Matthias Röder
Word Creations #2
Tonloses Geraschel (Peter Uehling: “Tonloses Geraschel,” Berliner Zeitung, September 27, 2006, p. 30) Natureuphorien Verdämmernde Exposition Streicherwärme Julia Spinola: “Streiflicher aus dem Jenseits,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 30, 2006, p. 41.
musica reanimata revives music of Karel Reiner
musica reanimata is the name of an ambitious association of musicians and musicologists in Berlin that revives the music of composers persecuted by the Nazis. The association organizes concerts, conferences, and publishes books. For their efforts they have recently been awarded the prestigious Kritikerpreis für Musik 2006. Yesterday, at the Konzerthaus Berlin, musica reanimata hosted […]
Deutsche Oper cancels Mozart’s Idomeneo due to Islamist Threat
After a phone call from the minister of the interior of Berlin, the artistic director of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Kirsten Harms, canceled four performances of Mozart’s Idomeneo. According to tagesschau.de the minister speaks of an “incalculable threat” for audiences and members of the staff. Apparently the minister informed her of an anonymous hint […]
Arditti Quartet Plays Webern, Berg, and Harvey
What a great program! Anton Webern Fünf Sätze für Streichquartett op. 5, Alban Berg Lyrische Suite für Streichquartett, and then, after a short intermission, Jonathan Harvey’s String Quartet No. 4 with live electronics. The Arditti Quartet gave yet another memorable concert and again the hall was half empty. This is something I just cannot understand. […]
DSO Berlin Podcast
I just came across this podcast from the Deutsche Welle that features the DSO Berlin under Kent Nagano playing six symphonies by what the Deutsche Welle website calls “six master composers.” The pieces are: Richard Strauss: An Alpine Symphony Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 3 (Rhenish) Johannes Brahms: Symphony […]
Birtwistle, Britten, Strauss and Schulhoff at the Musikfest Berlin
Inescapable doom and a melancholic fate were looming large yesterday at the Philharmonie, where the Bamberger Symphoniker under Jonathan Nott gave a spectacular concert that included Birtwistle’s The Shadow of Night, Britten’s Violin Concerto, and Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung. The concert was spectacular for two reasons: First, for the subtle programming of the evening, and, […]
C. Bechstein in Kreuzberg
Walking around in my neighbourhood today I came across the old C. Bechstein piano manufactury in Ohlauer Strasse. This is virtually around the corner from where I live but I had no idea it existed! It was a nice coincidence that I had my camera with me to take this shot of the C. Bechstein […]
Musikfest Berlin 06
Berlin is overflowing with classical music: there are three opera houses, seven symphony orchestras, and concert events ad infinitum. But the city seems to be in need of yet another music institution. A new festival, the Musikfest Berlin, was inaugurated last year and although ticket sales seem to go somewhat slowly this year, the Musikfest […]
Die-hardism and music
Thank you to Jonathan Bellman for an inspiring post on Bach and the lunatic musician’s life style we all adhere to! Dial “M” to see the details!
warning! this music fit only for lunatics, university types
Arnold Schoenberg: Serenade, op.24; Suite, op. 29. Robert Craft (conductor). Koch Classics, 1997. “and talentless composers. the music contained on this cd is proof enough in and of itself that Arnold Schoenberg was a mediocre musical talent, and turned to composing in an alienist atonal style only after he could plainly see that he could […]
New Bach Manuscripts Discovered
Since I am currently in Austria, and therefore not reading any news, I did not realize until today that our colleagues Peter Wollny and Michael Maul at the Bach-Archiv have come up with yet another Bach discovery. A couple of months after the spectacular find of an unknown Bach aria, they uncovered two music manuscripts […]
A must-see
Originally I had intended to take a leave from blogging for a couple of days; there were just too many concerts to write about and some more will follow later on this week. But then I came across this post on Tim Rutherford-Johnson’s fantastic New Music blog. Tim has posted a couple of New Music […]
Mozart: La Finta Giardiniera
This is the second time that I am reporting from the Landestheater in Salzburg. The first post was on Zaide/Adama by Mozart and Czernowin. This time I’ll write about the premiere of Doris Dörrie’s staging of Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera. Doris Dörrie is a well-known TV and film director in Germany, who debuted in opera […]
Premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s Gogo No Eiko
Three years ago the Salzburg Festival staged the world premiere of Henze’s L’Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe, a huge success at the time. It is thus no wonder that today’s performance of Gogo No Eiko drew a lot of media attention. The aging composer himself was present for the concert premiere of the third […]
A Music Search Engine
UMI is a good thing. If you ask them nicely they will send you information about and links to all the newly uploaded doctoral dissertations in North America. Today I came across an interesting thesis from McGill University by Ian Knopke (reference below). Ian worked on a music search engine that, unlike the standard search […]
Recent Comments