Conductor Sarah Bisley, the Aorangi Singers and Ensemble Polymnia present a unique all-Hungarian classical concert on 7 June at the Q Theatre in Auckland.
From the programme:
“Our final work is the incredible Psalmus Hungaricus, composed by Zoltan Kodaly in 1923 and rarely heard in the Hungarian language (as it will be tonight) outside of its native country. We are excited to have the internationally acclaimed opera and lieder singer, David Hamilton, as our tenor soloist, the well-known actor and director Raymond Hawthorne as the narrator of the poems in English and the children’s choir from Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland.”
We’ll be sending out our latest newsletter today at 13:00 – it focuses on the current productions of Berg’s Lulu at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.
Gert Korentschnig of the Austrian newspaper Kurier has written an extensive [German] review of both productions – read the full article online on Kurier.
The London Sinfonietta has announced that it will release an app based on Steve Reich’s Clapping Music:
From the London Sinfonietta’s press release:
“We are hugely excited to announce that the London Sinfonietta will launch a gaming app in June, based on Steve Reich's Clapping Music.
Improve your rhythm by learning how to play his work through the touch of your iPhone. High scorers on the game will be auditioned to perform the piece live with the London Sinfonietta in special events.
We are working with the award-winning Touchpress and Queen Mary University of London on the project, one of 12 pioneering partnerships funded by the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts.
Visit www.clappingmusicapp.com for more information.”
Tonight at the Teater Republique in Kopenhagen: conductor Benjamin Schneider and the Ensemble Modern present the Danish première of Wolfgang Rihm’s Sextett for clarinet, horn and string quartet at the Klang Copenhagen Avantgarde Music Festival.
This concert will be followed by a performance of Pierre Boulez’ Troisième Sonate by pianist Jonas Olsson.
The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester has published part 3 of their “Rihm in Salzburg” video series, watch it on YouTube:
Beyond the Score: A Portrait of Pierre Boulez will be performed on 2 June by Asko | Schönberg and the Slagwerk Den Haag at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ.
The show was conceived by Gerard McBurney as part of Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s acclaimed Beyond the Score series, keypieces from the Boulez’ oeuvre will be performed live together with the showing of rare archival footage and new interviews with the composer and conductor.
|
|
His opera, Bluebeard’s Castle, is as psychologically penetrating and daring as anything by Schoenberg, but jump forward two decades to the mid-Twenties and the lushness has been purged away. The music is still intense but the intensity is channelled through angular lines, grinding dissonances, and a pitiless counterpoint as severely rational as Schoenberg’s so-called ‘12-note’ music. (Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph, 27 May 2015) Ivan Hewett of The Telegraph has reviewed David Cooper’s biography of Béla Bartók. |
Dmitri Tcherniakov’s current production of Lulu at the Bayerische Staatsoper has received ★★★★★ from BR Klassik.
Read the [German] review on BR Klassik.
Watch a trailer for the production on YouTube:
Have you yet seen the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester’s “Rihm in Salzburg” video series? Episodes 1 and 2 are already available online, episodes 3 and 4 will be published soon.
About “Rihm in Salzburg”: In 2014, the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester commissioned the Piano Concerto No 2 by Wolfgang Rihm, together with the Salzburg Festival and the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington DC. The world première took place at the Salzburg Festival on 25 August 2014, with Tzimon Barto on piano and Christoph Eschenbach – to whom the piece was also dedicated – as conductor.
Watch episode 1:
Our latest newsletter is out now – in case you didn’t receive it: you can now view the full study score of Luciano Berio’s Un re in ascolto on our website.
Paul Esterhazy’s new production of the azione musicale in 2 parts will première on 23 May at the Staatstheater Kassel.
Learning about this period of cultural barbarism appalled and saddened me in equal measure, and as I explored the banned music, I realised there was so much that deserved better exposure. So I decided to devise a show based on the 1938 Degenerate Music exhibition that would showcase some of the extraordinary richness suppressed by the Nazis. (Peter Brathwaite, The Guardian, 27 November 2014)
Baritone Peter Brathwaite will be performing his Degenerate Music show together with pianist Nigel Foster on 24 May at the 2015 Alderney Performing Arts Festival.
Devised by Peter Brathwaite, the show is a critical song-based reconstruction of the infamous Düsseldorf exhibition of 1938, intended by the Nazi government to alert the German public to “inferior and ultimately dangerous” forms of music.
You can find an article on The Guardian on Brathwaite’s Degenerate Music Project.
A special concert was dedicated to Arvo Pärt yesterday, 19 May, at the Konzerthaus Berlin.
The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and conductor Tõnu Kaljuste performed a composer concert devoted to Arvo Pärt which was organized as part of Toomas Hendrik Ilves’ state visit to Germany in honour of the German President Joachim Gauck and First Lady Daniela Schadt.
Find out more on the website of Estonian Public Broadcasting.
Listen to three works by Vykintas Baltakas on the Late Night Lab at radio Klara tonight at 22:00.
On the programme: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Takao Hyakutome, vln), (co)ro(na) (musikFabrik, cond. Etienne Siebens) and Pasaka (Stephane Ginsburgh, pno).
“It’s almost as if ink becomes the black blood that is spilled throughout the production.”
Watch a behind-the-scenes interview with director William Kentridge on the stage design and the expressionistic woodcuts that are used in Kentridge’s production of Lulu, which premières on 1 June at the Dutch National Opera:
Watch the live recording of King Roger (with English subtitles) now on the website of The Opera Platform.
The highly acclaimed production by Kasper Holten was recorded on 16 May at the Royal Opera House.