On The Page 2013

casa Ricordi

durand salabert eschig

Ricordi M端nchen

Ricordi london

Editio Musica Budapest

n ew in si g h ts in to o u r c la ss ic a l

c ata lo g s, c o n te m po r a ry

c o m po se r s

a n d th e m u si c sc en e. UMPC : g iv in g m u si c a u n iv er sa l pe r sp ec ti ve

Table of contents Foreword....................................................................................................................... 3 Ensembles: AT the heart of modern music.................................................................. 4 “I feel pretty much alone in this”. László Tihanyi and his music...................................... 12 ORIGINALITY and Character. Maverick Composers giving essential new impetus to music life: An Excursion through the catalogs of Ricordi Munich............................................................... 16 Opera: an art form of today. An interview with Peter de Caluwe...................................... 26 The Fortunate Convergence of Two Musical Worlds. An interview with Ferenc Jávori, leader of the Budapest Klezmer Band.................................................................................... 30 UMPC new signings in 2012 (Francesca Verunelli, Samy Moussa, Adam Schoenberg). . ............ 34 A new wave in Italian opera......................................................................................... 38 Operas for young audiences. . ..................................................................................... 42 Vision, Innovation and Challenge. An interview with Southbank Centre’s Gillian Moore . . ..... 46 “What remains is music”- György Kurtág and Samuel Beckett............................................. 50 Giovanni SimonE Mayr (1763-1845): Historical-critical edition of the complete works.............. 54 SPANISH CONTEMPORARY MUSIC SURGES AHEAD.............................................................. 58 Encore: Composers committed to the defence of Authors’ rights.

An interview with Laurent Petitgirard..................................................................................... 60 2013 World Premieres . . ................................................................................................. 62 2

the home for composers from across the globe The year 2012 has been tumultuous for the music publishing and

been doing for the past 200 years and this is why excellent composers

record industries and the future probably will not be much different.

from around the world feel well taken care of within the UMPC family,

In an age of acquisitions and mergers and an ever-changing landscape

and new composers are eager to join. We are particularly proud of our

of new products and technologies, continuity and stability become

new signings (see page 34) and of the new works with which our estab-

invaluable qualities.

lished composers are entrusting us.

This is particularly true for composers, who must use all their time

We are happy to share once again with you some of their key activi-

and energy for their creative output, and who need to be able to rely on

ties in some depth. Following current trends and interests, we have

their publisher to promote their works, produce their scores, and dis-

included articles on operas for young audiences (page 42), Klezmer

tribute their sheet music through sales and rentals in a well-informed

music (page 30), and music theatre (pages 26 & 38). We hope these

and educated manner based on years of experience.

stories make you feel engaged and inspired to explore further these

This is what the houses of Universal Music Publishing Classical have

topics and composers.

Antal Boronkay, General Manager, Managing Director, Editio Musica Budapest Silke Hilger, International Promotion Director, UMP Classical Cristiano Ostinelli, General Manager, Casa Ricordi, Milan Reinhold Quandt, Managing Director, Ricordi Munich Nelly Querol, General Manager, Durand - Salabert - Eschig, Paris

3

Ensembles: at the heart of modern music The ensemble, an audible symbol of modernity

by Eric Denut

4

Periods in history can be recognized by their particular sound: the

limited to only “one per voice”) and reached full speed during the first

Baroque period is intimately connected with the harpsichord; music

two post-First World War decades. Composers from the period of neo-

from the first generation of Romantics furls and unfurls around the

classicism [broadly: from Milhaud’s Le bœuf sur le toit (1920) through

piano; and generations of Post-Romantics released the generous tem-

Stravinsky’s Concerto for piano and wind instruments (1924) and

perament of full orchestras into auditoriums of increasing magnitude.

Janáček’s Concertino (1925) to De Falla’s Harpsichord Concerto (1926)]

One can argue convincingly that the particular sound of the twentieth

found an antidote to Romantic chamber music and the Wagnerian

century is that of the ensemble, be it instrumental or vocal.

orchestra; those of the Darmstadt school (the Nono of Canti per 13 or

Originating from the twin influences of acoustic transparency and

the Maderna of the second Sérénade) found a manageable platform for

economy of materials, the instrumental ensemble saw the light of

the acoustic deployment of serial structures. In both cases, the illusion

day through a visionary act during the first decade of the last century

of a single universal raison d’être for sound disappears and is replaced

(Kammersymphonie op.9 by Arnold Schoenberg, written in 1906 for

by a panoply of varied styles whose joint lines of action are apparent:

an ensemble made up of the families of a symphonic orchestra but

the clarity of the presentation of the melodic lines, and the freshness

International Contemporary

PH OTOS :

ICE © Ar me n El liott

Ensemble (ICE) of the instrumental juxtapositions, forging a new palette which dis-

occurred shortly after 1945 with the appearance of ensembles “with

regards the massed texture of the multiple strings of the symphonic

music stands drawn closer together” (i.e., three singers per voice) and a

orchestra. These several “qualities,” attractive to composers and audi-

repertoire composed of more transparent, almost neo-madrigalesque

ences alike, inevitably led to the creation of many i nstrumental ensem-

sounds, after the fashion of Messiaen’s Cinq Rechants [It is worth not-

bles dedicated to this repertoire, and the development of these groups

ing, however, that at the same time Poulenc (Figure humaine) and

in turn fostered an explosion of growth of the ensemble repertoire.

Schoenberg (Dreimal tausend Jahre, De Profundis) were continuing to

The vocal ensemble didn’t really appear until the years following

be faithful to the more symphonic sound of the chamber choir].

the Second World War. The contemporary composers of the first half of the twentieth century still wrote masterpieces of the mixed chamber

Development on all continents

choral (i.e., requiring at least 32 singers) repertoire, including Debussy

With its tradition of chamber music having been well integrated

(Trois Chansons), Ravel (Trois Chansons), Poulenc (Messe en sol),

in its music schools and its symphony orchestras since the inter-war

Schoenberg (Friede auf Erden ) and Strauss (Der Abend). The watershed

period, Europe is at the forefront of creating dedicated performing 5

Left: musikFabrik Cologne Right: Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart

I communicated with ICE... via Skype and e-mail, recording samples and sending them back and forth; I felt as if they were in my room in London while I composed. —Dai Fujikura 6

ensembles. For example, in France, autonomy in the

a few years earlier. All echo the 1958 creation of the ensemble “Die

vocal domain began immediately after the Second

Reihe” in Vienna and the London Sinfonietta in 1968, – groups that

World War (including groups such as the Marcel

are still prominently on the scene today. In the wave of this dynamic,

Couraud vocal ensemble, of which the Groupe Vocal

all the European countries, including even those most geographically

de France in the 1980’s, Musicatreize founded in

distant from the “triangle of origin” of the genre, saw a blossoming of

1987, and Les Jeunes Solistes, which became Solistes

dedicated ensembles across their lands, including:

XXI, formed in 1988, are all worthy “successors”);

• from the Iberian Peninsula (most notably with the Ensemble Remix,

and in the instrumental domain during the 1960’s

which, despite its relative youth - it originated in Porto in 2000

(the decade which gave birth to the Ensemble du

- has acquired an enviable reputation amongst public and profes-

Domaine Musical and also the formal inception of Ars Nova) and has since continued without interruption with the creation of groups including: • 2e2m, L’Itinéraire and E nsemble Intercontemporain in the 1970’s, • Aleph and Alternance in the 1980’s, • Court-Circuit, • Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, • Proxima Centauri, • Sillages, • Télémaque, • Linea and Cairn in the 1990’s and, more recently,

KammarensembleN from Sweden, Athelas from Denmark) • via Italy (Divertimento Ensemble, Ex-Novo, Alter Ego, Icarus) • and Hungary (the Intermodulation Ensemble founded in Budapest in 1985, the UMZE Ensemble there in 1996, and Componensemble founded in 1989).

The originating countries have continued, like France, to pursue institutional expansion: • from the Netherlands (again most notably with Asko | Schönberg, now reunited, the Nieuw Ensemble and the specialised ensemble Vocaallab), • Belgium (Musiques Nouvelles, Spectra),

• Le Balcon,

• Luxembourg (United Instruments of Lucilin),

• Multilatérale.

• the UK (Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Exaudi),

The other larger European countries, begin-

• Russia (the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ensemble St.

birthplace of this repertoire, the Paris-BerlinVienna triangle, have the same dynamics, with such high-profile groups as the renowned

Petersburg), • and the Germanic-speaking regions (KNM Berlin, eNsemble Mosaik, Ensemble Resonanz in Germany).

This phenomenon has become world-wide in the last twenty-five

• Ensemble Modern from Frankfurt (founded in 1980),

years with the appearance of important players on the scenes of other

• Neue Vocalsolisten from Stuttgart (1984),

continents, including:

• Contrechamps from Geneva (1984), • Klangforum from Vienna (1985), • Ensemble recherche from Freiburg (1985), mu nd Ma rti n Sig liste n ©

and Ensemble asamisimasa, Nordic Voices, from Norway,

• L’Instant Donné,

ning with the historical and geographical

lso Ne ue Voca

sionals alike) • to Scandinavia (Avanti from Finland, BIT20 and the Oslo Sinfonietta

• musikFabrik from Cologne (1990), • Ictus from Brussels (1994), • Ensemble XX. Jahrhundert, Vienna (1971), • Ensemble Aventure Freiburg (Germany) 1986, • Schola Heidelberg / ensemble aisthesis (Germany) 1993, • Collegium Novum, Zürich (Switzerland) 1993.

• Canadian groups such as the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne of Montreal created in 1989, • US groups such as 8th blackbird (1996), the Argento ensemble (2000), Alarm Will Sound and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) (2001) and the Talea Ensemble (2007), • Asian-based groups including the Tokyo Sinfonietta (1994) and the TIMF Ensemble from Tongyeong, South Korea (2001) • and groups based in Oceania, such as the Elision ensemble in Melbourne, Australia (1986).

All of these groups are all fixtures at festivals in the same way as the

The transplanting of the “European model” onto other continents

Ensemble Intercontemporain, which, as noted above, was founded

has been so successful that active composers as aesthetically and 7

generationally different as Georges Aperghis and Dai Fujikura, based

• Luca Francesconi: Plot in fiction (1986)

on the “Old Continent,” have built up over the last few years privi-

• Emmanuel Nunes: Musik der Frühe (1986)

leged relationships with ensembles situated on the other side of the

• Klaus Huber: La Terre des Hommes (1987-89)

Atlantic. Fujikura wrote of his concert piece Mina for five soloists of

• Niccolò Castiglioni: Risognanze (1989)

the International Contemporary Ensemble and orchestra: “Despite the

• Gerhard Stäbler: Den Müllfahrern von San Francisco (1989-90)

fact that we have a vast ocean between us, I communicated with ICE, a

These are but a few high points of a widely-circulated group of

chamber ensemble with whom I have long-standing relationship and

works which now form part of the regular repertoire of the majority of

with whom I can work most intimately, via Skype and e-mail, record-

the ensembles mentioned previously.

ing samples and sending them back and forth; I felt as if they were in

Although these works grew from a context of intense aesthetic and

my room in London while I composed.” Concluding with these words,

technological research (culminating in the project and creation of

in which he accurately summarizes what a number of contemporary

Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (Ircam) - a

composers believe: “I think that this is the best composer-player rela-

centre for musical research - at the beginning of the 1970s), favor-

tionship you can ask for!”

ing explorations into vocabulary and syntax, they all display dazzling expertise placing them on a par with the great pre-Second World War

An exceptional corpus in 50 years

works which, up to that time had defined this repertoire. To complete

Such institutional power cleared space for a repertoire which,

this panorama, we must add the knock-on effect of the dual phe-

from Schoenberg’s Kammersymphonie and the Neo-Classical opuses

nomena of the birth and then the rapid and fertile development of a

of Stravinsky to the first Darmstadt works of Nono, Maderna and

repertoire for ensembles based this time not upon the model of the

Stockhausen, already comprised an exceptional body of instrumental

symphonic orchestra but upon certain groups of instruments from an

work (the vocal repertoire was yet to be built up, as previously men-

orchestra, as well as the increasing orientation of some established

tioned, but soon would follow). The three decades of the 1960’s, 70’s

chamber music ensembles like the Nash Ensemble (created in 1964) or

and 80’s can be considered to be a golden age for the two repertoires.

the Scharoun Ensemble (1983) towards contemporary music.

The greatest names of the second half of the century wrote some of their best scores for ensembles, including these UMPC works:

Taking advantage of a rich fabric of performers with ever-increasing skills, and of institutions with solid financial and administrative

• Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Omnia tempus habent (1957) • Giacinto Scelsi: Tre Canti Sacri (1958) • Sylvano Bussotti: “mit einem gewissen sprechenden Ausdruck” (1961-63) • Friedrich Cerha: Phantasma ‘63 (1963) • Iannis Xenakis: Nuits (1967), Anaktoria (1969), Phlegra (1975) • Ivo Malec: Dodecameron (1970) • Bruno Maderna: Juilliard Serenade (1971) • Gérard Grisey: Partiels (1975) • György Kurtág: Messages of the Late R. V. Troussova (1980), … quasi una fantasia … (1988), and Double concerto for piano, cello and two chamber ensembles dispersed in space (1990) • Franco Donatoni: Tema (1981) • Younghi Pagh-Paan: MADI (1981) • Salvatore Sciarrino: Introduzione all’oscuro (1981) • Pascal Dusapin: Fist (1982) • Luigi Nono: Guai ai gelidi mostri (1983) • Marco Stroppa: Étude pour pulsazioni (1985-89) • Péter Eötvös: Chinese Opera (1986) 8

...of course I compose differently for the Klangforum Wien than for the Ensemble Modern. This is very important and it is a source of inspIration.

—Enno Poppe

Ensemble Intercontemporain, Paris

9

Ensemble Ex Novo

10

foundations, it is natural that the “heirs” of the generations who were

• Olga Neuwirth (Hooloomooloo, 1997)

born before 1945 should appropriate these tools with gusto: even if

• Marco Stroppa (Hommage à Gy.K., 1997)

we cannot yet easily describe such works as “patrimonial” (in the sense

• Fausto Romitelli (Professor Bad Trip, 1998-2000)

that they have not had the time to be accepted universally as “modern

• Gérard Grisey (Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil, 1998)

classics”), the selection of notable works listed below are nonetheless

• Yan Maresz (Eclipse, 1999)

authentic artistic accomplishments which, it can be said without doubt,

• Georges Aperghis (Petrrohl, 2001)

will become staples of the repertoire for future generations:

• Salvatore Sciarrino (Quaderno di Strada, 2003)

• Liza Lim (Voodoo Child, 1989)

• Enno Poppe (Salz, 2005)

• Philippe Schoeller (Feuillages, 1991)

• Emmanuel Nunes (Lichtung I-III, 1988-2007)

• Luca Francesconi (Plot II, 1993)

• Mauro Lanza (Vesperbild, 2007)

• Philippe Manoury (Passacaille pour Tokyo, 1994)

• Sergej Newski (Alles, 2008)

• Martin Matalon (Metropolis, 1995-2011)

• Oscar Bianchi (Vishuddha Concerto, 2009)

• Stefano Gervasoni (Concerto pour alto, 1995)

• Dai Fujikura (ICE, 2009)

• Heiner Goebbels (Schwarz auf Weiss, 1996)

• Hèctor Parra (Caressant l’horizon, 2011)

• Guo Wenjing (Inscriptions on Bone, 1996)

• Alberto Posadas (La lumière du noir, 2011)

• Pascal Dusapin (Quad, 1996)

• László Tihanyi (Imaginary Dialogues, 2012)

Perspectives: beyond concert

era and its large-sized concert halls. There is little doubt that it is this

It would appear that the emerging generation of composers unques-

potential that frequently spurs on artists such as Oscar Bianchi, Luca

tioningly accept the ensemble as being a standard means of expres-

Francesconi, Philippe Manoury, Samy Moussa, Olga Neuwirth, Fabio

sion. Following on from Pierre Boulez, who had an essential role after

Nieder, Hèctor Parra, and Enno Poppe, and many others from the col-

the birth of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and Friedrich Cerha, Beat

lections of Universal Music Publishing Classical, to work interactively

Furrer, Oliver Knussen and George Benjamin for the creation and/or

with other artists and art forms on works which will enrich the ensem-

the development of Die Reihe, Klangforum and the London Sinfonietta,

ble repertoire.

many young creators invent their own tools or integrate themselves

Translation: Christopher Brown

into existing ensembles. A review of the programming of a “festival

Part of this article has been published under the title “Petite cartogra-

within a festival,” like Strasbourg’s Musica, dedicated to what is on

phie des ensembles européens” in the general brochure of Musica Festival

offer in Europe today, revealed that half of the works presented (inter-

2012 in Strasbourg, France.

preted by almost a dozen ensembles) were by composers under the age of 45: truly a body of young artists in the making. This season, the well-established Ensemble Intercontemporain has given a score of

The following composers and ensembles have influenced each

young composers the opportunity to create or reprise pieces equiva-

other greatly over the years and formed a relationship which led to

lent to a third of their overall programming (in the vocal world, the pro-

commissions, world premieres and regional premieres. Here is a small

portion dedicated to young composers is approximately the same as

selection:

in the larger established instrumental ensembles), while the Ensemble Modern dedicates some of its subscription concerts in the prestigious Alte Oper of Frankfurt for the exploration of as-yet-unknown territorial universes, proof, if needed, of a “cross-fertilization” between artists and institutions which might be searching for an equivalent exploration in the symphonic or lyrical worlds.

Relationships between art forms, being a major interest in our mod-

• Guo Wenjing and Nieuw Ensemble (Sound from Tibet, Inscriptions on Bone, She Huo, Concertino for cello and ensemble) • Liza Lim and musikFabrik (The tongue of the invisible) and Elision (The Navigator) • Luca Francesconi and musikFabrik (Unexptected End of Formula) and Neue Vocalsolisten (Herzstueck) • Emmanuele Casale and Ensemble Intercontemporain (2)

ern times, will no doubt confirm the central position of the ensemble,

• Jonathan Cole and London Contemporary Orchestra (Penumbra)

a sturdy implement that can combine the advantages of “chamber

• Dai Fujikura and ICE (Abandoned Time) and London Sinfonietta

music” (flexible scheduling and economic practicality, the increased

(Double Bass Concerto)

awareness of personal responsibility by the performers, the atten-

• Ian Wilson and Argento Ensemble (Cassini Void)

tion to detail) and the “philharmonic world” (mass effects produced

• György Kurtág and UMZE Ensemble (Four Akhmatova-poems) and

by symphonic compositional techniques and/or the use of amplification, the variety of timbres enabling the larger forms of music to be presented) to the realization of innovative projects. In this regard, the

Ensemble Contrechamp (Brefs messages) • Balázs Horváth and Concerto Budapest (Borrowed Ideas, Faust Groteske)

words of Hervé Boutry of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, about the

• Fabien Lévy and Ensemble 2e2m (Querwüchsig, Après tout)

nomination of Matthias Pintscher (a composer-conductor in the tradi-

• Olga Neuwirth and Klangforum Wien (Hommage á Klaus Nomi)

tion of Boulez and Eötvös) as artistic director of the group are a strong

• Sergej Newski and Vocaallab Nederland (Autland)

signal: “Matthias Pintscher has convinced us: of his interest in inno-

• Samir Odeh-Tamimi and Neue Vocalsolisten (Garten der Erkenntnis)

vation in classical instrumental tradition, of his wish to re-invent the

• Enno Poppe and Ensemble Modern (Knochen) and Klangforum

concert form, [and] of his curiosity and desire to include artists from

Wien (Öl, IQ)

other disciplines in our activity.” To be measured against this declara-

• Michel Roth and Ensemble Phoenix (molasse vivante)

tion is the potential for “the ensemble” to go beyond traditional con-

• Fabio Nieder and ensemble recherche (Der Schuh auf dem Weg zum

cert hall presentations and the imitation of the customs of Romantic

Saturnio, Sogno 10 lùnedi gennaio 1892) 11

12

Gray locks, cut in a Beatles-style bob. Swarthy skin.

Behind thin-rimmed spectacles, darting narrow eyes; below, thin lips that readily spread in a smile. A strange

I feel pretty much alone in this.

mixture of a Chinese sage and a mischievous little boy gazes at us from the photo of László Tihanyi.

The 56-year-old Hungarian composer can be said to be at the zenith of his career. Every year, persistently and continuously, he adds two or three new compositions to his œuvre, which presently numbers almost sixty works. He receives commissions both in Hungary and from abroad; he has composed for the Contrechamps Ensemble, for the Bath Festival, the Cologne musikFabrik and a whole series of Hungarian performers; the première of the opera commissioned from him by the French state took place in the Bordeaux opera house. But he does not mind composing just to please himself, since he knows that Hungarian and foreign artists are glad to perform new pieces by him. Or they may be introduced by his own chamber group, Intermoduláció, which has been performing for more than a quarter of a century. It is no accident that musicians willingly play Tihanyi’s music, because what he writes always sounds good and gives the performers satisfying material – even if not in the traditional sense – to play. As he himself

says, it is not enough for the composition as a whole to be well

formed, every individual part must in itself meet certain aes-

thetic criteria. A nd for Tihanyi, these criteria are primarily clarity and balance. It is almost thirty years now since Tihanyi found the most appropriate direction for his creative work, and since then, on this solid foundation, he has built and extended his repertoire of techniques. At the same time, Tihanyi’s path is rather unusual in the field of Hungarian composition, which to an outsider’s ear is generally easily recognisable.

To the extent that 20th-century Hungarian com-

photo : Cop yr ig ht

by EMB

position has an independent history, the pre-eminent figure in it is

László Tihanyi and his music

by Péter Halász

obviously Bartók. Because of the power of his personality, the uni-

versal significance of his music and his characteristically Hungarian style, decades after his death he remains an inescapable point of reference for his compatriots. While, after Bartók, the members of the following generation (including György Kurtág and to a certain extent György Ligeti as well) spent a lifetime defining their relationship with Bartók, the younger ones (like Tihanyi) were in the fortunate position 13

in various kinds of works written for chamber ensembles that vary in make-up from work to work. In his hands this apparatus, which sets in motion a multitude of different tones and timbres, enabling soloistic chamber music, homophonic or polyphonic effects to be produced, functions as an extremely flexible and multi-coloured tool. The sound created by the ensemble, however, is never an end in itself, but always a means of conveying a thought-provoking idea. Tihanyi does not deny – and in the titles of his works frequently points out to his listeners – that his works are mostly inspired by impressions from music or from outside the realm of music, and more than once by deeply hidden connections in music history, which at times engage him through that for them Bartók was not a direct challenge but rather a matter of

several compositions. Examples of such linked groups of works are

music history.

his series reflecting on Schubert’s Winterreise cycle (Winterszenen,

After receiving t he traditional training (that is, the kind that followed

Nachtzene, Irrlichtspiel, 1991); his Enodios (1986) and Pylaios (1988)

the Bartók-Kodály artistic concept) at the Budapest Music Academy , at

based on aspects of the Hermes myth; and his “Neptune series” (Triton,

the beginning of the 1980s, with the aid of several visits to Darmstadt

Nereida, The Passing of Neptune, 1995-96), which deals with astrologi-

and Warsaw, Tihanyi was able to see out beyond Hungary’s provincial

cal aspects. If the sources

musical life, shut in behind the Iron Curtain. Strangely, in Darmstadt it

of the underlying ideas or

was not so much the works composed by the local avant-garde that

the numerical proportions

held his attention, but the works of the Itinéraire group working there

expressed in the resulting

as guests, especially those of Tristan Murail, Gérard Grisey and Hugues

sound, rhythms and formal

Dufourt. Although electronic music and the combining of it with nor-

construction

mal instrumental music has not since then aroused Tihanyi’s interest,

gest a mystical atmosphere,

the sounds achievable in accordance with special harmonic principles

all these remain the com-

from an ensemble of acoustic instruments, owing to the nature of har-

poser’s

monics, certainly fascinated him. And it was at least equally impor-

protecting the genesis and

tant that he came under the influence of the formal purity of French

development of the works,

musical thinking and its hedonism, concentrating on the emotional

since nothing is more alien to

components of sound. And as he researched further back in time, he

Tihanyi than any hazy, unclear mode of expression. Looking back over

recognised that many of his French contemporaries’ predecessors like

his earlier years, it is, in fact, his excessive obviousness, what he calls

Boulez, Messiaen , Debussy and even Berlioz composed in accordance

his “mania for order” that he considers to be his main fault. But the

with similar principles. His choice of the French path meant diverging

listener cannot blame him for it, because it is precisely this that makes

from the Hungarian and Central European mainstream, which followed

Tihanyi’s music so comfortable, so easily inhabitable and comprehen-

the cult of German musical thinking, the priority of motifs and organi-

sible. What is more, it is just these wide, well-lit musical spaces that

cally developing form. (A hundred years ago, Kodály too, with only tem-

can conceal secret crannies like the breathtakingly moving moments

porary success, recommended following French examples in Hungarian

that occur in virtually every work, filled with characteristic cadenzas,

composition, which then was under German dominance.) Although

when musical time is suspended.

private

sug-

business,

Tihanyi never denies that he is a Hungarian composer, he senses that

What is very typical of the consistent nature of Tihanyi’s art is his

among his Hungarian colleagues his situation is unique. “I feel pretty

reworking, re-interpretation and acoustic or compositional re-clothing

much alone in this,” he says, but he does not regret having persistently

of earlier creations. In every case, these reworkings tend from smaller

defied not only the local expressionist fashions but also the imported,

apparatuses towards larger, more complex ensembles, enriching,

tempting trends of minimalism and neo-Romanticism.

expanding and rendering more complex the chamber music sound

Tihanyi likes best to express the duality of clarity and complexity 14

might

...it is not enough for the composition as a whole to be well formed, every individual part must in itself meet certain aes­thetic criteria.

characteristic of the original works. Thus sometimes unusual “concert

—László Tihanyi

most complex score so far for full orchestra.

A good example of his search for and discovery of external inspiration is his Two Imaginary Dialogues, which was written at the request of the Studio for New Music’s Moscow ensemble, and first heard in February 2012 at the festival called “Russia through the Eyes of Europeans.” Tihanyi chose two film directors who are important to him, so that reflecting on some aspects of their art he might sketch his own picture of a part of Russian culture. As he notes, in a passage in Lutosławski’s Livre pour orchestra, he recognised that orchestral sound can have film-like features and through sound enable near and distant views to be seen. For the chamber ensemble he created a sort of works” come into being, which of course have little in common with

inverted rhapsody: in the first part of the work, he evokes the atmo-

traditional concertos since, in singling out one or two instruments

sphere of Sergei Eisenstein’s monumental battle scenes with tumul-

from the chamber music ensemble and giving them the role of soloists

tuous, swirling torrents of sound which are repeatedly interrupted by

accompanied by the rest of the ensemble, he is merely picking out and

typical Tihanyi moments, like film stills. But in the second movement

reinforcing individual strands from the earlier composition, to weave

he translates into his own musical language the quietly tense world

around them a richer texture. This was how individual movements of

of Andrei Tarkovsky, imbued with metaphysics. In this chamber scene,

the clarinet-cello-piano trio Schattenspiel (1997) gave rise to the ver-

three dream pictures frame an instrumental dialogue and monologue.

sion entitled Atte (1999) with solo clarinet and cello accompanied by

Characteristically, Tihanyi expresses the contrast between the person-

a chamber group; from the four-hands piano piece Matrix (1998) came

alities of the two film directors in the form not of portraits but of dia-

Matrix/Kosmos (2002), and from the harp piece entitled Linos (2002)

logues, through which he incorporates himself and his own world of

came the “mini-concerto” for harp Arnis (2010). At the same time,

ideas, distinct from both of theirs.

these transformations reveal a lot about Tihanyi’s way of thinking and

In 2012, at the request of the Kempten Chamber Music Festival, he

his ideas about sound. Here ear-caressing sound is at the same time

composed Rundherum for piano quintet. This apparatus is unusually

a background to the strongly-defined musical ideas that come to the

traditional for Tihanyi, and partly for this reason he took care to divide

fore and is, in itself, an independent actor, which appears in the various

up the ensemble and re-interpret it in an original way. As the title of

forms of a work in many different lights.

the work (= Round about) indicates, in certain sections of the work the

Although Tihanyi feels himself to be primarily an instrumental com-

two violinists and the viola player circle round the cellist and pianist,

poser, his only opera so far, Genetrix (2001-2007), based on the novella

who are fixed at their instruments. When one after another all three

by François Mauriac, is one of the outstanding musical dramas of the

reach the music stands behind the piano, they step out, as it were, from

past decade. More than twenty years after an abortive attempt in his

the framework of the proper piano quintet genre and we hear them

student days, he set about giving new expression to a subject that fas-

from a sort of dream world. Their separateness is underlined by their

cinated him; in addition to achieving extremely original French diction,

playing mouth organs and percussion instruments at the rear desks,

he created an astounding theatrical effect, especially by incorporat-

and their music sounds at a different tempo from each other and from

ing choral passages, hymns sung in Latin, that overarch the chamber

that of the two musicians playing in the foreground; in the most com-

drama, and make it reminiscent of the mystery plays. In connection

plex section of the work as many as three separate levels are opposed

with Genitrix, Tihanyi refers to its prototypes Pelléas ét Mélisande

to the cello-piano duo.

and Bluebeard’s Castle, but the dramaturgy of his opera, which frag-

The avantgarde-minded French director of Genitrix, Christine

ments time and is full of references backwards and forwards, is very

Dormoy, once said : “Mauriac is classical, and so is Tihanyi’s style of

far removed from those examples from a hundred years earlier. At the

writing”. Hearing Tihanyi’s music, this summary judgment may seem

same time Genitrix – like the operas of Berg – contains many instru-

strange, but we have to admit she is right – if, by “classical” in the tradi-

mental forms, and from these evolved the “viola concerto” entitled

tional sense, we mean artistic creation on a human scale, transmitting

Passacaglie (2010), written for Kim Kashkashian, which is Tihanyi’s

human standards. Translation: Lorna Dunbar 15

Originality and Character Maverick Composers giving an essential new impetus to musical life: An excursion through the catalogs of Ricordi Munich

by Michael Zwenzner

16

“Born in Karlsruhe in 1938. Emigrated to Australia in 1960. Part-time jobs, shift work in steel-processing industries which led to first encounters with sounds of a ‘metallic kind’.

Experiments with so-called ‘hard and soft edges of reverberating metal,’ intense investigation of the unpredictable, non-lyrical but also poetic aspects of sonically ‘at random’ events. Credo: ‘Poetry in noise.’ Studies at the Savitsky Actors’ School in Melbourne, 1961-63. Joined a travelling theatre group. Studied guitar with Antonio Losada and music theory with Don Andrews in Sydney, 1966-70. Returned to Europe in 1971….”

This is just a short excerpt from the unusual biography of composer Volker Heyn, who lives these days in Karlsruhe, and whose works are published

by Ricordi Munich.

Within the innovative music of the past hundred years, such unusual careers seem to be more the rule than the exception. Many significant 20th-century composers who long created in obscurity, or whose Volker Heyn

works initially experienced rejection, turned out later in their careers to be precisely those trail-blazing artists whose music has left the most profound historical traces, and enjoyed the most lasting success. Giacinto Scelsi, Iannis Xenakis, György Kurtág and Salvatore Sciarrino (all substantially represented in Universal Music Publishing Classical (UMPC)) catalogues are among those composers who for decades worked in obscurity, until suddenly their significance was widely appreciated, and they could gain the laurels that their outstanding artistic achievements deserved. In some tragic cases (one thinks of people like Gérard Grisey and Fausto Romitelli), this enormous success only came after the composer’s death. In the light of an ever-more-interconnected information society, it is astonishing that the 20th century was still an era of spectacular ‘belated discoveries’ of great artists. But it is just such cases that reveal the great importance of their supporters and advocates, who are also concerned to ensure that initial success is lasting, that their music remains available, and that knowledge of it goes out into the world. In the more than two-hundred-year tradition of Giovanni Ricordi (1785-1853), the publishers in the UMPC group have set themselves the same task, always keeping in mind the goal of helping artists to enjoy the most durable impact possible, on both present-day listeners and future ones.

17

I could say that I compose because I want to get to understand how the world functions. When I make music, I have to give concrete form to ‘world situations’ in terms of sonic categories.

Compositional ways of proceeding, especially formal and ‘sonosomatic’ processes are probes providing insight into world situations, or their recognition.

—Rolf Riehm 18

From left to right: Rolf Riehm Nikolaus Brass Thomas Lauck

So, for many years, Ricordi Munich has been working with some of the most original and distinctive composers of the older generation,

the cultural critic and philosopher Georg Steiner, and Volker Heyn to Jean Ziegler, a sociologist critical of globalization.

including the ones whose current projects are briefly presented

Ziegler’s book “The Empire of Shame” provides the starting point

below: the German and Swiss composers Nikolaus Brass (b. 1949),

for one of Volker Heyn’s most recent compositions. The roughly

Volker Heyn (b. 1938), Rudolf Kelterborn (b.1931), Thomas Lauck

half-hour eclipse of reason (2008-10) for female voice, ensemble

(b. 1943), Rolf Riehm (b. 1937), Ernstalbrecht Stiebler (b. 1934) and

and playbacks will be premiered on April 21, 2013 as part of

Hans Wüthrich (b. 1937). Common to them all is the combination

Deutschlandfunk’s New Music Forum in Cologne, with Salome

of single-mindedness and persistence with which they tread their

Kammer as soloist, and Ensemble Aventure conducted by Alexander

unconventional paths, their rich imagination, and their inexhaustible

Ott. It’s not a matter of conventional text setting; as Heyn says: “It

inventiveness. They all display a certain scepticism regarding the

wouldn’t have been of interest for this musical work to quote the

often artistically dubious “express route” to success, and reject

original texts from Jean Ziegler’s accounts and reports; for this pur-

compliance with the widespread trend to easy accessibility. So their

pose we have the book to refer to. What proved inspiring (if such

initial successes occur away from major halls and stages, but their

a word is permissible), was a particular scenario in his work, which

reach consistently expands f rom organic growth. What arises here is

describes the state of affairs that prevails around and inside the

a music lying beyond artificial excitement and short-lived hype. So

sky-rocketing garbage dumps at the outskirts of the town of Brasilia.

it is no accident that in their works they constantly make reference

The scenario, the setting: every day about one thousand children

to significant contemporary thinkers, for example, Nikolaus Brass to

and youths are allowed to rummage upon these hills in search of 19

Nikolaus Brass’ music has a radical individual expressivity. His pieces deal with pain and insecurity. This is austere music, yet all its micro- and overtone oscillations make it visceral and haptic.

—Gerhard R. Koch

20

food and whatever usable objects they can salvage from these bac-

Astonishment is also aroused time after time by the music of

teria–infected dumps. All this under observation from sadistic secu-

Rolf Riehm who, following the great success of his opera Das

rity guards and over–ambitious, zealous supervisors.”

Schweigen der Sirenen in Stuttgart in 1994, is currently composing a

Someone whose composing is founded on such impressions is

second full-length music theatre work – this time for the Frankfurt

scarcely likely to furnish blissful melodies or sweet harmonies:

Opera, where the work will be premiered in September 2014.

that much one can hear from the recently-released portrait

Siren Samples: Bilder des Begehrens und des Vernichtens (Images of

CD on the Berlin edition RZ label. On the contrary, in eclipse of

Desire and Destruction) is the title of the present score, already

reason, for example, makes use of two pianos tuned a quarter-

largely completed, for which the composer also wrote the libretto.

tone apart, electric guitar, electric bass and playback of concrete

Meanwhile his music is attracting increasing international attention,

sounds. Journalist Oliver Alt wrote this about Heyn: “Part of what

as witness performances of his large-scale piano concerto Wer

is fascinating about Heyn is that he doesn’t shrink from the world’s

sind diese Kinder at the Ostrava New Music Days, and HAWKING

dirt. Refined aestheticizing is not what he’s about. On the contrary,

for ensemble in Prague and Los Angeles. Concerning the latter

this man’s music always arises as a reaction to the most repugnant

performance, on March 29, 2011, Mark Swed wrote in the Los Angeles

social and political situations. (…) Despite its rough surface –

Times: “This, in the end, is spiritual music not in a mystical sense but

conventionally produced sounds are more the exception than the

in a disorienting one. And with shocking sonic surety, Riehm reveals

rule – Heyn’s music glitters with a wealth of nuance that is just

a universe with a mind of its own.” In one of the long-renowned

astonishing.”

Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles, on April 29, 2013, there

will be not only the first American performance of Lenz in Moskau for ensemble, but also the premiere of a new work lasting about 25 minutes: according to the composer, Pasolini in Ostia (2012) is a kind of micro-oratorio for soprano, piano, percussion, cello and text projections based on a radio report about the last days of Pasolini’s life, and Pasolini’s film using Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. The singer Alice Teyssier will perform the demanding solo part. Riehm’s substantial discography will also be expanded in 2013: WERGO is issuing a CD with Wer sind diese Kinder for piano and orchestra and the large-scale piano solo HAMAMUTH – Stadt der Engel. Nicolas Hodges is the soloist in both works. A further CD including Lenz in Moskau is in preparation for the Cybele label.

In 2013, on the occasion of Thomas Lauck’s 70th birthday, a substantial edition of four CDs will be released on the Telos label.

This will draw emphatic attention to a composer who has devoted his life almost exclusively to the composition of pieces for small chamber ensembles, and has thus always been rather in the shadows of the music industry. All the same, over the course of the years Lauck has gathered around himself a steadily increasing number of first-rate musicians who have made studio recordings of a total of 22 of his compositions. These include internationally successful musicians such as the percussionist Isao Nakamura, the soprano Petra Hoffmann, the pianist and conductor Jürg Henneberger, and the trombonist Dirk Amrein, as well as emerging talents like the cellist Isabel Gehweiler and the double bass player Aleksander Gabrys. Thomas Lauck – born in Strasbourg in Alsace – studied composition with Klaus Huber, and later pursued a double career as a composer and ophthalmologist. He hones his works with the utmost care. The conductor Bernhard Wulff once wrote: “He works out the materials for his compositions the way a vintner selects his berries in late autumn: very careful choice of details, after a long process of personally listening to the individual sounds, their individual lives and eventual extinction. In this, visual artists and literary texts too act as virtual dialogue partners. Evaluation of the single note and its resonance – this sonic tragedy of a sound’s extinction – is one of his central compositional challenges.”

For many years, Nikolaus Brass, whose most important teachers were Morton Feldman and Helmut Lachenmann, also pursued a double career as composer and doctor. For some ten years, he has built a reputation in Germany, with numerous premieres of orchestral, vocal and chamber music works. In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the German music critic Gerhard R. Koch drew “attention to a composer who goes his own way, at a certain 21

Hans Wüthrich

distance from the established music industry, and comprehensively so. That is, Brass is a doctor: he doesn’t have to live from composing, nor does he want to. As a sort of part-time composer, Brass enjoys excellent company: Mahler and Ives.” Accordingly, Brass was often in a position to compose works without external commissions, but driven instead by inner necessity. This also applies to his first opera Sommertag (A Summer’s Day), based on the play of the same name

by Jon Fosse (Ein sommars dag, 1999), which he is composing at the moment. Fosse’s texts, says Brass, have an innate musicality that makes them very suitable for music drama. This musicality is underlined “by the dramatic principle of superimposing the temporal levels in his dialogues. The characters move into other times, though at first the viewer doesn’t notice this. And in doing so, Fosse unfurls a central ‘musico-dramatic’ factor, if one takes the view that formed music works with memory: more than any other art, music is able to bring the past into the present, and more than any other art it shows what it means to be asked to experience what 22

With every piece I write, I start more or less from zero. Naturally I refer back to previous experiences, but I don’t believe that I have a personal musical language. —Hans Wüthrich

is present as what has passed.” Preoccupation with the themes of

piece I write, I start more or less from zero. Naturally I refer back

time and transience is also reflected in Brass’s concert music, such

to previous experiences, but I don’t believe that I have a personal

as Von wachsender Gegenwart for 19 solo strings or Zeit im Grund

musical language. I’m always considering afresh how to realize an

for two clarinets and eleven strings, both of which will available in

idea. And this constantly results in new arrangements of material,

2013 on a CD issued on the NEOS label.

and new ways of proceeding. I have this ambition, that anyone hear-

The inner necessity of a composer’s actions also stands abso-

ing a piece of mine gets an experience that he can only have with

lutely at the forefront for Hans Wüthrich, born 1937 in Aeschi,

this piece, and nowhere else.” What will come next? Wüthrich has

Switzerland. He is only interested in a commission if the idea for

disclosed this much: for 2013 he is planning a piece for four strings

a new piece that he wants to realize is already present. And since

and live electronics.

ideas that can stand up to his critical scrutiny are rare bits of luck,

Rudolf Kelterborn, born in Basle in 1931, is another outstand-

Wüthrich’s output to date has remained pretty small. The most

ing Swiss composer who single-mindedly goes his own way, and

recent piece, from 2010, was for two percussionists and live elec-

is always likely to surprise. In the journal Dissonance, Christoph

tronics with the title Peripherie und Mitte, premiered in 2011 as

Neidhöfer writes “Kelterborn’s musical gestures are mainly distin-

part of a concert celebrating the award of the Marguerite Staehelin

guished by clearly contoured energy processes, not unlike those

Composition Prize to the composer, who has also been a member

that can be observed in, for example, verbal and emotional, human

of the Berlin Akademie der Künste since 2009. In conversation with

expressive forms. This is where the immediacy of Kelterborn’s music

Thomas Meyer in the journal Dissonance, Wüthrich says “With every

lies: for the most part, it speaks in an emotionally direct way, and 23

Kelterborn’s musical gestures are mainly distinguished by clearly contoured energy processes, not unlike those that can be observed in, for example, verbal and emotional, human expressive forms. This is where the immediacy of Kelterborn’s music lies —Christoph Neidhöfer

Rudolf Kelterborn

24

its chosen musical material constantly has a vivid, transparent

works published since 1958 in one house. Stiebler is one of the

effect, even in its most transfigurative moments.” Good examples

first German composers to have built his compositions on the

of the direct emotional effect of Kelterborn’s music are provided by

reductive principles of minimalism, as early as in Extension I for

works like the Oboe Quartet for Heinz Holliger, given its first perfor-

string trio, from 1963. Neither complex nor repetitive, Stiebler’s

mance at the Lucerne Festivalin 2009, and the Nachtstück for the

music unfolds in a temporal and sonic space whose dimensions it

TaG ensemble, premiered in 2012 in Winterthur. On April 14, 2013

seeks to explore in all directions: the utopia of a ‘pure’ music as

the Basle City Casino will be the site for the first performance of

an answer to the overly dominant musical ‘narratives’ of earlier

Kelterborn’s Sinfonie 5 in einem Satz („La notte“) (2011-12), a work

centuries. Be aware of the place beneath your feet – this Zen phrase

commissioned by the Basle Music Academy, whose orchestra will

indicates the direction Stiebler’s music goes in: attention to the

give the premiere under the direction of Christoph-Mathias Mueller.

present moment, being inside the sound, animating the sonic

We end our little excursion with the composer Ernstalbrecht

space through constant repetition, and the high art of the long

Stiebler, born in Berlin in 1934, whose connection to America’s

wave: composing as an act of listening, as existential necessity, as

tradition of experimental ”maverick” composers is particularly evi-

a survival strategy. No wonder that Giacinto Scelsi was also one of

dent. As a radio producer, he was especially keen to ensure that

Stiebler’s most important inspirations.

composers like John Cage and Morton Feldman had an important

On January 31, 2013, as part of TransMediale Berlin Stiebler will

forum in Germany. Ricordi Munich’s acquisition of Edition Modern

have a portrait concert including two premieres: …mit der Zeit… for dou-

Wewerka a few years ago means that they now have all of Stiebler’s

ble bass and keyboard, and three in one 2 for bass flute, percussion and

piano. Following up on Unisono diviso (1999), for spring 2014 Stiebler is working on his second orchestral work, composed on commission from Hessian Radio, and to be premiered by the Symphony Orchestra in Frankfurt.

The Berlin-Scene label m=minimal has embarked on a multiple CD and LP edition of Stiebler’s music. The second CD/LP, with the compositions ton in ton, composed for Ensemble Modern, and the organ pieces Torsi and Betonungen, will be released early in 2013.

Of ton in ton, Stiebler writes, it was “composed relying on a tradition that reaches from the distant sounds of someone like Antonio de Cabezon to the soft filigree poetry of Morton Feldman, so as to penetrate barriers which are not just the Walls of Jericho; it’s more a matter of getting beyond our inner barriers, so as to have equal access to both far and near, and memory and dream, in an imaginary and real sonic space.”

Translation: Richard Toop 25

The golden age of opera produced many innovative and daring

Sasha Waltz’s production of Pascal Dusapin’s Passion (for the opening

productions, however, this appears to have suffered a steady decline

of the season) and Benoît Mernier’s world premiere of La Dispute (on

during recent decades in many opera houses. An important exception

March 5, 2013), both published by the French o ffice of Universal Music

to this is the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, which has been program-

Publishing Classical. This is what Peter de Caluwe explained to us when

ming contemporary works through several generations of directors,

we interviewed him before the season’s opening:

and Peter de Caluwe and his team successfully continue this tradition.

Awarded “Opera House of the year” by Opernwelt in 2011, this presti-

26

Opera is about community

gious institution in Brussels proves season after season that opera can

“For me commissioning and producing contemporary opera is

be as modern as any other less intimidating artistic field. This is clearly

a political, as well as a social and artistic statement; it proves that

evidenced by the 2012-2013 season programming, which includes

opera is an art form of today. Everything we do at Théâtre Royal de

rn d Uh lig Photo : Be

Opera: an Art Form of Today

la Monnaie needs to have a contemporary edge, it needs to have the feeling that we are making something which belongs not only to our house, but which is clearly a way of communicating between an artist and an audience of today. We have to allow artists to create, whether it is recreating old pieces from the opera repertoire or adding new pieces to the repertoire, and we have to find the audience interested in seeing those creations. This interaction is a very Greek way of thinking about theatre: it is talking about a community, and also talking about a process of bringing artists into society. In both cases it is about innovation, be it a new interpretation of La Traviata or a premiere by Pascal Dusapin, Benoît Mernier or Philippe Boesmans. Both give me enormous excitement.”

An art form with a European touch “I am a very European-thinking person, so opera as a European art

An interview with Peter de Caluwe

form is incredibly important to me. Brussels is not only an administrative and economic capital but also a cultural one; here we can influence the people and the decision makers if we play our role properly, as Munich or Amsterdam or some other houses also do.

by Eric Denut

As you know La Monnaie was already a producing house as early as the 1900’s; a lot of premieres that did not happen in Paris occurred here. Our house was always attractive to composers. I see it also as a kind of statement from our country towards Europe. Like Belgium, which has two different communities, Europe is a conglomerate of different nations and regions; so our commitment to opera, singularly contemporary opera, can be interpreted as a pro-European political statement.”

Audiences are curious “People are curious and not only about staging. You have to take them on an adventure and help them discover territories they don’t know. If they are in territories they already know, they may already have made a judgment. Offer them Les Huguenots

by Meyerbeer (as we did in 2011 in the new critical edition by Ricordi Munich) and they are completely open, they have no judgments in advance. Offer them a world premiere and there is yet a different kind of curiosity. This is exactly what we are doing with Benoît Mernier’s new piece La Dispute. We have engaged a lot of patrons who are already committed to the piece: they contributed to the commission, they had readings of the libretto, met the stage directors, the librettist and the composer, the young singers, a whole making-of Peter de Caluwe

process which makes them understand what it is about.”

27

I call it a sine qua non condition.

We need to create the right company feeling from the very beginning, with everyone involved – when this happens, it is the most exciting thing you can experience!

—Peter de Caluwe

The 2013 season, from Pascal Dusapin’s Passion to Benoît Mernier’s

Benoît Mernier, sharing this vision, came up with a project based on

La Dispute

La Dispute and after a lot of research together with Joël Lauwers and

“The two contemporary pieces we programed this season are both

Ursel Hermann we ended up with a libretto based on several theatre

closely related to the passion: the passion between two people which

plays, including La Dispute, of course, but also La Double Inconstance,

starts with a relationship and the dispute that ends it. I have tried to

for example. As we also wanted to work with the fabulous singers

connect the whole season to this topic: there are references between

Stéphanie d’Oustrac and Stéphane Degout and give them a bigger role,

Marivaux’ La Dispute (which surprisingly had never been used as

we specifically looked for and found beautiful passages in Marivaux’s

a libretto, or at least as a basis for a libretto) and Mozart’s Cosi fan

body of work.”

tutte; the passion is also linked to Manon Lescaut, La Traviata, Lulu, all related in some particular way to this whole discussion between

“Our orchestral musicians are asking for premieres and contem-

in which we are looking from Eurydice’s point of view, why she does

porary pieces. It makes them much more individually responsible,

not want to return.

because most modern compositions are, like Pascal Dusapin’s Passion,

“Looking for common themes make us very creative – such as find-

very soloistic. We do not like thinking about “specialist singers” in

ing a way to work on Marivaux – who always was one of my favorite

modern art music. An artist able to sing Verdi should also be able to

writers. I am convinced the 18th century is much closer to our contem-

sing contemporary musical writing! Why should someone so fabulous

porary soul than the 19 - the free spirit, the individuality, people who

as Barbara Hannigan be portrayed as a 21st century music star? As you

dared doing things beyond the border of bourgeois life. So Marivaux

know she is equally at home singing Baroque motets as well as Ligeti’s

is a kind of contemporary writer, who happens not to live in our time!

Grand Macabre or Dusapin.”

th

28

Musicians and contemporary opera

Lei and Lui which is so fantastic in Pascal Dusapin’s score – a piece

Passion, music & libretto by Pascal Dusapin Premiered on June 29, 2008 at Aix-en-Provence.

Belgian premiere on August 30, 2012 at the Théâtre de la Monnaie with a choreography by Sasha Waltz & guests with the Orchestre de Chambre de la Monnaie and the Vocalconsort Berlin conducted by Franck Ollu.

Recipe for success “The most important thing is to have all the ingredients from the beginning: a real team involving the conductor as well as the stage direc-

La Dispute, music by Benoît Mernier, libretto by Joël Lauwers

tor. You have to know what kind of direction of development you are

and Ursel Hermann after Marivaux

heading into. I call it a sine qua non condition. We need to create the

World première on March 5, 2013 at the Brussels Théâtre

right company feeling from the very beginning, with everyone involved

de la Monnaie - in co-production with Opéra National de

– when this happens, it is the most exciting thing you can experience! I

Montpellier.

mean, Mozart, Verdi, Strauss, even Wagner in some way (with himself!)

Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie conducted by Patrick Davin Stage direction, Karl-Ernst and Ursel Hermann with the collaboration of Joël Lauwers

shared this point of view. If this is not the case, I will feel something is not working well, even if you have the best singers in the cast. That’s one of the reasons why we sometimes have had “holes” in our creative rhythm: suddenly you may have the feeling “Oh, there is something not really OK here.” Either this is going to be too late, or the composer is not really inspired, or it doesn’t work between him and the stage director – anything can happen. Or, I can have the feeling the composer is writing the piece because we asked him, not because he needs to. Someone like Pascal Dusapin coming to us with an idea he had when he was 18 years old for his next project in a future season - this is fantastic. If someone comes with this kind of idea, you know you have started well!”

29

The Fortunate of Two Klezmer ensemble and string orchestra - bearers of different tra-

Presumably you too grew up in that community. From the seventies

ditions, different cultures. In the past decade, the Budapest Klezmer

onwards there was a continuous exodus of Jews from the Soviet

Band and the Ferenc Liszt Chamber Orchestra have proved in their

Union. Was your migration part of that process?

joint concerts that the melodic world of the instrumental music of

If at that time, in 1972, we had not followed my sister, some time

the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe as brought to life by an en-

later we would almost certainly have emigrated to America or Israel,

semble consisting of clarinet, piano, accordion, trombone, violin,

as the rest of the family did. We saw clearly that we had to leave the

double bass and percussion can be successfully combined with the

Soviet Union, but our motives for leaving were economic rather than

sound of the classical orchestra. Ferenc Jávori’s Klezmer Suite has

political. In the seventies, there were more than four thousand Jewish

become part of the repertoire of both ensembles, and has scored

families living in Munkács. I went there last year, and heard that there

notable successes both in Hungary and abroad. The score appeared

are just two hundred and seventy-two Jews left. Jews have virtually

in print not long ago, thus becoming available to other ensembles

disappeared from Sub-Carpathia.

as well. The composer talks about the background to the creation of

What languages did you speak at home?

the work:

Yiddish and Hungarian.

At some time in the 1970’s, you moved from Munkács, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) to settle in Hungary. When was that, and what was your reason for moving?

We did not maintain a kosher diet, but my father was religious, and we observed the holidays and festivals. Ours was a big family, there

In 1972, my younger sister married a Hungarian Jewish boy and set-

were lots of relatives, and on these occasions we always got together.

tled here, and, in accordance with my parents’ wish, the whole family

On some feast days there were twenty to thirty people sitting round

followed her. I was 28 years old at the time.

the table. As a child I thoroughly enjoyed these occasions; we were

Munkács traditionally had a sizeable Jewish community.

30

How religious was your family?

a very loving family. Today we are scattered, fate has planted us in

Convergence Musical Worlds An interview with Ferenc Jávori, leader of the Budapest Klezmer Band ´´ ri

by László Gyo

31

different continents, but we are a very close-knit family.

How did you begin to study music?

When I was six, my mother took me to see old Mr. Spitzer, head of the local music school, and had me enrolled. I would have liked to play the piano, but Mr. Spitzer told my parents – the war and the Holocaust were still a recent experience – that a person can flee with a violin, but not with a piano, so my parents decided for me: the violin became my main instrument, and the piano my second instrument, but, in the Soviet Union, it too was taken very seriously, and in my final exam I played a Mozart piano concerto.

In Munkács, to what extent was there a living tradition of Jewish instrumental music?

In the Soviet period there was no longer a living tradition. Jewish songs, however, were still sung by the community. From my mother and from uncles and aunts I heard a lot of Yiddish songs; my grandpa talked about the pre-World-War I klezmer musicians, who played together with gypsy musicians; in fact it was from him I heard that a real klezmer band played at the wedding of the daughter of Spira, the miracle-working Munkács rabbi. The way I became acquainted with klezmer was that in the town there was a wonderful leading violinist called Galambosi, who played in the Csillag restaurant. When I was at secondary school I used to go with my parents to the Csillag restaurant garden, where Jewish melodies were sometimes included in the program. I spoke with Galambosi, who told me what sorts of tunes he had learned from his father, who had played with klezmer musicians before World War I. At that time in the Soviet Union, no Jewish culture or Jewish music officially existed; the older members of the communities still knew songs, but nothing escaped the attention of the censor. Programs – for example, even those performed in restaurants by gypsy musicians – had to be approved by a party committee. It was not advisable to advertise that one intended to play Jewish music.

Meanwhile, I went to Ungvár to the conservatory, then to university in Drohobics, but I frequently visited Galambosi, who showed me melodies which I transcribed. I found this musical world interesting and exciting, and I sensed it would be important to me, so I eagerly collected material. Most of my collection I owe to Galambosi, but I also

university studies, obtained my diploma as a violin teacher, and got a job in Nagyszőllős teaching violin.

Did your klezmer music-making in fact begin after you moved to Hungary?

In the first period after I moved here, I had to look for work. Luckily 32

Cop yr ig

elsewhere, and transcribed a lot of music; meanwhile I completed my

ht by Mi klós Havas

sought out elderly gypsy musicians in Nagyszőllős, Raho, Técső and

for me, the Budapest Operetta Theatre advertised auditions for a vio-

To me, the Ferenc Liszt Chamber Orchestra had always floated at

linist, so I found a job. But at that time, it did not even occur to me to

some unattainable height; I had heard them in countless concerts,

dig out my collection of Jewish music.

with Jean-Pierre Rampal, with Isaac Stern and others, and I had the

As far as I remember, in the ‘70s, Jewish music did not enjoy great

utmost respect for them. I would not have dared to think that one

popularity in Hungary either. Although two Hungarian music historians,

day we would be partners, that we would make music together, and

Judit Frigyesi and Péter Laki, collected liturgical music, there was no

indeed that one day they would play notes written down by me.

great fashion for Jewish instrumental music at a time when in Hungary

Then once, at one of our concerts, I discovered János Rolla, the con-

the dance-house movement was flourishing.

certmaster and artistic leader of the orchestra, sitting among the

What is more, the Jews in Hungary related very differently to their

audience. At the end of the concert. he came over and warmly con-

Jewish roots from those living in Sub-Carpathia. With only slight exag-

gratulated us. He liked the music and also our playing. He made a

geration, I could say that Jewish culture did not exist either. The major-

point of going over to our accordionist, Anna Nagy, and told her that

ity concealed their origin; only after 1990 did a lot of people whom I

up until that evening, he had always hated the accordion, but Anna

had gotten to know in the ’80s admit to being Jewish. As assimilated

had convinced him of the instrument’s virtues. A few years after that

Jews, they did not feel it to be an important element of their identity;

evening, János Rolla phoned me, we met and he asked me if I would

in their eyes I was a curiosity. Until the ’90’s, it would not have occurred

write something for the orchestra, because after so many Baroque

to me to do anything with my collection of Jewish music.

and classical works they would like to play something different. All

It was only some time during the 1980’s that klezmer music became popular again. When did you first encounter klezmer ensembles?

by Mi klós Havas Cop yr ig ht

not yet come into fashion. At that time, I was still a beginner as a

The genre’s renaissance started at the beginning of the ’80s. It was in

composer; I had written a few pieces for my band, and klezmer music

1988 that I first encountered it, when I was travelling in America, and

for two ballets, but I had never written anything for a classical cham-

in a New York record shop I saw a lot of klezmer recordings and sheet

ber orchestra. The occasion was at hand. We were already regular

music. I bought two records, listened to them at home, and was aston-

participants in the Jewish Summer Festival and the festival director,

ished to discover that half of the tunes were familiar to me.

Vera Vadas, asked us to produce a special program this time, so I sug-

Listening to klezmer music, the layman has the impression that as

gested that on this occasion we should give a joint concert with the

in jazz, here too there is ample scope for improvisation. Is there re-

Ferenc Liszt Chamber Orchestra. From then on, there was no turn-

ally? Is it a case of reconstruction? Perhaps re-creation? How much

ing back, the program was advertised, and I began composing. In the

freedom does the performer have?

first half of the evening, they performed a classical program, then we

Originally, the dilemmas were very similar to those experienced

played half an hour of klezmer, and finally together we played the

in folk music. How authentic does the sound have to be? Should this

movement I had composed for this occasion. There was a full house

music be performed as it was a hundred years ago or, moving with the

at the Dohány utca Synagogue in Budapest; we played to an audi-

times, should other elements also be incorporated in it? In America, at

ence of four thousand. Great expectations had preceded this con-

first authentic sound was the aim, which in the home of jazz proved

cert, thanks to the reputation of the Ferenc Liszt Chamber Orchestra

untenable. As time went on, realizing this, the klezmer musicians

and the unusual pairing. It was such a huge success that afterwards

tended increasingly to incorporate improvisation in their music.

they refused to let us leave the platform. We had to repeat part of

What is the “compulsory” composition of a klezmer band? Clearly,

the movement. This success boosted my confidence enormously, so I

in the various groups different instruments can be heard. Is there

composed the whole suite, which we subsequently have played in a

some kind of compulsory minimum?

lot of concerts, a recording has been made of it, and the Győr Ballet

To begin with I adopted the composition of the 13 member American Klezmer Conservatory Band. Later I came to realise that a seven-member group – accordion, clarinet, violin, trombone, double bass, drums and piano – better expresses my ideas.

The Klezmer Suite was the fruit of a collaboration with the Ferenc Ferenc Jávori

this happened around 1998, when that kind of “fusion” music had

Liszt Chamber Orchestra. What is the history of the piece?

Company has choreographed it.

As a matter of fact, to what genre does this piece belong? A work of serious music on Jewish themes? Crossover? What would you call it?

I am unable to decide, but perhaps it is not important. It is the fortunate convergence of two musical worlds, which is an experience not only for us performers, but also for our audiences. Translation: Lorna Dunbar 33

UMPC new signings in 2012 34

Francesca Verunelli Born in 1979, Francesca Verunelli studied composition with Rosario Mirigliano at Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence where she obtained her diploma summa cum laude.

In 2005, she was admitted to the Master’s Course in Compostion at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where she studied with Azio Corghi.

In 2008, she participated in the Ensemble Aleph’s International Forum, which performed her work RSVP in Paris. The same year, she was accepted into the Cursus for composition and music technology at Ircam, where two new pieces were produced: Interno rosso con figure for accordion and electronics (2009, Anthony Millet, accordion) and Play for ensemble and electronics (2010, Ensemble Intercontemporain directed by Susanna Mälkki).

Her piece Neon (2008) was performed in Domaine Forget (Québec) by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, under the direction of Lorraine Vaillancourt. She also received a French State Commission from the Nomos ensemble for whom she wrote Syllabaire (2009) and other commissioned ensemble works for the KDM and Accroche Note ensembles.

In 2010, her orchestra piece En mouvement (Espace Double) was played by the Mitteleuropa Orchestra under the direction of Andrea Pestalozza at the Venice Biennale, where she was awarded the “Leone d’Argento”.

The same year she received: an Ircam commission for a string quartet Unfolding, which was premiered by the Arditti Quartet in March 2012 at the Biennale ‘Musiques en Scène’ in Lyon; a joint commission from the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and the Venice Biennale for a chamber opera Serial Sevens to be performed in July in Stuttgart and in October at Venice Biennale 2012; a commission from the Italian ensemble RepertorioZero for #3987 Magic Mauve (a work for percussion and electronic), premiered during Milano Musica 2012.

Other recent commissions include: The narrow corner, Francesca Verunelli

an orchestra piece for Radio France to be performed in 2013; Cinemaolio, an ensemble work, for Court-Circuit

n Ra de l photo : Jea

(Commande d’État 2011) and The dark day for cappella choir (commissioned by the French renowned choir Accentus) to be premiered in 2014.

Moreover, winner of the Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne Award 2012, the Lucerne Orchestra will premiere in 2014 a piece commissioned for the occasion.

35

Thank you, Adam, for demonstrating contemporary music can bring emotion and happiness —audience member in Nancy, France, after a performance of La Luna Azul

36

Adam Schoenberg Adam Schoenberg is Universal Music Publishing Classical’s most recent American composer, and he has already proven himself to be one of the finest emerging talents on the international music scene.

His orchestra work Finding Rothko is being played throughout the nation, a piece that “races through aural representations of four Rothko canvases, conveying the exhilaration of being drawn into his bright blocks of color and the more reflective mood brought on by subtler shades.” (Grand Rapids Symphony) This season Adam began his tenure as the first-ever composerin-residence of the Kansas City Symphony, which will premiere in February 2013 his very own rendering of “Pictures of an Exhibition,” his Picture Studies, based on modern artwork from the collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City. Just as in Mussorgsky/ Ravel tradition, he first composed highly virtuosic piano studies which he then orchestrated. He has also established a young composer’s workshop, where he teaches composition to high school students and which will culminate in a performance of their works by the Kansas City Symphony in May. Left: Samy

Photo (Mo ussa

): An ne de Gee r

Moussa

Samy Moussa Samy Moussa (born in 1984) studied composition in Munich with

Currently, Adam is working on a new orchestra work, Bounce, which is a co-commission by the Aspen School and Music Festival and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Right: Adam

Matthias Pintscher and Pascal Dusapin at the Hochschule für Musik und

His American Symphony, inspired by the 2008 U.S. Presidential

Schoenberg

Theater and graduated last year. Durand is proud to have published his

election and written for the Kansas City Symphony and Michael

very first String Quartet premiered by the well-known Arditti Quartet

Stern, has still as much relevance today in its expression of hope

during the famous Internationale Ferienkurse of the Musikinstitut

and optimism as when it was conceived, and will be revived by many

Darmstadt under the aegis of Thomas Schaefer. Also a conductor, Samy

orchestras around the U.S. over the next two seasons.

Moussa is becoming a major personality in Germany, conducting and

La Luna Azul, his most expressive and emotional work, inspired

being performed by orchestras and ensembles such as BR, the MDR

by his love for his wife, who he met while being a fellow at the

Sinfonieorchester and Ensemble Modern. In Canada, his home country,

McDowell Foundation, is based on a piano trio Luna y Mar, just one

he is also a regular guest at the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal

of many chamber music works that round out his substantial body of

where Maestro Kent Nagano premiered two symphonic pieces.

accomplished compositions to date.

37

Marco Stroppa

A new wave in Italian opera

by Marilena Laterza

38

rd i, Mi la no Casa Rico Masotti © be rto Photo : Ro

To appreciate the vital role that opera plays in today’s music, we

instrumentalists, voice, invisible sounds, spaciality and acoustic totem,

might well compare it to copper. Just like copper among the metals,

Re Orso is an anti-fairy tale: the king is a monster, the heroine loses her

opera is in fact the musical genre that has remained in use the longest;

head and the final triumph is reserved for a worm. In short, it is a fierce

moreover, it possesses flexibility, malleability, a high level of conduc-

criticism of the sinister workings of power, the dramaturgical evolution

tivity, good resistance to corrosion, capacity to form alloys, variable

of which is well-suited to the compositional processes favored by (or

coloring depending on whether it is pure or blended with other ele-

embraced by) Stroppa, who, in place of the use of acoustic instruments

ments, and even a series of different synonyms to define it. The only

in the licentious banquet scene in the first act, substitutes the almost-

property that opera and copper do not share is ease of workability, a

exclusive intervention of electronics in the second, thereby represent-

characteristic which in the former is practically absent, given that its

ing the deformation of the multiple spaces and times that live together

twofold character – both profoundly rooted in history and at the same

on the stage.

time, thanks to its ante litteram hyper-textual nature, surprisingly up

Of an altogether different character is the work of Giorgio Battistelli.

with the times – demands of any composer that aspires to measure

Brought up within an opera environment, with a childhood spent in

himself/herself against it a marriage of awareness, intuition and crafts-

the front row of his grandmother’s provincial theatre “watching people

manship that constitutes a constant challenge.

tell stories and produce pure variety entertainment,” Battistelli is a

In offering a brief account of the most recent achievements in the

well-travelled opera composer. His career began with the sounds of

field of opera, we could start with Marco Stroppa. Although many

everyday work transformed into music (Experimentum mundi, 1981)

of his works contain in their title an extra-musical reference and are

and went on with monodramas, scenic concerts, melologues and other

characterized internally by a marked sonorous dramaturgy, Stroppa

forms of music theatre including literary, theatrical and cinemato-

has always avoided any music theatre project made up of bodies

graphic references – from Shakespeare to Fellini – all invested with a

singing and acting within a scene. That is, until he came upon a fairy

vivid sonorous dramaturgy and its artifices. In Sconcerto, ‘music the-

tale in verse by Arrigo Boito set in an imaginary and timeless uni-

atre’ (2010), Battistelli brings on stage an orchestra and its conductor;

verse with rich dramaturgical potential; appropriately adapted, this

the conductor, alas, is incapable of conducting the orchestra because

gave rise to the creation of his first opera, produced in 2012 at the

he is absorbed in trying to give order to his own confused ideas. The

Opéra Comique. A ”musical legend” for four singers, four actors, eleven

speech, difficult and in Sprechstimme form, preserves and exalts the 39

rhythmic-musical components inherent to it, at times sustained by the

of complicated labyrinths, contorted

music, at times contradicted, if not denied, in such a way that in the

streets, canals and horizontal projec-

end only sounds manage to express what a verbal discourse, now in

tions, furnish an ‹‹optical link›› with

crisis, is no longer able to disclose.

the Middle-European orientation of

As he had already done in Big Bang Circus, Il Canto della pelle and

Nieder’s music, a crossroad between

Giudizio universale, in Il killer di parole – the final panel in a tetralogy

Italian, German and Slavic culture.

composed between 1996 and 2010 – Claudio Ambrosini tells a com-

The sobriety of the materials used,

plex, problematic story, the solution of which, though, is left to the

the exploration of the individual

audience to reflect on after the curtain has fallen. A ‘ludodrama’ (drama

sounds transfigured and the opal-

game) in two acts on a subject by Daniel Pennac and the composer

escent expressionism that travels

himself, Il killer di parole, produced at the Fenice in Venice, tells of a

on the boundaries between con-

poet, a hero destined to defeat, at grips with the deletion of terms from

sciousness and dreams confer

the vocabulary and the extinction of linguistic specificities in favor of

a special instrumental voice to

a “definitive” language. The multiple levels of the literary text – which

every image; as a result the opera

oscillate between complete words and preverbal lumps of vowels and

gradually assumes the semblance

consonants – are reflected in the musical choices Ambrosini makes: h e

of a house on the point of wak-

resorts to both the vocal repertory of the avant-garde and to a bel

ing, the windows of which emit

canto approach, supported by the predominating tonal qualities of

a faint light.

the instruments, which delineate the evolution of characters and situ-

Just as original and distinc-

ations by way of distinctive sonorities in a play of reflections between

tive is the creative develop-

text and music.

ment of Fabio Vacchi, distin-

40

(Girotondo, 1982) by operas that he has never hesitated to define as

poser for a fable-like, symbolic and imaginative music theatre already

such. These are operas that mirror the evolution of his poetic and sty-

demonstrated in her international debut with Zora D. (2003) and sub-

listic identity over time and are underpinned by a constant fundamen-

sequently confirmed with Eine Marathon Familie (2008) and Simon der

tal trait: the impelling need to express an idea and to reawaken those

Erwählte (2009). I nspired by an Indian myth about an exchange of heads

perceptive experiences that allow it to take root in the consciousness

and reinterpreted by the composer in the light of her own perception

of listeners. Following an epic work like Teneke (Teatro alla Scala,

of the events, a tight dramaturgical narrative unfolds. Underpinned by

2007), in his most recent opera, Lo stesso mare (2011), Fabio Vacchi

a powerful spiritual force, the narrative maintains a point of contact

takes up the challenge of Amos Oz’s like-named novel (The Same Sea)

with the present while the music itself is an active player in the events,

and – in the context of a structure based on the preordained forms of

making available folk music traditions of Balkan origins, luxuriant

traditional melodrama – draws from it an experimental score, halfway

orchestration, exuberant melodic invention and enthralling rhythmic

between poetry and prose, lyricism and recitation, in which his distinc-

sequences – all peculiarities of Žebeljan – provoking in the spectator

tive compositional idiom takes shape around the intimate identities of

an incandescent psychological and emotive impact.

the characters. The interweaving of psychological events finds spirit

The huge music theatre project that Fabio Nieder is currently bring-

and coherence in the music, and the personal collection of these indi-

ing to completion - starting out from an original text written for him by

vidual stories, each rendered akin to the other by a common desire to

Claudio Magris - is, by contrast, introspective and other-worldly. The

bridge a distance, concrete or supernatural, from the object of one’s

scenes of this dramaturgical and sonorous polyptych (the overall title

affection, becomes the bearer – as always in Vacchi’s operas – of a

of which will be Thümmel, ovvero la perdita delle parole) are modeled

universal message.

on the last drawings of the Trieste painter Vito von Thümmel, realized

Fascinated by the visionary narratives of the Hindu religion,

in the mental asylum where he spent the last years of his life. ‘ Dreams’,

Riccardo Nova in Nineteen Mantras (2012) deepens his exploration

as von Thümmel himself called these visions, transcribed onto paper,

of a genre of performance art built around the interaction between

n

guished from the beginning

testifies to a persistent predilection on the part of the Serbian com-

photo by Ne no Br use ga

Two Heads and a Girl, Isidora Žebeljan’s most recent opera (2012),

Left to right: Claudio Ambrosini Isidora Žebeljan Riccardo Nova

Nova : photo

by Me lin a Mu las / Nie de r: photo by Massi mo

Ost ro us

ka

Fabio Nieder

music, dance and theatrical gesticulation. I n a daring process of musi-

fullest expression in the multidimensionality of Quartett. An opera in

cal and cultural synthesis, Nova juxtaposes the most experimental

thirteen scenes on a theatrical subject by Heiner Müller drawn from

outcomes of sophisticated Western music and the re-elaboration of

Laclos’s Les liaisons dangereuses, the work was premiered at La Scala,

sonorities of Indian origins, utilizing the instruments of these two

Milan in 2011. The two protagonists’ enervating game of exchanging

musical traditions together with electronics. The contribution of the

and losing identity is rendered musically by way of a double orches-

director Giorgio Barberio Corsetti and the dancer and choreographer

tra, which gives voice both to the private impulses of the characters

Shantala Shivalingappa present a captivating dramaturgy but without

and to a collective and social dimension. This is supported by an elec-

any sung text as traditionally understood. Instead, the gestures of the

tronic elaboration of sonorous spaces and movements, which func-

body and the arborescent joining of rhythms and mixed sonorities

tions as an amplifier of what is happening on stage. In addition, the

generate a cyclic plot that tells of genesis, desires, seductions and

virtuosic vocal writing – with recourse to a broad spectrum of styles,

archetypal rivalries.

techniques, registers, inflections and timbres – and the computer

Finally, for Luca Francesconi, opera is not a preordained genre but a

treatment that synthesizes, deforms and multiplies the voices, con-

potential one: a locus capable of hosting the reciprocal fermentation

tribute to producing that powerful sensorial and intellectual impact

of different languages, each a generator of its own meanings. What is

that makes Quartett a borderland between nature and culture, body

involved is a poetics that is recognizable in the stylistic syncretism of

and techne, beauty and complexity.

his first work for music theatre, Ballata (1996-99), but which finds its

Translation: Nicholas Crotty 41

42

Lu ca Piva Photo by

Operas for young audiences

Anyone who thinks that opera and children are two worlds that never meet could not be more wrong! At the present time, children’s opera is going through a boom in popularity: one clear sign is the growing number of initiatives that, in the spirit of the most up-todate music education practices, are aiming to familiarize children and adolescents with the world of opera. And leading the field in this regard is Associazione Lirica e Concertistica (As.Li.Co), which, with its program Opera Education, has for many years been offering a series of artistic-educational activities focusing on the experience of young children (Opera Kids), older children (Opera Domani) and adolescents (Opera.it) when exposed to opera.

We asked Barbara Minghetti (President of As.Li.Co) what the strengths of these projects were.

The principal strength lies in opera itself, a genre which is proving more and more appealing to young people. Its language cuts across genres - there are no barriers - and it offers the opportunity to work at school on a wide range of themes including issues of vital interest in the present day. In addition, Opera Education gives us the opportunity Il sole, di chi è? by Silvia Colasanti

to work with young professionals and to have a place in an international network that allows us to get to know different countries’ opera scenes, different ways of thinking and different ways of working that enrich us year after year. Working with young people, in fact, offers us the opportunity to be always up with the times and innovative.

You mentioned an international network. What does this consist of?

We take part in Reseo and Opera Europa, where we enjoy accreditation as a body that carries out opera education at the highest level. For us, it’s vitally important to be involved in these networks in order to be able to exchange professional know-how, ideas and artists as well as to

by Francesco Rocco Rossi

co-produce certain projects, as is happening this year in the context of the celebrations for the anniversary of Wagner’s birth.

43

Young audiences are attracted not just by traditional opera repertory but also by musical productions of an ad hoc character such as those of four talented young composers - Carlo Boccadoro, Raffaele Sargenti, Silvia Colasanti and Matteo Franceschini - whose wideranging compositional interests also encompass works for children.

In fact, it is educationally-rich activity of this kind that creates the adult audiences of the future. Not that one can overlook the inherent artistic quality of these composers’ works, which is very high, but what does composing for children really mean? We put this question to Carlo Boccadoro who has composed three operas for children - La nave a tre piani (The ship with three decks), Robinson and Cappuccetto rosso (Litte Red Riding Hood).

Writing for a young audience is a huge challenge; you can’t hoodwink children with concert programmes written in “avant-gardese” or with vague aesthetic declarations. At the same time, for a composer it’s also a very stimulating experience because very young children, not yet being conditioned by ideologies and listening habits (so they’re an ideal audience), immediately make it known whether or not you have captured their attention.

Your three operas are very different from one another. La nave a tre piani is ‘an opera on opera’ in which the typical situations of traditional melodrama are realised musically by way of various expressive languages (jazz, song, parody, etc.) whereas Robinson, based on the novel by Defoe, echoes a classical style.

Cappuccetto rosso, on the other hand, is an opera about modernity; the protagonist demonstrates adolescent attitudes repre-

and Spanish) carries a message of tolerance, opposition to stereo-

sented figuratively by way of a very distinctive use of instruments

types and acceptance of differences. We asked Sargenti whether

that give life to sonorities typical of videogames. Is there a common

these themes also impacted on the musical choices that he made.

44

ing as much as possible different forms of musical and libretto-writing

wolf expresses himself in “howling blues” and is helped by a moon of

tradition so as to constantly attract the attention of young people. I’ve

“ghostly” origins to get himself accepted into a family that feeds on

tried to weave together strands of musical worlds that are apparently

a musical language of a “cultured” Russian and Viennese stamp. The

very different from each other so as to extract an essential “juice” with

children in the audience become protagonists in a twofold process of

which to make a range of musical cocktails that are as fresh, colourful

“musical integration:” they sing for reconciliation between two hos-

and tasty as possible.

tile people who produce a blend of their respective music, and at the

In the finale of Cappuccetto rosso, as we all know, “the big, bad

same time they celebrate the musical integration of the wolf’s howling

wolf” (that’s how he’s defined in the libretto) is killed. But not all

with the surrounding musical environment. In this way the children are

wolves are bad and in fact this is the idea that is forcefully proclaimed

attracted by and drawn into musical experiences that were probably

in Lupus in fabula (The wolf in fables) the opera with which Raffaele

unknown to them before seeing the opera.

Sargenti won the 2009 competition “Opera Junior” conducted by

Your opera is one of the most successful products of the interna-

As.Li.Co (together with the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Opéra Royal

tional co-operation that Barbara Minghetti mentioned. Can you tell

de Wallonie–Liège). The libretto (there are also versions in French

us something about this?

Gia nn ese

I created a network of references to different musical contexts: the

, Teat ro Re gio,Tu rin

Because this opera is a journey through different musical worlds,

In all these works I’ve used an extreme synthesis of languages, unit-

Photo : Ra me ll a&

denominator in all of these?

Left: La nave a tre piani

by Boccadoro.

Right: Les Epoux by Franceschini.

The writer of the libretto (Andrea

Matteo Franceschini has composed two operas for young people: Les

Avantaggiato) and I worked very

Époux (The couple) and Zazie dans le Métro (Zazie in the underground).

closely with a Belgian director and

We asked him how the idea of composing for children came to him.

a Spanish conductor, both under 30

When IRCAM in Paris commissioned me to write a piece of music in

years old. It was a very stimulating

2009, I decided to tackle an opera because I wanted to work together

experience because we were able to

with an opera team (a libretto writer, a director, a stage designer). I

compare our experiences both on an

wasn’t actually thinking about a children’s audience until at a certain

educational and artistic front, each of

point a marvellous book of photographs on scarecrows took hold of

us contributing what we had learnt in

my inclination towards the visionary and gave me the idea for my

the music and education institutions of

new work: Les Époux, the protagonist of which is in fact a scarecrow.

our various countries of origin.

Although composed for children, this work did not cause me to modify

Silvia Colasanti also composes mu-

my style in any way. All I did was simplify the writing, limiting myself to

sic theatre works and does so on vari-

basic musical gestures, even though children, equipped with an open-

ous fronts. Her catalogue in fact also

ness and attention that goes well beyond the normal, have shown that

includes an opera for children: Il sole,

they appreciate complex writing as well.

di chi è (Where does the sun come from)?

We asked her how much of her non-children’s and non-opera work is present in this work.

have in common?

They are two very different works: Les Époux – a small-scale work

A huge amount! Naturally, I always kept the intended audience – i.e.

and aimed at children between four and six – has a fairly simple struc-

children – to the forefront of my mind, trying to give voice to a musical

ture. Zazie, on the other hand, has a more complex instrumental make-

dramaturgy that took account of their listening needs. For example, I

up and is conceived for an audience of adolescents that are able to

reduced the musical material to the essential so as to help the chil-

enter inside the structure of a text that plays with the phonic preroga-

dren to recognise all the passages and their dramaturgical function.

tives of the French language. What they have in common, on the other

This adjustment, however, did not in any way distort my compositional

hand, has to do with the compositional process which, as I said before,

procedures or my style, both of which remained unchanged.

emerges out of the continual interaction between libretto writer, direc-

In your works you are very interested in experimenting with different sonorous mechanisms. How did you operate with Il sole, di chi è?

First of all, I made use of different vocal styles; from recitation to Photo : Be no ît Au tissie r

What is there that’s special about each opera? And what do they

tor and stage designer. What’s emerged, though, in both cases, are operas that can be interpreted at different levels and are, for that reason, also suitable for adult audiences.

actual singing, almost like in a singspiel. But above all I experimented

The most up-to-date music education ideas combined with avant-

with and in a certain sense manipulated the sounds (vocal and instru-

garde languages, and a great deal of attention towards theatrical

mental) to obtain special dramaturgical effects. All that forms part of

dramaturgy, are the key ingredients of both of these works, ingredi-

my language, as does the constant search for new sonorous solutions

ents enriched by the intense enthusiasm that the composers invariably

dictated by expressive demands that are very well-defined and dic-

seek to transmit to their audiences (young or otherwise). All of which

tated, as in this case, by theatrical requirements.

does untold good for the future of opera! Translation: Nicholas Crotty 45

46

Gillian Moore

Vision, Innovation & Challenge An Interview with Southbank Centre’s Gillian Moore

by Elaine Mitchener Gillian Moore is Head of Classical Music at Southbank Centre (SBC),

Reich to Akram Khan. She has commissioned many significant new

before which she was the Artistic Director of the London Sinfonietta.

works as well as creating opportunities for artists to reach the widest

She is a Fellow and council member of the Royal College of Music, a

possible audiences with their work.

council member of the Royal Philharmonic Society and an Honorary

urcy icia de Co PH OTO: Tr

Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. She was awarded the Sir

For On the Page, Gillian Moore discusses the essential and groundbreaking role the Southbank Centre plays in cultural life of London.

Charles Groves Award in 1991 for services to British music; an MBE in

You have recently been appointed to Head of Classical Music at

1994 for services to music and education, and an Association of British

the SBC where your previous position was Head of Contemporary

Orchestras Award in 1998.

Culture. Could you explain why your previous post focused on con-

During her distinguished career, Gillian has collaborated with many

temporary culture in general and not music?

of the great musical and artistic figures of our age, from Luciano Berio

When Jude Kelly came as Artistic Director in 2006, she was really

to Radiohead, from Harrison Birtwistle to Squarepusher, from Steve

keen to develop the idea of cross-arts festivals. I was commissioning 47

and performing the music to the highest possible standards, because this is when it communicates.

What is your secret to attracting large audiences and what part do groundbreaking festivals such as Meltdown, Ether and the forthcoming series The Rest Is Noise, play in drawing, maintaining and building these audiences?

I think people like big ideas. My experience is that audiences are events that brought together music and film, such as 2001: A Space

responsive to ideas that are bold and don’t apologize. I also feel that

Odyssey with live orchestral accompaniment, Heiner Goebbels doing a

it’s quite easy to program music already having an idea of who’s going

work for the reopening of the Royal Festival Hall including music and

to come, but it’s much harder to think: who should be there, who

text, and works for children like Icarus at the Edge of Time by Philip

needs to hear this music?

Glass. I was also doing cross-arts festivals, like The Ether Festival of

That is very important for

Innovation and Technology in Music, in which I am still very much in-

me, though, ultimately, the

volved. Over the last few years, we really developed the concept be-

most important thing for

hind this festival: Ether currently includes a wide program, from John

someone who is program-

Cage to Jonathan Harvey, Varèse, John Cale, and Anna Meredith’s new

ming music is to do it with

band. I was involved in the early days of programming the Imagine

authentic passion.

Childrens Festival. In addition to this, since it’s my passion and my

What are your priorities

specialty, I devised and programmed straight contemporary music fes-

when you program a sea-

tivals: the Xenakis weekend, the Stockhausen festival, the Messiaen

son: specific composers,

festival, a weekend of the complete works of Varèse, a Nono festival.

an anniversary, an over-

My role as Head of Contemporary Culture highlighted the wide scope

arching theme, the artists

of the program I was dealing with.

(orchestra/conductors/

What role does contemporary music/culture play for you now that you are Head of Classical Music?

My background is as a musician trained in a very traditional way. I

tant are publishers to you in your research?

love all great music and I listen as much to Wagner as to Stockhausen

There has got to be a feeling that a certain idea is right for an audi-

and Nono. I hope in the future contemporary music will be integrated

ence at a certain time and that you can make the most of it; that you

in classical music programming as much as possible. The main theme

can do more than just put it in front of people who actually already

of the whole Southbank Centre classical music program next year is

know that they like that specific content.

The Rest is Noise festival, which is indeed an exploration of the music of the 20th century.

In your experience, are there two different audiences for classical and contemporary or are they largely comprised of the same people?

48

soloists)? How impor-

It’s been very satisfying to see the progress of a composer such as Fujikura, from his very first appearances as a young composer, still a student, to be an internationallycommissioned figure.

As for publishers, I have always worked with them. They are very creative people, with whom I often have artistic discussions. The best publisher is someone who suggests things that actually have a chance to really be working in a specific context.

It’s undeniable that a lot of people go to classical music concerts for

The British arts scene is renowned for being extremely resource-

a particular reason: to see music that they know about and that they

ful. In these straightened times of budget and government support

feel comfortable with. There is also a large audience that’s interested

cuts, how does the SBC face these challenges without compromising

in contemporary arts in general and this audience would certainly

on quality?

come to contemporary classical music concerts, if these are presented

Southbank Centre is extremely fortunate to have enormous sup-

in the right way. All my life, I have believed that we can make all sorts

port from the Arts Council. We have a great fundraising team and

of music more accessible and approachable for people by providing

some very important supporters: MasterCard for summer festi-

different ways in and by talking about it in clear, unfussy ways. And

vals, Shell for our Classic International Series, and major trusts and

of course, ultimately, the most important thing of all is just presenting

foundations like The Paul Hamlyn Foundation and many generous

—Gillian Moore

presenting contemporary composers. Just looking around the country, I have seen that having ambition pays back: we can put on a Stockhausen weekend and involve the local community in it, just like the Birmingham Opera Company did; many young people in London and Stirling can get involved with the Simon Bolívar Orchestra, and there is a variety of young people presenting music at the BBC Proms.

You are an avid advocate for music education for children. individuals who support our work from 50 cents in our donation box

Following the recent success of Icarus at the Edge of Time to music

right up to our Patrons’ Groups. The support they all give enables

by Philip Glass (European premiere), do you hope to commission

us to face challenging times while still presenting the highest pos-

more large-scale works for younger audiences? Is there enough

sible standard of programming. Also, we work very much in partner-

repertoire and resources out there to fulfill this mission?

ship with our resident orchestras (London Philharmonic Orchestra,

This is actually an interest of mine. With Peter and the Wolf by

Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and

Prokofiev and The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Britten,

London Sinfonietta) and other important partners. For example the

we already have two masterpieces in the repertoire. Pieces that have

PRS for Music Foundation worked with us on the New Music 20x12

stayed in the repertoire are really rare. We have to keep commission-

weekend, which was a surprising and very successful way of present-

ing new work for children from the best possible composers. I actu-

ing new music.

ally have a scheme to commission composers: Icarus at the Edge of

2012 is certainly an exceptional year for Britain and London in

Time by Glass and Matt Rodgers with The Trial of Dennis the Menace

particular, with the Queen’s Jubilee, the Olympics and Cultural

as part of the Imagine festival, for example. This festival is focused

Olympiad. Do you see any long term (positive) effect from these

on high-quality work written for children, as well as an exploration

events for the SBC and the cultural life of London in general?

of issues such as children’s right to culture and looking at the world

The Olympics have been the most stupendous time for this country and for London in particular. As a Glaswegian, I felt very proud of

from a child’s point of view. This is a rich vein that we are pursuing as much as possible.

being a Londoner. As far as culture is concerned, I think it has drawn

How can Universal Music with its international roster of compos-

attention to the many riches that we have and to the boldness of

ers help an organization like yours to pursue the common goal to

British culture, from the presentation of Stockhausen’s Mittwoch aus

make contemporary classical music heard?

Licht in Birmingham to Southbank Centre’s celebration of George

I think continuing to support the greatest composers is important,

Benjamin: Jubilation, to the New Music 20x12 weekend. Talking of

but also working in collaboration with arts organizations to make sure

this project in specific, we presented 20 brand-new short works by a

that as much material about music as possible is available online. And,

whole range of British composers. Because the weekend happened

of course, it’s important to present ideas to programmers that are suit-

in the context of the Olympics, the vast majority of the events in the

able for a specific context.

weekend were free, attracting an audience that you wouldn’t neces-

In the past you have commissioned and programmed our compos-

sarily see at contemporary music concerts. This special time allowed

ers Luciano Berio, Luca Francesconi, Dai Fujikura, Heiner Goebbels,

us to do this. T he other extraordinary moment has been the Unlimited

Olivier Messiaen, Luigi Nono, Salvatore Sciarrino, Iannis Xenakis… Is

festival, associated with the Paralympics, which has allowed artists

there anything that stands out in your memory?

across all disciplines to come together to present the highest qual-

It’s been very satisfying to see the progress of a composer such

ity of works. This showcased artists who may not have had major

as Fujikura, from his very first appearances as a young composer, still

platforms before due to their disability, and allowed them to have

a student, to be an internationally-commissioned figure. I will never

the opportunity of presenting their works in association with the

forget the Xenakis weekend, with the place packed to the rafters with

Paralympics. I think I have learned key things this summer in terms

a very hip crowd. It was also a great privilege to get to know Luciano

of my own activity, such as the richness of the scene around the

Berio and to work with him on two festivals of his music. Planning a

artists with disability, for example, or thinking of lighter touches to

festival with him, which sadly he didn’t live to see, but towards which

present contemporary music, in addition to our in-depth projects

he gave all his energy, has been one of the highlights of my career.

49

Samuel Beckett was very fond of music; he himself was a good

texts deserves special attention; more than two decades of important

pianist, and he listened to a lot of music: Schubert, Haydn, Webern;

works bear witness to his continuing interest in them. As one of his

in his final years he once came out with the involuntary confession

composer friends said about two emblematic works of his, it was as if

that “What remains is music.” He was not happy, however, to have his

he had travelled backwards, that is, from Beckett he had come to Kafka;

works set to music, although for the most part – often only after a work

and in fact his career was determined by his attachment to Beckett’s

had been composed – he did consent to some of his texts being used

œuvre, a relationship which was given added depth and emphasis by

in musical works. But even about his friend Marcel Mihalovici’s work

one of his most important works, his Kafka-Fragments, op. 24. During

based on Krapp’s Last Tape, Beckett said he did not like it, because that

his study trip to Paris in 1957-58 he saw the first rehearsals of Fin de

play was not suitable for an opera, since “Krapp does not sing, you

partie, and although he immediately realised its importance for him,

know.” To Morton Feldman, who asked him for an opera libretto, he

according to his own admission he did not understand it at all. Yet

declared plainly that “I don’t like opera...I don’t like my words being set

this experience prompted him to study Beckett constantly, to compre-

to music.” In the end, however, he did write a libretto for Feldman after

hend his works, and, not least, to make several abortive attempts to

all. The reason for his reluctance in all probability was that he felt his

set Beckett texts to music. In the case of the uncompleted works, it is

words to be complete in themselves, together with their phonetic char-

difficult to detect the reason for failure – we can only surmise that it

acter and intonation, and the setting of them to music, obeying its laws,

was the armor-like structure of the chosen original works that made it

ruins them, falsifies them. At least as important to him, however, was

impossible to set them to music; it would have been almost impossible

the way in which his texts were edited musically: either by adaptation

to find a valid solution in place of the rigidly formalized structure of the

of the musical forms or their use as a structural element of passages in

text and the stage movements.

a known composition, in fact as an “actor,” or by means of the already-

The breakthrough came with a peculiarly occasional composition.

composed tempo and rhythm of the text. According to actors’ recollec-

The text that served as the basis for it was Samuel Beckett’s last writ-

tions, if Beckett himself directed a piece, the tempo, the rhythm and

ing – originally written in French, but Beckett made an English transla-

the length of rests were very important to him: he meticulously marked

tion as well. Kurtág, although he had never before set a translation to

them (the last-mentioned in seconds), and virtually every punctuation

music, on this occasion first made use of the Hungarian adaptation by

mark had a definite meaning for him; at rehearsals he tapped out the

István Siklós, but when he came to write the second version of it, he

required rhythm on the desk. The anecdote related about his meeting

worked the English translation also into his composition. Beckett’s text

with Stravinsky is very telling: he asked the composer – who was very

is a late ars poetica: the struggle for expression, for expressiveness, for

enthusiastic about the handling of time in Godot – how it would be

utterance, and the constant falling back to the beginning; not just the

possible to set down in a score this musical layer of what he envisaged

search for the right word, but the struggle for the appropriate expres-

as the ideal performance. Perhaps his reservations were also due to his

sion, to find the truly appropriate word for the known meaning. It is

feeling that any musical arrangement is too closely tied to the period

not the futility of verbal expression that the text proclaims, but the

in which it is written; we know that he took care to remove topical ref-

virtual impossibility of a successful outcome to the search. The gen-

erences from his own texts.

unimaginable without Ildikó Monyók’s acting skills. The actress lost the

works, are faithfully preserved in his director’s copies and theatrical

power of speech as a result of a car accident, and only at the cost of

notebooks, and importantly by the sound and video recordings of the

unbelievable efforts, and with enormous willpower, regained it after

performances he directed, although with changing theatrical practice

seven years of dumbness. At one stage in the work of rehabilitation she

and taste they require more and more explanation. So many stipula-

could not yet speak, but was able to sing – among others, she learned

tions and documents might well dampen composers’ enthusiasm,

two songs by Kurtág. Kurtág heard these songs and, in the moving qual-

yet Beckett’s texts remain attractive. Certainly their brevity and strict

ity of Monyók’s performance, her struggle to express herself in words,

editing represent a challenge to musical adaptation – though Beckett

he saw a parallel with the subject of Beckett’s text.

excluded the use of incidental music or illustrative musical accompaniment, saying “[N]o music, for pity’s sake; it’s my last gasp.”

In view of all this, György Kurtág’s attachment to Samuel Beckett’s 50

esis of Kurtág’s work, Comment dire/What is the Word, would have been

At the same time Beckett’s intentions, apart from the texts of his

The first version of the composition (Samuel Beckett Sends Word Through Ildikó Monyók in the Translation of István Siklós: Mi is a szó, op.

30/a) was written in 1990, for voice and upright piano. Throughout the

of the text: “What is the word?” What is music? And perhaps the greatest paradox and miracle of the way the music is formed is that even the most fragile musical material, motifs following one another in an order that is at first imperceptible, musical “word-fragments”, scraps of sen-

What remains is music György Kurtág and Samuel Beckett

tences, link-words and suffixes can become arranged into a musical process – preserving and eliminating the great paradox of Beckett’s late texts; after the final reduction, eventually the text itself also appears as music in the mind of the listener and reader.

Kurtág’s music is not a “setting to music” of Beckett’s text in the traditional sense of the term; rather a particular reading or interpretation of it in the different medium of another art, music. For this reason, it is also possible that among Kurtág’s “basic elements” direct quotation found a place: for the most painful, most direct sentence in it, he used notes from the slow movement of Bartók’s violin concerto; which raises the question, is it a quotation in music,

by András Wilheim

the art of time, if only the notes of a melody are quoted, and not its

piece the piano accompanies, in the strictest sense of the word; it plays

rhythms, its beat? And of course, because Bartók’s melody lives in

exactly the same notes as the singer sings, at the same pitch. More

our memory together with its rhythm, we expect to hear the notes in

precisely, the vocal part requires a kind of sound production between

the original rhythm – and since here they do not follow each other in

singing and recitation, with concrete pitches that can be recognised and

that way, in this quotation we can perceive what is perhaps the most

followed (not as in Schoenberg’s Sprachgesang parts), but not sung but

important formative principle of Kurtág’s art: the creation of continuity

spoken, shouted and screeched or whispered. The vocal and the piano

with measurable, countable, calculable time.

parts are like each other’s shadow, but it is impossible, or scarcely pos-

The orchestral version of the work (What is the Word, op. 30/b, 1991)

sible, to tell which leads and which follows the other. The drama of the

includes the performance space also among the basic elements of the

text unfolds in the vocal part, but its framework, form and direction are

composition; from 1987 onwards it is a frequent feature of Kurtág’s

perceived and understood in the musical action; basic elements line up

orchestral works that various groups of performers are positioned at

side by side, as if repeating in music the question posed at the beginning

different points in the hall. In this piece, however, spatiality produces 51

truly unusual acoustic ideas: not just the distant nature of the individual groups is important, and the direction from which the sounds reach us, but rather the fact that we are hearing unison notes, and thus every sound defines a different spatial position. If we regard these sounds – to borrow Cage’s terminology – as prepared sounds, then here space itself is one factor in the preparation. But for this acoustic experience to be able to manifest itself fully, we have to imagine such an ideal performance in such an ideal space that perhaps falls out of the bounds of possibility.

In the orchestral version, the language of the recitation is still Hungarian – but the English text is recited by an eightmember ensemble, commenting, supplementing, acting out, or at times anticipating what happens in the leading part. Not only does the music’s dimension alter in space,

György Kurtág

the proportions of the musical material are also transformed in comparison with the original version while the backbone

the passing over to the next world. And the third gesture is a composed

of the work remains the combination of the recitation and the piano.

motif, the vocal realization of which is a task that demands the impossi-

This composition warns the listener that it is possible to give

ble. With a single melodic line that arcs upwards, then plummets down

Beckett’s poem a musical reading that breaks through the structure of

and, from its lowest point, again swoops upwards, the singer has to

the text and creates an independent musical drama situation, in which

express wonder or, since we cannot really be sure what awaits us in the

text composition also seems to find a place, and in two layers: in the

beyond, in that sound perhaps rapture should also be expressed. Does

Hungarian translation and in the original, added to it more or less like

this represent the achievement of certainty regarding the end with

a commentary. This, however, does not mean an arbitrary re-interpreta-

resigned – and therefore rapturous – clear vision; or amazement that

tion of Beckett’s work; rather it reveals a special inner similarity in the

there really is a next world and glimpsing it is an ecstatic moment? Is it

thinking of the writer and the composer.

perhaps self-deception even in the last manifestation of life? Anyway, end of something, once and for all, and still continues.

expect to be performed. This game is deadly serious, as is the title:

The work is notated in a five-line system, with the modulation of the

Pillantás a túlvilágra (A Glimpse of the Next World): the work was writ-

various motifs, their pitch relative to each other, the vowel sounds to

ten in January 1992, the product of who knows what moment of crisis.

be sung and of course the dynamics all precisely specified – meticu-

It consists of three inhumanly difficult vocal gestures.

lously indicating the temporal disposition of the motifs, their propor-

The first is a sudden, terror-stricken exhalation; with ever-growing

52

afterwards, there is a long, very long pause – a silence that denotes the

tions and relative weight.

force the air is expelled from the increasingly helpless lungs or –

Drama evolves in the sounds and with the sounds, but it is by no

depending on the performer’s choice – an inhalation like a desperate

means a scene interpreted through extrinsic stage properties, and

struggle for life-giving air; as the composer’s instruction, with its own

even less any kind of “fooling around.” I could say that it is a Beckett-

enigmatic redundancy, says: “Suck the air backwards”. Whichever direc-

style drama and, what is more, it is in Beckett’s most ascetic genre, the

tion is chosen, the first gesture is followed by a long pause – not with

radio play. Or since we are talking about drawing breath, in his short-

the breath held, but with no breath taken at all. This is to be unbear-

est stage play, entitled Breath, where the faintly-lit stage, strewn with

ably, insufferably long. Then comes the second gesture, a gentle sigh,

all sorts of rubbish, in a single arc grows a little brighter then darkens

the first part of which is still active, but the longer, ever fainter, weak-

again: at the beginning and end of this process we hear twice the same

nulle part …”

ening part is increasingly resigned and passive. Again a pause, but a

quiet, stifled cry and together with the play of light an amplified inhala-

No. 26 “Lasciate

shorter one: this is the silence of the moment immediately preceding

tion and exhalation, with a five-second pause between them – all this

ogni speranza...”

„ … pas à pas –

by An dr ea Fe lv ég i

is suggested by a brief Kurtág composition that he perhaps did not

Cop yr ig ht

The nature of this apparently unfathomable, spiritual similarity

in less than thirty-five seconds What else is this but a form of music?

If a composer wants to give a similar musical form to a Beckett text, obviously he can resort to solutions that to the writer may seem arbitrary. Kurtág’s major Beckett cycle, his … pas à pas … nulle part (... step by step … nowhere), op. 36, for baritone voice, string trio and percussion instruments, which is a selection from Beckett’s the Mirlitonnades verse cycle, supplemented by an earlier verse, plus the original text of the Chamfort aphorisms and Beckett’s English translations (Long after Chamfort), is on the one hand a text composition that is faithful to Beckett, but it diverges widely from the original intention. He constructs a drama that lurks as a possibility among the texts, but this is much more Kurtág’s own: it finds its place in the context of his musical world. It is a dramatic happening, but with no stage; there is no action behind it.

The pseudo-drama of What is the Word and … pas à pas …, its virtual space, to which the music gives reality, can clearly achieve completeness when it submits itself to the test of a proper Beckett drama. Though Beckett did not like any dramatic text of his to be part of a musical work, he did not exclude the possibility that a composer might try to express in music the same dramatic situation that he put on the stage.

Perhaps he showed a degree of naivety in this, or perhaps rather that his ideas about music were bound up with the period of his literary awakening and its prevalent musical idioms. Today, he would almost certainly be more tolerant towards an operatic experiment using one of his dramas for a perhaps anachronistic undertaking. Is any musical language of our time valid, or capable of being validated, if it seeks to present characters and situations without playing a frivolous stylistic game with fragments of the musical past?

It is not really proper to say any more about what is truly a workin-progress – even if Beckett, too, analysed an aspect of what was at that time Joyce’s still opaque and therefore unappraisable work.

A contemporary, however, has the special opportunity and right of observation and tense expectation: the right to follow with interest how a composer wrestles with the task that Beckett defined for himself when once while he was directing Fin de partie, he had reached such a degree of simplification and denudation of the play that he was able to say somewhat playfully: “Now I am going to fill my silences with sounds.” Translation: Lorna Dunbar 53

Giovanni Simone Mayr: Historical-critical edition 250 th Birthday in 2013 (1763-1845)

of the complete works 54

The composers of our time should study Mayr’s operas.

They would find there everything what they are looking for and what would be useful for them. —Gioachino Rossini

BY OLIVER JACOB Giovanni Simone Mayr

Johann Simon (Giovanni Simone) Mayr was born June 14, 1763 in

of the Graubünden branch of the Bassus family, and a professor at

Mendorf, near Ingolstadt (Bavaria). His father Joseph taught at the

Ingolstadt University who, in 1780, inherited the title and property

school in Mendorf, and was also the church organist. It is from him that

(including Schloss Sandersdorf) of the Bavarian family line. Bassus was

Simon received his first keyboard and organ lessons, and he also sang

a member of the Order of the Illuminati, and maintained a printing

in the church choir; in 1769, he began taking lessons in Weltenburg.

press in Poschiavo; from there he distributed enlightenment literature

His talent did not go unnoticed: an unnamed admirer offered to make

in northern Italy. When the Order of the Illuminati was finally banned

it possible for young Mayr to study in Vienna. However, Mayr’s parents

in 1787, Bassus returned to Graubünden, taking the twenty-four-year-

turned the offer down. In 1772, most likely on account of his musical

old Mayr with him. (To what degree Mayr himself was actually involved

talent, Mayr received a scholarship to the Jesuit College in Ingolstadt,

in the Order is not known. There is, of course, nothing about this in his

where he studied grammar, rhetoric, logic, physics and theology until

Cenni, which in any case, reveals very little about his youth. But one

1777, when he enrolled at the university in Ingolstadt.

can assume that it is no coincidence that in 1815, the year in which

Not surprisingly, he devoted himself less to his studies of theology, law, rhetoric, logic and medicine, than to playing “quasi tutti gli stro-

Thomas Bassus died, Mayr wrote the cantata Annibale – Hannibal was Bassus’s name within the Order).

menti d’arco e da fiato” (almost all the string and wind instruments”), as

Most likely, the art lover Bassus already had Mayr involved in domes-

he himself reports is his autobiographical notes (Cenni autobiografici).

tic music in Sandersdorf. In Cantone, Bassus’s property near Poschiavo,

As a student, Mayr earned a living by playing the organ in churches in

Mayr (whose Lieder am Klavier zu singen were published in Regensburg

Ingolstadt.

in 1786) only catered to his Maecenas’s lightweight needs – a task that

It was at this time that Mayr also became acquainted with Baron

he may not have found entirely satisfying, or so one might conclude

Thomas (Tommaso Francesco Maria) von Bassus (1742-1815), a member

from a remark in his Cenni: “ogni composizione studiata d’intreccio e 55

d’imitazione, di fughe era quasi bandita” (“Every composition with an interweaving, an imitation or a fugue was almost banned”). But it must have been through Bassus that Mayr made contacts that ultimately allowed him to study with Carlo Lenzi, the Kappellmeister at Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo. Mayr’s first stay in Bergamo lasted just a few months: Mayr, as he writes in the Cenni, was dissatisfied, “che non poteva ottenere di essere istrutto ne’ primi principi dell’ arte di contrappunto” (complaining “that I did not get an instructor who taught teaching was obviously not what Mayr was hoping for, since the latter still hadn’t received any basic instruction in composition; moreover, as he wrote earlier, in Ingolstadt

that at this time he was still a beginner, whereas his peers Paër and

he had only been able to hear a few operettas by Hiller and a single

Nasolini were already getting to see their operas staged in Venice, did

concert in Munich. If we take this account of things in the Cenni seri-

not get what he wanted from Bertoni either. Bertoni gave some formal

ously, this means that up to the age of 26, Mayr was self-taught. In frus-

hints, but didn’t give him any basic instruction. So once again, Mayr

tration, Mayr had decided to leave Bergamo and return to Bavaria when

turned to teaching himself; and after Pesenti’s death in 1793, he had

a new Maecenas came into view: Conte Canonico Vincenzo Pesenti.

to give harpsichord lessons to earn a living.

Pesenti sent Mayr to Venice around 1789-90 to take lessons from

In Venice Mayr became acquainted with Piccinni and Peter von

Ferdinando Bertoni at the Conservatorio di Mendicanti, albeit with the

Winter, both of whom encouraged him to compose for the stage. On

condition that he was to devote himself exclusively to church music.

February 17, 1794, the premiere of Mayr’s first opera Saffo took place

But it soon turned out that Mayr, who wrote of himself in the Cenni 56

at the Teatro La Fenice. Previously he had already made a name for

© by Bib lioteca Civica An ge lo Mai e Archivi sto rici , Be rg am o

me the art of counterpoint”). Lenzi’s

Everyone bows when they hear Mayr’s name.

—Gaetano Donizetti in a letter to Mayr

himself in Venice with his oratorios Iacob a

London, Dresden and Milan competed to bring him to their opera

Labano fugiens (1791), Sisara (1793) and Tobiae

houses. But Mayr did not take up any of these options; he rejected

Matrimonium (1794). From 1794 to 1815 Mayr

the offer to become Maestro di Cappella at St. Peters in Rome, as he

wrote at least two operas each year, without ever

did Napoleon’s offer to make him Directeur du Théâtre et des Concerts

turning his back on church music.

with an annual salary of 20,000 francs. Officially, Mayr justified his

In fact, Carlo Lenzi had not forgotten his former

refusal saying he didn’t want to ask his wife to live in a foreign country

pupil, and proposed him as his successor. On May

(in 1804 he had married Lucrezia Venturali, the sister of his first wife

6, 1802, Mayr was named Maestro di Cappella at

Angiola, who died in 1803).

Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, a position he maintained to the end of his life.

Left: Autograph from “Credo detto di Novara” Right: Giovanni Simone Mayr

Mayr formed a warm friendship with his star pupil Donizetti. Once Donizetti left the Lezioni in Bergamo, the two men engaged in a lively

Though Mayr was not granted the happiness

exchange of letters and references. In 1824, Mayr asked Donizetti for a

of finding the right teacher himself, it was for just

contribution to his St. Cecilia festival in Bergamo. From Naples, Donizetti

this reason that he became very engaged with the

sent him a Credo in which he clearly alludes to Mayr’s Credo di Novara

training of young people. In 1805, Mayr’s music

(1815). Mayr in turn used parts of Donizetti’s Credo in his Messa a quattro

school Le Lezioni Caritatevoli di Musica was founded

(1826) written for the Einsiedeln monastery. Following the premiere of

in Bergamo; alongside his work as Kappellmeister,

Anna Bolena (1830), Mayr addressed his former pupil as Maestro.

he was the school’s director and also responsible for

Mayr’s last opera was Demetrio, premiered in Turin in December

teaching theory. For his pupils, Mayr wrote works like

1823. For the rest of his life, alongside works for his Lezioni, and a

solfeggios, songs and arias, as well as a series of stage works, including

few commissioned cantatas, Mayr mainly composed church music.

Il piccolo compositore di musica. The title role of this two-act Scherzo

Why Mayr completely turned his back on the stage remains a mystery.

musicale was written for Gaetano Donizetti, who began studying at

Equally hard to understand is Mayr’s outright refusal to let his church

Mayr’s school in 1806.

music be published; in a letter written to Giovanni Ricordi in 1840 he

Concurrently with his activities in Bergamo, Mayr was writing operas for most of the leading opera houses across Italy, as well as fulfill-

explained: “e fu costante mio sistema di non dar fuori musica di chiesa” (“it has constantly been my intention not to publish church music”).

ing requests to contribute sacred and secular works. His music was

Mayr died December, 2, 1845 in Bergamo. An eye ailment that led to

played throughout Europe. The degree of fame Mayr had achieved

near-blindness had made writing almost impossible for him. In his final

at this point in his career is proven by the numerous offers made to

years, he occupied himself by copying out some older sacred composi-

him beginning in 1803. Among others, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Lisbon,

tions on paper with widely-ruled staves. Translation: Richard Toop 57

Left: Alberto Posadas

by Jose Luis Besada

58

ue la Mu siq ) / Cite de

(Pa rr a)

Right: Hèctor Parra

(Pasa das Photos : DR

Spanish contemporary music surges ahead

and his opera will be premiered in the Teatro Real of Madrid. He is also working on a concert for three soloists and orchestra commissioned by the Donausechinger Musiktage, and on the creation of Tenebrae with Exaudi, the Ensemble Intercontemporain and the Ircam for the Spanish contemporary music has developed remarkably over the

ManiFeste Festival Biennale of vocal art.

last few decades. More and more Spanish music is performed in the

The influence of science and fine arts is also evident in Parra’s work,

great European festivals, as highlighted by the CDs produced by record

but the musical thinking of the Catalan composer is more linked to

companies like KAIROS, Col Legno and NEOS. Two main socio-cultural

the works of composers like Ferneyhough. Scenic music is recurrent

elements can explain this emergence: firstly, the s upport for the devel-

in his catalogue, as shown in Zangezi (2007) based on a text of the

opment of culture in democratic Spain as opposed to the intervention-

futurist Russian Velimir Khlebnikov, and in Hypermusic Prologue (2009),

ism of Franco’s regime, and, secondly, the improvement of the means

with the participation of the famous theoretical physicist Lisa Randall

of communication on an international level. Noteworthy among the

in the writing of the libretto. Parra is currently working with writer

composers who lived through the regime change during their youth

Marie NDiaye on the creation of new scenic projects: a production of

are Francisco Guerrero (Linares, 1951 – Madrid, 1997), sometimes

the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, of the Ircam, and of the Ensemble

seen as the “Xenakis español” (“Spanish Xenakis”), José Manuel López

Intercontemporain, and another premiere for the Münchener Biennale.

López (born Madrid, 1956), who represents the second spectral gen-

He is also collaborating with Händl Klaus on a major opera for the

eration, the Galician composer Enrique X. Macías (born 1958 and died

Schwetzinger Festspiele. As for the instrumental music, Parra’s style

1995 in Vigo), and Mauricio Sotelo (Madrid, 1961), a late disciple of

combines a use of densities and phrasing akin to romantic music but in

Nono and deeply linked to the flamenco musical tradition.

a fully current sound context, as shown in his pieces Caressant l’horizon

In the generation that followed – those who were born between

(2011) and Early Life (2010). Caressant l’horizon is mainly inspired by

1965 and 1980 – two authors are particularly valued in the French-

the astrophysics of black holes, and Early Life - a work commissioned by

speaking countries and more and more in the German-speaking

the Ernst von Siemens Foundation after he received the Composition

area: Alberto Posadas (born Valladolid, 1967) and Hèctor Parra (born

prize - from theories of Cairns-Smith prebiotic evolution.

Barcelona, 1976). The work of Posadas, a disciple of Guerrero, is akin to

Nevertheless, Posadas and Parra are not isolated cases in the

the musical thinking of Varèse and Xenakis. In some pas-

Spanish creative panorama. An entire generation of new composers

sages, it is also close to Scelsi’s style and to the French

is getting remarkable recognition at both national and international

spectral music genre. The metaphor with several mod-

level. It is also true of Jesús Torres (born Zaragoza, 1965) with his

els external to music is a permanent feature in his work.

notable neoclassical touch, of Ramon Lazkano (born San Sebastián,

The mathematical inspiration spreads widely through-

1968), one of the most skillful Spanish orchestrators born in the 20th

out his catalogue: the most significant examples are

century, José María Sánchez-Verdú (born Algeciras, 1968), able to

most probably his cycle of string quartets Liturgia

associate the Lachenmannian style with the Arab-Andalusian influ-

Fractal (2003-2007) – written for the Quatuor Diotima

ence, and Elena Mendoza (born Sevilla, 1973), who specializes in

– and his ballet Glossopoeia (2009). He also favors

musical theater works.

the transfer of ideas from other artistic genres in his

In short, and despite the consequences of the economic crisis in

work. Thus, his quintet Nebmaat (2003) was inspired

Spain and its big impact on cultural institutions, it seems that at least

by the pyramid-shaped architecture in Egypt and

the creative continuity of this generation has established itself in

Cuatro escenas negras (2009) and La Lumière du noir

Europe and will continue to play a substantial part in international cre-

(2010) by works of painters like Francisco de Goya

ative life for many years to come.

and Pierre Soulages. As his next creative projects, Alberto Posadas will complete his new cycle enti-

Editions Durand Salabert Eschig, partners of the 2012 Oviedo

tled Sombras for the Quatuor Diotima - adding a

Concorso with Orquesta Filarmonía de Oviedo and Maestro Marzio

soprano and a clarinet - to be performed at the

Conti, are happy to publish the First National Young Composers

Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik festival,

Prize, Guillermo Martinez’ Rapsodia para violin y orquesta.

59

Encore: 60

Orchestras merging in Germany,

next March) and his artistic directorship of the Colonne Orchestra in

dramatic cuts in public subsidies

Paris, is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the French Society of

in Spain and Italy, cultural budgets

Authors, Composers and Publishers (SACEM). Along with composers

based on compensation for “private

like Wolfgang Rihm in Germany, few creators could better describe

copying” endangered throughout

the arsenal which a European authors’ rights society like SACEM (the

Europe with France and Austria at

“armed wing” of “French cultural exception”), uses to help contem-

the forefront: the economic crisis

porary music to defend itself in the best possible way during this

is now having a strong impact on

period of economic turbulence. Laurent Petitgirard spoke with Eric

contemporary music and is steadily

Denut about the current situation and his vision of the future:

reconfiguring the balance between

Composers must be committed “I’ve noticed that a change

Composers committed to the defence of authors’ rights: An interview with composer Laurent Petitgirard

of activity is as good as a rest from the previous one. If I had to compose for fourteen hours a day I think that my head might explode; on the other hand if I had to work on copyright for fourteen hours a day, I’d probably not be here anymore. Alternating between

public funding and private initia-

one and the other requires a few presuppositions and constraints

tives, protected repertoire and the

but I find it regenerative. As an artist living in France, a country of

public domain, and, in general, the

“tags,” the principal difficulty resides in not allowing oneself to be

entire value chain of our profession.

reduced to one’s most visible activity, or to a “stereotype.”

Although the decision makers and

To be confined in this way can play tricks even with artists of

the general public are usually only

the calibre of a Leonard Bernstein or an André Previn (who,

aware of the surface reactions, com-

for example, is rarely invited to our country).

Concerto pour saxophone alto

posers who are involved in their art

Copyright is getting harder and harder to manage and

for the long term often know how to

requires knowledge of a growing number of parameters.

World premiere on March 12,

enrich the profession with their per-

Can creative people claim to be able to master such a con-

2013 in Douai (France), with the

spective and “political” (in a broad

stantly growing volume of knowledge? Probably not. In order

Orchestre de Douai conducted

sense) talents. France is a beacon

to be efficient on the board of a company like SACEM, the

by Laurent Petitgirard and

for “cultural exception” which it has

Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungsrechte (GEMA), etc.,

Michel Supéra on the saxophone

defended in international commer-

you must have reached the point where you can understand

cial negotiations for two decades.

many of the things that you will be called upon to deal with

The central figure in the front line

and also can envisage things that you will not be able to deal with.

of that effort is Laurent Petitgirard,

Only once you have enough knowledge to estimate the extent of

a composer published in the Durand

your own ignorance can you delegate intelligently. The composers,

collection, who, in parallel with his

authors and editors comprising a Board like that of SACEM must

musical creations (his Concerto for

share ideas of a specific ethic, of a specific vision, of a specific com-

saxophone is due to be premièred

mitment to precision in redistribution (this is one element, among

et orchestre

others, of the European cultural exception and accordingly costs

initiatives”) could lead to the sums levied for “private copying” being

a little more in management fees).It follows, then, that, facing the

put into question by the European Court of Justice. If the decision of

complexity of the stakes connected with the evolution of copyright

the Court were unfavourable, it would have dramatic consequences for

and technology, creative people need the support of a general man-

contemporary music in a country like France and elsewhere. I can’t see

ager who can and must have his own vision, modulated by the Board

the European states compensating this loss in any way with the state

who watches over its fair implementation.

of public finances today.

Once this framework is drawn out it seems to me that, for a com-

This means that in this dossier, as Chairman of the SACEM, I have to

poser who feels in a position to do so, it is a duty to commit oneself

lobby national and European politicians; of course, being a musician

to a society like SACEM, even if it is only for a short time. Otherwise it

from a background of classical music gives me access to these people

means that the keys to the management of authors’ rights and those

in a different way than if I were a musician from a more “commercial”

authors’ societies who exist to defend and to give it life

background. The fact that no one suspects me of having a large income

are left to pure technicians. You can see where this has

with my activity as a composer of art music puts me in a better position

led in some cases....”

to make people understand and accept that I am defending principles

The incarnation of the “cultural exception:” SACEM’s arsenal for the defence of contemporary art music

Laurent Petitgirard

“It would be a mistake to underestimate the difficulty of defending

about solidarity between musical styles: contemporary

our music before our political elite. One sign among many others: our

pop music, film scores, to cite just a few examples,

ex-Président de la République Jacques Chirac confessed to listening to

support the more demanding musical styles. For tele-

Le Marteau sans Maître by Pierre Boulez. We all know this is probably

vision, the multiplying factors, upon which are based

only partly true, but it was well received in our profession: there was in

the subsequent distribution, are ten times greater

this confession, be it true or not, the determination for a requirement

for contemporary music than for background music.

for culture, of a kind of curiosity. I do not wish to be cruel but should

Certain authors’ societies throughout the world do

we perhaps talk about the playlists of our two last candidates to the

not do this. This solidarity needs to be preserved at

presidency? There weren’t even any attempts to include repertoire

composer representative of contemporary music on the Board – it

ist e Mi llot

Contemporary music and the political elite

“There is a consensus of opinion within the Board

all cost. But it remains fragile: for example, this year, I am the sole

n- Ba pt PH OTO: Jea

rather than my own interests.”

works by Debussy or Ravel....”

Authors’ Rights Societies as laboratories for the future

is also interesting to note that I am its chairman, but surely this

“SACEM is a place where creative people and revenues from very dif-

should not hide a certain structural fragility in the representation

ferent worlds cohabit: one world that must be profitable and another

of modern music.

world that is mostly subsidized. Just like other authors’ societies

Cultural budget of the SACEM is the other essential flank in the

throughout Europe it is at the heart of the problem music is encoun-

defensive line for this music. Of the 18 million (Euros) of funds, which

tering today and so it can observe the workings, the common ground

originate in part (€3 million) from a free allocation from the Board and

and the differences between these two worlds which meet where

for the greater part (the remaining €15 million) from the “cultural 25

patronage and other private support is involved. In the world of con-

percent” levied on “private copying”, 30 percent is devoted to sup-

temporary music, the subsidized part has taken on such importance

porting contemporary art music, without any relation to income levels.

that the crisis is perceived only when subsidy is threatened and not

The current crisis, which also affects contemporary popular music, of

when audiences are undermined. In the general context of narrow-

course, makes greater demands for support from their representatives

ing subsidies, SACEM and other authors’ societies experience of the

and artists; so this substantial share is very likely to be reduced even if

“commerce” (in the noble sense of the word) of the musical world will

we want it to remain significant.”

rapidly become precious to contemporary music, for example in the

The immediate threat

domain of the application of music to image (where practices remain

“The most immediate threat comes from the fact that an objec-

frequently rather archaic in orchestral and lyrical institutions). I hope

tion raised by Austria (where 50 percent of the sums levied under

that the “subsidised world” will rapidly come to a greater awareness of

the “private copying” legislation are designated to support “cultural

the changing conditions.”

61

(selection) January

February

March

April

18

2

17

2

22

13

29

Vinko Globokar

Adam Schoenberg

Fabio Nieder

Giuseppe Verdi

Philippe Manoury

Azio Corghi

Rolf Riehm

L’Éxil No. 1

Picture Etudes

Schlafendes

Un giorno di regno

Melencolia (String

Elena for choir,

Pasolini in Ostia

for soprano and

for orchestra,

Papierfrauenobjekt

(critical edition),

Quartet No. 3),

Biella

for ensemble,

ensemble, Hannover

Kansas City

auf Augenhoehe,

Sarasota

Monte Carlo

Hannover

21

Giacomo Meyerbeer

3

28

Chichino e Cicotta

Fabien Lévy

Vasco da Gama

Ian Wilson

Giampaolo Testoni

(opera for children)

Après tout for

(L’Africaine) (opera),

Minsk (chamber

Terza Sinfonia,

Milan

vocal ensemble and

Chemnitz

opera), Heilbronn

Ljubljana

3

5

Rudolf Kelterborn

26

Matteo Franceschini

Benoit Mernier

Sinfonie No. 5 “La

Azio Corghi, Preludio

Voce (cello concerto),

La Dispute (opera),

Notte”, Basel

‘ad una stella’,

Paris

Brussels

14

8

Volker Heyn

Michel Decoust

Pascal Dusapin

eclipse of reason for

27

12 orchestrations of

Aufgang (violin

voice, ensemble and

Younghi Pagh-Paan

Satie’s piano works,

concerto), Cologne

fixed media, Cologne

Der Glanz des Lichtes.

Mondeville

Dai Fujikura

27

Samir Odeh-Tamimi,

my butterflies for

Fabien Levy

String Quartet,

wind orchestra,

Towards the Door

Oldenburg

Chicago

We Never Opened for

Matteo Franceschini

9

Divertimento

Vinko Globokar,

(I Quartetto) for

Kaleidoskop im Nebel

28

string quartet, Rome

for ensemble, Bergen

Alberto Colla

instruments, Berlin

for voice and five instruments, Busseto

Double Concerto Berlin

Laurent Petitgirard Saxophone Concerto, Douai 62

Silvia Colasanti

14

21

saxophone quartet, Witten

Symphonie des Prodiges, Paris

Los Angeles

May

June

July

SEPTEMBER

October

November

1

1

23

20

1

20

Posadas and

Robert HP Platz

Gérard Zinstag Seul,

Carlo Boccadoro

Fabio Vacchi

Fabio Vacchi

Enno Poppe

Fujikura,

Branenwelten 1 + 5 +

l’écho for voice

Antigone (ballet),

Triple Concerto for

Veronica Franco for

Speicher I-VI for

Huddersfield

6 for pf, perc, strgs,

and ensemble,

Bozen

two flutes, harp and

soprano, actor and

large ensemble,

electronics, Cologne

Copenhagen

orchestra, Bari

orchestra, Milan

Donaueschingen

Michel Roth, MOI for

11

AUGUST

Georges Aperghis

4

25

9

ensemble, Cologne

Alexandre Desplat

1

Wild romance

Georges Aperghis

Zoltán Jeney: new

Marc Monnet

Poème symphonique

Guo Wenjing

for soprano and

Four etudes for

work for flute and

Trio n° 3, Paris

after Pelléas &

Three Scenes of

orchestra, Oslo

orchestra, Cologne

orchestra, Budapest

Mélisande, Nantes

Chinese opera, Sion

Marc Monnet Violin

19

Philippe Hersant

sopranos and

Alberto Posadas

24

Concerto, Strasbourg

Luca Francesconi

Vêpres à la Vierge

ensemble, Bodø

new work for vocal

Dai Fujikura

Piano Concerto,

(cantata), Paris

and chamber

New work for

Porto

ensemble, Paris

soprano and string

5 Sergej Newski new work for two

7 Enno Poppe

quartet, Salzburg

Out at Sea (chamber opera), Budapest

“IQ”), Cologne

Philippe Schoeller

26

ble and orchestra,

Songs from Esstal for

Olga Neuwirth

Donaueschingen

soprano and large

New work for soprano

orchestra, Paris

and ensemble, Salzburg

Kamakala for orchestra, Florence 29 Michel Tabachnik Lumières fossiles for orchestra, Paris

Alberto Posadas Concerto for three

8

woodwinds and

Mauro Lanza

orchestra,

Ludus de morte regis

Donaueschingen

for choir, Paris

six composers

new work for ensem-

7

Giacinto Scelsi

10

Philippe Manoury

Koffer (Suite from

11

DECEMBER

20

25

Georges Aperghis:

Eric Tanguy

Situations. Soirée

Organ Concerto,

musicale for

Caen

large ensemble,

Francesca Verunelli The narrow corner for orchestra, Paris 13 Philippe Manoury Concerto for two pianos and orchestra, Munich

Donaueschingen 63

Please contact our promotion team for any questions, perusal scores or recordings: Casa Ricordi, Milan Annamaria Macchi annamaria.macchi@umusic.com Editions Durand – Salabert – Eschig, Paris Eric Denut eric.denut@umusic.com G Ricordi & Co., Munich Michael Zwenzner mzwenzner@ricordi.de Michael Lochar mlochar@ricordi.de G Ricordi & Co., London Elaine Mitchener elaine.mitchener@umusic.com Editio Musica Budapest TÜnde Szitha szitha@emb.hu Universal Music Publishing Classical Silke Hilger Santa Monica, California silke.hilger@umusic.com

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