Listen live to Johannes Maria Staud’s new work for orchestra tonight on Radio BR Klassik (8pm Berlin time).
Mariss Jansons conducts Maniai with the RSO Munich at the Herkulessaal in Munich, where the world première was given yesterday.
Happy Birthday Alban Berg! He was born on 9 February 1885, 127 years ago today.
On this day in 1945, Frank Martin’s Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke was premièred in Basel by the Basel Chamber Orchestra and Paul Sacher.
In 1949, the orchestral suite of Gottfried von Einem’s Dantons Tod was premièred in Baden Baden by the Radio Orchestra.
20 years ago today, on 9 February 1992, Wolfgang Rihm’s opera Die Eroberung von Mexiko was first heard at the Hamburg State Opera – Ingo Metzmacher conducted. Here’s a German introduction on the Deutschlandfunk radio website.
And on the same day in 1992, Arvo Pärt’s And One of the Pharisees ... was given its world première by Paul Hillier and the Theatre of Voices.
If you are in Boston tonight, go and see Sound Icon perform Georg Friedrich Haas’ ethereal 70-minute in vain at the Institute of Contemporary Art (audio sample on this page).
If you are not in Boston tonight, listen live on BBC Radio 3 (7:30pm London time) to the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra performing Friedrich Cerha’s Wiener Kaleidoskop – a romp around Vienna’s musical traditions (audio sample on this page).
For those looking for something else for a Friday evening, there’s Rihm in Saarbrücken (COLL’ARCO), Weill in Graz (Threepenny Opera), Janacek in Munich (Glagolitic Mass) and Reims (Jenufa), Schreker in Cologne (Chamber Symphony), Borisova-Ollas in Gothenburg (The Kingdom of Silence), Mahler in Bangkok (Symphony No. 9), Birtwistle in London (Linoi), Zemlinsky in Valencia (Lyric Symphony), Kodály in Arnhem (Dances of Galanta), Oldfield in Neuenkirchen (Tubular Bells), Bartók in Athens (Miraculous Mandarin), Berio in Düsseldorf (Rendering) …
Gustavo
Dudamel’s remarkable Mahler series is fully underway in Los Angeles.
Tonight he conducts Symphony No. 9, and this Saturday Symphony No. 8 is on the programme, complete with the LA Phil, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and 16 LA based choirs.
Read more on the LA Phil website and watch our video interview with Gustavo Dudamel below, where he talks about the music of Gustav Mahler.
It’s a historic day in Vienna, with the first ever performance of a Kurt Weill work at the Vienna State Opera.
Ingo Metzmacher conducts the Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in a production by Jérôme Deschamps. Elisabeth Kulman, Angelika Kirchschlager and Christopher Ventris sing the lead roles.
See more at the Vienna State Opera website.
It’s the final day of the 5e Biennale de quatuors à cordes here in Paris, with two more concerts of Rihm’s string quartets.
14.30 QUATUOR CAPUÇON
including Rihm’s Fetzen 1
17:30 HAGEN QUARTET
including Rihm’s Tristesse d’une étoile and Fetzen 2
Full score of Tristesse d’une étoile
We move into the final weekend of the 5e Biennale de quatuors à cordes at the Cité de la musique in Paris, with three Rihm string quartets on the programme today.
11:00 Quatuor Ysaÿe
including Wolfgang Rihm’s Quartettstudie
Full score
14:30 Arditti Quartett
including Rihm’s String Quartet No. 5
Full score
20:30 Prazák Quartet
including Rihm’s String Quartet No. 4
Full score
It’s day 6 of the 5e Biennale de quatuors à cordes at the Cité de la musique in Paris.
19:00 ARDITTI QUARTET / JERUSALEM QUARTET
including Wolfgang Rihm’s String Quartet No. 3
Full score
20:30 BORODIN QUARTET
including Wolfgang Rihm’s Grave – In memoriam Thomas Kakuska
Full score
It’s day 5 of the 5e Biennale de quatuors à cordes at the Cité de la musique in Paris.
19:00 QUATUOR DIOTIMA
including Wolfgang Rihm’s String Quartet No. 1 and String Quartet No. 8
Full score of String Quartet No. 1
Full score of String Quartet No. 8
20:30 ARDITTI QUARTET / QUATUOR ÉBÈNE
including the world première of Wolfgang Rihm’s String Quartet No. 13 (commissioned by the Cité de la musique)
Full score
It’s day 4 of the 5e Biennale de quatuors à cordes at the Cité de la Musique in Paris.
19:00 CUARTETO CASALS
including Wolfgang Rihm’s Zwischenblick “Selbsthenker”
Full score
20:30 KRONOS QUARTET
including Rihm’s String Quartet No. 7
Full score
After a day off, the 5e Biennale de quatuors à cordes continues with day 3 at the Cité de la Musique in Paris.
20:30 TOKYO STRING QUARTET
including Rihm’s brief Zwischen den Zeilen
Full score
Artistic Director David Pountney has just announced the 2012–2014 programme of the Welsh National Opera.
Under the title Free Spirits, the WNO is presenting Alban Berg’s Lulu and Leoš Janácek’s Cunning Little Vixen in spring 2013.
The full programme is here (PDF file).
Here’s a picture of composer Francis Burt in discussion with conductor Peter Burwik at the Austrian Society of Music on 12 Jan.
Burt, who celebrated his 85th birthday last year, spoke of his life, the important milestones in his career as a composer, his recently completed opera Mahan and his plans for the future!
It's day 2 of the 5e Biennale de quatuors à cordes at the Cité de la Musique in Paris.
14:30 ZEMLINSKY QUARTET
including Rihm’s String Quartet No. 10
Full score
17:30 QUATUOR TETRAKTYS
including Rihm’s String Quartet No. 6
Full score
The 5e Biennale de quatuors à cordes is now underway in Paris, presenting the string quartets of Wolfgang Rihm amongst a range of other works. To celebrate, we are posting the full scores of many of the works here and on ISSUU.com.
The festival begins today (Saturday 14 Jan) with three concerts.
14:30 QUATUOR THYMOS
including Rihm’s String Quartet No. 9
17:00 QUATUOR VOCE
including Rihm’s String Quartet No. 2 and String Quartet No. 11
The full score of String Quartet No. 11 is here
20:30 QUATUOR MODIGLIANI
including Rihm’s “Streichquartett” and String Quartet in G
The full scores are here:
Streichquartett
String Quartet in G