05 Wolfgang Rihm.

New stage work for Bavarian State Opera

09 Georg Friedrich Haas.

Dialogue with lightingin Donaueschingen

17 Luciano Berio.

Homage in Strasbourg -‘Consequenza’

34 Robert Schumann.

Frauenliebe for orchestra

Wolfgang

Rihm

newsletter04/06 • autumn 2006

2

contents 04/2006

FESTIVALSBiennale di Venezia — 13Festival Musica — 15

COMPOSERSRihm — 5Staud — 7Baltakas — 7Haas — 9Cerha — 10Schwartz — 11Halffter — 11Sotelo — 16Lentz — 16Berio — 17Boulez — 19Birtwistle — 20Sawer — 20Stockhausen — 21Zender — 21Pärt — 22Kurtág — 22Borisova-Ollas — 23Wilson — 23Martin — 24Messiaen — 24Weill — 25Zemlinsky — 25Delius — 26Shostakovitch — 26Schnittke — 27Denisov — 27Haubenstock-Ramati — 27Webern — 28Schönberg — 28Marx — 29Schmidt — 29

Contents

3

Schreker — 30Szymanowski — 30Mjaskowski — 31Klenau — 31Janácek — 32Mahler — 32Braunfels — 33Schillings — 33Schumann — 34Haydn — 35Ligeti — 36

THE FUTURE'S BRIGHT — 37

ANNIVERSARIES — 38 - 39

WORLD PREMIÈRES — 40 - 41

NEW RELEASES — 42 - 43

NEW ON CD — 44 - 45

WORKLISTBorisova-Ollas — 46

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 48

Dear Readers,

Once a work is burned onto CD no-thing can change it. Does that aidits path into the concert repertoire?Admittedly, the CD is a guide to-wards the concert hall and, conse-quently, a blessing for the publisher.But a flawed recording can havefatal consequences for a work. Whotakes the time, nowadays, to checka poor interpretation against thescore, in order to see whether theweakness lies in the work itself, orcan simply be traced back to an un-inspired day in the studio? Thank-fully this is the exception. Most ofthe time CDs have the desired ef-fect: making ears prick up, and liste-ners leaf through the score fromthe sheer joy of discovery…

The Editorial Team

DAS SPIELKANN

BEGINNENPREMIEREN

Wolfgang Rihm

Richard Strauss

27.10.2006

Jules Massenet

16.12.2006

Modest Mussorgsky

18.03.2007

Giuseppe Verdi

28.05.2007

Unsuk Chin

30.06.2007

Gioachino Rossini

21.07.2007

HÖHEPUNKTE

08. – 21.10.2006

Richard Wagner

10.11., 12.11., 15.11., 19.11.2006

30.06. – 31.07.2007

Information/Karten

T 089.21 85 19 20

www.staatsoper.de

Kent Nagano

Bayerischer Generalmusikdirektor

Design: Fons Hickmann m23

rihm

5

RIHM

Dialogue with

an eagle

The long-standing artistic collabo-ration between conductor KentNagano and composer WolfgangRihm – responsible, among otherthings, for Das Lesen der Schift andEuropa nach dem letzten Regen –has now resulted in the mono-drama Das Gehege, commissionedby the Bavarian Staatsoper forNagano’s first production as musicdirector there. The first peforman-ce will take place on 27 Oct, withWilliam Friedkin directing. Rihmhas created a music theatre piecefor dramatic soprano (GabrieleSchnaut) and orchestra from thefinal part of Botho Strauss’ stageplay Schlusschor. ‘The woman inthis solo music theatre piece holds adialogue with an eagle in a game

reserve. In so doing she illuminates –with all the concentration and ex-pressivity of contemporary (musi-cal) language – the desires forstrength and devotion, for self-reali-sation and social integration, thatexist directly alongside one anotherin human beings – thus revealing asister relationship with another fi-gure placed on the operatic stageroughly a hundred years earlier –Salome.’ (Peter Heikler)

Nagano has also chosen Rihm’sDeutsches Stück mit Hamlet for thePresident’s benefit concert (15 Octin the Nationaltheater, Munich).

Since 2001 Rihm has been workingon Passion texts for the six singersof the ensemble Singer Pur, whohave premièred each individualsection as soon as it was finished.In 2006 he completed the entirecycle of Sieben Passions-Texte,expanding it with instrumentalinterludes and adding, as the finalmovement, a Miserere in which voices and ensemble combine. Thisnew cyclic composition, entitled Vigilia, is a joint commission ofthe Berlin Festival, the Festival d’automne in Paris, the VeniceBiennale, musikFabrik and theKunstsstiftung NRW.

rihm

6

Orchestra in Marsyas for trumpetwith percussion and orchestra inAmsterdam (26 and 27 October,Frits Damrow, trumpet, Gustavo Gimeno, percussion).

Lothar Zagrosek has selected Ernster Gesang for his concerts inBerlin (7-8 October) and Gütersloh(27 September), while In Frage andKalt can be heard in the Philharmo-nia Orchestra of London’s seriesMusic of Today under André de Ridder (5 October).

Its first performance will take placeon 7 September in Berlin under thedirection of Stefan Asbury.

On 29 Sep, Ensemble Recherchewill première Séraphin – Sphäre inBrussels – a kind of preliminarysketch for a stage work whose firstperformance is planned for a yearlater.

In Donaueschingen meanwhile Aktund Tag for voice (Claron McFad-den) and string quartet (ArdittiQuartet) is receiving its first perfor-mance. Rihm has enlarged the firstpart – Akt – by adding a setting ofthe William Blake poem Day.

The distinguished English composer and conductor GeorgeBenjamin is performing GedrängteForm with Ensemble Modern at theFestival d’automne and in the AlteOper, Frankfurt (27 November and 1 December respectively), and con-ducting the Congertgebouw

7

staud / baltakas

STAUD

Apeiron comes

to Vienna

Apeiron. Music for large Orchestrais the title given by Johannes MariaStaud to a 20-minute work compo-sed between 2004-5 in response toa request from Sir Simon Rattleand the Berliner Philharmoniker.This prestigious commission hasbeen internationally interpreted asa sign of recognition for his extra-ordinary talent. Staud’s compre-hensive introductory note, explai-ning the background to his choiceof title (from Greek philosopherAnaximander to Leonardo daVinci), gives some idea how vastlydivergent the sources of his inspi-ration can be, with the figurativearts playing a major role.Now Apeiron is to receive its Austrianpremière:Wien Modern has invited

the RSO Wien under Bertrand deBilly to present the piece on 3 November.Meanwhile Incipit for alto trombo-ne (Uwe Dierksen) and five instru-ments (Ensemble Modern) is recei-ving its Portuguese première in theCasa da Música, Porto (17 Nov).

BALTAKAS

Expanding cycle

Ouroboros, an ensemble piece by Vykintas Baltakas for nine instru-ments (first performed at the 2004Klangspuren festival) and parentof a growing cycle of further, relatedworks, can be heard at this year’sWarsaw Autumn Festival on 28 September.Rüdiger Bohn, who is to conduct thePolish German Youth Ensemble, isthen taking the work on a shorttour with performances in Krakow(29 September) and Lviv, Ukraine (1 October). Ouroboros was lastheard at the ISCM Festival in Stuttgart, with Johannes Debus andmusikFabrik.

Johannes Maria Staud

d o n a u e s c h i n g e r

m u s i k t a g e20.–22. Oktober 2006

Werk

Präsentat ion

Wahrnehmung

SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden

und Freiburg

Nicolaus Richter de Vroe, Richard

Ayres, Adriana Hölszky, Georg Friedrich

Haas, Manfred Stahnke, Jörg Widmann,

Brian Ferneyhough

Schönberg Ensemble Amsterdam

Mauricio Kagel, Alberto Posadas,

Dmitri Kourliandski, Robin de Raaff

Freiburger Barockorchester/ensemble recherche

Martin Smolka, Wolfgang Mitterer,

Chris Newman

Arditti Quartet

Wolfgang Rihm, Julio Estrada,

Ole-Henrik Moe, Saed Haddad

Blasorchester Performance

Alvin Curran

Klangkunst

Kirsten Reese, Hans Peter Kuhn

Info: Kulturamt Donaueschingen

Tel: +49 771 857 266

www.swr2.de/donaueschingen

9

haas

HAAS

Intoxicating

vowels

Working with celebrated stage andcostume designer rosalie, GeorgFriedrich Haas has developed aConcerto for Lighting and Orchestrafor the Donaueschingen MusicDays. Pre-composed and recordedvisual elements are treated as in-strumental entries to which themusic reacts – thus entering intocomposed dialogue with the ligh-ting, rather as in the relationshipbetween solo instrument and orchestra. The first performancetakes place on 22 October 2006,with the SWR SO of Baden-Badenand Freiburg.Another Haas première forms thefinal concert of the Norwegian Ultima Festival: Nordic Voices per-form Hertervig-Studien for 6 voicesin Oslo (15 November).In Graz, as part of Musikprotokollat the steirischer herbst, Three LovePoems (2005) for 6 voices aftertexts by August Stramm, Solo forViola d’Amore (2000) and ....... forViola and Six Voices (2005) will beperformed by the Neue Vocalsoli-sten Stuttgart and Garth Knox,viola. ‘Intoxicating vowels and vocals, microscopically slow changesof timbre and, simultaneously,expressive gestures’, says the pro-spectus (steirischer herbst).

The Weingarten New Music Days,which each year showcase a singlecomposer’s work, are presenting 15Haas chamber works between 10-12 Nov, including the chamberopera Adolf Wölfli, Haiku and theString Quartets.Klangforum / NetZZeit have beenasked to tour their Symposium –Intoxication in Eight Parts and invain in Venice (29 Sep), Bolzano (7Oct) and Budapest (13/14 Oct).And at the Mülheim New Music Festival, Ensemble Polyphonie Tunder Manfred Schreier will per-form Haas’ 7 Klangräume, based onthe unfinished fragments of Mozart’s Requiem (29 October).

cerha

10

CERHA

Europe-wide

Friedrich Cerha’s Hymnus, commis-sioned by the Berlin KonzertHausin 2000 and first performed in2002 by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra under Eliahu Inbal, is tohave its Italian première on 4 October in Venice as part of theBiennale di Venezia. Peter Hirschwill conduct the orchestra of theTeatro La Fenice.

Cerha’s new Concerto for SopranoSaxophone and Orchestra – writtenbetween 2003-4 and first perfor-med on 9 March in Denmark – hasits Austrian première on 20 Oct,with Michael Gielen conductingthe RSO Wien and the soloist fromthe first performance, JohannesErnst.

The SWR Symphony Orchestra ofBaden-Baden and Freiburg, underSylvain Cambreling, is repeating

the complete Spiegel cycle – whichthey last performed on 19 July inBregenz – at a Wien Modern con-cert on 6 November.

On 12 and 13 November MichaelBoder is to conduct LangeggerNachtmusik III with the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Ham-burg. Scored for large orchestraplus two smaller ensembles, thework received a brilliant perfor-mance in Frankfurt by the HesseRadio SO under Stefan Asbury (2 March). ‘Rarely can you hear suchflowing transitions between thecountless small and large instru-mental groupings in an orchestralcomposition as in this piece playedby the HR-Symphony Orchestra.Cerha too is – as Adorno describedhis teacher Alban Berg – a “masterof the smallest transition”.’ (AchimHeidenreich, Frankfurter Allgemei-ne Zeitung)

11

schwartz / halffter

SCHWARTZ

The geometry of

musical lines

Jay Schwartz‘s latest work, Musicfor Chamber Ensemble, is a com-mission from conductor Olari Eltsfor his Ensemble NYYD. The firstperformance takes place on 7 Sep-tember in Tartu (Estonia), followedby a performance on 10 Septemberin Tallinn.‘Music for Chamber Ensemble is ageometry of lines, curves and inter-sections which follow the musicallaws of horizontal time and verticalintervals, as well as the architecto-nic laws of structure and propor-tion…The aim of my work is to map

the architecture of a compositiononto a unique stretch of time.’(Schwartz) His Music for Orchestra (for stringorchestra), which casts its spellover the listener by means of its archaic power, has been selectedfor performance at the VeniceBiennale (6 October at the TeatroLa Fenice, Orchestra Sinfonica Na-zionale della RAI with JohannesDebus conducting).

HALFFTER

Festive

Spanish sounds

Of his Dortmund Variations, writtento honour the 100th anniversary ofthe Dortmund Philharmonic Orche-stra, Cristóbal Halffter said: ‘It wasmy intention to write a piece in whichall the different groups of the orche-stra could go through their paces.’And now he has chosen to celebratehis own 75th birthday with a similarfestive showpiece. The first perfor-mance of Dortmund Variations II, inreduced scoring, can be heard on 6 October in Las Palmas, with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria under Günther Neuhold.

Jay Schwartz

biennale di venezia

13

once again to the centre of currentcultural debate, to revitalise dialo-gue and intellectual engagementwith this art form. To facilitate thishe has invited important compo-sers, thinkers and philosophers toVenice – among other things, forexample, there will be a meetingbetween philosopher Peter Sloter-dijk and Wolfgang Rihm on 5 Oct.

The programme also includes: thefirst performance of Wolfgang Rihm’sVigilia (3 Oct; see the Rihm articleelsewhere in this issue); the Italianpremière of Friedrich Cerha’s ‘hymnof praise to the overtone series’Hymnus for orchestra (4 Oct) withthe Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice;Georg Friedrich Haas’ in vain aspart of Klangforum’s intoxicatingSymposium (29 Sep) and 3 LovePoems with the Neue VocalsolistenStuttgart (4 Oct); plus Jay Schwartz’sMusic for Orchestra (6 Oct) with theOrchestra Sinfonica Nazionaledella RAI.

BIENNALE DI VENEZIA

Va’ pensiero –

The Venice Music

Biennale

Va’ pensiero (Go, my thoughts!) –with these words begins un-questionably the most famouschorus in the whole operatic litera-ture. The prisoners in Nabucco singboth of their longing for the happi-ness of lost times and of theirhopes for liberation from their pre-sent sorrows. Giorgio Battistelli hastaken precisely these words as themotto for the 50th Music Biennale(50. Festival Internazionale di Musi-ca Contemporanea, 29 Sep - 7 Oct).

Battistelli, who is assuming re-sponsibility for the programme forthe third time aims with Va’ pensie-ro to bring contemporary music

Festival INTERNATIONAL

des Musiques D’aujourD’hui

STRASBOURG

16 SEPT :::::: 8 OCT 2006

113 ŒUVRES

62 CRÉATIONS ET PREMIÈRES FRANÇAISES

67 COMPOSITEURS

39 MANIFESTATIONS

www.festival-musica.orgRens : +33 (0)3 88 23 46 46

L’INATTENDU DE LA CRÉATION

Les nouvelles générations et leur chefde file, Bruno Mantovani, renouvellentavec appétit les écritures musicales deleurs maîtres incontestés Schoenberg,Berio, Ligeti et Stockhausen

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hotographie

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vardon

festival musica

15

FESTIVAL MUSICA STRASBOURG

UE works

on the menu

The Musica festival, though dedica-ted to new music, doesn’t shy awayfrom looking back to its roots. Thusit includes works by Arnold Schön-berg (for example the Gurre-Liederunder Michael Gielen), Alban Berg(among other things the StringQuartet Op. 3) and Béla Bartók (Second Sonata for violin andpiano).

Musica is also paying tribute to thelate Luciano Berio (d. 2003), notonly by playing a series of his owncompositions, but also with thir-teen short commissioned works(among them a piano piece by Vykintas Baltakas and a work forsolo percussion by Johannes MariaStaud) which, under the collectivetitle Consequenza, will enjoy a staged performance directed byAntoine Gindt. The performers willbe members of the Remix Ensem-ble from Porto who, together withT&M Paris, shared the commis-sions.

Wolfgang Rihm is represented bytwo works: the Wölfli-Lieder (solo-ist James Bobby, conductor RobertHP Platz) and Astralis for smallchoir (Chor Accentus), cello (SoniaWieder-Atherton) and two timpani

(Roland Auzet), conducted by Laurence Equilbey.

And a veritable composer portraitis being dedicated to JohannesMaria Staud:apart from the première of the per-cussion piece, Ensemble Modernunder Sian Edwards is playing hisConfigurations/Reflet (2002) foreight instrumentalists, the pianoworks Bewegungen (1996) andPeras (2004) feature in Jan Michiel’sprogramme, and Carolin Widmannis to play Towards a Brighter Hue(2004) for solo violin.

Johannes Maria Staud

sotelo / lentz

16

SOTELO

Black scream

For Spanish composer Mauricio Sotelo the paintings of Irish artistSean Scully are among the most in-tense in contemporary art. His picture entitled Wall of light blackis, for the composer, like a ‘blackscream’ and – along with Goya’spainting and the Flamenco songform Siguiriya – inspired him towrite Wall of light black for SeanScully (2006) for saxophone andchamber ensemble. Commissionedby musikFabrik and KunststiftungNRW, it was first performed on 27 August in Cologne by musik-Fabrik under Brad Lubman, withMarcus Weiss as soloist.

In response to a commission fromSaarland Radio – and with the guitar sound of the Granaiana inmind – Sotelo has also composedTanquam centrum circuli for flute,harpsichord and orchestra, whichwill be premièred in Saarbrückenwith the Saarbrücken Radio SOunder Josep Pons and soloists Roberto Fabbriciani and ElisabethChojnacka (24 September).

LENTZ

Mystic web

of sound

Contrasts between sound and silen-ce distinguish George Lentz’s consi-stently gentle Mysterium, in whichhe wanted to compose ‘the purestkind of music’. Recently there wereseveral opportunities to hear 2 worksfrom this cycle: Ngangkar for orche-stra was performed in July by theSydney SO under John Storgaards,and Monh for viola and orchestrahad 2 premières – in Tokyo (YoshikoKawamoto, Tokyo SO/KazuyoshiAkiyama, 23 Aug), and Llandaff (Philip Dukes, BBC National Orche-stra of Wales/Luke Dollman, 31 Aug).

Mauricio Sotelo

berio

17

BERIO

Consequenza -

a homage

The multitude of concerts, festivalsand initiatives that engage withhis work in the most diverse waysshows how vital Luciano Berio’smusical legacy still is three yearsafter his death.Now the Remix Ensemble of Porto(Portugal) has dreamt up a homageof a quite special kind. Basedaround Berio’s early Canzoni Popu-lari (1946-47) and his reaction tothe murder of Martin Luther Kingin 1968, O King for mezzo-sopranoand five players, thirteen pieces forsolo instruments by thirteen

young composers (among them Johannes Maria Staud and VykintasBaltakas) will be premièred underthe title Consequenza. Althoughfully independent works in theirown right, each of these pieces is atthe same time a ‘Con-Sequenza’ ofBerio’s work. The performance willbe staged by Antoine Gindt, withprojected visual materials by filmand video artist Bruno Deville. Theevening closes with a first perfor-mance of Pascal Dusapin’s Baisserde rideau.Consequenza can be seen for thefirst time on 24 Sep at the FestivalMusica in Strasbourg, with subse-quent performances at the Théâtredes Bouffes du Nord in Paris (23 Oct) and the Casa da Musica inPorto (4-5 Nov).

Information about many morehigh-profile performances can befound on the UE website: PierreBoulez is conducting Chemins II,Corale and Calmo in Lucerne (13-14Sep), David Robertson Sinfonia inSt Louis, USA (27-29 Oct).

bü

ro

54

Info & Tickets: T +43 5242 73582 · F -20 · info@klangspuren.at · www.klangspuren.at

Klangspurengasse 1/Ecke Ullreichstraße 8a · A-6130 Schwaz

do 14.9. TIROLER SYMPHONIEORCHESTER INNSBRUCK · LETTISCHER RADIO-CHOR · BEAT FURRER ·DIRIGENT · Paul Engel· UA · Martin Smolka · ÖE · Beat Furrer · Leos Janácek fr 15.9. LUCERNE PER-CUSSION GROUP · MICHEL CERUTTI · DIRIGENT · Dai Fujikura · Philippe Schoeller · Yan Maresz ·u.a. Werke für 12 Percussionisten sa 16.9. GUNTER SCHNEIDER HÖRT PIERRE BOULEZ · LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY ORCHESTRA AND VOCALISTS · PIERRE BOULEZ · DIRIGENT · LUISA CASTELLANI ·MEZZOSOPRAN · Arnold Schönberg · Anton Webern · Pierre Boulez · Matthias Pintscher · Luciano Berioso 17.9. PILGERWANDERUNG · LETTISCHER RADIO-CHOR · SIGVARDS KAVA · KASPARS PUTNINS ·DIRIGENTEN · ERIN GEE · STIMME · BARBARA ROMEN UND GUNTER SCHNEIDER · PETER LINDENTHAL · JAKOBSWEGFORSCHER · Erin Gee · UA · Kassian Erharts interaktive Bewegungs-klangschalen · Arvo Pärt · Felix Resch · Miroslav Srnka · Günther Andergassen · ÖE · Martin Smolka ·Anne Boyd · Peteris Vasks · Santa Ratniece · György Ligeti · Martins Vilums · Martin Smolka · UA di 19.9. FRIEDRICH ACHLEITNER · Lesung und Gespräch mi 20.9. GUNTER SCHNEIDER HÖRT HAIMO WISSER · ENSEMBLE WINDKRAFT MIT CHARLIE FISCHER · SCHLAGZEUG · PEPPIE WIERSMA · SCHLAGZEUG · CHRISTIAN DIERSTEIN · SCHLAGZEUG · ERNESTO MOLINARI · KLARINETTE · N.N. · GITARRE · DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES · KLAVIER · MAKI NAMEKAWA · KLAVIER · KASPAR SINGER · CELLO · N.N. · TROMPETE · N.N. · POSAUNE · Haimo Wisser · UA · Olga Neuwirth · ÖE · Haimo Wisser ·Fischer-Molinari-Duo · UA · Michal Nejtek · UA · NACHTKONZERT · MAKI NAMEKAWA & DENNIS RUSSELL DAVIES · KLAVIER · Dmitri Schostakowitsch do 21.9. TIROLER KAMMERORCHESTER InnStrumenti · GERHARD SAMMER · DIRIGENT · Hubert Stuppner · UA · Eduard Demetz · UA · Felix Resch · UA · Werner Pirchner fr 22.9. MILITÄRMUSIK VORARLBERG · KARL GAMPER · DIRIGENT · Peter Eötvös · Murat Üstün · UA · Eduard Demetz · UA · Jorge Sánchez-Chiong · UA · Charles Ives sa 23.9. FILM IM KULTURGESPRÄCH · DAS LINKE DING · MoEns PRAG · BOHEMIA SAXOPHONE QUARTETT · MIROSLAV PUDLAK · DIRIGENT · TSCHECHIEN · Hanus Barton · UA · Marek Kopelent ·UA ·Martin Hybler · UA · Miroslav Pudlak · UA so 24.9. INTERNATIONALE ENSEMBLE MODERN AKADEMIE KONZERT · SOLISTEN DES ENSEMBLE MODERN · FRANCK OLLU · DIRIGENT · BENEDICT MASON · SUPERVISION · Benedict Mason · felt/ebb/thus/brink/here/array/telling/ · ÖE mo 25.9. JÁCHYM TOPOL · AUTOR · TOMAS ONDRUSEK · SCHLAGWERK · Lesung und Konzert · Martin Smolka · Milos Haase · Peter Graham · David Lang · Iannis Xenakis di 26.9. INTERNATIONALE ENSEMBLE MODERN AKADEMIE · ABSCHLUSSKONZERT · Harrison Birtwistle · Galina Ustwolskaja · Steve Reich · Wolfgang Rihm · John Cage mi 27.9. ERICH URBANNER HÖRT ERICH URBANNER · ENSEMBLE WIENER COLLAGE · ERICH URBANNER · DIRIGENT · ALFRED MELICHAR · AKKORDEON ·Erich Urbanner zum 70.Geburtstag · Zdzislaw Wysocki · UA · Bernd Richard Deutsch · UA · Johanna Doderer · UA · Erich Urbanner do 28.9. ELISABETH SCHIMANA · ELECTRONICS · CORDULA BOESZE ·FLÖTE · LENA GOLOVASHEVA · BEWEGUNG · Elisabeth Schimana · UA fr 29.9. STILLSTAND · JUNGE SOUNDS & THEATER · Lehrlinge von MPREIS, IVB, IKB und GE Jenbacher · SchülerInnen der Glasfach-schule Kramsach sa 30.9. RADIO SYMPHONIEORCHESTER WIEN · MARTYN BRABBINS · DIRIGENT · ERIN GEE · STIMME · Erin Gee · UA · Joanna Wozny · UA · Dai Fujikura · ÖE · George Benjamin

29.9.-1.10. klangspuren barfuß Kinderfestival

19

boulez

BOULEZ

New movements

A new orchestral movement is inprogress in Pierre Boulez’s studio,where he is tackling the orchestra-tion of Notations VIII. Since DanielBarenboim commissioned and premièred Notations VII in 1997,Boulez has taken up several of thepieces, of which the eighth nowseems to stand the best hope ofcompletion.At the same time conductor Boulezis planning movements of a moreliteral kind: a fixed date in his diaryin recent years has been the LucerneFestival, where he devotes himselfto directing the young musiciansof the Festival Academy Orchestra.

On 14 September he conducts hiscummings ist der dichter for 16 solovoices and chamber orchestra of 27instruments, then two days later

appears as guest with the sameprogramme at the Klangspuren Festival in Innsbruck.Further ‘movements’ are plannedwith the Ensemble Intercontempo-rain: on 7 November Boulez directshis Dérive 2 in the Cité de la Musi-que in Paris, then travels to Milan(9 Nov), Badenweiler (11 Nov) andBerne (13 Nov).In Badenweiler Jörg Widmann willpresent his Dialogue de l’ ombredouble at the Hotel Römerbad (10 November).Boulez performances over the nextfew months begin as early as 6 September in Berlin, where Daniel Barenboim is conductingNotations VII in the Philharmonie,where he gave the work its Europeanpremière in 1999. Later the ASKOEnsemble under Stefan Asbury per-form Messagesquisse in Arnhem (31 Oct), Amsterdam (2 Nov) andThe Hague (3 Nov), with soloistsJean-Guihen Queyras and DorisHochscheid.

20

birtwistle / sawer

BIRTWISTLE

European parade

2006 is the 100th anniversary ofPaul Sacher, and it is fitting thatone of the works he commissioned,Harrison Birtwistle's Endless Parade, features in two program-mes this autumn: on 5/9 there willbe a performance in Berlin by Ensemble Resonanz and WilliamForman under Jonathan Stock-hammer in the Philharmonie, andon 31/10, in Cardiff, Thierry Fischerwill conduct the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in a performanceof this fascinating work that wasgiven a splendid first performanceby a young Håkan Hardenberger.‘It exudes that sense of personal

presence which marks the work of amajor creator.’ (The Observer, May1987)On 26/9 Ritual Fragment will beperformed in Rotholz, as part ofKlangspuren Schwaz, by the musi-cians of the International Ensem-ble Modern Academy. And on 5/10,the soloists of EIC will play FiveDistances for Five Instruments atthe Cité de la Musique in Paris.

SAWER

A Good Night

at the Academy

‘The piece clearly shows a full com-mand of purely musical means …The players … must be well pleasedto have this ironical, disturbed anddisturbing Good Night’.(Paul Griffiths, The Times).On 3rd October the Royal Academyof Music’s Manson Ensemble,under Christopher Austin, will fea-ture chamber works by DavidSawer. Between (for harp), GoodNight, and Take Off (both for smallensemble) will be performed inLondon.Sawer has also been appointed asvisiting professor at the Academyin October 2006.

Harrison Birtwistle

21

stockhausen /zender

21

STOCKHAUSEN

New perspectives

Present-day ears can no longer really understand what provokedsuch scandal in the early days ofserial music. At the Darmstadt pre-mière of Karlheinz Stockhausen’sKreuzspiel in 1951 its ‘idea of anintersection of temporal and spatialevents’ still met with general in-comprehension. In recent years however the work has been pro-grammed with encouraging fre-quency (nine times in 2006 alone).

Now the Wien Modern Festival ispresenting it as part of its Stockhausen focus on 21 November,with Klangforum Wien under PeterEötvös, together with Kontra-Punkte, Zeitmasse and Klavier-stücke 7 and 8 (played by MaurizioPollini).At the ZKM in Karlsruhe the Inter-national Ensemble Modern Acade-my is playing Kurzwellen and Spiral

(8 September);in Cologne the Theatre of Voicesunder Paul Hillier is offering the‘Paris version’ of Stimmung; andStop can be heard (25 October) atthe Klangzeit Festival in Münster.

ZENDER

70th birthday

Composer and conductor HansZender celebrates his 70th birth-day on 22 November 2006. Theworks which he entrusted to Universal Edition between 1979and 1990 reflect certain importantfacets of his intellectual world: theinterest in music theatre (his Joyceopera Stephen Climax), the allureof Japanese culture (for examplethe flute concerto Loshu V), the importance of the voice and, withit, of literature (settings of Mecht-hild von Magdeburg and Henri Michaux).We extend our warmest congratu-lations!

Hans Zender

22

pärt / kurtág

PÄRT

Entering the

repertoire

Thanks to the CD release of ArvoPärt’s Lamentate for piano and orchestra with Alexei Lubimov andAndrey Boreyko (ECM New Series1930), the work is well on its way to-wards entering the repertoire.Following Vienna (10 June) and St. Gallen (12 August), the Russianpremière takes place in Moscow on14 November, (State Academic SOunder Mark Gorenstein, once againwith Lubimov at the keyboard).

Pärt’s latest orchestral work, La Sindone, has its Finnish première on29 September in Helsinki (FinnishRadio SO/Andres Mustonen). A per-formance in Turku under Juha Kangas follows (19 October), whilein Berne Andrey Boreyko will con-duct the Swiss première on 7-8 Dec.

Für Lennart in memoriam for stringorchestra (2006) is now availablefor hire. Tõnu Kaljuste conductedthe piece on 3-4 Aug on the islandof Naissaar during a two-day PärtFestival, and at the beginning ofNovember Andres Mustonen willdirect it in Tallinn.

KURTÁG

at Wien Modern

Amongst the numerous works ofGyörgy Kurtág to be performed inhonour of his 80th birthday is theearly masterpiece The Sayings ofPéter Bornemisza Op. 7, a concertofor soprano (Elena Vassileva) andpiano (Pierre-Laurent Aimard). Thefirst performance in Darmstadt in1968 drew the attention of themusic world to this previously unknown 43-year old composer –an encounter which in later yearsled to important commissions likethe Kafka Fragments and TrussovaSongs.

György Kurtág

23

borisova-ollas /wilson

BORISOVA-OLLAS

Timeless form

If you think that, as a form, thethree-movement symphony hashad its day, then you haven’t yetheard the Symphony No. 1 of Victoria Borisova-Ollas. A ‘gor-geously orchestrated work of greatpower and poetry’, it bears the sub-title ‘The Triumph of Heaven’, refer-ring to a 1907 painting by Russianartist Kazmir Malevich.The symphony – each movementof which is ten minutes long – wascomposed in 2001 for the MalmöSO. The opening conveys an im-pression of the threatening skieslooming over St Petersburg in theearly twentieth century – a centurythat brought so much suffering tohumanity. This first movement ischaracterised by a blind pursuit ofthe Zeitgeist and the desperatestruggle to survive. The second isdedicated to silent mourning, andthe third takes the listener back tothe erratic twentieth century. Asymphonic experience.

WILSON

Inspiration

The RTE National SO, under DavidBrophy, will present the Irish pre-mière of Ian Wilson’s Licht/ung on13 October at the National ConcertHall in Dublin. Licht/ung was inspi-red by the tragic events that occur-red at Nagasaki in 1945.There is also a performance of hisin fretta, in vento at St. AndrewsChurch, Cheltenham, on 21 Nov bythe Carducci Quartet. This workalso exists in a string orchestra ver-sion and was premièred as such atthe Presteigne Festival in 2005.

Victoria Borisova-Ollas

martin / messiaen

24

MARTIN

Homage to Mozart

Thanks to Mozart’s 250th birthday,conductors and programmers haverediscovered Frank Martin’s seven-minute Ouverture en hommage àMozart, written in 1956 for the200th anniversary of Mozart’sbirth. Since January the piece hasbeen heard several times a month– and can next be heard on 6 Sep inLucerne (Camerata Zürich underChristoph Mueller).However no anniversary was nee-ded to justify the revival of DieWeise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Rilke (12 and 16 Oct in Vienna,with Bernarda Fink and the ViennaPhilharmonic under Fabio Luisi).Also regularly performed is thegrandly scored oratorio In terra pax(22 Nov in Radeberg).In 1944 Martin wrote his Passacaillefor organ. The (1952) version forstring orchestra is to be played bythe Tonhalle Orchestra under DavidZinman in Zurich.

MESSIAEN

Voices of nature

Olivier Messiaen wrote Oiseauxexotiques between 1955-6 in response to a commission fromPierre Boulez for his Domaine Musical concerts. The score drawsupon the songs of exotic birds fromIndia, China, Malaysia and America.Messiaen was a keen ornithologist,roaming the countryside over andover again in order to transcribebirdsong. Oiseaux exotiques forsolo piano, small wind ensemble,xylophone, glockenspiel and per-cussion is one of his most fre-quently played works; it can beheard again in Singapore (5 Oct)and San Diego/US (3-5 Nov).

25

weill /zemlinsky

Dusselje Jim Mahoney. The firstnight is 24 Sep, with eleven furtherperformances until Dec 2006.Information: www.komische-oper-berlin.de

ZEMLINSKY

A cataclysmic

affair

Many composers, including Puccini,toyed with the idea of setting OscarWilde’s play A Florentine Tragedy.What finally got Alexander Zem-linsky interested in the piece was itsstylistic and structural resemblanceto Salome. The fatal love affair bet-ween painter Richard Gerstl andMathilde, wife of Arnold Schönberg,which ended with Gerstl’s suicide,must also have moved him deeply.The Opéra de Nancy is presenting anew production of this exciting one-act work from 14 September.

WEILL

Money is the root

of sensuality

‘The Rise and Fall of the City of Ma-hagonny by Kurt Weill is regardedas political parable, discourse onoperatic aesthetics, analysis of themechanisms by which human civili-sation functions and merciless por-trayal of the state of human rela-tionships under the influence of themarket. It is all these things, and yetmuch more: one of the most suc-cessful operas of the twentieth cen-tury and a great theatrical enter-tainment of amazing strength andtopicality’. This is how Berlin’s Komi-sche Oper describes its latest thea-trical première. Under the musicalleadership of Kirill Petrenko andstage direction of Andreas Homoki,Christian Oertel sings LeokadijaBegbick, Jens Larsen Trinity Moses,Tatiana Gazdik Jenny and Kor-Jan

Alexander Zemlinsky, A Florentine Tragedy, Hamburg 1981

delius /shostakovitsh

26

of transience and parting, aretranslated into music with equalgenius. This rarely performed vocalwork can be heard in the Stadt-theater, Giessen on 7 Nov, with thePhilharmonic Orchestra and OperaChorus of Giessen under CarlosSpierer.

SHOSTAKOVICH

100th birthday

For a long time Dimitri Shostako-vich (b. St Petersburg, 25 Sep 1906),was saddled with the reputation ofcomposing to order for Stalin’s totalitarian regime. Only since the1980s have we known how he hadto work under constant threatsand reprimands, which he reven-ged with music that worked ontwo levels. What on the surface appears to be loyal to the party is,underneath, often directed againstthe system itself. On 9 Aug 1975 hedied in Moscow of a heart attack.Now without doubt he counts asone of the 20th century’s greatestsymphonists, who right up totoday has claimed an ever greatershare of the repertoire.

DELIUS

Iridescent

harmonies

Although a contemporary of Gustav Mahler and RichardStrauss, as a late-romantic compo-ser Frederick Delius (1862-1934) re-mained an outsider. His style hasbeen described as ‘fastidious moodpainting against a spiritual back-ground’, of which a characteristicfeature is the conjunction of distinctive sliding, iridescent har-mony with folksong-like melodicmaterials.In 1906-7 Delius composed hisSongs of Sunset for mezzo-soprano,baritone, chorus and orchestra, inwhich (as in Brigg Fair and In aSummer Garden) he attains thepeak of sensitivity and lyrical maturity. The poems of ErnestDowson, with their elegiac mood

Frederick Delius

27

schnittke / denisovhaubenstock-ramati

SCHNITTKE

Serenade

Universal Edition was the originalpublisher of a series of importantworks by Russian composer AlfredSchnittke (d. 1998). For example,besides the Symphony No. 2 andthe a cappella choral work Minne-sang, Dialog for cello and seven instruments was also releasedthrough UE. Dating from 1965, it isto be performed by members ofthe Gubaidulina Festival Ensemblein Amsterdam (15 Oct), while thesextet Serenade (1968) can beheard in Saarbrücken (with mem-bers of the RSO, 20 Sep) and (withan ensemble of soloists) in thechamber music hall of the Philhar-monie, Berlin (18 Oct).

DENISOV

A little noticed

anniversary

Russian composer Edison Denisovdied ten years ago. It is thanks tothe Altenberg Trio of Vienna thathe will be remembered in a concerton 24 Sep – by a performance of hisShostakovich homage D-S-C-H forclarinet (Bernhard Zachhuber),trombone (Andreas Eberle), celloand piano, which follows a perfor-mance of its dedicatee’s Piano Trio.

His 1969 Quintet for wind is to beperformed on 17 Sep by soloists ofthe Deutsche Oper, Berlin – as partof a concert entitled ‘To Shostako-vich, on his 100th’ which also payshomage to the younger Russian.

HAUBENSTOCK-RAMATI

Return to Poland

The Warsaw Autumn Festival iscommemorating Roman Hauben-stock-Ramati, born in Krakow in1919, with a performance of his1967 Symphony K (National Sym-phony Orchestra of Polish Radiounder Gabriel Chmura, 30 Sep).The composer said of this work:‘“K”stands here as a symbol… for all theother Ks who, over and over againand in every period, are branded“guilty”. The anxious circumstancesof modern humanity, its insecuri-ty…these were the elements whichstimulated the composition of myopera Amerika. They are also theelements I wanted to express in mySymphony K.’

28

webern / schönberg

WEBERN

Vocal

Klangfarben

In 1908 Anton Webern wrote Ent-flieht auf leichten Kähnen Op. 20for mixed choir a cappella, his lastwork in conventional tonality (Gmajor). Pierre Boulez is juxtaposingboth versions of it with the maturelate work Das Augenlicht (1933) formixed choir and orchestra, Op. 26(Lucerne Festival Orchestra plus vo-calists, Lucerne 14 Sep, Innsbruck 16Sep). Ernst Krenek was deeply im-pressed by Webern’s conception:‘Das Augenlicht is an exemplarymodel of exclusively intellectual cre-ation, hard as steel and fashioned

according to purely constructionalprinciples, with no regard for parti-cular vocal or instrumental forces.The writing shows such a preferencefor extreme, unidiomatic peripheralregisters and wilful complexity that,the better one understands it, theharder it is to perform correctly…’Sylvain Cambreling is also perfor-ming the work, with the OrchestrePhilharmonique de Luxembourg(Luxembourg, 29 September).

SCHÖNBERG

Sexy, elegant

and sensuous…

…is how Simon Rattle once descri-bed the Gurre-Lieder for soloists,chorus and orchestra (1901/11) byArnold Schönberg. The SWR SO ofBaden-Baden and Freiburg underMichael Gielen (with the choirs ofBavarian and Central GermanRadio) are touring the work acrosshalf of Europe – Lucerne (13 Sep),Essen (15 Sep), Berlin (17 Sep),Frankfurt (29 Oct), Freiburg (31 Oct),Vienna (2 Nov) and Budapest(3 Nov).‘This work is the key to my wholedevelopment. It shows sides of mewhich my later work does not reveal,or derives from a different basis’(Schönberg).Lucerne Festival Orchestra

29

marx / schmidt

MARX

The society

Founded in Vienna in March 2006on the initiative of Marx scholarand biographer Berkant Haydin,the Joseph Marx Society (www.jo-seph-marx-gesellschaft.org) pro-motes the conservation and disse-mination of the work of JosephMarx – often cited as a master ofromantic impressionism – througheditions of his compositions andwritings, biographical and musico-logical publications, events (con-certs, symposia, lectures) and support for performances, radioprogrammes and recording pro-duction as well as collaborationswith other organisations and insti-tutions. Prominent composers,artists and music critics (includingKurt Schwertsik, Peter Vujica,Friedrich Cerha and ThomasHampson) are active in the Society,which is working together with UE

to make works which have unjustlyfallen into oblivion, or which werebelieved lost, once again available.

SCHMIDT

No longer a

well-kept secret

Today the fascinating late romanticorchestral music of composerFranz Schmidt (1874-1939) is no longer a well-kept secret. His Sym-phonies have already appeared several times on CD (above all theSymphony No. 4) and his summa,the oratorio The Book with theSeven Seals written in 1937, was hislast large-scale piece and belongsamongst the most importantworks of its kind. On 14 October itcan be heard in Berlin, with theBerlin Konzerthaus Orchestra andKarl Foster Chorus under BarbaraRucha.

30

schreker /szymanowski

Schreker’s opera and is conductingNachtstück, the interlude from thethird act, on 9 Nov. MeanwhileAustrian cellist Heinrich Schiff, whoalso excels as a conductor, is pro-gramming the Chamber Symphonyin his concert with the RotterdamPhilharmonic (22 Oct), and theschool orchestra of the Konrad Ade-nauer Gymnasium, Westerberg isplaying the Romantic Suite (13 Sep).

SZYMANOWSKI

Unmistakable

The distinguished Polish composerKarol Szymanowski, who died in1937 aged only 55, has succeeded ingaining a permanent place in inter-national concert repertoire withhis most important stage, orche-stral and chamber works. Forexample, his Violin Concerto No. 1 isbeing played by F.P. Zimmermannwith the Berliner Philharmonikerunder Simon Rattle in London(2 Sep) and by Jennifer Kolt in Port-land, Oregon (Oregon SO / CarlosKalmar, 14 Oct). And his SymphonyNo. 3 features on Gabriel Fetz’s programme with the StuttgartPhilharmonic, 10 Oct.

SCHREKER

In Spain - finally!

Almost a century after it was written, a Spanish theatre has hadthe courage to stage Franz Schreker’s opera Der ferne Klang.Pedro Halffter, son of composer Cristóbal Halffter, has adopted thework and brought Peter Mussbach’sproduction over from the DeutscheStaatsoper, Berlin. The Spanish pre-mière takes place on 7 Novemberat the Teatro de la Maestranza,Seville.Besides the young Spaniard, AlanBuribayev from Kazakhstan,General Music Director in Meining,has also immersed himself in

Franz Schreker, Der ferne Klang,Berlin 1925

3131

mjaskowski / klenau

MJASKOWSKI

A rediscovery

A rarity from the UE catalogue wasrevived on 22 June in Jerusalem bythe Jerusalem SO under Leon Bot-stein: Silence: Symphonic Poem Op.9 after Edgar Allen Poe (1910) byRussian composer Nikolai Yakovle-vich Mjaskowski (1881-1950).One of the characteristics permea-ting the whole of Mjaskowski’soutput is a profound intensity,which manifests itself particularlyin a refusal to resort to lurid effectsand superficiality.

KLENAU

Longing so vast

Danish composer Paul von Klenauset Rilke’s poem Die Weise vonLiebe und Tod des Cornets Rilke in1915, i.e. 27 years before Frank Martin engaged with the same text(Viktor Ullmann and Siegfried Mat-thus also found inspiration in it).

In 2000 and 2002 the Odense Sym-phony Orchestra championed anumber of Klenau’s orchestralworks. Now the orchestra and itsconductor Paul Mann have revivedthis one-hour piece for baritonesolo, mixed choir and orchestra.Two performances are taking place(7 and 8 September) before themusicians take the work to the recording studio.Information about Klenau’s Cornetis unfortunately extremely scarce,but it can be assumed that Rilke’slines (such as ‘And courage has be-come so tired, and longing so vast’)struck a chord with the composerin the second year of the FirstWorld War.

Nikolai Mjaskowski

32

janácek / mahler

JANÁCEK

Life class

sketches

With his third opera Jenufa Léos Janácek succeeded in making hisbreakthrough as an operatic com-poser. Since the première of thismoving story about the fate of thesexton and her stepdaughter Jenufaat the Brno National Theatre in1904, it has become one of thecomposer’s most frequently perfor-med works. Janácek was the first tosucceed in transforming everydayspeech directly into music. His method of using speech-melodicmotives is clearly distinctive. It isknown that the composer preser-ved everyday conversations in theform of little musical sketches:‘Jotting down genuine speech melo-dy is, as it were, music’s life class,’ hesaid. Among the opera’s numerousperformances mention should be

made of the Sydney Opera House’s1998 production by Neil Armfield,which from 20 Sep to 21 Oct can beseen there again under the direc-tion of Richard Hickox.

MAHLER

The Eighth

The first performances of GustavMahler’s Symphony No. 8 tookplace on 12 and 13 September 1910in Munich. They brought Mahlerthe greatest triumph of his life, interms both of public recognitionand of his own artistic intentions.To this day the symphony, on ac-count of the gigantic forces requi-red, has remained a challenge forany concert promoter.A challenge which is now beingtaken up by Michael Tilson Thomason 13 Sep in Luxembourg and 17 Sepin Lucerne, as well as by DanieleGatti on 16 Sep in Birmingham.

Leos Janácek, Jenufa, Portland Opera 1996

braunfels /schillings

33

the work (directed by ManuelSchöbel) under the musical gui-dance of Jan Michael Horstmann,with the first night on 30 Sep:www.mittelsaechsisches-theater.de

SCHILLINGS

Mona Lisa’s smile

Excited by the 1911 theft of theMona Lisa from the Louvre, BeatriceDovsky wrote her drama of jealou-sy and betrothal Mona Fiordilisa,which inspired Max von Schillings’(1868-1933) most successful work:Mona Lisa, opera in two acts. In itSchillings blended impressionist,verismo and Wagnerian stylisticdevices, which find their expres-sion via a luxurious late romanticorchestral treatment. The Meinin-ger Theater is staging Ansgar Haag’snew production of the work on 15 September, under General MusicDirector Alan Buribayev.

BRAUNFELS

The nightingale

sings again

‘I do not believe that such an abso-lute masterpiece has ever gracedthe German operatic stage as thislyrical-fantastical piece after Aristo-phanes!’ wrote Alfred Einstein ofDie Vögel by Walter Braunfels.Bruno Walter, conductor of the Munich première (30 Nov 1920),was equally enthusiastic. Based onthe Aristophanes’ comedy TheBirds, the work tells the story oftwo people – Hoffegut and Rate-freund – who leave the earth in thehope of being able to lead a betterlife in the world of the birds. Braun-fels was one of the most popularcomposers of this time until hisworks were banned by the Nazis atthe beginning of the thirties.Freiburg’s Mittelsächsisches Theateris now staging a new production of

Max von Schillings, Mona Lisa, Staatstheater Braunschweig 2005

schumann

34

SCHUMANN

in all but name

UE is delighted to announce a newhighlight in its catalogue: almost150 years after the composer’sdeath, Robert Schumann’s Frauen-liebe und –leben (op.42) has beenreborn in a version for orchestrathat is so authentic, all who haveheard it believe that it might easilyhave come from Schumann’s ownhand.Conrad Artmüller, realising the potential in the original song-cycle,created this masterful orchestralversion and conducted its premièrein Vienna last autumn. Performedwith Gabriele Sima, a mezzo-sopra-no, the orchestral material is alsoavailable, however, in a transposi-tion for the alto voice.In composing these Lieder Schu-mann set poems by Chamisso, and,very much from a female perspecti-ve, they actually tell a story – one oflonging for the loved one. Theywere completed in July 1840, justbefore (despite endless distressingattempts by Wieck, Clara’s father, toprevent Schumann’s marriage tohis daughter) Clara and Robertwere in fact finally wed (12 Septem-ber, at Schönefeld near Leipzig).Artmüller’s orchestration is subtle,elegant and very much in keepingwith Schumann’s orchestral trade-marks. Always allowing the voice toshine out from the texture, this

impressive addition to the reper-toire is likely to become extremelypopular.

Another Schumann arrangementhas been in the UE catalogue for along time: Hans Pfitzner’s versionof Acht Frauenchöre. Scored for women’s chorus and an orchestra(including organ), the work lasts 22 minutes.

gravesite of Clara and Robert Schumann

35

haydn

HAYDN

Opera composer

The 200th anniversary of the deathof Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) in2009 will turn the attention of theinternational music world increa-singly to his many-sided oeuvre,where there’s plenty to discover –or rediscover.Who, for example, canhonestly assert that they know all105 of his symphonies? Not tomention his numerous operas …

Universal Edition publishes six ofhis stage works, edited by H. C.Robbins Landon and Eva Badura-Skoda, both internationally recog-nised experts on Haydn’s music.All six operas were composed during his decades of service forthe Esterházy family and first per-formed between 1768 and 1781 atthe Eszterháza Palace – except forDie reisende Ceres which, edited byBadura-Skoda, was finally heard inSalzburg in 1977. As we said above,much to discover and rediscover…

Joseph Haydn - Operatic works:

Lo Speziale Le pescatrici L'infedeltà delusa La vera costanza La fedeltà premiataDie reisende Ceres

3636

ligeti

36

LIGETI

György Ligeti

1923-2006

After the Cologne première of Apparitions under Ernest Bour on19 June 1960, the Western worldnow at last knew that this Hunga-rian – who had only succeeded infleeing his homeland a few yearsbefore – had the capacity to make aradically new, original and personalcontribution to music. This first im-pression was confirmed in themost convincing manner by thepremière of Atmosphères a yearlater in Donaueschingen.

Both of these epoch-making orche-stral works were published by

Universal Edition. And there, unfor-tunately, the relationship ended –the works composed over the suc-ceeding four decades appearedfirst from Peters in Frankfurt, thenlater from Schott in Mainz.

But with his death on 12 June 2006,all that has finally passed intomusic history. Now the time hascome for posthumous assessment,for memorial concerts, and onlythen will the years, decades and –so we believe – centuries of every-day musical life show what futuregenerations consider of lastingvalue in György Ligeti’s rich, won-derful oeuvre. The Requiem, Lont-ano, Melodien, the Violin Concerto,Piano Concerto, the opera Le grandmacabre, Aventures and NouvellesAventures, the chamber music, thepiano études – all of them havehad their conductors and soloists,who have created a real traditionof Ligeti interpretation: a traditionthey will certainly keep alive andpass on. We are fortunate indeedto have been Györgi Ligeti’s con-temporaries.

the future's bright

THE FUTURE'S BRIGHT

But who is going to

embrace new music?

37

music before 1950 demands alower level of artistic and intellec-tual understanding, or to whatextent these factors are really crucial for public acceptance.For example, how many concert-goers consciously perceive the prophetic musical achievements inBeethoven’s Eroica or Brahms’ FirstPiano Concerto? Presumably thensome sort of discussion would beno less welcome here than it is, forexample, in the case of WolfgangRihm’s Chiffren or Pierre Boulez’Dérives. So possibly that much-avoided ghetto of new music is notso much further removed from thepublic than the classical repertoire.Rather, both should be broughtwithin the same musical orbit, andin this way a unified musical edu-cation policy brought closer to thecentre of musical life. The publicwill thank us for it.

‘To meet the listener where they’reat’ – particularly where new musicis concerned, this oft-repeatedphrase implies the need for frankand intelligent mediation betweentwo apparent extremes. Often itseems as though the music oftoday is confronting an audiencewhich simply hasn’t grown used toits artistic and intellectual de-mands. This impression seems tobe confirmed by practices in musiceducation and performance. Whileprogrammes from Bach to Wagnerfill concert halls, in some caseseven young musicians themselveshave never played a single notewritten after 1950 in their studies.But here the question inevitablyarises, whether this implies that

anniversaries

38

2006125th Anniversary Béla Bartók * 25 March 188170th Birthday Richard Rodney Bennett * 29 March 193650th Anniv. of Death Bertolt Brecht † 14 August 195680th Anniversary Earle Brown * 26 December 192680th Birthday Francis Burt * 28 April 192680th Birthday Friedrich Cerha * 17 February 192610th Anniv. of Death Gottfried von Einem † 12 July 1996

60th Birthday Michael Finnissy * 17 March 194680th Anniversary Morton Feldman * 11 January 192675th Birthday Mauricio Kagel * 24 December 193170th Birthday Ladislav Kupkovic * 17 March 193680th Birthday György Kurtág * 19 February 1926

250th Anniversary Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart * 27 Jan 175680th Birthday Hans Otte * 03 December 192670th Birthday Steve Reich * 03 October 1936

100th Anniversary Dmitri Shostakovich * 25 Sep 190620th Anniv. of Death Alexandre Tansman † 15 November 198670th Birthday Hans Zender * 22 November 1936

2007

75th Anniv. of Death Eugen d'Albert † 03 March 193270th Birthday David Bedford * 04 August 1937125th Anniversary Walter Braunfels * 19 December 188220th Anniv. of Death Morton Feldman † 03 September 198780th Birthday Michael Gielen * 20 July 1927125th Anniversary Zoltán Kodály * 16 December 1882125th Anniversary Gian Francesco Malipiero * 18 March 1882125th Anniversary Joseph Marx * 11 May 188275th Birthday Richard Meale * 24 August 193270th Birthday Gösta Neuwirth * 06 January 193760th Birthday Paul Patterson * 15 June 194750th Birthday Thomas Daniel Schlee * 26 October 195750th Anniv. of Death Othmar Schoeck † 08 March 1957125th Anniversary Karol Szymanowski * 06 October 1882

anniversaries

39

70th Anniv. of Death Karol Szymanowski † 29 March 193750th Birthday Julian Yu * 02 September 1957

200825th Anniv. of Death Cathy Berberian † 06 March 1983

90th Anniversary Gottfried von Einem * 24 January 191870th Birthday Zygmunt Krauze * 19 September 193880th Anniversary Gerhard Lampersberg * 05 July 1928

100th Anniversary Olivier Messiaen * 10 December 190860th Birthday Nigel Osborne * 23 June 194860th Birthday Peter Ruzicka * 03 July 194870th Birthday Tona Scherchen * 12 March 193875th Anniv. of Death Max von Schillings † 24 July 1933

80th Birthday Karlheinz Stockhausen * 22 August 1928100th Anniversary Eugen Suchon * 25 September 1908

2009

50th Anniv. of Death George Antheil † 12 February 195975th Birthday Harrison Birtwistle * 15 July 193475th Anniv. of Death Frederick Delius † 10 June 1934

80th Birthday Edison W. Denisow * 06 April 1929150th Anniversary Joseph Bohuslav Foerster * 30 Dec 185990th Anniversary Roman Haubenstock-Ramati * 27 Feb 191950th Anniv. of Death Josef Matthias Hauer † 22 September 1959

200th Anniv. of Death Joseph Haydn * 31 May 180950th Anniv. of Death Bohuslav Martinu † 28 August 195980th Birthday Henri Pousseur * 23 June 192975th Birthday Bernard Rands * 02 March 1934

100th Anniversary Karl Scheit * 21 April 190975th Anniversary Alfred Schnittke * 24 November 193475th Anniv. of Death Franz Schreker † 21 March 1934

100th Anniversary Alfred Uhl * 05 June 190990th Anniversary Roman Vlad * 29 December 191950th Anniv. of Death Eric Zeisl † 18 February 1959

world premières

40

VYKINTAS BALTAKAS (how does the silver cloud s)ou(nd?) for pianoFestival Musica, soloist of the Remix Ensemble24 September 2006 · Strasbourg/F

GEORG FRIEDRICH HAAS Sayaka for percussion and accordionJohannes Schulin, perc, Kai Wangler, acc29 September 2006 · Gläserne Manufaktur Dresden/DHertervig-Studies for six voices Ultima Festival, Nordic Voices15 October 2006 · Lindemansalen Oslo/NConcerto for lighting and orchestra Donaueschingen Music Days, SWR SO Baden-Baden/FreiburgLighting: rosalie22 October 2006 · Donaueschingen/D

CRISTÓBAL HALFFTER Dortmunder Variationen II for orchestraOrquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, c. Günter Neuhold06 October 2006 · Alfredo Kraus Auditorium Las Palmas/E

JOSEPH MARXBerghymne for voice and piano Petra Labitzke, S, Gulia Glennon, pn23 November 2006 · Christuskirche Leverkusen/D

ARVO PÄRTVeni creator for mixed choir and organ Capella Cathedralis Fulda, Hans-Jürgen Kaiser, organist,Franz-Peter Huber, conductor28 September 2006 · Kathedrale Fulda/D

WOLFGANG RIHM Vigilia for six voices and ensembleSinger Pur, musikFabrik, c. Stefan Asbury07 September 2006 · Philharmonie Berlin/DSéraphin-Sphäre for 14 players Ensemble Recherche, c. Titus Engel29 September 2006 · Brussels/B

world premières

41

WOLFGANG RIHM Akt und Tag Two studies for soprano and string quartetArditti String Quartet, Claron McFadden, S21 October 2006 · Donaueschingen Music Days/D

JAY SCHWARTZMusic for Chamber Ensemble Nyyd-Ensemble, c. Olari Elts07 September 2006 · University Hall Tartu/EST

MAURICIO SOTELOTanquam centrum circuli for flute and orchestraRSO Saarbrücken, c. Josep Pons,Roberto Fabbriciano, fl, Elisabeth Chojnacka, cemb24 September 2006 · Saarbrücken/D

JOHANNES MARIA STAUD Portugal for percussionFestival Musica, soloist of the Remix Ensemble24 September 2006 · Strasbourg/F

WOLFGANG RIHMDas Gehege A nocturnal scenefor soprano and orchestraBayerisches Staatsorchester,c. Kent Nagano,Gabriele Schnaut, sopranodir. William Friedkin,set. Hans Schavernoch27 October 2006 · BavarianState Opera Munich/D

new releases

42

150 CLASSICAL STUDIES from the famous Frans Vester Flute-Collection arranged for alto recorder by Irmhild Beutler and Sylvia RosineUE 33029

MIKE CORNICK The Best of Mike Cornick for piano UE 21314

ROBERT HUDSON 30 Modern Studies for trumpetUE 21316

FRANK MARTINBallade for saxophone (or basset horn) and orchestra UE 32986

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Rondo D major, KV 485 for piano UT 51022

ROXANNA PANUFNIKDeus, deus meus for boy treble (or soprano) and choir SSAATTBBchoral score UE 70104piano reduction UE 70105

ARVO PÄRT Cecilia, vergine romana for choir SATB and orchestra study score UE 31543choral score UE 31719

JAMES RAE Introducing Saxophone - Trios for 3 Saxophones (S/A/T) UE 21360

EUGÈNE REUCHSEL La vie du Christ for organ UE 32972

WOLFGANG RIHM Zwei kleine Schwingungen for pianoUE 32959

GEOFFREY RUSSELL-SMITH Easy Blue Recorder for descant recorder and piano UE 21354

new releases

43

ALEKSEY IGUDESMAN

The

Catscratchbook

with CD for 2 Violins

UE 33094

Wonderful Caterwauling

10 violin duets, all about cats, tochallenge, provoke and above all,enjoy. In the words of Aleksey Igu-desman himself… ‘…these are notthe most conventional children’spieces. But I do not believe thatchildren are conventional either.’

The pieces are unusual – certainly,and they will undoubtedly make animpact on young players with thesupport of illustrations, poems,notes from the composer and a CDwith inspiring demonstration per-formances and play-along tracksfor both 1st and 2nd violins. Thepoems come with the recommen-dation to ‘read them out loud beforeyou perform the pieces and you areguaranteed a smiling public!’… and with 10 pieces including: ColdKitten ; Hot Cat; Crazy Cat; Pink Cat;Cat Lover; I Lost my Cat; Night Catand Cat and Mouse to choose from,there is plenty of contrast.

An inspiring and innovative choicefor middle grade players.

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new on cd

BÉLA BARTÓK Musik für Saiteninstrumente, Schlagzeug und CelestaSWR SO Baden/Baden and Freiburg, c. Michael Gielen Hänssler Classic CD 93.127

BÉLA BARTÓK The String Quartets Vermeer Quartet Naxos CD 8.557543-44

LUCIANO BERIO The Complete Sequenzas & Works for Solo InstrumentsIrvine Arditti, Rohan de Saram, Stefano Scodanibbio ua.mode records 4CDs 161/3

LUCIANO BERIO Sequenza I, IV, VIII, IXa, XIV, Musica leggera, Les Mots sont allés, Lied Ex Novo Ensemble Black Box / Codaex CD 1105

LUCIANO BERIO Sequenza XIIPascal Gallois, bassoon Stradivarius CD 33736

LUCIANO BERIO Sequenza XIV Rohan de Saram, cello edition zeitklang CD ez-25023

ALBAN BERG Sieben frühe LiederGUSTAV MAHLER Symphony No. 4

Berliner Philharmoniker, c. Claudio Abbado, Renée Fleming, S Deutsche Grammophon DG CD 00289 477 5574

CLYTUS GOTTWALD Vocal Arrangements after Alban Berg Die NachtigallGustav Mahler Die zwei blauen Augen, Scheiden und Meiden, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommenKammerChor Saarbrücken, c. Georg Grün Carus CD 83.182

GEORG FRIEDRICH HAAS ... aus freier Lust ... verbunden, de terrae fineBarbara Lüneburg, violin and viola Coviello COV CD 60610

ERNST KRENEK Durch die Nacht, Gesänge des späten Jahres Liat Himmelheber, MS, Hanna Dóra Sturludóttir, S,Axel Bauni and Isabel Fernholz, pn Orfeo CD C 123 041 A

JOSEPH MARX Italienisches Liederbuch Sarah Leonard, S, Jonathan Powell, pn Altarus Records Air-CD 9061

ARVO PÄRT Da Pacem Domine, Salve Regina, Magnificat, Dopo la vittoria, Nunc dimittis, Littlemore Tractus ua.Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Paul Hillier,Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, organharmonia mundi HMU CD 907401

RESONANZEN PAUL SACHER: Conductor and Stimulator BÉLA BARTÓK Musik für Saiteninstrumente, Schlagzeug und CelestaLUCIANO BERIO Ritorno degli SnovideniaFRANK MARTIN Ballade für Violoncello und kleines Orchester

Musiques Suisses MGB CD 6240

45

new on cd

WOLFGANG RIHM Ernster Gesang, Styx und Lethe, Musik für Oboe und Orchester, Dis-Kontur Lucas Fels, vlc, Alexander Ott, ob, c. Sylvain Cambreling, Hans Zender SWR music CD (www.SWR.de/faszination-musik)

WOLFGANG RIHM Vier Studien zu einem Klarinettenquintett, "Vier Male"Jörg Widmann clar, Minguet QuartettArs Musici CD 1385-2

WOLFGANG RIHM Passions-TexteSinger Pur Oehms Classics OC 354

ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG Gurre-LiederKarita Mattila, Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Moser, Philip Langridge,Thomas Quasthoff, Berliner Philharmoniker, Rundfunkchor Berlin,MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Ernst-Senff-Chor, c. Simon RattleEMI Classics CD 243 55 73032 (Gramophone Award)

HEINRICH KAMINSKIGeistliche Chöre,Fuge, Motette,Triptychonorpheus chormünchen,c. Gerd GuglhörOehms ClassicsCD OC 608

LUCIANO BERIOSinfonia,EkphrasisLondon Voices,GöteborgsSymfoniker,c. Peter EötvösDeutscheGrammophon20 - 21 CD00289 477 5380

LUCIANO BERIOThe Great Work for Voice Christine Schadeberg, S,with Musicians’Accord mode recordsCD 48

KURT WEILLQuodlibetDeutsche Kam-merphilharmo-nie Bremen,c. Antony Beau-montChandos CDCHSA 5046

borisova- ollas worklist

46

VICTORIA BORISOVA-OLLAS worklist

MUSIC THEATRE

The Ground Beneath Her Feet 80’ 2007

music theatre (in preparation)

ORCHESTRA

Before the Mountains Were Born 16’ 2005

for orchestra

Colours of Autumn 10’ 2002

for string orchestra

The Kingdom of Silence 15’ 2003

for orchestra

Open Ground 10’ 2006

for orchestra

Symphony No. 1 30’ 2001

for orchestra

The Triumph of Heaven 11’ 2001

for orchestra

CHAMBER MUSIC

"... im Klosterhofe" 11’ 1999

for cello, piano and tape

Creation of the Hymn 15’ 2006

for string quartet

In a World Unspoken 10’ 2005

for saxophone quartet and organ

Roosters in Love 11’ 1999

for saxophone quartet

Seven Singing Butterflies 13’ 2005

for clarinet and string quartet

www.moderecords.com

BerioComplete SequenzasAlternate Sequenzas & solo works

The Complete Sequenzas:

I (1958) Paula Robison, flute

II (1963) Susan Jolles, harp

III (1965-66) Isabelle Ganz, voice

IV (1965-66) Aki Takahashi, piano

V (1966) Stuart Dempster, trombone

VI (1967) Garth Knox, viola

VIb (1967) Rohan De Saram, cello

VII (1969) Jacqueline Leclair, oboe

VIIb (1995) Ulrich Krieger, soprano saxophone

VIII (1976-77) Irvine Arditti, violin

IX (1980) Carol Robinson, clarinet

IXa (1980) Alain Billard, bass clarinet

IXb (1981) Kelland Thomas, alto saxophone

X (1984) Bill Forman, trumpet in C (with piano resonance)

XI (1987-88) Seth Josel, guitar

XII (1995) Noriko Shimada, bassoon

XIII (1995-96) Stefan Hussong, accordion

XIV (2002) Rohan de Saram, cello •XIVb (2004) Stefano Scodanibbio, double bass •

and Works for Solo Instruments:

Chanson pour Pierre Boulez (2000) •Les mots son allés... (1978)

Rohan de Saram, cello

Comma (1987) Carol Robinson, eb clarinet

Fa-Si (1975) Gary Verkade, organ

Gesti (1975) Lucia Mense, recorder

Gute Nacht (1986) Brian McWohrter, trumpet

Lied (1983) Carol Robinson, clarinet

Psy (1989) Michael Cameron, double bass

Rounds (1964-65) Jane Chapman, harpsichord

with Enzo Salomone, reciter (Sanguineti)

• Indicates first recordings

• The FIRST COMPLETE RECORDING of the

Sequenzas: including the world premiererecording of Sequenza XIV for solo cello —written for, and performed by, ex-ArdittiQuartet cellist Rohan de Saram.

• The first COMPLETE recording of the

ALTERNATE SEQUENZAS: This set compilesall of Berio’s alternate Sequenzas for the firsttime, including first recordings.

• Plus all of Berio’s WORKS FOR SOLO

INSTRUMENTS: Also collected together forthe first time, Berio’s solo works and personalarrangements (with the exception of thenumerous works for solo piano).

• An INTERNATIONAL ALL-STAR CAST OF

PERFORMERS: Mode began this set with thehelp of Mr. Berio, who suggested some ofthe performers here — including members of The Arditti Quartet and Ensemble Modernalong with other distinguished soloists.

• Each Sequenza is preceded by a short

spoken verse of poet Edoardo Sanguineti,a collaborator of Berio’s, written to accom-pany the works.

• Extensive notes and biographical informa-tion in a 104-page book packaged with 4-CDs (mode 161/3) in deluxe slipcase.

Available from quality sources worldwide or

direct from Mode Records for $44.97 plus

shipping. http://moderecords.com/order.html

PO Box 1262 New York, NY10009 USAmode @ moderecords.com

photo: © Annie Assouline

UNIVERSAL EDITION

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tel +1-212-871-0230, fax +1-212-871-0237.

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Chief Editors: Angelika Dworak and Eric Marinitsch

Contributors: Bálint András Varga, Angelika Dworak, Eric

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Design: Egger & Lerch, Vienna

Photo Credits: Eric Marinitsch (8), Frank Helmrich, Manon

Praetorius (2), Wiener Konzerthaus (2), Angelika Dworak, Eva

Smirzitz, Breitkopf & Härtel Wiesbaden / Melisande Bernsee,

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Hamburgische Staatsoper / Joachim Thode, UE Archiv, Lucerne

Academy/ Priska Ketterer, Maria-Luise Bodvisky, ONB, Portland

Opera, Staatstheater Braunschweig / Christian Bort,

Österreichische Johannes-Brahms-Gesellschaft, Internationale

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Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, mode records, Chandos Records.