Georg Friedrich Haas’ concerto grosso No. 2 will see its German première at this year’s NOW! Prismen festival, which opened on 22 October and runs until 8 November. Peter Rundel conducts the Essener Philharmoniker and the Ensemble Musikfabrik at the German première on 5 November and the follow-up-performance on 6 November.
On the day after, Haas’ Sayaka for percussion and accordion will be played by Jaime Moraya and Slavi Grigorov.
The composer will also be present at the NOW! Prismen Symposium, where he’ll be in conversation with Robert Henke, Rozalie Hirs, Mauro Lanza and host Günter Steinke.
Read the festival’s full programme on the website of the Philharmonie Essen
“I don’t love those high mountains […] they steal the light; they are dangerous and cold.” (Georg Friedrich Haas, The Guardian, 30 October 2015)
Preceding the world première of Georg Friedrich Haas’ newest opera Morgen und Abend, Gavin Plumley interviewed the composer about the opera, his newfound home in New York and Franz Schreker’s Der ferne Klang.
Morgen und Abend premières at the Royal Opera House on 13 November. Michael Boder conducts Graham Vick’s production, which stars world renowned actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, and soprano Sarah Wegener and baritone Christoph Pohl in their Royal Opera debuts.
Whereas, in earlier works, the pitch structure was determined by altering the instruments (untuned strings of the bowed instruments in the chamber opera Nacht and in the String Quartet No. 1, retuning the piano in the improvisatory piece Nacht), microtonal intonation is left exclusively up to the players in Nach-Ruf … ent-gleitend … (Georg Friedrich Haas)
ensemble iiiiiiiii will be performing Georg Friedrich Haas’ Nach-Ruf … ent-gleitend … on 15 October at the iN festival in Seoul.
More information about the festival is available on the website of the ensemble iiiiiiiii.
“Don’t expect melodies, don’t expect harmonies: just expect soundscapes. I try to create a musical language which is not based on notated structures but only based on the perception of the sound.”
Georg Friedrich Haas talks about his upcoming opera Morgen und Abend (Morning and Evening), which will première at the Royal Opera House on 13 November.
Michael Boder conducts Graham Vick production, which stars world renowned actor Klaus Maria Brandauer.
The Musik 21 Festival “Klang-Körper” kicks off today and will go on until Sunday!
Prominent guests of the festival will be pianists Tamara Stefanovich and Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who will be performing a selection of Pierre Boulez’ piano pieces, including Structures, Deuxième Livre for 2 pianos.
Furthermore, the Kairos Quartett will be performing Georg Friedrich Haas String Quartet No. 3 „In iij. Noct.” – a piece in which darkness is not present merely as an absence of light, but becomes the key theme of the work – on Saturday.
Find out more on Musik 21’s website.
Violinists Alexandra Wood and Joan Atherton join with violist Paul Silverthorne and cellist Sally Pendlebury to articulate the rich inner life of a score that whets the appetite for more. (George Hall, The Guardian, 24 April 2015)
Haas and Jones’s collaboration is a beautiful one, tender with humanity while chafing hard at the emotions. (Alexandra Coghlan, The Arts Desk, 24 April 2015)
His focus on using music as a means of depicting raw human emotion produces a sonorous, yet beautiful effect, making this experience a wholly poignant and evocative one. (Isabella Farrell, A Younger Theatre, 27 April 2015)
Find several reviews of Georg Friedrich Haas’ ATTHIS and his String Quartet No. 2 at the Royal Opera House by clicking the respective links.
Listen to a short interview with Georg Friedrich Haas on his music, the impulse to write music as a politically conscious person, and more:
Haas uses light and darkness as instrumental tools, and this is very exciting when using projection as an extension of the listening experience. My presentation of the Second Quartet and ATTHIS is designed to be immersive: darkness and light are instruments; and poetry, visual imagery, movement and music come together inseparably to reflect Haas’s extraordinary musical world. (Netia Jones)
Find an interview with Netia Jones, director of the Royal Opera House’s current staging of ATTHIS, on the website of the ROH.
View a short introductory video to Georg Friedrich Haas’ concerto grosso No. 1, which will have its Swiss première tonight at the Tonhalle in Zurich. Kent Nagano conducts the Tonhalle Orchester and the HORNROH Modern Alphorn Quartet.
Further performances will take place on 23 and 24 April.
The [German] video was produced in March 2014 by the Bayerische Rundfunk when the concerto was premièred under Susanna Mälkki at the Herkulessaal in Munich:
Simon Rattle called it “one of the first great masterpieces of the 21st century” and we cannot recommend it highly enough:
in vain by Georg Friedrich Haas will be performed for the very first time in Spain on 15 April at the Teatro Central in Sevilla. Juan García Rodríguez conducts the Zahir Ensemble.
The Swiss première of Georg Friedrich Haas’ concerto grosso No. 1 for four alphorns and orchestra takes place on 22 April at the Tonhalle in Zurich.
When interviewed about the concerto grosso No. 1, Haas described the alphorns as “the source of another dimension of intonation (overtone chords), used to create contrast and to expand the traditional twelvetone tuning of the symphony orchestra.” Kent Nagano conducts the hornroh modern alphornquartet and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.
Further performances of the piece take place on 23 and 24 April. The concert on 23 April will be broadcast live by SRF II at 20:00. Listen live.
Georg Friedrich Haas’ “Ich suchte, aber ich fand ihn nicht.” for ensemble will have its UK première this Saturday at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Thierry Fischer conducts the London Sinfonietta.
A pre-concert talk by professor Jonathan Cross explores the use of texture, timbre, microtones and overtones as compositional techniques in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The London Sinfonietta has published a trailer for this second part of a two part series:
View the full score of “Ich suchte, aber ich fand ihn nicht.”
The recording of the world première of Georg Friedrich Haas’ I can’t breathe | in memoriam Eric Garner by Marco Blaauw can now be streamed on the website of the Kölner Philharmonie:
Georg Friedrich Haas recently gave an exclusive interview to composer Vincent Ho of Musical Toronto for the Winnipeg Music Festival, which ran from 31 January to 6 February.
In the interview, the composer focuses on his works Traum in des Sommers Nacht, Open Spaces II and his String Quartet No. 6, all of which were performed at this year’s Winnipeg Music Festival:
Tonight the Canadian première of Georg Friedrich Haas’ Open Spaces II | in memory of James Tenney will be performed together with other works by Zosha Di Castri, Matthew Patton and Christopher Rouse at the Winnipeg New Music Festival. Alexander Mickelthwate conducts the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
The concert will be followed by a Q&A session with composers Georg Friedrich Haas, John Luther Adams and Matthew Patton.
Great news from our colleagues at music austria: you can now purchase and download more than 15 digital scores by Georg Friedrich Haas on their website.