Based on a series of poems by his sister Zofia, Karol Szymanowski composed the colourful and glittering 6 Songs of the Fairy Princess in 1915. The princess of the six songs remains mysteriously undefined; Love is her only, recurrent theme.
By withdrawing into internal phantasy during a time of war, Szymanowski found an opportunity to retreat into a dream-world, and composing songs remained an important part of his lifelong work; in 1933 he arranged three of the six princess songs for voice and orchestra. However, it took nearly 80 years until the Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo arranged the other three songs, so that now, for the first time, all of the Songs of the Fairy Princess Songs for voice and orchestra can be heard.
Sakari Oramo conducted the first complete performance of the six songs in April 2012; from 31 October until 1 November they will be performed at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt am Main by Anu Komsi and the hr-sinfonieorchester under Sakari Oramo.
6 Songs of the Fairy Princess
for high voice and orchestra | 15’
31/10/2012
– 1/11/2012, Frankfurt am Main; Anu Komsi, s; hr-sinfonieorchester, cond.
Sakari Oramo
Tom Service
posted another interesting and informative guide on his blog, this time it’s
about Steve Reich and his music. We highly recommend it, you can read the full
article on The Guardian.
Arvo Pärt’s vocal works have always been
based on their text, especially since the Credo from 1968. Broken down into its
separate parts, dissected and carefully transferred to the music, the text is
both the source – the germ from which the work’s entire structure unfolds – and
also the goal. ECM has included predominantly more recent or recently reworked
compositions by Arvo Pärt on this CD. The title composition Adam’s
Lament is one of his major works. The words of the monk Silouan with
the key message of love and humility occupy great strength of poetic expression
for the composer.
Happy Birthday Georges Lentz!
The 7 Klangräume by Georg Friedrich Haas will be performed on 27 October in New York. At the end of April 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart applied for the position of second Kapellmeister at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, hoping to inherit the position from Leopold Hofmann, the incumbent Kapellmeister. The City Council of Vienna accepted Mozart’s petition in a letter dated 9 May, 1791. The composer Georg Friedrich Haas used this strongly worded decree as a basis for the text in the vocal passages of his Sieben Klangräume accompanying the unfinished fragments of Mozart’s Requiem KV 626.
7 Klangräume (2005)
for choir and orchestra | 28'
27/10/2012 New York
Argento Chamber Ensemble, c. Michel Galante
It is with
great sadness that we share the news of Francis Burt’s passing away on 3 October. We
refer to Francis Burt’s website for
further information.
Happy Birthday Mauricio Sotelo!
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.
Happy Birthday Rolf Liebermann, Frank Martin, David Sawer and Arnold Schönberg!
 Eric Marinitsch.jpg "Arvo Pärt (c) Universal Edition/Eric Marinitsch")
Happy Birthday Arvo Pärt!
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death of the composer,
the International Hanns Eisler Society (IHEG) is organising the Eisler
Days from 6 to 11 September with concerts, historic films, a symposium
and a “Long Hanns Eisler Night”.
A new production of Janáček’s Makropulos Affair opens in Helsinki tonight.
See details, cast and photos at the Finnish National Opera website.
Learn more about the composer and watch his list of works.
Learn more about the composer and watch his list of works.