about Hanns Eisler and his collaborations with Brecht here. Their Lehrstück Die Maßnahme, for example, was one of the didactic works of Brecht which he modelled on the Japanese Noh theatre. Due to possible misunderstandings of the play’s political orientation, Brecht forbade its performance – the prohibition was lifted for his 100th birthday in 1998.

Vivien Schweitzer of the New York Times has reviewed the Austrian Cultural Forum’s welcome concert for Georg Friedrich Haas, whose tenure as a professor at Columbia University starts in September.

Read the full article on the New York Times.

Find out more about Atthis and listen to an excerpt.

Tonight on Rai Radio 3, 23:00 (cet/cest): Wolfgang Rihm’s String Quartet No. 3 | “Im Innersten”, recorded on 17 October 2012 and performed by the Quartetto di Cremona.

Listen live

Tom Service’s excellent Guide to Wolfgang Rihm on the Guardian.

Congratulations to Lucas Fels on becoming the new professor of Interpretation Practice and Promotion of New Music at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (HfMDK).

Having collaborated with Helmut Lachenmann, Wolfgang Rihm (who dedicated his Styx and Lethe for violoncello and orchestra to him), Beat Furrer (check out this Kairos recording) and others, Lucas Fels has established himself as one of the most distinguished cellists of our time. Furthermore, he’s a founding member of the ensemble recherche and since 2006 a member of the Arditti Quartet.

Wolfgang Rihm in conversation with Lucas Fels:

Tonight at 9 p.m. (cet/cest): “Kurt Weill: American”, a 3-part series on Red River Radio by Michael Lasser.

From the programme: “To mark the 85th anniversary of Weill's best-know work, The Threepenny Opera, and the 15th anniversary of the Lotte Lenya Competition for young musical theater singers, Fascinatin' Rhythm host Michael Lasser will be joined by Kurt Weill Scholar and Foundation President Kim Kowalke for a series of three special programs that explore the composer's place in American popular music.”

Listen live

“July 1, 2013 marks Georg Friedrich Haas’s first day as a resident of the United States, where he will join the composition faculty at Columbia University. This move puts him squarely in the historical tradition of European composers such as Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, and Igor Stravinsky, all of whom moved to the United States and became part of the musical life of America.”

The austrian cultural forum new york celebrates this with a concert dedicated to Haas on 2 July. On the programme: Georg Friedrich Haas’s Atthis, Berg, Webern, and Schönberg.

Find out more about Atthis and listen to an excerpt.

Georg Friedrich Haas: Atthis
for soprano and 8 instruments | 40’
Sharon Harms, s; Argento Chamber Ensemble, cond. Michel Galante

Something nice for the weekend: Joosep Maripuu created an animated video for Arvo Pärt’s Für Alina. You don’t have to speak Estonian to enjoy this:

If you want listen to Pärt’s music live, you might find this helpful:

Arvo Pärt: Upcoming Performances

Wolfgang Rihm’s A Tribute was premièred on the last day of this year’s Aldeburgh Festival by Mark Elder and the Hallé Orchestra. Andrew Clements on the orchestral piece: “not specifically a tribute to Britten, but ‘a homage to English music in general’ […] It’s a teasing, almost sentimental piece.”

Read the full review on the Guardian.

Meet Jay Schwartz in person and say happy birthday at the world première of Zwielicht (Cologne version) for soloists, mixed choir, three trombones and organ on 11 July.

Celebrating Claudio Abbado’s 80th birthday today, we made a video for an interview with the conductor that we did for our book Gustav Mahler: The conductors’ Interviews.

The conductor talks about the first time he heard Mahler’s music, his experiences with Bruno Walter, Zubin Mehta and Herbert von Karajan, and the death of Mahler’s brother, the “first stroke of fate” in the composer’s life.

The Interview is in German with English subtitles.

In this week’s episode of Movement, titled “Begrenzte Annäherung” – “Vergeblich”? [limited approximation – in vain?], Wolfgang Korb talks with Georg Friedrich Haas about the composer’s music.

The programme starts on 27 June at 20:04 (CET/CEST), SR2 offers a live stream. Recordings and excerpts of the following pieces will be played:

limited approximations
Pi-hsien Chen, Christoph Grund, Florian Hoelscher, Akiko Okabe, Sven Thomas kiebler, Julia Vogelsänger, pno; SWR-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, cond. Silvain Cambreling

3 Hommages: “Hommage à Ligeti”
Marino Formenti, pno

… wie stille brannte das Licht
Sarah Wegener, s; Cornelis Witthoefft, pno

… wie stille brannte das Licht
Sarah Wegener, ms; Musikfabrik, cond. Roland Kluttig

String Quartet No. 2
Kairos Quartett

Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich
Lukas Schiske, perc; Klangforum Wien, cond. Silvain Cambreling

Hertervig-Studien
Schola Heidelberg, cond. Walter Nußbaum

Concerto for baritone saxophone and orchestra
Marcus Weiss, sax; WDR-Sinfonieorchester Köln, cond. Emilio Pomárico

in vain
Klangforum Wien, cond. Silvain Cambreling

The Centro Studi Luciano Berio’s latest Newsletter is online, you can find it here. Also, do not miss out on their new page Per Luciano and their list of upcoming concerts, which has more than 20 entries for the next 4 months.

Luke Bedford’s Seven Angels will have its German première today, on 21 June 2013 at the Opera stabile in Hamburg.

The chamber opera received rave reviews when it premièred in 2011:

“Atmospheric music, often lyrical and pleasantly marinated in tonality … succulently scored.” (The Times)

“Bedford’s score is impeccably crafted and it is sensitively played by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.” (Daily Telegraph)

"A score of substance and ultimate quality combined with beautiful words with extraordinary creative and artistic direction from the creative team and magnificent staging from John Fulljames." (Paul Guest/Ceasefire magazine)

View the full score of Seven Angels.

Watch the trailer for the world première, which took place on 17 June 2011 in Birmingham:

Luke Bedford: Seven Angels
for 7 singers and 12 instruments | 85’
1 0 1 1 - 0 1 1 0 - perc, pno, vla(4), cb
prem. 21/6/2013, Opera stabile, Hamburg
artists of the Internationales Opernstudio, cond. Alexander Winterson
Further performances: 22, 25, 26, 28 and 30/6/2013

100 years after their world première, the Gurre-Lieder will be performed in the 100th season of the Wiener Konzerthaus: Kent Nagano will conduct the Wiener Symphoniker on 21 and 22 June. Schönberg worked on his Gurre-Lieder from 1900-1911, a period in which he left the work’s style far behind. Still, at its 1913 première in the Vienna Musikverein the piece enjoyed overwhelming success; Schönberg’s pupil Webern wrote: What a moment of my life! Unforgettable… The sensation of this tumultuous noise thrills me to the point where I swoon…

Arnold Schönberg: Gurre-Lieder
for solos, choir and orchestra | 130’
8 5 7 5 - 10 6 6 1 - timp, perc, hp(4), cel, bass tpt, bass tbn, str
21 and 22/6/2013, Konzerthaus, Wien; Wiener Symphoniker, Wiener Singakademie, Cor de Cambra del Palau de la Música Catalana, Herren des Chores des Slowakischen Nationaltheaters, cond. Kent Nagano

We just sent out our latest newsletter, featuring video interviews with Luke Bedford about his chamber opera Seven Angels, and with David Sawer about The Lighthouse Keepers. Furthermore, the world première of Wolfgang Rihm’s A Tribute will soon take place at the Aldeburgh Festival.

Read the full newsletter and enjoy,