Georg Friedrich Haas is this year’s composer in residence at the Greatest Hits Festival (14 to 17 November) in Hamburg, a festival for contemporary music created by Laeiszhalle Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Kampnagel. On the programme will be Haas’ third string quartet, “In iij. Noct.”, and limited approximations for 6 micro-tonally tuned pianos and orchestra, as well as works by Kagel, Reich, Cage, Zender and many more.

Find the full programme here.

View the study score of limited approximations.

Georg Friedrich Haas on limited approximations:

The twelfth-tone interval is so small that it is no longer heard as an interval, but rather as the shading of a single note. A single tone played by a romantic orchestra has a wider frequency.  The aural effect of a scale in twelfth-tone intervals is thus similar to a glissando. The effect of a cluster of twelfth-tones depends on the register: higher up, it is sharp, abrasive, biting, lower down it is soft, melting, rich. Of course it is also possible to build raw, dissonant chords with twelve-tone intervals – much more differentiated (also in the degree of acuteness) than with the traditional 12 tones per octave. But it is also possible to build much more “consonant” chords then in the traditional twelve-note scale: a close approximation of the twelve-tone scale can be produced in the overtone scale, accurate up to a twelfth of a tone.

Read the full text.

Georg Friedrich Haas: “In iij. Noct.” | String Quartet no. 3
for string quartet | 50'
15.11.2013, Kampnagel, Hamburg; Jack Quartett

Georg Friedrich Haas: limited approximations
for 6 micro-tonally tuned pianos and orchestra | 30'
4 1 4 1 - 6 1 4 0 - pno(6), vln.I(10), vln.II(10), vla(6), vc(6), cb(8)
17.11.2013, Kampnagel, Hamburg; Klaus Steffes-Holländer, Pi-Hsien Chen, Florian Hoelscher, Julia Vogelsänger, Akiko Okabe, Christoph Grund, pno; SWR-SO Baden-Baden und Freiburg, cond. François-Xavier Roth

The Music Forum Hradec Králové starts today, 31 October, and will run until 12 November (the festival consists of four big concerts, on 31 October, 4, 7, and 12 November). The festival’s goal is to create no less than a representative panorama of works from the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century.

Among the pieces performed will be the Czech première of Georg Friedrich Haas’ in vain (Orchestr Berg, cond. Peter Vrábel).

Find the full programme of the festival on the Music Forum Hradec Králové’s homepage.

Georg Friedrich Haas: in vain
for 24 instruments | 70'
2 1 2 1 - 2 0 2 0 - perc(2), hp, acc, pno, sax, vln(3), vla(2), vc(2), cb
prem. 04.11.2013, Hradec Králové; Orchestr Berg, cond. Peter Vrábel

Philip Cashian, composer and Head of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, writes about Georg Friedrich Haas’ in vain on the London Sinfonietta’s blog. André de Ridder and the London Sinfonietta will perform the UK première of in vain on 16 November at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

“it often seemed that supernatural forces were at work […] it was often hard to believe that these otherworldly sounds were coming from acoustic, not electronic, instruments […] a masterpiece.” (The New York Times)

The composer portraits season of the Miller Theatre at the Columbia University School of the Arts opens with a portrait of Georg Friedrich Haas, newly appointed Columbia University faculty member. On the programme: Haas’ de terrae fine, ATTHIS and tria ex uno.

Broadway World cites Melissa Smey of the Miller Theatre:

“I am so excited to open our 2013-14 season of Composer Portraits with the music of Georg Friedrich Haas. Haas's compositions are emotional and moving, and could be in no better care than in the hands of the talented musicians of Ensemble Signal. I am doubly thrilled to present this program to kick off Composer Portraits in our 25th Anniversary Season and to celebrate Haas's new appointment to the music faculty here at Columbia University. This concert exemplifies our mission to both expand public knowledge of contemporary music and share the incredible artistic riches of Columbia University with the wider world.”

Georg Friedrich Haas: de terrae fine
for violin solo | 17’
Olivia De Prato, vln
Georg Friedrich Haas: ATTHIS
for soprano and 8 instruments | 40’
Rachel Calloway, ms; Ensemble Signal, cond. Bradley Lubman
Georg Friedrich Haas: tria ex uno
for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and violoncello | 12’
Ensemble Signal, cond. Bradley Lubman
10.10.2013, Miller Theatre, New York

Just two quick reminders for everybody who is either in Dundalk or in Strasbourg today: “In iij. Noct.”, Georg Friedrich Haas’ third string quartet, will be performed for the first time in Ireland by the EQ Ensemble today at the St Nicholas Church in Dundalk in complete darkness. The Louth Contemporary Music Society presents the event.

The French première of Haas’ limited approximations for 6 micro-tonally tuned pianos and orchestra takes place today in Strasbourg at the Festival Musica. More about the 30th Festival Musica.

Today Georg Friedrich Haas’ AUS.WEG will be performed for the first time in Poland. The Polish première of the work for 8 instruments takes place on the first day of the Warsaw Autumn, an international festival of contemporary music that runs from 20 to 28 September.

The composer about the piece:

The title leaves the meaning of the second word open to interpretation: “Weg” meaning “path/way” or “weg” meaning “gone/go”. This ambiguity is, of course, intentional. It could mean “way out”, “stop it, go away” or any of several other meanings.

For this piece, I drew upon former compositional techniques: I reused a two-dimensional table of chords, which was the basis for some passages in the opera Die schöne Wunde. This gives me the freedom to decide whether I want to move “horizontally” or “vertically”. The time is also strictly determined. It is based on a series of continuants, which is not heard in its original form until the end of the piece. These continuants appear earlier in the piece in longer and shorter versions, and are the basis for the time structure (rhythm and form) of the piece.

Find the full work introduction here.

Georg Friedrich Haas: AUS.WEG
for 8 instruments | 19'
national prem. 20.09.2013, Warsaw Philharmonic, Warsaw; Ensemble Phoenix Basel

Learn more about the composer and view his list of works.

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.

“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

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

Tonight Georg Friedrich Haas’ in vain will be performed as a part of a composer’s portrait dedicated to Haas at the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele. Jonathan Stockhammer conducts the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart.

You can watch an interview with Sir Simon Rattle, in which the conductor identifies in vain as “one of the only already acknowledged masterpieces of the 21st century”, here:

The concert will be broadcast by SWR 2 on 16 June 2013, listen live.

Georg Friedrich Haas: in vain
for 24 instruments | 70’
2 1 2 1 - 2 0 2 0 - perc(2), hp, acc, pno, sax, vln(3), vla(2), vc(2), cb
23/5/2013, Schwetzingen; Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, cond. Jonathan Stockhammer

The Schola Heidelberg and Walter Nußbaum present a composer portrait of Georg Friedrich Haas at the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele on 9 May 2013. Among the pieces played will be the Hertervig-Studien and SCHWEIGEN.

Later that day, the Kairos Quartett will perform Haas’ String Quartet no.3, “In iij. Noct.” – in complete darkness, with the four musicians playing from memory in different parts of the room. “Darkness, [...] is not present in this piece merely as an absence of light, but becomes the key theme of the work” (Georg Friedrich Haas)

For those who cannot attend: a recording of the concert will be broadcast by SWR2 on 18 May:

Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele 2013
Recorded on 9 May 2013
ATTHIS; de terra fine; SCHWEIGEN; Hertervig-Studien
Sarah Wegener, s; Tianwa Yang, vln
Kairos Quartett; Members of the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart of the SWR; Schola Heidelberg, cond. Walter Nussbaum
SWR2 | Listen live
Saturday, 18/5/2013, 20:03

Georg Friedrich Haas, Vykintas Baltakas, Mauricio Sotelo and Luke Bedford after the amazing performance of in vain under Sir Simon Rattle.

Tomorrow, 28 February 2013, the world première of Georg Friedrich Haas’ … wie stille brannte das Licht for soprano and piano takes place at the Philharmonie Luxembourg. The concert starts at 20:04 and you can listen to a live transmission of it here.

Sarah Wegener, whose enormous vocal range and incredible facility with precise microtonal intonation inspired Haas to write the part as if tailor-made for her, sings soprano.

Gaspra for ensemble will be performed on 25 September by the TIMF Ensemble under Soo-Yeoul Choi at the Klangspuren Festival.

Other UE composers that are represented at the Klangspuren Festival are Wolfgang Rihm, Pierre Boulez, Georg Friedrich Haas and Johannes Maria Staud.