Franz Michael Fischer, vln; Sylvie Lacroix, fl; Milan Karanovic, vc; Krassimir Sterev, acc; cond. Martin Kerschbaum; Lars Mlekusch, sax.

Snapshots from the successful world première of Wen Liu’s Impossibility of being still for ensemble on Thursday, 7 November, at the RadioKulturhaus in Vienna.

Wen Liu is the winner of the Ö1 Talentebörse composition prize 2012, a cooperation of Radio Ö1, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank and Universal Edition.

The Austrian radio station Ö1 will broadcast a recording of the concert on 13 November at 23:03, the live webstream is available here.

Wen Liu is the winner of the Ö1 Talentebörse composition prize 2012, a cooperation of Radio Ö1, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank and Universal Edition. Her work Impossibility of being still for ensemble will be premièred tomorrow, 7 November, at the RadioKulturhaus in Vienna.

“The I Ching teaches us that nothing is constant in this world – not things, not people, not even the universe. The book ends with the 64-sided hexagram; despite apparent stationary balance, Nature is in unceasing motion. […] I attempted to unite yin and yang in this piece; the music, every sound, every harmony, everything in motion, intermingling.” (Wen Liu)

Wen Liu: Impossibility of being still
for ensemble | 17'
world prem. 07.11.2013, RadioKulturhaus, Vienna; Franz Michael Fischer, vln; Sylvie Lacroix, fl; Lars Mlekusch, sax; Milan Karanovic, vc; Krassimir Sterev, acc, cond. Martin Kerschbaum

Tonight, 28 October, the Arditti String Quartet will première Luke Bedford’s Wonderful Four-Headed Nightingale in the frame of Wien Modern at the Konzerthaus, Vienna.

The composer about the piece:

This piece is a reworking of my Wonderful Two-Headed Nightingale for violin, viola and fifteen players. The original title was taken from a 19th century poster advertising a pair of singing conjoined twins: Millie and Christine McCoy. They were born in slavery in 1851, sold to a showman, and yet managed to escape the fate of many performers at freak shows and built a relatively normal life for themselves. Something of their story and the poster intrigued me, and I found parallels with the music I was trying to write. From early on in the composition process I knew that the two soloists would be forced to play either identical or very similar music for most of the piece. I felt the tension between their combined, unified sound and their desire to break free from one another could be richly exploited. But I also knew that they would never be successful in tearing free. They would remain as locked together at the end of the piece as they were at the start. 

Read more.

Luke Bedford: Wonderful Four-Headed Nightingale
for string quartet | 9'
world prem. 28.10.2013, Konzerthaus, Vienna; Arditti String Quartet

Wibert Aerts premières Vykintas Baltakas’ Eine kleine Nachtmusik tomorrow, 26 October, at the Transit Festival (25 to 27 October) in Leuven.

The composer about the piece for solo violin: “This miniature, played on only one-string on the violin, is a lullaby which I’ve been singing to my daughters for several years. My music in this piece was partially inspired by fractal ideas where a large image is created of many small images of the same shape. I couldn't think of a better title than Eine kleine Nachtmusik. However this is the only reference point to Mozart, borrowed with great respect.”

Vykintas Baltakas: Eine kleine Nachtmusik
for violin solo | 5'
world prem. 26.10.2013, Leuven; Wibert Aerts, vln

Part two of Georg Friedrich Haas’ SCHWEIGEN – II. Lampedusa for soprano and mezzo-soprano – is given its world première this Sunday at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.

Soloists from the Neue Vocalsolisten perform as part of the Escalier du Chant project by the artist Olaf Nicolai.