05 11 World Premieres New works for piano trio
07 Cristóbal Halffter Lázaro at the Kiel Opera
11 Arvo Pärt Human foibles
12 Harrison Birtwistle Double comedy trouble
21 Walter Braunfels St Joan in Berlin
Cristóbal Halffter World Première Lázaro in Kiel
newsletter 02/08 • spring 2008
Contents
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= World Première
COMPOSERS Stockhausen — 4 11 World Premières — 5-6 Halffter — 7 Rihm — 8 Haas — 9 Staud — 10 Panufnik — 10 Pärt — 11 Schwartz — 11 Schnittke — 12 Birtwistle — 12 Sotelo — 13 Luke Bedford — 13 Borisova-Ollas — 15 Baltakas — 15 Kurtág — 16 Furrer — 16 Lentz — 16 Boulez — 17 Cerha — 17 Pousseur — 18 Wilson — 18 Eichberg — 18 Berio — 19 Scherchen — 20 Kagel — 20 Braunfels — 21 Ligeti — 21 Eisler — 22 Feldman — 22 Weill — 23 Zádor — 24 Kaminsky — 24 Krenek — 25 Casella — 26 Liebermann — 26 Schulhoff — 26
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contents 02/2008
Martin — 27 Messiaen — 27 Milhaud — 28 Szymanowski — 28 Bartók — 29 Kodály — 29 Zemlinsky — 30 Schreker — 30 Schönberg — 31 Webern — 32 Malipiero — 32 Berg — 33 Mahler — 34 Janáček — 35 Beethoven — 35
ANNIVERSARIES — 36 - 37 WORLD PREMIERES — 38 - 39 NEW RELEASES — 40 - 41 NEW ON CD AND DVD — 42 - 43 WORKLISTE Halffter — 44 -46
Dear Readers, Who wouldn’t love to have been in Berlin in 1925 for the première of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck – like Alfred Schlee, Universal Edition’s director for many years, for whom this evening turned out to be a landmark event? Such life-changing experiences don’t just come out of the blue. Even a masterpiece like Wozzeck had to be composed first, and this itself required a stimulus – a bold theatre director to give the commission which would change operatic history. Over the next few months two operas by UE composers are receiving their premières: Lázaro by Cristóbal Halffter at the Opera in Kiel (4 May) and Melancholia by Georg Friedrich Haas at the Opéra National de Paris (9 Jun). We extend our thanks to both the directors responsible, for ensuring by their commitment that opera remains a living art form.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 48 The Editorial Team
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STOCKHAUSEN
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007) Karlheinz Stockhausen was signed by Universal Edition in July 1953 with his work Kontra-Punkte. 37 works created up until 1969 are published by Universal Edition. Stockhausen made it clear right from the start that he was searching for a radical new beginning. It was his conviction that music after 1945 needed a new foundation, both aesthetically and morally. His place in music encyclopaedias was secured already by his early works; a rare occurrence indeed in music history. Today Kreuzspiel, Kontra-Punkte, Punkte, Zeitmasse and Gruppen belong to the classics of modernism.
As a vocal advocate of serialism he enabled the development of new structures with which music can be organised. Through his use of electronics he became an icon of musical progress with an influence reaching far wider than the circles of new music. In these years there was hardly a single composer who did not take Stockhausen as a reference. His pioneering achievements also included the union of music with space and exploration of the systematic organisation of durations, on the same lines as the organisation of pitches in twelvetone music. By paving the way through unknown musical territory, and being a true visionary, Stockhausen has earned a permanent place in the music history of the 20th century. Karlheinz Stockhausen died on 5 Dec 2007 in KĂźrten. We mourn the loss of a great composer.
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stockhausen
UNIVERSAL EDITION
11 new works for piano trio On 29 Nov 2007 the Vienna Musikverein hosted a remarkable event: a whole concert of premières in honour of Bálint András Varga, Universal Edition’s Promotion Manager since 1992, who retired at the end of the year. Several UE composers attended the concert in person to show their gratitude. Wolfgang Rihm and Vykintas Baltakas surprised everyone with personal greetings. The Vienna Piano Trio gave the premières of no fewer than 11 new works for their ensemble, which as a whole showed the versatility of form and timbre with which one could still write for this combination today. New works for piano trio are now
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available by the following composers (at the moment still as special orders): Harrison Birtwistle Double Hocket for Bálint Varga for violin, cello and piano (with Boosey & Hawkes) Friedrich Cerha Parabola I for violin, cello and piano Georg Friedrich Haas ins Licht for violin, cello and piano Saed Haddad The Politics of Chaos (Bartók & Grisey in memoriam) for violin, cello and piano
Concert for Bálint András Varga
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11 word premières
cont. from page 5: Cristóbal Halffter Canto del caballero for violin, cello and piano György Kurtág Varga Bálint Ligaturája for violin, cello and piano Arvo Pärt Scala cromatica Trio piccolo for violin, cello and piano David Sawer Satz for violin, cello and piano dedicated to Bálint András Varga Jay Schwartz Music for Violin, Violoncello and Piano
Bálint András Varga
Mauricio Sotelo Venta Varga for violin, cello and piano Johannes Maria Staud Für Bálint András Varga 4 miniatures for piano trio
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11 word premières
HALFFTER
Of life and death Ever since the première of the reduced version of Don Quijote, opera lovers in Kiel have had a new favourite among the composers of our time: Cristóbal Halffter. The enthusiasm has resulted in a commission for a further opera, Lázaro, which will have its eagerly awaited première on 4 May, conducted by Georg Fritzsch. Halffter has divided the Biblical material into five scenes and filled it with life in a manner typical of his musical language. The opera revolves around life and death and tells of the (life) force which overcomes death. Despite its expansive scoring, in many places Lázaro has a chamber music character. The very lyrically written vocal parts are contrasted – as so often in Halffter’s
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case – with distorted quotations from ‘early’ music. The stage direction is by Alexander Schulin, as with Don Quijote. As a kind of introduction and preparation, Introducción y escena from the opera, for soloists and orchestra, is to receive its German première in Kiel as soon as 16 Mar – here too, Georg Fritzsch is conducting. Adagio in the Form of a Rondo, first performed by the Vienna Philharmonic at the 2003 Salzburg Festival, is a ‘grand, moving, dark-hued epitaph’ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) in which Cristobál Halffter reflects on the 9/11 attacks in the USA. The work is now to receive its first Czech performance as part of the ‘Prague Premières’: Peter Vronský conducts the Moravian Philharmonia of Olomouc on 29 Mar.
Giotto di Bondone Lázaro Basilica de San Francisco Assisi
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halffter
RIHM
Precise ecstasy Bursting with energy, Jagden und Formen still remains precise in all its ecstasy. The music sprouts and blooms and has literally grown out of three originally independent works which here interweave with and nourish one another. Wolfgang Rihm’s new version is receiving its first performance with Ensemble Modern on 7 May in Frankfurt – where Sasha Waltz & Guests will transform the work’s implicit gestures into dance – with further performances in Berlin (10– 12 May). The composer has also expanded another work: Male über Male has its première in Witten on 25 Apr with Ensemble Contrechamps. The chamber opera Jakob Lenz is one of the most performed music theatre works of our day. The
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Sasha Waltz & Guests
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rihm
drama of an anguished, self-destructive psyche, which confuses dream visions with reality, is being given a new staged interpretation at the Vienna Festival. The production is assured to create a stir, particularly as with Frank Castorf it has a director who knows like no other how to give expression to human destinies (starts on 17 May, Theater an der Wien). Of the countless other Rihm concerts, mention be made above all of the first performances: Das Lesen der Schrift (30 May, Kraków), Sotto voce 1 and 2 (5/6 Mar, Lucerne with soloist Nicholas Hodges) and Vigilia (19 Mar, Cathédrale St Michel, Brussels). Fetzen nos. 2 and 4 will be performed by soloists of the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris (10 Apr), and Deus Passus can be heard on 15 and 16 Mar at the venue of its première: the Stuttgart Liederhalle (Bach Collegium Stuttgart, Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart/Helmuth Rilling).
HAAS
Not Chinese Georg Friedrich Haas’ music is often described as microtonal, a term which is easy to print but doesn’t necessarily say much about the music itself. It’s like saying he’s not Chinese. True, but hardly helpful. As Haas himself points out, what Western European classical music regards as a natural law – take for example a major triad – is absent in most non-European cultures, whereas singing in microtonal intervals is widespread. Haas expands this phenomenon to argue that we have a basic desire for dissonance, and consonance in fact bores us!
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is a normally tuned concert grand. But the work by no means adheres to a classical concerto format, and Haas uses the orchestra as a kind of extension of the piano’s sonority – the very beginning featuring sforzando attacked single notes on the piano which are then adopted and spread out amongst the orchestra. Yes, there are sixth-tones and very audible harmonic series present in the work, but the listener has the feeling that there’s nothing there that hasn’t been ‘launched’ by the piano first – after all, just consider the rich overtones of a Steinway concert grand. Haas’ fourth concerto, following the violin, cello and piano, is the Saxophone Concerto and will be premièred in Cologne by Marcus Weiss with the WDR SO on the 3 May. Emilio Pomárico will conduct. April sees the first performance of … in progress for 16 instruments at the Vienna Konservatorium by students of Ernst Theis.
In Haas’ last concerto, the Piano Concerto premièred in Vienna in November, the central instrument
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haas
STAUD
Special selection For his latest work, Johannes Maria Staud has chosen an ensemble for which hardly anyone has written since Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps: clarinet, violin, cello and piano. The title, Lagrein, refers to a grape variety grown in the region where it is to be premièred, Magreid in South Tyrol (20 May). What most interests Staud here is the role of the clarinet, whose specific timbre is otherwise used in a
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Johannes Maria Staud
completely different context in chamber music. Incipit III for trombone solo, string orchestra, 2 horns and percussion is receiving its Austrian première in Vienna on 30 May (with soloist Uwe Dierksen, conducted by Bertrand de Billy). Apeiron, first performed by Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in 2005, is becoming something of a success story. Franz Welser-Most conducts its US-première on 28 Feb in Cleveland. PANUFNIK
Strong choirs 2008 already looks very exciting for Roxanna Panufnik: 4 world-premières and a UK première surround her 40th birthday celebrations in April! On 13 Mar, Graham Caldbeck will conduct the Nonsuch Singers and shakuhachi soloist Kiku Day at St. John’s, Smith Square in Wild Ways. Two days later at St. Peter’s Church, Poole, David Gostick conducts the Bournemouth Sinfonietta and choir in the UK première of Love Abide. Mobius Ensemble will debut Rose on 22 May and Tasmin Little will perform Spring, her new violin concerto, with the Orchestra of the Swan on 5 May. Finally, the Dante String Quartet, along with a 30-strong male-voice choir from King’s College, Cambridge, will air Heaven to Earth on 10 May.
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Jay Schwartz PÄRT
Distinction and première
Pärt on 20 May, with a performance of Miserere by the Ars Nova Choir and the Athelas Sinfonietta under Paul Hillier. SCHWARTZ
‘Arvo Pärt is one of the WP most original voices on the international music scene today’. This is one of the reasons given by the Sonning Music Foundation for awarding the composer the Léonie Sonning Prize – the most important distinction in the Danish music world – on 22 May at a celebratory concert conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste. Besides Cantus, L’Abbé Agathon and In Principio, the programme also includes a première: ‘These Words …’, a 15-minute work for strings and percussion. As its textual basis Pärt uses the human foibles mentioned in the old Church Slavonic prayer from the Canon to the Guardian Angel, while the title derives from associations between this material and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Copenhagen will already be focusing on
Psychiatric lament Music for Six Voices III by Jay Schwartz is a lament based on the letters of a female patient at a psychiatric institution in the early 20th century. The letters come from the Prinzhorn Collection at Heidelberg University. The work is to receive its première on 27 Apr as part of the Witten New Music Days; Walter Nussbaum conducts the Schola Heidelberg. At the same time, Schwartz’s concert installation Music for Autosonic Gongs X can be experienced in the ‘Zeche-Nachtigall’, a former Witten coal mine.
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SCHNITTKE
Dialogue with the past For Alfred Schnittke, ‘polystylism’ was a logical reaction to modern concert life, in which yesterday and today are equally present. ‘The present-day composer cannot ignore the past which is offered us on a daily basis. We enter into a dialogue with the past,’ said Schnittke. Peter Manning’s string orchestra version of the String Quartet No. 3 can be heard for the first time in Germany on 9 Apr in Wiesbaden, with the Hessisches Staatsorchester of Wiesbaden under Philippe Auguin. BIRTWISTLE
Better safe than sorry To coincide with the eagerly awaited opening of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s The Minotaur, both English National Opera and the Royal Opera House are hosting his very first opera, Punch and Judy, in its 40th anniversary year. ENO’s new production opens on 19 Apr and has Daniel Kramer as director, with Edward Gardner con-
Sir Harrison Birtwistle
ducting. It takes place at the Young Vic – an intimate setting for this disturbingly dark work. Prior to this, however, comes Music Theatre Wales’ established production at the Linbury Studio of the ROH, directed by Michael McCarthy and conducted by Michael Rafferty (17, 19, 20 Mar). Meanwhile, on 13 Apr at the Philharmonie in Luxembourg, and on 14 Apr at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Beat Furrer directs Klangforum Wien in performances of Tombeau in memoriam Igor Stravinsky. Looking ahead to 2009 – Birtwistle’s 75th year – reveals many performances worldwide. More soon … www.youngvic.org www.royaloperahouse.org
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schnittke / birtwistle
SOTELO
Distant echo Como llora el aqua … is inspired by Mauricio Sotelo’s Como llora el viento for guitar and orchestra (first performed in January) of which the composer says:‘The language sounds quite different from any other conceivable type of new music. I have struggled for a long time to be able to write in such a language.’ The guitarist at the première of the new solo work will again be Juan Manuel Canizares (13 Mar, Berlin). On the same day the Berlin Festival also features Audéeis, with the flamenco singer Arcángel as soloist. Tamquam centrum circuli for flute, harpsichord and orchestra (1997 / 2006) draws on memories of the ancient songs of Flamenco, which permeate the work like a distant echo. The cadenza was inspired by
a visit to the Alhambra in Granada. The work is now to receive its first Czech performance as part of the ‘Prague Premières’ concert series (30 Mar, conducted by Jiří Malát).
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BEDFORD
Complex themes Newly appointed as the first ever composer-in-residence at the Wigmore Hall, Luke Bedford is also continuing to flourish in his relationship with the BCMG. Good Dream She Has is to be premièred in Birmingham on 14 Apr. Having been inspired by a phrase from Milton’s Paradise Lost in his BBC commission Rode with Darkness, this new work will again draw on some of the complex themes therein. Oliver Knussen will conduct BCMG at the CBSO Centre, with soloists Angela Tunstall, S, Susan Bickley, MS, and Alan Belk, T.
Luke Bedford
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sotelo / bedford
BORISOVA-OLLAS
The storyteller ‘The scores of Victoria BorisovaOllas are full to the brim with emotion, delicately woven and of intense story-telling power’, wrote a Swedish music critic. The composer’s collaboration with the Swedish RSO is further reinforced this spring by no less than four performances: Before the Mountains Were Born for wind quartet and orchestra under Susanna Mälkki (12 and 14 Mar), the Symphony No. 1 on 8 May under J. Gustavsson (also for CD), and The Ground Beneath Her
Feet for singer, speaker and orchestra after the gripping novel of the same name by Salman Rushdie, receiving its Swedish première under Niklas Willén in Stockholm (22 May). Revised since its première, for the Stockholm performance the narration has also been translated into Swedish – although the songs remain in their original English – to mirror the Swedish edition of the novel. BALTAKAS
Wild Things
Victoria Borisova-Ollas
Vykintas Baltakas’ Ouroboros was commissioned by the Klangspuren Schwaz/A festival and was premièred there in 2004 by the Lithuanian Gaida Ensemble. The Austrian newspaper Der Standard spoke of ‘quivering layers of sound and complex patterns’ in this delicate but intense 15 minute work. A series of performances has followed and the work will now be presented in Zurich by the Collegium Novum Zurich. Roland Kluttig conducts the promisingly titled concert ‘Young Wild Things from the North’ at the Schiffbau on 8 May.
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KURTÁG
Flowers are we, mere flowers
permeate each another. The Ensemble für Neue Musik performs this fascinating, complex work on 10 Apr in Basle. LENTZ
A key work in György Kurtág’s output is The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza – a concerto for soprano and piano in the sense of the ‘sacred concertos’ of, say, Heinrich Schütz. Like Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus, Kurtág derived inspiration from a Hungarian preacher of the 16th century. In Death, the third movement of this four-part work, we find the words and melody which have become a kind of motto for Kurtág: ‘Flowers are we, mere flowers’. Elena Vassilieva and PierreLaurent Aimard are performing the work in Paris on 1 Apr. FURRER
Imaginary space The acoustic effect created by Beat Furrer’s ensemble piece Gaspra (first performed in 1989) results from two different processes. The live instrumental sounds are ‘projected’ via a computer-controlled mixing desk into a pulsating, expanding and retracting (imaginary) musical space. Our perceptual notions of the real space and the space generated by the computer/mixing desk
Existential loneliness The isolation, silence and starry night skies of the vast Australian Outback are important sources of inspiration for Georges Lentz. Monh (the word for ‘stars’ in an Aboriginal language) from Mysterium (Ceali enarrant … VII) (2001/5) for viola, orchestra and electronics is concerned with ‘the problem of our existential loneliness’, ‘the problem of how to bear this silence’. The work is dedicated to viola player Tabea Zimmermann and conductor Steven Sloane, who are to give the work its Australian première on 26 Mar (with further performances on 28 and 29 Mar) with the Sydney SO at the Sydney Opera House.
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Pierre Boulez BOULEZ
Finely crafted miniatures Notations I-IV for orchestra is a 1960 revision of the first 4 pieces of 12 Notations, written by Pierre Boulez for piano in 1945 and in some ways his ‘Opus 1’: each of the pieces a finely crafted 12-bar miniature, whose originality emerges even more powerfully in the orchestral version. Boulez is conducting Notations I–IV and Notation VII on 6 May in Brussels with the London Symphony Orchestra. The Ensemble Intercontemporain (EIC) is also taking some of its founder’s works on tour. With its chief conductor Susanna Mälkki it is performing both Dérive 1 (Valenciennes, 30 Mar and Rome, 8 May) and Dérive 2 (Essen, 31 May), which will also receive its Swedish première in Stockholm on 6 Apr with
KammarensembleN. And on 7 Apr in Madrid, the EIC is performing the classic work Igor Stravinsky so admired: Le Marteau sans maître.
CERHA
Dreamy detachment ‘I have always loved the sound of the saxophone. I treasure its cantabile possibilities, its capacity for dreamy detachment’, says Friedrich Cerha. At the centre of his Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra – first performed in 2006, lies the relationship between individual and society. Now the soloist Theodore Kerkezos is to perform the concerto in Athens on 3 Apr (Orchestra Kamerata / Warren Green).
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POUSSEUR
Endless options Miroir de Votre Faust (Caractères II) (1964) for solo piano and optional soprano consists of three reworked extracts from the opera Votre Faust, which Henri Pousseur wrote in collaboration with Michel Butor between 1961 and 1968. Windows are cut into the pages of the sheet music, so that other music appears from the next page and is performed. Freedom to choose between different possible variations and versions gives rise to endless performance options. Soloists from the Bavarian State Orchestra are performing the work on 29 May at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. WILSON
Brighton, Canada and Italy Running from 3–25 May, the 2008 Brighton Festival features the music of Ian Wilson. The Cappa Quartet gives the UK première of his quartet no. 4, Veer and there is a new piece for two guitars called Cast. This is a transcription of 3 of the 5 movements of Wilson’s quartet no. 2, each inspired by a different
Giacometti work, and referring to a different aspect of life itself. www.brightonfestival.org On 15 May, the Canadian première of Timelessly This takes place in Vancouver, in a concert curated by composer Jeffrey Ryan. Finally, the Dedalo Ensemble presents the Italian premières of Verschwindend and A Haunted Heart: Elena Pasotti, piano, 29 Mar, Brescia/I. EICHBERG
From elegy to ecstasy For thirteen enthralling minutes, a violin and orchestra evoke the ritual drum dances of the original natives of Greenland, the Inuit. The dance proceeds from a melancholic elegy to an overwhelming ecstasy; the Inuits call this dance Qilaatersorneq. The 2007 ISCM World Music Days in Hong Kong selected this short, but effective violin concerto by Søren Nils Eichberg (b. 1973) for their closing concert on 1 Dec 2007. The Macau Orchestra is conducted by Shao En with soloist Dennis Kim.
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BERIO
Vocal intelligence On 6 March it will be 25 years since the death of Cathy Berberian. She was one of the most versatile singers of the 20th century, and it is impossible to imagine the modern concert repertoire without the works that emerged from her collaboration with Luciano Berio. Works like Folk Songs – transcriptions for mezzo soprano and seven players (1964) or mezzo soprano and orchestra (1973) ‘dedicated to the vocal intelligence of Cathy Berberian’ (Berio). With the aid of various folk music practices, the Folk Songs reveal the infinite variety of timbral possibilities available to the human voice. Dawn Upshaw is singing the Folk Songs with the New York Philharmonic under
Alan Gilbert between 5–8 Mar. The Düsseldorf Tonhalle is dedicating its concert on 23 Apr to the memory of Cathy Berberian, featuring Folk Songs and O King, both sung by Anne-Carolyn Schlüter. Another classic of Berio’s œuvre – and at the same time a landmark of 20th century music history – is of course his Sinfonia of 1968, which has been played by every major orchestra in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic and the Swingle Singers, conducted by Zubin Mehta, are featuring it in their 28 Mar programme at the Vienna Musikverein. Berio did not survive to hear the première of Stanze for baritone, 3 male choirs and orchestra: his last completed work. The Czech première fast approaching: on 31 Mar at the Rudolfinum in Prague, with the Symphony Orchestra of Czech Radio under Guillaume Tournaire.
Cathy Berberian and Luciano Berio
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TONA SCHERCHEN (*1938)
Rhythm of life In March 2008 composer Tona Scherchen celebrates her 70th birthday. We extend our heartfelt congratulations! Her compositions make the culture and tradition of her native China, vividly present for us. Not only are the titles of most of her works drawn from the Chinese language – Wai (1966), Hsun (1968), Tao (1971), Yun-Yu (1972), Yi (1973), Vague T’ao (1974/5) – but the actual content also draws upon events of the Chinese past and present.
Tona Scherchen Yun-Yu (Nuages et Pluie)
Shen for six percussionists or percussion orchestra is a dance based on the rhythm of the small Chinese drum, which is compared with the heartbeat and the rhythm of life itself. KAGEL
Parodistic ideas One can assert without a doubt that the deliberate break with tradition is one of the hallmarks of Mauricio Kagel. His way of theatricalising musical performance proved to be a refreshing and – not least – entertaining new departure. In his work, moments of comic absurdity are united with dada-ist and surrealist motives. Dull it certainly isn’t! As for example in Kantrimiusik – Pastoral for voices and orchestra (1973/5), whose parodistic ideas once again astonish the listener. The pseudo-folksy character of several movements is eloquent testimony to the amount of humour with which Kagel can invent ‘music about music’. ‘How much parody or caricature is present here must be clearly audible in every accurate musical performance’, said Kagel. Oliver Knussen will be conducting it on 14 Apr with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.
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Walter Braunfels Scenes from the Life of St Joan Deutsche Oper Berlin BRAUNFELS
Unbroken faith Walter Braunfels survived the Third Reich, but his music was permanently scarred by it. Like that of Schreker and countless other composers who had once been successful, for many years his music fell into oblivion. During this period of inner exile he wrote a series of operas, without any hope of performance. These include Scenes from the Life of St Joan Op. 57 (1939-43), the libretto for which Braunfels himself compiled, based upon the trial records of her life. The first concert performance of this work did not take place until 2001 in Stockholm, with the German première following later that year. Manfred Honeck conducted both of these performances. Now, at last – on 27 Apr, the opera’s time has come! In a new production at the Deutsche Oper of Berlin,
Mary Wills sings the title role under the baton of Ulf Schirmer. Performances follow on: 2, 6, 17 and 31 May. LIGETI
Atmosphere of renewal Over nearly 50 years of performance, György Ligeti’s orchestral works Apparitions and Atmosphères have become classics, indeed symbols – of the atmosphere of renewal after World War II; of the exciting concerts in Cologne and Donaueschingen; and of the hard-won personal and artistic freedom of the young Hungarian Ligeti, then at last able to develop his extraordinary talent. Peter Rundel is conducting Apparitions in Freiburg (5 Apr) and Dortmund (6 Apr), John Mauceri performs Atmosphères in Leipzig (15/16 May) and Vladimir Jurowski performs it in Philadelphia on 1 Jun.
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EISLER
Storm of indignation Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler’s ‘didactic piece’ Die Massnahme unleashed a storm of indignation when first performed in 1930. For the right it was a ‘Bolshevistic scandal’; for the liberals a ‘longrange Bolshevistic weapon’; for the communists, a ‘travesty’. Little wonder further performances were banned by both authors. Not until the end of the Cold War could the work again be produced. Approaching soon (from 20 Mar) at Hans Castorf’s Volksbühne in Berlin. FELDMAN
Heartfelt eulogy Morton Feldman’s heartfelt eulogy to his piano teacher Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety, is to receive numerous performances by two ensembles over the next few months. Nieuw Ensemble Amsterdam, under Ed Spanjaard, will perform on 1, 4, 5 Mar throughout the Netherlands. Barely a month later, Beat Furrer will conduct Klangforum Wien for two performances on 13 and 14 Apr, including the territorial première
Morton Feldman
of the work in Luxembourg. Following Emilio Pomárico’s 2007 performances of Feldman’s onesinger opera Neither, we eagerly await another new production in the Kassel Opernhaus on 15 Mar. Pomárico describes the work as ‘one of the greatest masterpieces … of the previous century’ and gave much input into the new UE edition of the work. Rasmus Baumann will conduct the Opernhaus orchestra and soprano Alexandra Lubchansky in this first 2008 performance.
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WEILL
Inspirational dreams The Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau – the annual March get-together for Kurt Weill experts and fans the world over, hosted in the composer’s home town – is devoting this year’s run of more than 35 events to the theme of dreams, nightmares, nocturnal shapes and images as important sources of inspiration for the substance of Weill’s work. His Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra from the 1920s, with its serenade-like instrumentation and movements called Notturno and Serenata, is true night music; in Weill’s American musicals, dreams form a recurrent theme. We also encounter Utopian dreams in Weill’s work, whether in the form of a critique of social realities and the dreamy ideals lurking behind them, as in the Benares Song, which describes a country of our dreams, or perhaps the dreams of freedom, as in his Ballad of Magna Carta or in Lindberghflug / Ozeanflug. World-class ensembles like the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Modern and the MDR Symphony Orchestra and Radio Choir are soon showcasing these works. Details: www.kurt-weill.de
Meanwhile a new production of the Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is eagerly awaited in Essen. For eccentric Australian producer Barrie Kosky, Mahagonny is not a town but more ‘a place of dreaming, remembering, forgetting. A Biblical burlesque for the 21st century.’ Stefan Soltesz will conduct the Essen Philharmonic. Details: www.theater-essen.de
Kurt Weill Der Lindberghflug / Der Ozeanflug Opéra National de Lyon 2006
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Eugen Zádor X-mal Rembrandt Bühnen Köln 2007 ZÁDOR
If pictures could sing … Last December in the Wallraf Richartz Museum, Cologne, a highly successful production of Eugen Zádor’s opera-burlesque X-mal Rembrandt (first performed in 1930) by the Bühnen Köln offered its audience a very special operatic pleasure. Conceived as a guided tour, the action was staged in various rooms of the museum, thus offering pictorial and vocal art rolled into one. The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger described the piece as a ‘stroll through a Gesamtkunstwerk: entertaining, cheeky and with a deeper purpose … The piece is a loose sequence of scenes dealing with the problem of art forgery and hasn’t lost its relevance right up to today – with all the related phenomena such as corruption,
philistinism, commercialisation, errors by experts, collection mania or art worship.’ From 10 May the work can be seen in a new production in Giessen, under the musical direction of Carlos Spierer. KAMINSKY (1886-1946)
Mystical ecstasy Heinrich Kaminski’s Magnificat for soprano, viola, small off-stage choir and orchestra was first performed in 1925 with Fritz Stein conducting. ‘Here for the first time in the history of Musica sacra, Mary’s song of praise from Luke I is united with the preceding ‘Annunciation of the Angel’’ he said of the work. ‘The music is born out of mystical ecstasy, out of the primal depths of religious experience.’ Aru Tali is conducting this rarely performed composition on 11 Apr in the HerzJesu-Kirche, Munich.
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zádor / kaminski
KRENEK
Eurydice’s ghost The myth of Orpheus – presiding over the birth of opera 400 years ago, and repeatedly reworked over the centuries – also provided operatic inspiration for Ernst Krenek. In his Orpheus und Euridyke Op. 21, the tender, tragically misled singer becomes the man of sorrows of the fragmented 20th century. For the work’s 1926 première in Kassel, Krenek described his approach in these terms: ‘Eurydice’s ghost appears for the final showdown with Orpheus. She wants to be free from him forever. Both find rest only when Eurydice gives all her suffering back to Orpheus and kills him. With their deaths, the bad luck perishes.’ The libretto, incidentally, is by Oskar Kokoschka, who wrote it during his imprisonment in Russia. The Teatro Real in Madrid is giving a concert performance of the opera on 25 and 27 Apr.
Symphonic Music Op. 11 for nine solo instruments. In 1922 Krenek wrote his Symphony No. 3 Op. 16, whose character differed markedly from that of the first two: less expansive, brighter in colour and more modest in instrumentation. Under Ernst Kovacic, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra is performing the work on 1 and 2 Mar.
The song cycle Journey through the Austrian Alps Op. 62 (1929) for medium voice and piano is one of Krenek’s most frequently performed works, and he also wrote the text for these Schubert-like gems. Christoph Homberger performs the cycle on 18 Apr in Zurich, where on the same day the Collegium Novum Zurich will perform Krenek’s
Heiligenblut with Großglockner
25
krenek
CASELLA
Italian colours
work on 30 Mar with the Heilbronn Symphony Orchestra. SCHULHOFF
Leon Botstein, a great champion of rediscovered music, is featuring Alfredo Casella’s rhapsody Italia (1909) in his concert with the American SO in New York (18 Apr). Meanwhile, the Schwetzinger Festspiele has invited the Groethuysen-Tal Duo to perform the piano concerto Scarlattiana in the version for two pianos (6 May). The Serenata exists in two versions: the original version (1927) for five instruments and the chamber orchestra version of 1930. The former can be heard on 13 Apr in Kaiserlautern. LIEBERMANN
March drums
Rhythmic fervour Conductor James Conlon has chosen to make the promotion of so-called ‘degenerate’ composers a key priority – notably Alexander Zemlinsky, but increasingly also Franz Schreker and other outlawed musicians. He conducted Erwin Schulhoff’s ‘ballet mystery’ Ogelala in Aspen in 2006, with four followup performances in New York in December 2007; the work is now coming to Paris (27 Mar). The ballet reflects Schulhoff’s fascination with dance, and was composed – as he told Alban Berg – ‘… out of pure rhythmic fervour and sensual abandon’.
For its 200th anniversary in 1958, the firm of J.R. Geigy AG commissioned Rolf Liebermann to write a work that, if possible, should incorporate Basle folk melodies. The result was Geigy Festival Concerto, Fantasy on Basle themes for Basle drum and large orchestra. Liebermann makes extensive use of the musical and rhythmic peculiarities of this music and the ornamentation unknown in the conventional marching drum repertoire. Peter Braschkat is performing the
26
casella / liebermann scnulhoff
MARTIN
Life and death struggle The Basle Sinfonietta describes Frank Martin’s oratorio Golgotha as ‘one of the most moving choral works of the 20th century’. Shortly before Easter, Johannes Günther is conducting it with the choirs of Evangelical choral societies in Bern and Zurich (16/21 Mar). No less moving is Martin’s final work, his chamber cantata Et la vie l’emporta, to be heard on 1 Mar in Switzerland (Huttwiler Chamber Orchestra / Rainer Held). The composer, by this stage seriously ill, overcame his weakness with the help of a Lutheran chorale describing the struggle between life and death – the text that he then went on to set in the cantata. The Concerto for 7 wind instruments, timpani, percussion and strings can be heard on 13 and 14 Mar in Tel Aviv under Mendi Rodan, and
also on 13 Mar in Brussels with Emmanuel Krivine conducting. Gidon Kremer is playing and conducting Polyptyque in Luxembourg on 19 Mar. MESSIAEN
Exuberant birdsong All over the world, Olivier Messiaen wrote down countless birdsongs – he could distinguish around 700 different types – which he then used throughout his piano and orchestral works. In Oiseaux exotiques (1955/6) for piano and small orchestra, these exuberant lines are expressed particularly vociferously. During March and April the work can be heard in Copenhagen, Zagreb and Toulouse, also on 3 and 4 May in Freiburg and Frankfurt. The SWR SO Baden-Baden/Freiburg will be performing it under Sylvain Cambreling with Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the piano.
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martin / messiaen
MILHAUD
Concentrated material When Darius Milhaud composed his Concerto for percussion and small orchestra in 1929–30 he was the first composer ever to create such a piece, wanting to give percussion the prominence he felt it deserved. The piece is to be performed in Ipswich on 8 March. In his Little Symphonies for chamber ensemble, Milhaud substitutes concentration of material for quantity of musical resources – the pieces last only between 3–6 minutes. The Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra of Leipzig is playing the Symphony No. 2, the Pastorale, in Essen on 27 March. SZYMANOWSKI
Fascinating music In his 1924 Stabat Mater for soloists, chorus and orchestra, Karol Szymanowski set to music a medieval Latin sequence in a Polish translation. The fascinating music of this deeply religious work draws inspiration in equal measure from
Adriaen Isenbrant Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows Church of our Lady Brussels
Polish folklore and church music. Szymanowski said of it: ‘For me it was an inner experiment, a question of giving modern, selfcontained forms to that which is most real and at the same time least fathomable in the secret life of the soul.’ On 14 and 15 Mar, the Woodstock Music Society in Woodstock, England, will perform Stabat Mater, whilst on 14 Apr the Berlin immermann, is featuring it in its programme with the Berlin SingAkademie at the Berlin Konzerthaus.
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milhaud / szymanowski /
BARTÓK
the ballet on 29/30 Mar in Berlin, and Emmanuel Krivine is presenting the Large Suite in Brussels (13 Apr).
Seven sealed doors Béla Balázs showed his mystery play Duke Bluebeard’s Castle to both his friends, Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók, without indicating which of them he would prefer to set it to music. The subject left Kodály cold, but Bartók was immediately seized by it. The result – in 1911 – was his only opera, one of the most frequently performed music theatre pieces of the 20th century. Up until 1 Jun 2008 there are 29 (staged or concert) performances around the world, among them La Fura dels Baus’ Paris production in Barcelona, Peter Stein’s version at La Scala and Penelope Wehrli’s spatial installation in Saarbrücken. The number of concert performances of the dance work The Wooden Prince – including the two suites – has increased remarkably in recent times. Fabrice Bolton is conducting
KODÁLY
Barefoot schoolmates All his life Zoltán Kodály remembered with affection his barefoot schoolmates in Galánta, and the servant girl at his parents’ house who taught him Hungarian folk songs as a child. A series of these melodies appear in one of his perennial favourites, the Dances from Galánta, which are soon to be heard in Paris, Granada, Meiningen and Rudolfstadt. With his opera Háry János, Hungarian folk music conquered the operatic stage for the first time in music history. The Suite can soon be heard in Glasgow, Stuttgart and Pershore (UK).
Béla Bartók Duke Bluebeard’s Castle Opéra National de Paris 2007
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bartók / kodály
ZEMLINSKY
Sensitive poetry in music Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck was one of the most widely read authors of the early 20th century; in 1911 he received the Nobel Prize for literature. His sensitive poetry and mystical, enigmatic dramas inspired several composers of his day. Alexander Zemlinsky’s Six Songs to Poems of Maurice Maeterlinck Op. 13 are among the most beautiful works in the Lieder repertoire. Zemlinsky first wrote the Songs with piano accompaniment in 1910, following this in 1913 with an orchestral version (first played on 31 March 1913 at the ‘Vienna scandal concert’). There are at the moment several opportunities to hear the work in the Netherlands: sung by Christianne Stotijn in The Hague (11–12 Apr, with
Jaap van Zweden conducting the Residentie Orkest) and by Hermine Haselböck in Apeldoorn, Nijmegen and Arnhem (24–26 Apr, with the Gelders Orkest under Martin Sieghart). SCHREKER
The Art Show The Liverpool Klimt exhibition is reported on page 33, including the performance of Franz Schreker’s Suite Birthday of the Infanta. The connection between Klimt and Schreker is particularly fitting: the original version of the work was premièred 100 years ago as part of the historic ‘Kunstschau’ (Art Show) organised by Klimt. Schreker’s Nachtstück – the interlude from the 3rd act of his opera Der ferne Klang – is presented in Dresden on 29 and 30 Mar by the Dresdner Philharmonie conducted by Lothar Koenigs.
Franz Schreker Der ferne Klang Teatro de la Maestranza Sevilla 2006
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zemlinsky / schreker
Arnold Schönberg Pierrot lunaire Ohio State University
Under the title ‘Moderne Menschen’ (Modern People) Leipzig Opera presents a trilogy of Schönberg’s works, in a stage production by Carlos Wagner, Sandra Leupold and Immo Karaman. Die glückliche Hand is flanked by Erwartung and Von heute auf morgen. Opening on 5 Apr, 4 performances follow.
SCHÖNBERG
A time of change Arnold Schönberg’s Die glückliche Hand (The Hand of Fate) from 1908–1913 comes from a particularly fruitful period in the composer’s life, bringing forth works such as Erwartung and the Op. 11 Piano Pieces (and it was in 1909 that Schönberg signed with UE). But it really was a time of change, and Die glückliche Hand is a work that, written amidst a breakdown of a past musical style alongside his striving towards new compositional techniques, forms a strong contrast to the romantic nocturne Verklärte Nacht of 9 years earlier. Pierre Boulez conducts the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Hall on the 11 May in a programme which includes Die glückliche Hand alongside Béla Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle.
In addition to concerts in Zurich, Dresden, Cologne and Geneva, Pierrot lunaire is also being performed in Jaffa and Jerusalem on 29 and 30 Mar by the Israel Contemporary Players under Renaud Déjardin. Pelleas and Melisande can be heard in Monaco (Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo under Eliahu Inbal, 10 Apr), Berlin (Barenboim and the Berlin Philharmonic, 10–12 Apr) and Chemnitz (Frank Beermann conducts the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie).
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schönberg
WEBERN
MALIPIERO
Top interpreters Opulent colours Sir Simon Rattle is taking the reduced version of Anton Webern’s Six Pieces for orchestra on a tour of five northern European cities with the Berlin Philharmonic: Riga (2 May), Tallin (4 May), Helsinki (5 May), Stockholm (7 May) and Oslo (8 May). Back home in Berlin the orchestra, again with Rattle, is playing both the Passacaglia for orchestra and the Cantata No. 2 for soprano, bass, mixed choir and orchestra (26–28 Apr). On 21 and 22 Apr, the Five Pieces for orchestra also feature on the programme. On 5 May, with the Choir of Berlin Radio, Susanna Mälkki conducts the Philharmonic in Das Augenlicht for mixed choir and orchestra, the Cantata No. 1 for soprano, mixed choir and orchestra, and Two Songs for mixed choir and ensemble.
Venetian composer Gian Francesco Malipiero produced a gigantic output over the 91 years of his life – 11 symphonies, 20 stage works, 7 oratorios and much more. The seven symphonic expressions, Pause del Silenzio (1917) for large orchestra, are a far too rarely performed musical gem of the early 20th century: delicately orchestrated impressions, full of Mediterranean mood painting and opulent colours. Thankfully, Leon Botstein features the work in his programme with the American SO on 18 Apr at the Avery Fisher Hall in New York.
Berlin Philharmonic
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webern / malipiero
BERG
Viennese Connection The celebrations in Liverpool of the city’s status as European Capital of Culture 2008 include the first ever comprehensive exhibition of Gustav Klimt’s work in the UK, creating an elegant association with that other European city of Vienna. To accompany this Viennese connection, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is giving a concert of ‘Viennese Masters’ on the 22 May at the Philharmonic Hall. Sir Andrew Davis conducts a programme including Franz Schreker’s Suite The Birthday of the Infanta and Alban Berg’s Three Wozzeck Fragments. These three short movements are a compact and intense distillation of some of the key dramatic points in the opera, and proved to be a valuable promotion for the opera itself following its première in 1924. The full Wozzeck returns to the Bastille in Paris on 29 Mar in a new production by the Swiss director Christoph Marthaler, conducted by Sylvian Cambreling – the latest in the list of their joint projects which began with Debussy’s Pelleas and has already included Leoš Janáčeks Katya Kabanová in Paris. In Brussels, the David Freeman production at La Monnaie continues
Liverpool
throughout March. Mark Wigglesworth conducts with Dietrich Henschel and Martina Serafin in the leading roles. In Switzerland, Erwin Stein’s reduced version of Wozzeck is being premièred in a new production by Marc Adam. On 22 Mar Roman Brogli-Sacher conducts at the Stadttheater Bern. Just over the horizon in 2010: the 75th anniversary of Berg’s death on 24 Dec 1935.
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berg
MAHLER
O Man! Take heed! Gustav Mahler once described in a letter how he felt working on his Symphony No. 3, which for him reflected the whole world and in many respects was to become his most idiosyncratic work: ‘I myself often have a strange, uncanny feeling in many places, as though I definitely had not composed it’. Mahler sketched the Symphony in the summer of 1895. The original title of the work was The Happy Life, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and all six movements bore programmatic titles. However, Mahler later discarded these, as he feard that they could lead to misinterpretation. Despite its length and the huge number of performers required (including choral forces of more than 150 voices), the piece is heard in concert more and more often, and almost all great conductors take up the challenge and perform it as a showpiece. The shooting star among young conductors, Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, who at the age of 27 has already conducted many of the world’s great orchestras, chose Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 to open the 2006 season at La Scala in
34
mahler
Gustavo Dudamel
Milan. Between 24–27 May he is conducting the same work with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Besides this, the Symphony can soon be heard in Lisbon (9 Mar under Michael Zilm), Nuremberg (4 Apr under Christoph Prick), Essen (10 Apr under Stefan Soltesz) and Vienna (3 May under Mariss Jansons). To find out more about Mahler and the two major Mahler memorial years, 2010–11, visit www.universaledition.com/mahler
JANÁČEK
Fatal double standards Leoš Janáčeks Katja Kabanowa belongs to a series of stage works in which Janáček attacks the fatal double standards of the petite bourgeoisie, which crush the individual’s longing for happiness and freedom. The confrontation of enlightened youth (Katya) and hard-hearted age is also a theme Janáček used repeatedly. The opera is now to receive three new interpretations. In Vienna it is conducted
by Kirill Petrenko (from 13 Apr, with Keith Warner producing), in Cologne by Markus Stenz (from 19 Apr, producer Robert Carsen) and in Amsterdam by Yakov Kreizberg (from 3 Mar, produced by W. Gussmann). The Excursion of Mr Brouček to the 15th century is also receiving a stage performance: Yannis Kokkos presents the story of the grey, conservative landlord Brouček who, whilst dreaming finds himself in the middle of the Hussite wars of 1420 (from 25 Mar in Geneva). Axel Weidauer is also performing Brouček in Frankfurt (from 27 Apr). BEETHOVEN / MANÉN
Konzertstück
Leoš Janáček The Excursion of Mr Brouček National Theatre Prague 2003
It is the Catalonian composer Juan Manén (1883–1971) we have to thank for the completion of a violin concerto by the young Beethoven, written after his first visit to Vienna and his meeting with Mozart. Manén sees influences of the Violin Concertos K. 207 and K.213 in many passages of the Konzertstück, which in turn left traces in the great D major concerto and in both the first two piano concertos. Ernst Kovacic is featuring the 21minute work in his Vienna programme on 1 and 2 Mar.
35
janáček / beethoven
2008 25th 125th 90th 70th 80th 100th 60th 60th 75th 70th 75th 80th 100th 125th
Anniv. of Death Anniversary Anniversary Birthday Anniversary Anniversary Birthday Birthday Birthday Birthday Anniv. of Death Birthday Anniversary Anniversary
Cathy Berberian † 06 March 1983 Alfredo Casella * 25 July 1883 Gottfried von Einem * 24 January 1918 Zygmunt Krauze * 19 September 1938 Gerhard Lampersberg * 05 July 1928 Olivier Messiaen * 10 December 1908 Nigel Osborne * 23 June 1948 Peter Ruzicka * 03 July 1948 R. Murray Schafer * 18 July 1933 Tona Scherchen * 12 March 1938 Max von Schillings † 24 July 1933 Karlheinz Stockhausen * 22 August 1928 Eugen Suchon * 25 September 1908 Anton Webern * 03 December 1883
Anniv. of Death Birthday Anniv. of Death Birthday Anniversary Anniversary Anniv. of Death Anniv. of Death Anniv. of Death Birthday Birthday Anniversary Anniversary Anniv. of Death Anniversary Anniversary Anniv. of Death
George Antheil † 12 February 1959 Sir Harrison Birtwistle * 15 July 1934 Frederick Delius † 10 June 1934 Edison W. Denisow * 06 April 1929 Joseph Bohuslav Foerster * 30 Dec 1859 Roman Haubenstock-Ramati * 27 Feb 1919 Josef Matthias Hauer † 22 September 1959 Joseph Haydn † 31 May 1809 Bohuslav Martinu † 28 August 1959 Henri Pousseur * 23 June 1929 Bernard Rands * 02 March 1934 Karl Scheit * 21 April 1909 Alfred Schnittke * 24 November 1934 Franz Schreker † 21 March 1934 Alfred Uhl * 05 June 1909 Roman Vlad * 29 December 1919 Eric Zeisl † 18 February 1959
2009 50th 75th 75th 80th 150th 90th 50th 200th 50th 80th 75th 100th 75th 75th 100th 90th 50th
36
anniversaries
2010 50th 75th 80th 80th 100th 150th 75th 80th 125th
Anniv. of Death Anniv. of Death Birthday Birthday Anniversary Anniversary Birthday Anniversary Anniv. of Death
Hugo Alfvén † 08 May 1960 Alban Berg * 24 December 1935 Paul-Heinz Dittrich * 04 December 1930 Cristóbal Halffter * 24 March 1930 Rolf Liebermann * 14 September 1910 Gustav Mahler * 07 July 1860 Arvo Pärt * 11 September 1935 Toru Takemitsu * 08 October 1930 Egon Wellesz * 21 October 1885
2011 75th Birthday 75th Birthday 100th Anniversary 75th Birthday 80th Birthday 75th Birthday 100th Anniv. of Death 75th Birthday 75th Anniv. of Death 50th Birthday 50th Birthday 125th Birthday 50th Birthday 25th Anniv. of Death 75th Birthday
Gilbert Amy * 29 August 1936 Sir Richard Rodney Bennett * 29 March 1936 Paul Burkhard * 21 December 1911 Cornelius Cardew * 07 May 1936 Mauricio Kagel * 24 December 1931 Ladislav Kupkovic * 17 March 1936 Gustav Mahler † 18 May 1911 Steve Reich * 03 October 1936 Ottorino Respighi † 18 April 1936 David Sawer * 14 Seotember 1961 Daniel Schnyder * 12 March 1961 Othmar Schoeck * 01 September 1886 Mauricio Sotelo * 02 October 1961 Alexandre Tansman † 15 November 1986 Hans Zender * 22 November 1936
37
anniversaries
LUKE BEDFORD Good Dream She Has for soprano, mezzo soprano, tenor and 14 players Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, c. Oliver Knussen, Angela Tunstall, S, Susan Bickley, MS, Alan Belk, T 14 April 2008 · CBSO Centre Birmingham/GB GEORG FRIEDRICH HAAS Concert for baritone saxophone and orchestra WDR SO Köln, c. Emilio Pomárico, Marcus Weiss, sax 03 May 2008 · WDR-Sendesaal Köln/D CRISTÓBAL HALFFTER Lázaro opera in 1 act Philharmonic Orchestra Kiel, c. Georg Fritzsch Jörg Sabrowski, Julia Henning, Claudia Iten, Johannes An, Steffen Doberauer, Jooil Choi; stage direction: Alexander Schulin 04 May 2008 · Opera Kiel/D ARVO PÄRT „These Words …“ for string orchestra and percussion Danish National Symphony Orchestra/DR, c. Tõnu Kaljuste 22 May 2008 · Copenhagen/DK ROXANNA PANUFNIK Rose for violin solo and ensemble Mobius Ensemble, Philipe Honoré, vln 22 March 2008 · Wigmore Hall London/GB Wild Ways for ji-nashi hakuhachi and choir c. Graham Caldbeck, Nonsuch Singers, Kiku Day, ji-nashi hakuhachi 13 March 2008 · St. John's Smith Square London/GB Heaven to Earth for string quartet and male choir Dante String Quartet, King’s College Choir 10 May 2008 · Cambridge/GB WOLFGANG RIHM Male über Male for clarinet and ensemble Ensemble Contrechamps, c. Jurjen Hempel 25 April 2008 · Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik/D
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world premières
JOHANNES MARIA STAUD Lagrein for clarinet, violin, cello and piano Isabella Faust, vln, Martin Fröst, clar, Matthew Barley, vlc, Thomas Larcher, pno 20 May 2008 · vineyard Alois Lageder, Magreid/I
WOLFGANG RIHM Jagden und Formen for chamber orchestra Ensemble Modern, Sasha Waltz & Guests, dance 07 May 2008 · schauspielfrankfurt Frankfurt am Main/D JAY SCHWARTZ Music for 8 Voices for 2 sopranos, mezzo soprano, 2 altos, tenor, baritone and bass, SCHOLA Heidelberg 26 April 2008 · Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik/D MAURICIO SOTELO Como llora el agua ... for guitar solo Festival MaerzMusik, Juan Manuel Cañizares, guit 13 March 2008 · Berlin/D IAN WILSON Spilliaert's Beach for clarinet and piano Matthew Schellhorn, pno; Peter Sparks, clar 19 March 2008 · St. James' Piccadilly London/GB
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world premières
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Sonatas for cello and piano Urtext Edition ed. by Christiane Wiesenfeldt, setting of cello-part by Heinrich Schiff UT 50247 FLORIAN BRAMBÖCK Afro Latin Flute Duets for 2 flutes UE 33041 ALEKSEY IGUDESMAN Celtic Violin Duets for 2 violins UE 33652 ARVO PÄRT Da pacem Domine for recorder quartet adapted by Sylvia C. Rosin & Irmhild Beutler score and parts UE 33704 JAMES RAE Repertoire Explorer - Clarinet for clarinet and piano Graded pieces for beginners UE 21458 ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG Pierrot Lunaire op. 21 Dreimal sieben Gedichte for speaker, piano, flute (piccolo), clarinet (bass clarinet), violin (viola) and cello New edition according to the Critical Complete Edition piano reduction UE 33794 FRANZ SCHREKER Piano pieces UE 33685 JOHANNES MARIA STAUD Peras. Music for piano UE 33039
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new releases
UNIVERSAL EDITION
Clever Cat for piano 4 hands, with CD by Mike Cornick UE 21407 Teacher and beginner pupil piano duets Based on the simple idea of the pupil copying the teacher, these duets provide young beginners with extra material for practising the basic skills covered in the early stages of learning. Together with Clever Cat, young pianists can have fun imitating the teacher - playing five-finger exercises and arpeggios etc. that are provided in the context of these little duets.
Amusing illustrations remind pupils of the mood and varying styles of the pieces whilst there are opportunities for adding fingerclics and vocal effects - including ‘miaows’ for both pupil and teacher! With these duets young beginners can be playing with a real sense of achievement right from their first lesson.
Away from the teacher, the CD provides performances of each piece for listening, followed by the playalong track for the pupil’s own music making.
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new releases
BÉLA BARTÓK Herzog Blaubarts Burg RSO Stuttgart des SWR, c. Peter Eötvös Hänssler Classics CD 93.070 BÉLA BARTÓK String Quartet No. 4 ALBAN BERG Lyric Suite LEOŠ JANÁČEK String Quartet No. 2, Intimate Letters WOLFGANG RIHM String Quartet No. 4 Alban Berg Quartett EMI Classics CD 3976292 BÉLA BARTÓK Cantata Profana ZOLTÁN KODÁLY Psalmus Hungaricus Sir Georg Solti, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich Decca CD 475 8525 ALBAN BERG Wozzeck choir and orchestra of Gran Teatro del Liceu, cond. Sebastian Weigle, dir.: Calixto Bieito; Franz Hawlata, Angela Denoke, Reiner Goldberg OA/Naxos DVD 809478009856 PIERRE BOULEZ Dialogue de l’ombre double GEORG FRIEDRICH HAAS String Quartet No. 1 and 2 Volker Hemken, bclar; Kairos Quartett 10 Jahre edition zeitklang ez 30032 3 CDs MORTON FELDMAN The Viola in my Life I - IV Cikada Ensemble, Norwegian Radio Orchestra Marek Konstantynowicz, vla, c. Christian Eggen ECM New Series ECM CD 1798 PAUL VON KLENAU Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Ch. Rilke Czech Philharmonic Choir, Odense SO, c. Paul Mann, Bo Skovhus Da Capo CD 6.220532 ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD Trio op. 1 Trio Parnassus MDG CD 303 1463-2 ROLF LIEBERMANN Furioso Philharmonic Orchestra Lübeck, c. Roman Brogli-Sacher Musicaphon M 56901 (SACD Hybrid) GUSTAV MAHLER Symphony No. 2 (Grammy Nomination) Budapest Festival Orchestra, c. Ivan Fischer, Birgit Remmert, Lisa Milne, Hungarian Radio Choir Channel Classics CCS SA 23506 GUSTAV MAHLER Symphony No. 8 Staatskapelle Berlin, c. Pierre Boulez, Robinson, Wall, Queiroz, Botha, Choir of the German State Opera Berlin, Aurelius Sängerknaben Calw Deutsche Grammophon 2 CDs 477 6597 FRANK MARTIN Cantate pour le temps de Noël Atrium-Ensemble Luzern, Mozart-Ensemble Luzern, Luzerner Kantorei-Knabenchor, c. Eberhard Rex Musiques Suisses MGB 6259 JOSEPH MARX Songs Historic Recordings of the ORF Joseph Marx, pn, Wilma Lipp, S, Waldemar Kmentt, T, TonkünstlerOrchester Niederösterreich, c. Miltiades Caridis ORF CD 3013
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new on cd & dvd
HARRISON BIRTWISTLE Punch & Judy The London Sinfonietta, c. David Atherton, BrynJulson, DeGaetani, Langridge NMC 2 CDs 502 3363013826
LEOŠ JANÁČEK The Excursions of Mr. Brouček BBC Singers, BBC SO, c. Jiří Bělohlávek Deutsche Grammophon DG CD 4777387
EMIL NIKOLAUS VON REZNICEK Ouvertüre aus der Oper „Donna Diana“ WDR SO Köln, c. Michael Jurowski cpo CD 777 047-2
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH The Golden Age Royal Scottish National Orch., c. José Serebrier NAXOS CD 8.570217-18 (Grammy Nomination)
BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ The Greek Passion Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic Choir, c. Charles Mackerras; David Gwynne, Jana Jonasova, Helen Field, Philip Joll, Welsh National Opera 1981 Supraphon DVD SU 7014 OLIVIER MESSIAEN Cantéyodjaya KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN Klavierstück XI Prodromos Symeonidis Telos Music Records TLS CD 107 ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG Gurre-Lieder (Grammy Nomination) SWR SO Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig, c. Michael Gielen Hänssler Classics SACD 93.198 2 CD (Midem Classical Award) BOOK: JENNIFER PAULL Cathy Berberian and Music’s Muses (published by www.LULU.com). Available online at tinyurl.com/ytr2wo
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new on cd & dvd
CRISTÓBAL HALFFTER (b. 1930) – Worklist (a selection) MUSIC THEATRE Don Quijote opera in 1 act original version reduced version Lázaro opera in 1 act for soloists and orchestra
115’ 1997–1999 115’ 1997–1999/2005 95'–100’ 2004–2006
VOCAL MUSIC Brecht-Lieder for voice and orchestra (2 versions) 16’ 1967 Canciones de al Andalus for mezzo soprano and string quartet 15’ 1987/1988 De verborum et speculorum ludis 23–25’ 1999–2000 for choir, percussion, piano and organ Dona nobis pacem for mixed choir and instruments 7’ 1984 Dos corales liturgicos for mixed choir and brass orchestra 20’ 1989/1990 Dos motetes for choir a cappella 20’ 1988 Gaudium et spes Beunza for 32 voices, a 4 track tape 30’ 1972/1973 or two 2 track tapes Himno a Santa Teresa for voice, mixed choir, 6–7’ 1981 instrumental ensemble and organ In exspectatione resurrectionis Domini cantata for baritone, 18’ 1965 mixed choir or male choir and orchestra In memoriam Anaïck for speaker, choir and instruments 5’ 1967 Introducción y escena from the opera Lázaro 28’30” 2004–2006 for soloists and orchestra Jarchas de dolor de ausencia for 12 voices a cappella, 23–25’ 1979 with tuned crotales La del alba sería fragments from the opera Don Quijote 35–40' 1997 for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra and version without choir Noche pasiva del sentido for voice, 2 percussionists and piano 18’ 1972/1973 Officium defunctorum for mixed choir, high boy’s voice 53’ 1978 and orchestra Oracion a platero for children’s choir, speaker, mixed choir, 20’ 1974 5 percussion players, recorder and tape Preludio para Madrid '92 for mixed choir and orchestra 11’ 1991 Siete cantos de España for soprano, baritone and orch. 48’ 1991-1992/1994 Symposion for baritone, mixed choir and orchestra 30’ 1968 Tres poemas de la lirica española for baritone and orch. 23–25’ 1986/1994 Veni creator spiritus for mixed choir, ensemble choir and 7’ 1992 instrumental ensemble Yes Speak Out Yes UNO-cantata for soprano, baritone, 30’ 1968 6 speakers, 2 mixed choirs and orchestra (2 conductors)
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cristóbal halffter worklist
ORCHESTRA Adagio in Form eines Rondos for orchestra 23–25’ 2002 Anillos for orchestra 16’ 1967/1968 Cuatro piezas para orquesta for orchestra 15–18’ 2004–2005 Dalíniana for chamber orchestra 16’ 1993–1994 Dortmunder Variationen I and II for orchestra 19’ 1986/1987/2006 Elegias a la muerte de tres poetas españoles for orchestra 30’ 1974/1975 Epitafio para el sepulcro de Juan del Enzina for orchestra 15–18’ 2008 Albéniz - Eritaña from Iberia (1905–1908) for orchestra 6’ 2003 Halfbéniz for orchestra Homenaje a Isaac Albéniz 14’ 2000 Memento a Dresden 4 episodes for orchestra 24’ 1994–1995 Mural sonante for orchestra Frescos by Antonio Tàpies 28’ 1993–1994 Odradek for orchestra Homage to Franz Kafka 22’ 1996 Parafrasis for orchestra 21’ 1984 Preludio a nemesis for large orchestra 17’ 1988/1989 Preludio para Madrid 2002 for orchestra 11’ 1991/2002 Requiem por la libertad imaginada for orchestra 17’ 1971 Le sommeil for chamber orchestra 7’ 1994 Tiento for large orchestra 29’ 1980/1981 Tiento del primer tono y batalla imperial for large orchestra 10’ 1986 Turbas collage for orchestra 19–21’ 1995 Versus for large orchestra 36’ 1983 SOLO INSTRUMENTS WITH ORCHESTRA Concierto for piano and orchestra 30’ 1987/1988 Concierto for clarinet and orchestra 27–28’ 2001 Concierto No. 1 for violin and orchestra 40’ 1979 Concierto No. 2 for violin and string orchestra 31’ 1990/1991 Concierto No. 1 for cello and orchestra 31’ 1974 Concierto No. 2 for cello and orchestra 37’ 1985 Concierto a cuatro for saxophone quartet and orchestra 24’ 1989/1990 Doppelkonzert for violin, viola and orchestra 24’ 1984 Fantasie über einen Klang von G.F. Händel 17’ 1981 foe cello groups and string orchestra (version A and version B) Fibonaciana concert for flute and orchestra 14’ 1969 Palimsesto – 1956/2004 for timpani and orchestra 20–22’ 2004 Pinturas negras concert for orchestra with conert organ 17’ 1972 CHAMBER MUSIC Johann Strauss (son) - Annen-Polka (1852) for chamber ensemble 4’ 1982 Antiphonismoi for 7 players 16–17’ 1967
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halffter worklist
continuation CHAMBER MUSIC Attendite for 8 cellos 25–26’ 2003 Canción callada in memoriam Frederico Mompou for piano trio 7’ 1988 Canto del caballero for piano trio 5’ 2007 Gabrieli - Canzone from Symphoniae Sacrae for brass ensemble 12’ 1975 Con bravura y sentimiento string quartet no. 4 2’26’’ 1991 Concierto for flute and string sextet 26’ 1982 Endechas para una reina de España for string sextet 27–29’ 1994 Espacio de silencio string quartet no. 7 2007 Espacios no simultaneos for 2 pianos 22–23’ 1995/1997 Soler - Fandango for 8 cellos 17’ 1988/1999 Fractal for saxophone quartet (version of Concierto a cuatro) 22’ 1991 Leyendo a Jorge Guillen for speaker, viola and cello 7’ 1982 Lineas y puntos for 2o wind players and electronic sounds 15’ 1967 Mizar for 2 flutes, strings and percussion 20’ 1977 Mizar II for 2 flutes and electronic sound modulation 18’ 1980 Muerte, mudanza y locura for 2 flutes + electron. sound modulation 18’ 1979 Noche activa del espiritu for 2 pianos and ring modulators 30’ 1973 Obertura festiva for brass players and timpani 3’30’’ 2006 Oda para felicitar a un amigo for 6 instrumentalists 6’ 1969 Planto for chamber ensemble + electron. sound modulation 25’ 1970/1971 Slava da budjet mir s toboj for brass players 3’ 1986 String Quartet No. 2 (Mémoires 1970) 24’ 1970 String Quartet No. 3 20’ 1978 String Quartet No. 6 23–25’ 2001–2002 Tiempo para espacios for cembalo and strings 18’ 1974 Tinguely-Fanfare for brass player erensemble 3’ 1996 Tres piezas para cuarteto string quartet no. 1 18’ 1956 Triada (1+2=3) for violin, clarinet and piano 18’ 2004 Variaciones sobre la resonancia de un grito 26’ 1976/1977 for 11 instruments, tape and live-electronic sound modulation Zeitgestalt string quartet no. 5 7’ 1996 SOLO INSTRUMENTS Cadencia [Solo VIII] for piano 7’ 1983/1993 Debla [Solo VI] for flute 12’ 1980 Ecos de un antiguo órgano [Solo XII] for piano 10’ 2001 SOLO [Solo XI] „Klagelied eines verwundeten Vogels“ for cello 20’ 2000 Variationen über das Thema eSACHERe [Solo IV] for cello 6’ 1975 Complete worklist available on www.universaledition.com/halffter
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halffter worklist
UNIVERSAL EDITION Austria: PO Box 3, A-1015 Vienna, Austria tel +43-1-337 23 - 0, fax +43-1-337 23 - 400 UK: 48 Great Marlborough Street, London W1F 7BB tel +44-20-7437-6880, fax +44-20-7292-9173. USA: European American Music Distributors LLC 254 West 31st Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10001-2813 tel +1-212-461-6940, fax +1-212-810-4565. Web: www.universaledition.com Chief Editors: Angelika Dworak and Eric Marinitsch Contributors: Bálint András Varga, Wolfgang Schaufler, Jonathan Irons, Eric Marinitsch, Angelika Dworak, Rebecca Dawson, Marion Dürr, Kieran Morris and Anne Handley Design: Egger & Lerch, Vienna/Austria Photo Credits: Eric Marinitsch (5), Stockhausen Verlag, Marion Kalter (4), Basilica de San Francesco, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Tom Bedford, UE Archive (4), Deutsche Oper Berlin, Int. Music Institut Darmstadt, Opéra National de Lyon / Murdo MacLeod, Bühnen Köln / Klaus Lefebvre, Vrouwekerk Brussels, Opéra National de Paris (2), Teatro de la Maestranza / Guillermo Mendo, Ohio State University, Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony / Mathias Bothor, Nationaltheater Prag, Vineyard Alois Lageder; CDs: NMC, Codaex, Deutsche Grammophon, cpo. DVR: 0836702