On the eve of his 60th birthday, three radio broadcasts portray the composer Wolfgang Rihm. 
Wolfgang Rihm: Fremde Szene III
Karol Szymanowski: Mythes: 2. Narcisse
Christine Busch, vln; Conradin Brotbek, vc; Cornelis Witthoefft, pno
SWR2 | Listen live
Monday, 12.03.2012, 20:03*
Wolfgang Rihm: 3. Streichquartett
Wolfgang Rihm: Schrift-Um-Schrift
Wolfgang Rihm: Das Gehege
Andreas Göbel in conversation with the composer.
Kulturradio | Listen live
Monday, 12.03.2012, 21:04*
Wolfgang Rihm: Am Horizont
Ensemble Recherche
Arnold Schönberg: Bläserquintett
Bläserquintett Heinz Holliger
SWR2 | Listen live
Monday, 12.03.2012, 23:03*
* Vienna, Paris, Berlin time
See our overview of radio broadcasts this week.
Harrison Birtwistle’s Silbury Air for chamber ensemble was given its world première on 9 March 1977 by the London Sinfonietta.
“Silbury Air is named after Silbury Hill, a prehistoric mound in Wiltshire, the biggest artificial mound in Europe, being 125 feet high and covering more than five acres. Its use and purpose, after centuries of speculation, still remain a mystery.”
(Harrison Birtwistle)
“A vigorous and eventful fifteen minute piece, full of sharp motoric rhythms that (until the very end) tend to accelerate.
The result is dramatic and immediately exciting, contradicting in its vitality the idea of static blocks of sound on which Birtwistle has usually relied, but equally showing the firmest possible architectural sense, with each section relating naturally and satisfyingly to the rest. With so much argument crammed into so relatively short a span, it is a work that cries out for early repetition.”
(Edward Greenfield, The Guardian 10.03.1977)
Luciano
Berio’s La vera storia (Azione musicale in 2 parti) was given its world première
on 9 March 1982 at the Scala in Milan.
“To say what happens in La Vera Storia is not easy, and I don’t know that it’s all that useful, granted that this is a work which tells its own story … If I weren’t afraid of being misunderstood or appearing rude, I wouldn’t even have written these lines.“
(Luciano Berio)
Wolfgang Schreiber said of the première: “Berio’s theme is tension, and the violent conflict between individual and state or society, of people and power, of freedom and authority.”
100 years ago today, Franz Schreker’s Phantastische Ouverture was given its world première by the Tonkünstler Orchestra here at the Musikverein in Vienna.
Here’s an excerpt:
Dutch Radio’s ZaterdagMatinee
continues its series of Wolfgang Rihm concerts this Saturday with a concert
performance of the 1979 opera Jakob Lenz.
Emilio Pomàrico conducts musikFabrik. Thomas Möwes, Johannes Schmidt and Daniel Kirch sing the lead roles.
Listen live on Dutch Radio 4.
The picture left shows our promotion leaflet from 1979, with Richard Salter in the lead role at the world première in Hamburg.
At the 2012 Musiques Biennale en Scène in Lyon, Johannes Maria Staud’s work for string quartet and orchestra, Über trügerische Stadtpläne und die Versuchungen der Winternächte (Dichotomie II), is given its French première.
Pascal Rophé conducts the Arditti Quartet and the Orchestre National de Lyon (1 March).
Conductor Ilan Volkov’s new music festival Tectonics takes place in Reykjavik this weekend.
On the programme is a rare opportunity to hear Luciano Berio’s Accordo, a monumental work for four wind bands.
It looks like just about every young musician in Reykjavik will be taking part.
For the Italian speakers among you, here is Berio’s original programme note.
Accordo
per quattro gruppi di bande (1980-1981)
Accordo, per quattro gruppi di bande con un numero illimitato di suonatori, non è forse un pezzo da suonare in concerto. È però tante cose diverse: è un incontro, una struttura di gesti, un accordo che prolifera e genera situazioni sempre diverse; è la combinazione e la messa in prospettiva, mobile, di elementi musicali estremamente semplici e familiari; è un piccolo tributo a un grande desiderio di pace nel mondo; è una parafrasi; è un Festival dell’Unità; è una trasformazione acustica; è una melodia; è un omaggio ai suonatori delle bande, che trovandosi assieme la sera dimenticano la stanchezza di una lunga giornata di lavoro. Accordo è anche un’opera sperimentale nella quale cerco di mediare contraddizioni tra dimensioni musicali apparentemente inconciliabili; è una trasfigurazione, dunque.
Accordo è forse difficile da organizzare ma facile da suonare; è fatto di discorsi semplici e concreti per interlocutori ideali che vorrebbero abbracciare il mondo; ha una speranza, dunque ...
L. B.
Happy Birthday Roman Haubenstock-Ramati! (27.02.1919—03.03.1994)
Here’s one of his famous graphical scores, Multiple 1 for 2 players:
Click image for full resolution
Photo © Charlotte Till-Borchardt
Our latest blog posts, jumbled up and in glorious colour, courtesy of Wordle. Give it a try.
The first reviews of the Scottish Ensemble’s world première
of Luke Bedford’s Wonderful
Two-Headed Nightingale are in.
Kate Molleson in The Guardian calls it a “bold, dense and arresting blast of a composition – a work that forcefully reiterates Bedford’s voice and brilliantly showcased its fine set of players.” ****
Juliet Williams at Classical Iconoclast writes, “The soloists seem at times to be ‘joined at the hip’ but at other times to be locked in a power struggle.”
Kelly Apter in The Scotsman explains, that “offering no comfort, it made me sit up in my chair and listen, as Morton and guest violist Lawrence Power battled with each other, then came together in harmony, just as the conjoined twins who inspired the piece must have done.” ****
Alan Coady of Bachtrack.com writes “The dramatic tension in this piece derives from two solo lines which follow equal mindsets: striving to break free from the other; reunited and more happily resigned to the status of being a twin.” ****
And some goosebumps:
Loved the @ScotEnsemble concert @queens_hall last night. The Alwyn was superb and Bedford gave me goosebumps. :)
— Grainne M Rooney (@GrainneMRooney) February 20, 2012
Tomorrow’s
performance at the City Halls in Glasgow
is broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
From the UE archives:
This looks like a fine concert programme from 1930, conducted by Paul von Klenau with works by Paumgartner, Wellesz, Toch, Hauer, Schmidt and Kienzl.
But what struck our eye was the notice on the right hand border of the programme:
“By official decree ladies are ordered to remove their hats!”
(Über behördliche Anordnung sind die Damen verhalten, die Hüte abzunehmen!)
Rules are rules!
Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain’s Journey is performed by the RSO Munich tonight, conducted by Stefan Asbury. The concert also includes a new work by Enno Poppe and Charles Ives’ Robert Browning Overture.
Gerald Larner wrote in The Guardian that Gawain’s Journey is “a dramatic concert piece and a bruising but exhilarating experience for the audience.”
Happy Birthday Friedrich Cerha!
(Another anniversary for the 17th February is the world première of Mahler’s Das klagende Lied, which took place in 1901)
We’re off to the Konzerthaus in Vienna tonight for the latest concert in Klangforum Wien’s IKONEN series.
Under the title Vexations, Klangforum presents a rich programme of UE works:
Pierre Boulez: Mémoriale | ( ... explosante-fixe ... Originel)
Morton Feldman: Instruments 2
Beat Furrer:
Time out 1 and 2
Friedrich Cerha: Bruchstück, geträumt
as well as Olga Neuwirth’s ... miramondo multiplo ...
Jean Deroyer conducts, Eva Furrer and Anders Nyqvist are the soloists.
Buy the CD of this beautiful arrangement here.
Buy the sheet music here.
Visit the Dublin Guitar Quartet website.