Tom Fool’s Wooing for 14 solo voices, was initially conceived for the John Allldis choir, who had performed an earlier work of mine (Cipriano) for 10-voice ensemble. The writing took from 1975 to 1978, three emotionally and financially turbulent years, and by the time it was finished, the choir was no longer in existence. In 2013 James Weeks told me of his intention to finally perform the work, and, after looking through the score, I decided to considerably revise the central folk-play that lends the work its title. (Michael Finnissy)
On 12 and 13 March, the Guildhall School and Exaudi present a weekend of events in celebration of Michael Finnissy’s 70th birthday, which takes place on 17 March. Among the works performed will be the long awaited world première of Tom Fool’s Wooing for 14 voices.
“… once the musicians found their collective feet conductor Marc Niemann was able to exploit the music’s colour, dynamism and swift dramatic pacing to the full.” (Matthew Rye, ferneklang.blogspot.co.at, 7 March 2016)
Manfred Gurlitt’s Wozzeck– the “other” Wozzeck – is running at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven until 27 April.
Antony Beaumont on Gurlitt’s opera:
“In contrast to Berg’s setting of the same text, Gurlitt interprets the drama with little structural, harmonic or instrumental refinement – not on account of any particular technical deficiencies, but rather because he approaches the subject from the standpoint of spoken theatre.”
On 5 March at 19:05 on Deutschlandradio Kultur: listen to Alban Berg’s Lulu, recorded on 21 November 2015 at the New York Metropolitan Opera.
The programme also features an interview with Friedrich Cerha, in which the composer talks about his realization of the opera’s third act.
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Vive La Difference: David Sawer’s Cat’s Eye will be performed tonight together with Luciano Berio’s Différences and a new work by Taner Kemirtlek at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. Find out more about the event on the website of the Red Note Ensemble. |
“I had worried that I’d find the darkness oppressive, and that the loss of sight might induce claustrophobia – or, worse, the sense of being taken for a ride by a composer obsessed with control. Instead I found the darkness that settled over the sold-out auditorium to be warm, convivial and conducive to a state of heightened listening in which Mr. Haas’s fragile, searching music took on vivid, sensuous plasticity.”
Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim has recently reviewed the American Immersion concert series with the Talea Ensemble.
The Kurt Weill Festival kicks off today at the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau.
Artist-in-Residence Ernst Kovacic, Ariane Matiakh and the German Philharmonic Orchestra Rhineland-Palatinate open the festival with works by Weill, Krenek, Stravinsky and Mussorgsky.
“Anything can be an inspiring experience if you are in the proper receptive state. As long as there is such an experience. The underground can make a strong impression, and even the really ugly outskirts of a city can be beautiful – if you are open.” (from Gyorgy Kurtag: Three Interviews and Ligeti Homages, Bálint András Varga)
Happy 90th birthday György Kurtág!
Friedrich Cerha, the doyen of Austrian composers, celebrates his 90th birthday today, on 17 February.
As a composer, conductor, ensemble founder, teacher and supporter, Friedrich Cerha embodies a pioneering spirit and has opened doors and brought the unknown into local concert halls. His friends and companions congratulate him on his birthday with very personal statements.
David Sawer’s Coachman Chronos […] weaves allusions to Thomas de Quincey and Goethe into his wonderfully concise ride towards the abyss (Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 5 October 2015)
The US première of David Sawer’s Coachman Chronos for 9 players will be performed this Saturday by the Oberlin Sinfonietta under Timothy Weiss.
The whole event will be streamed live at the time of the event, which is on Saturday, 13 February, from 8pm to 10pm EST.
View the full score online:
David Sawer: Coachman Chronos
for 9 players
national prem. 13.2.2016, Finney Chapel, Oberlin; Oberlin Sinfonietta, cond. Timothy Weiss
Our latest newsletter is out now:
- Walter Braunfels’ Jeanne d’Arc in Cologne
- the new critical edition of Janáček’s The Makropulos Case in Berlin
- Krenek, Weill and the Moderns: the 24th Kurt Weill Festival
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The Sixteen’s recording of Arvo Pärt’s The Deer’s Cry received 4 out of 5 stars from Fiona Maddocks. Read the full review on The Guardian.
Take a peek behind the scenes in The Sixteen’s promotional video:
On 26 January Matthias Pintscher, Paavo Järvi, Bruno Mantovani, Yeree Suh, Andrew Gerzso, the Ensemble intercontemporain, Orchestre de Paris and the Elèves du Conservatoire de Paris paid homage to Pierre Boulez at the Philharmonie de Paris.
On the programme were Improvisation I, Messagesquisse, Improvisation II, Dérive 1, Notations I-IV and VII and extracts from Dialogue de l'ombre double.
You can watch the full concert here:
On 27 January the Boulanger Trio presents a concert with music by Mozart, Berg and Cerha at the Musikverein Vienna. Friedrich Cerha will be guest of honour.
The concert will be accompanied by a conversation with the composer, who celebrates his 90th birthday this February.
The memorial service for Pierre Boulez at the Saint-Sulpice church in Paris was attended last Friday by the French prime minister Manuel Valls, the culture minister Fleur Pellerin as well as the former culture minister Jack Lang.
The musician Daniel Barenboim spoke of Boulez’s legacy as a man of the future interested in many things beyond music – for Barenboim, Boulez was a “true man of the future”.
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Laurent Bayle, president of the Philharmonie de Paris, recalled Boulez’ creative achievements including Boulez’s lifelong disdain for “les invalides de la nostalgie”. The most moving and evocative homage was delivered ex tempore by the architect Renzo Piano, recalling Boulez’s lifelong search for beauty: “Merci, Pierre, Merci.” |
When Simone Young lay down her baton on 15 June 2015 after the performance of Franz Schmidt’s The Book with Seven Seals, it was the 45th programme in the 90th Philharmonic concert that she had conducted within the ten years of her term as Hamburg Artistic Director
“Time to reassess Austria’s tainted composer?” Andrew Clements of The Guardian reviews a new recording of Franz Schmidt’s Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln.