New Music
Nachtseite der Vernunft
Having just returned from a trip to Munich today, I found the new program for the Salzburg Festival 2007 in my mailbox! As you probably all know the festival has a new artistic director (Jürgen Flimm). Since Flimm is a opera/theater person he has put Markus Hinterhäuser in charge for the concert events at the […]
Munich Opera House
Last night, Seda and I went to the Munich Opera House where we saw the Bayerisches Staatsballett with a very interesting program featuring Century Rolls (Davide Bombana, John Adams), In the Country of Last Things (Michael Simon, Heiner Goebbels), and Elemental (Jacopo Godani, 48nord). A couple of weeks ago I read an illuminating article in […]
Delicate miniatures and melancholic sonatas
This season, the Konzerthaus Berlin has put up some intriguing programs celebrating the 100th birthday of Dmitri Shostakovich. Among these concerts were performances by the Jerusalem Quartet (all string quartets), the Konzerthausorchester (Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and String Orchestra), as well as the Berlin Sinfonietta (Chamber Symphony). In an engaging performance on Thursday night, Alexei […]
Russian Program at the Konzerthaus
This promises to be an exciting evening at the Konzerthaus in Berlin: Alexei Lubimov, piano Galina Ustvolskaya Sonata No. 5 Dmitri Shostakovich Five Preludes for Piano (1919-20) Sergey Prokofjew Sonata No. 7 op. 83 Alexander Skryabin Five Preludes op. 74 Andrej Volkonsky “Musica stricta” Dmitri Shostakovich Sonata No. 2 op. 64 November 16, 2006. Konzerthaus […]
Tenso Days Berlin
This should be interesting: the newest space for the arts in Berlin, the Radialsystem, hosts this year’s Tenso Days Festival. The festival features three concerts with contemporary music for chamber choirs. Works include well-known pieces by Rihm (Astralis), Lachenmann (Consolation II), Scelsi (Tre canti sacri), and Ligeti (Lux aeterna) as well as premieres by Franck […]
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 […]
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. […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Trio Wanderer and Gérard Caussé: Mozart and Schedl
Today at twenty past seven my girlfriend got a call from a festival manager in Salzburg: “Can you be here in 10 minutes to turn pages in a chamber music concert?” She could … and she took me along, too. We had no idea what was on the program, nor did we know who actually […]
(5′ -> 3′) ATGGAATTCTCGCTC
Reading the program notes can sometimes be very illuminating. Yesterday, for instance, at the concert of the Ensemble Wien-Berlin and Denes Varjon (piano), I learned something about molecular biology and its application to music. York Höller’s Klangzeichen for piano and wind quintet is a piece based on a Klanggestalt, a melodic structure from which all […]
The Arditti Quartet plays Kyburz, Dusapin, Ferneyhough, and Lachenmann
One of the many good things about New Music concerts at the venerable Salzburg Festival is that a lot of people who have expensive tickets are leaving in the intermission. This comes in handy when the piece in the second half is Grido by Helmut Lachenmann, a composition that employs a lot of very quite […]
Premiere of Czernowin’s Zaide – Adama in Salzburg
Somewhere towards the end, there is a short moment of hope. The possibility of forgiveness. The possibility of reconciliation and fraternization. Everything is up in the air. Will Soliman, the despotic ruler of the Serail forgive the lovers Zaide and Gomatz who are desperately in love which each other and try to flee from him? […]
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