13 Wolfgang Rihm. I am a mistake with Jan Fabre

14 Luciano Berio.Four valuable miniatures

22 Kurt Weill /Bertolt Brecht.Mahagonny: ‘Berlin sin’

36 Gustav Mahler. Mahler Years 2010 / 2011

Morton Feldman

Morton Feldman Festivalin Amsterdam

newsletter01/08 • winter 2007/2008

2

contents 01/2008

COMPOSERSPärt — 4Staud — 5Haddad — 7Schwartz — 7Luke Bedford — 8Panufnik — 8Sotelo — 9Baltakas — 11Lentz — 11Haas — 12Rihm — 13Berio — 14Bennett — 14Cerha — 15Birtwistle — 16Sawer — 16Boulez — 17Stockhausen — 18Borisova-Ollas — 18Halffter — 19Ligeti — 19Feldman — 21Mahagonny: Berlin sin — 22Schnittke — 24Messiaen — 24Shostakovich — 24Milhaud — 25Martin — 25Korngold — 27Kodály — 27Bartók — 28Eisler — 28Szymanowski — 29Schoeck — 29Braunfels — 30Foerster — 30

Contents

WP = World Première

3

Schreker — 31Krenek — 31Zemlinsky — 32Martinu — 32Webern — 33Schönberg — 34Berg — 35Mahler — 36Janácek — 37von Einem — 37

REDISCOVERIESZádor — 26Apostel — 26

ANNIVERSARIES — 38 - 39

WORLD PREMIÈRES — 40 - 41

NEW RELEASES — 42 - 43

NEW ON CD — 44 - 45

WORKLISTMartinu — 46

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 48

Dear Readers,

One of the most hackneyed phra-ses in our profession is the conceptof ‘artistic licence’. It’s true that, without it, there can be no furtherdevelopment of artistic content oraesthetic form. However, thoughobviously necessary, this concept isalso very readily invoked when it’sa question of reinterpreting a com-poser’s original intentions and giving a work a new look. In thecase of a classic such as The Riseand Fall of the City of Mahagonnyby Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht(see p. 22–23), this same ‘artistic licence’ can sometimes bear ex-tremely strange fruit indeed – infact, it can even find itself in oppo-sition to the authors, for whom ‘artistic licence’ translates as ‘wilfulcaprice’. It’s here that, as publisher –and therefore representative ofcomposers and their work – we areobliged to intervene where theirrights are being violated. The com-poser takes the liberty of insistingon an authentic performance oftheir work. Does this ‘composer’s licence’ carry less weight than the‘artistic licence’ of a director?

The Editorial Team

4

pärt

PÄRT

Two new

choral works

and Fratres

In autumn 2003 Arvo Pärtreceived an honorarydoctorate from Durham

University (UK). His link with theuniversity has now borne fruit inthe shape a choral work, writtenfor their 175th anniversary: Morning Star for a cappella choir,based on the prayer inscribed onthe tomb of the Venerable Bede inDurham Cathedral. The first perfor-mance takes place on 10 Dec at StMartin-in-the Fields in London.

A different story – that of St Patrick– inspired Pärt’s choral piece TheDeer’s Cry. Thanks to St Patrick’sprayer (the Lorica of St Patrick), hisenemies were unable to recognisehim and his followers, seeing onlydeer. The Deer’s Cry for a cappellachoir receives its first performan-ces on 13 Feb in Dundalk and Drog-heda (Ireland).

Shortly afterwards Pärt is the cen-tral focus of the RTE Living MusicFestival, directed by James MacMil-lan. Between 15–17 Feb, 23 of hisworks will be presented to the Irishpublic. Details to follow soon atwww.rte.ie/livingmusic

WP

Arvo Pärt has repeatedly reworkedhis Fratres for different instrumen-tal forces. The most recent, andfrom a technical point of viewmost challenging, is for 4 percus-sionists. The first US performancewas given on 20 Nov in New Yorkby the famous New York percussionensemble So Percussion.Details: www.sopercussion.com

staud

5

STAUD

Im Lichte -

In the Light

The title – taken fromNietzsche’s Ecce Homo –already awakens curiosity

about this new piece for 2 pianosand orchestra, commissioned bythe International MozarteumFoundation, the Bamberg Sympho-ny Orchestra, the ZaterdagMatineeAmsterdam and the Musica Stras-bourg festival. First performance ofIm Lichte by Johannes Maria Staudis on 31 Jan in Salzburg; soloists areTamara Stefanovich and Pierre-Laurent Aimard, with JonathanNott conducting the CamerataSalzburg. ‘The pianos are treated absolutelyequally and occupy a central role inthe work; the piece is more aboutfusion than dialogue, of textureswhich couldn’t be realised usingone piano alone. This was extraor-dinarily exciting for my imaginati-on, but also challenging,’ says com-poser Staud. The celesta, placed in the centre behind the pianos, plays an important pivotalrole between them and frequentlyexpands the pairing into a triangu-lar relationship. After a short intro-duction, with germinal ideas hin-ting at things to come, Im Lichtebegins with music which seems tocascade from on high like a

rainbow, in order gradually to con-dense into a heady vortex ofsound. After the successful Japanese pre-mière of Apeiron in September,Franz Welser-Möst is now con-ducting its US première on 28 Febwith the Cleveland Orchestra (furt-her performances on 1 and 2March), as a kind of overture toStaud’s Daniel Lewis Composer Fel-lowship, which will also result in anew commission. Viviane Hagner isplaying Towards a Brighter Hue forviolin in Berlin on 2 Dec, and StefanBlum performs Portugal for per-cussion on 12 Dec in Munich.

WP

FEB 16–232008

International contemporary music festival

sonic art and seminars

TRA

DITIO

N IN

TRA

NSITIO

N

Saturday 23 The Stockholm Concert HallKammarensembleN Cond. Franck Ollu Elia Khoury, oud Anders Kilström, pianoSaed Haddad (World Premières)One Love II for piano and ensemble La Mémoire et l´Inconnu for oud and ensemble

7

haddad / schwartz

7

HADDAD

On Love II

As a Christian Arab and aWestern contemporarymusic composer, the

Jordanian composer Saed Haddadidentifies himself as an ‘other’ bothwithin the Western cultural con-text and within his own culturalheritage (where contemporarymusic does not exist). On his newwork, On Love II, he writes ‘On LoveII is an experience of an Arabic love;a love which longs for unity how -ever remains in the realm of rup ture,lamentation and separation.’ This isone of two works being given theirworld première at the StockholmNew Music festival on the 23 Feb.

The second piece is La Mémoire etL’Inconnu, a concerto for oud (Arabiclute) and ensemble. It is based ontwo lines from Khalil Gibran’s col-lection ‘Sand and Foam’: ‘Remem-brance is a form of meeting. For-getfulness is a form of freedom.’

WP

The KammarensembleN is con-ducted by its artistic leader FranckOllu.

SCHWARTZ

Three-dimensional

sounds

As part of their ‘LoveSongs’ event in Stuttgarton 15 Nov, the Neue Vocal-

solisten Stuttgart gave the firstperformance of Jay Schwartz’s arrangement of The First Time EverI Saw Your Face by Roberta Flackand Ewan MacColl, arranged for sixvoices.Music for 12 Cellos (2002) exploresthe spatial possibilities of an ensemble arranged in a circle. Bysurrounding the audience, the per-formance becomes audibly ‘three-dimensional’, the musicians’ soundjourneying through the perfor-mance space. The work was perfor-med on 23 Nov by the cellists of theRSO Stuttgart under Erik Nielsen.

WP

Jay Schwartz, Teatro la Fenice Venice

bedford / panufnik

8

BEDFORD

Wreathe

We mentioned this newwork in our last newslet-ter, but now it has a title.

Unusually for Luke Bedford, therewas no literary inspiration; insteadthe composer chose the C16th wordWreathe (possibly from the OldEnglish word for ‘to writhe’) as itstitle because it highlights thestructure of the piece in that themusical ideas twist, intertwine and‘wreathe’ themselves from thebackground to the foreground andvice versa. The word also has a

particular resonance that appealedto Bedford. Honing his languagefor smaller forces than the BBC National Orchestra of Wales’ usualline-up, the central section of thepiece utilises the lower registers ofall the instruments concerned, including a contrabass clarinet. Theworld première of Wreathe takesplace on 7 Dec. in the WiltshireMusic Centre, Bradford-on-Avon,with Thierry Fischer conductingthe BBC NOW.

PANUFNIK

Daughter

and father

Roxanna Panufnik’s TheConversation of Prayer –a flute solo inspired by

Dylan Thomas’ poem – has its pre-mière (by Elisabeth Möst) on 3 Feb2008 in Stade/Ger.

Just prior to that, the première ofModlitwa (by Andrzej and RoxannaPanufnik) in a new version forstring orchestra will be given bythe Isis Ensemble and JacquesCohen at St. James’s, Piccadilly on31 Jan 2008, when a new CD (incl.Modlitwa) will be launched. Panufnik’s 40th birthday falls on 24Apr 2008 and will be celebratedwidely. Details at:www.roxannapanufnik.com

WP

WP

Luke Bedford

9

sotelo

SOTELO

Endless

listening

‘You hear only endless listening’ – this is howSpanish poet José Angel

Valente characterises the music ofMauricio Sotelo. For the Festival deMúsica de Canarias, Sotelo haswritten Como llora el viento, a con-certo for guitar and orchestrawhich will be premièred on 18 Janin Las Palmas de Canaria by the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkestunder Yakov Kreizberg. Soloist isthe well-known guitarist Juan Manuel Canizares, and there is afurther performance on 20 Jan inSanta Cruz de Tenerife.

Madrid, Granada and Seville playhost to musikFabrik from 18–20Feb, who are giving the first

WP

Spanish performances of Night forpercussion and ensemble (2007)and Wall of light black for SeanScully (2006) for saxophone andensemble. Sotelo found inspirationfor these pieces in the works ofIrish painter Sean Scully, which forhim rank as some of the most in-tense in modern painting. For thecomposer, the picture entitled Wallof light black is like a ‘black scream’.

On 16 and 17 Feb there are furtherperformances in Barcelona of thechildren’s opera Dulcinea (2004–6),based on Miguel de Cervantes’ DonQuijote. With this work Sotelo hassucceeded in writing colourfulmusic that is easy for children tograsp, yet still challenging. 12,600schoolchildren attended the 7 per-formances in June at the Teatro dela Maestranza in Seville alone, showing how great the need forgood children’s operas really is.

Mauricio Sotelo Dulcinea Teatro Real Madrid 2006

baltakas / lentz

11

BALTAKAS

Casting a spell

on Stuttgart

In response to a commission fromthe Neue Vocalsolisten, Lithuaniancomposer Vykintas Baltakas haswritten a piece with the title In-structions for casting an ancientlove spell, which will bind yourlover to you at once and for ever,taking inspiration from an old‘magic formula’. The composer assures us, however,that the audience will remain unharmed! ‘It isn’t witchcraft, amagic ritual or theatre piece and itcertainly isn’t psychotherapy.’ Thepremière is on 14 Feb in Stuttgart.

LENTZ

Bright

starry night

A commission from the Philharmo-nie Luxembourg, Georg Lentz’slarge work for solo electric guitaris, once again, a highly personalwork. According to Lentz, Ingwe(‘Night’) is a cry of despair, as wellas ‘a meditation on the inability topray. Ingwe, the bright starry nightand the “inner night”, is like dark-ness in personal life. Pain. Depressi-on.’ Ingwe forms part of the cycle‘Caeli enarrant …’, begun in 1989,which Lentz describes as an on-going ‘downhill journey’. WithIngwe the cycle has ‘for the timebeing’ reached its ‘gloomy, demonicfinal destination’. The first perfor-mance with Zane Banks is on 8 Decin Luxembourg.

Ngangkar (1998/2000) has hadtwo further performances inJapan: Christian Arming conductedit on 15 and 16 Jul with the NewJapan Philharmonic Orchestra. Itwas also thanks to him that thework received its Japanese premièreon 28 Feb 2007.

12

haas

quartet: ‘Haas achieves a simplypoetic effect via expanded islandsof harmony. …’

REMIX, a commission for the Remixensemble in Portugal, is just that,an amalgamation of musical ele-ments already used in earlierworks. Haas writes “I only wantedto take elements that I had alreadytried out, and with which I hadbeen able to gain experience, andplace them in a different relation-ship.” The première was on the 12Nov in Vienna with KlangforumWien under Enno Poppe. Audiencesin Porto, Portugal, have the uniquepossibility of hearing performan-ces of the same work by two ensembles in as many days. It’sKlangforum Wien with SylvainCambreling on 29 Nov versusRemix and Peter Rundel on 30.

The German première of Open Spaces II takes place in Berlin onthe 1 Dec with Ensemble Resonanz.

HAAS

‘Overtone Poetry’

Following the rich collection of per-formances of Georg Friedrich Haasat the Wien Modern festival inVienna, his works continue to enjoynumerous performances through-out the winter. Following its pre-mière in Vienna on 7 Nov., the PianoConcerto, performed by ThomasLarcher, is travelling to Basel, Luxembourg and Munich (1, 2 and14 Dec.). On 28 Nov. the String Quartet No. 5will be heard for the second time,this time in Vienna. The Germanpremière is planned for 20 Jan inBerlin with the Arditti Quartet.After the première in Schwaz/A,Der Standard newspaper spoke ofits astonishment that new formsof discovery in sound can still befound – even more so in such a limited instrumentation as a string

13

rihm

In 1984 Rihm wrote the 4-minuteorchestral work Fusée to celebratePierre Boulez’ 60th birthday a yearlater. According to the programmenote this homage derives from theChiffre cycle (which then still con-sisted of 5 works); the title camefrom a bundle of intimate dra-wings (lightning, rockets) by Char-les Baudelaire. David de Villiers isconducting the piece in Essen on29 Jan.

Verwandlung can be heard inChemnitz under Anu Tali (16, 17 Jan)and under Christian Arming inTokyo (29 Feb).

RIHM

Schrift–

Um–Schrift

The title of his latest work, Schrift-Um-Schrift (Writing-re-writing) for2 pianists and 2 percussionists, firstperformed on 3 Nov in Cologne,could sum up Wolfgang Rihm’swhole working method; for thosewho know his work, associationswith the ensemble piece Nach-schrift or Über-Schrift for twopianos readily spring to mind.

Meanwhile, the hybrid formed bycrossing two ‘families’ of pieces (Séraphin and Sphere), I am a Mistake – a collaboration betweenRihm and Jan Fabre – goes on extended tour in December afterits Athens première (29 Nov). Theensemble recherche under LucasVis calls at Vienna, Amsterdam, Birmingham, London, Luxembourg,Brussels, Cologne and Paris.

Also in Amsterdam, at the Muziek-gebouw aan ’t IJ, Fabrice Bollon andthe Orchester Holland Symfoniaare presenting Tutuguri I, musicafter Antonin Artaud (1981) on 11Dec, while the DoelenKwartet isperforming Akt und Tag, two stu-dies for soprano and string quarteton 27 Jan in Veerle and 1 Feb inAmsterdam.

14

berio / bennett

BERIO

Four valuable

miniatures

Because of their brevity, LucianoBerio’s four short orchestral worksEntrata, Fanfara, Festum and Encore,written between 1978 and 1989,have so far received little attentionfrom concert programmers; insteadthey have found their way intoother Berio works in one form oranother. Pierre Boulez has nowbrought these works togetherunder the title 4 Dédicaces (dur. ca.12’) and is giving the first perfor-mance on 31 Jan (also 1 and 2 Feb)with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Chicago, and then on26 Feb in Carnegie Hall and in Lucerne during summer 2008.

Un re in ascolto – Berio’s ‘azionemusicale’ in two parts, reflects his

longing for a new kind of musictheatre, richer in fantasy. The newproduction by the Städtische Bühnen,Münster (under Ernö Weil’s direction, with Fabrizio Venturaconducting) has its première on 1 Feb.

BENNETT

Humpty-Dumpty

in Omaha

In January 2008 Opera Omaha willbe producing Richard Rodney Bennett’s children’s opera All theKing’s Men with a cast of youngchildren from the city alongsideplayers from the area’s youth orchestras. There will be five per-formances in total on 24, 25, 26(two) and 27 Jan at the Rose Theater in Omaha, New England. With a libretto by Beverley Cross,this hugely enjoyable opera takesas its theme the English Civil Warof the C17th, and specifically the invention of a new siege enginenicknamed Humpty-Dumpty.

Richard Rodney Bennett All theKing’s Men Opera Omaha 2007

15

cerha

to sustained sounds of changingtimbre and resonance chords, suchas those produced by the piano’s“artificial pedal” when keys are si-lently depressed before soundingnotes in another register.’

Momente for orchestra, also writ-ten in 2005 to a commission frommusica viva Munich, has its Viennesepremière on 20 Feb, with a follow-up performance on 22 Feb (RSOWien/Bertrand de Billy). ‘I am tiredof the monomaniac spinning-out,the “worked-out” proliferation ofmusical ideas …’ says Cerha by wayof explaining how he didn’t appro-ach this work.

An earlier work is being performedby Ingo Metzmacher and the ViennaPhilharmonic Orchestra on 8 Jan:the orchestral piece Monumentumfür Karl Prantl (1988/9), dedicatedto the highly regarded Austriansculptor, a close friend of Cerha’s.‘Prantl once said: “art is a form ofaid”. The simple, concentrated still-ness and power of his sculptureswas an aid to me in finding thelanguage of Monumentum. I wouldbe happy, and regard it as an act ofgratitude, if I could pass such aid on.’

CERHA

Art Aid

Friedrich Cerha’s Les Adieux (Ele-gie) for ensemble, written in 2005and first performed on 7 Oct byKlangforum Wien and JohannesKalitzke at the Venice Biennale, isto receive its Swedish and Austrianpremières with the same perfor-mers: on 16 Feb at the StockholmFestival for New Music, and threedays later at the Vienna Konzert-haus. The composer writes: ‘LesAdieux demands attentive listening

Ingo Metzmacher

16

birtwistle / sawer

mark this are accordingly beingmade worldwide. Two festivals inthe UK include one planned byEMFEB in and around Manchesterand another by the Royal Academyof Music, but prior to 2009, Settembre Musica in Italy plans amajor retrospective of Birtwistle’sworks. Meanwhile, Cortege continues tobe performed worldwide: the German première was played bymusikFabrik in November, and theAsko Ensemble, under Reinbert deLeeuw has programmed the Dutchpremière for Sept. 2008.

SAWER

An imaginary

forest

On 24 Jan 2008 Jac van Steen con-ducts the BBC National Orchestraof Wales in the Welsh première ofDavid Sawer’s Byrnan Wood at St. David’s Hall, Cardiff. This well-established work is divided intothree large sections, each of whichbegins with the same opening ma-terial but develops it in a differentway. This was to make audible theidea that during the course of themusic, the listener was comingacross the same clearing in an ima-ginary forest before then movingoff on a new path.

BIRTWISTLE

Energetic

fantasia

On 28 Feb 2008 Alarm Will Soundperforms Harrison Birtwistle’sclassic Carmen Arcadiae Mechani-cae Perpetuum – now very muchpart of the repertoire – in the Zan-kel Hall, cond. Alan Pierson. An‘energetic, exuberant fantasia onostinatos’, the work is an homageto Klee and sounds as fresh now asit did in 1978. Harrison Birtwistle’s 75th birthdayfalls in July 2009, and plans to

Harrison Birtwistle

17

boulez

BOULEZ

A delayed

première

It is scarcely believable: Tombeau,the fifth part of Pli selon pli by Pierre Boulez, has had to wait 47years to reach the Norwegian concert platform. Its well overduepremière is now taking place on 6 Dec in Oslo, with Peter Szilvayconducting the Norwegian RadioOrchestra. Three further sections of this greatmusical portrait of Mallarmé canbe heard in Paris the day before: allthree Improvisations are being per-formed by the Orchestre de Parisunder Christoph Eschenbach, withsoloist Valdine Anderson.

It is fascinating to be able to hearthe works of the French composer– some of which already have aperformance history of several

decades, and have long since joined the repertoire – in nume-rous different interpretations, including live performances withthe composer himself. Dérive 1 isreceiving three performances –with Boulez, Eschenbach and PeterWiegold. Boulez conducts the EIC in Éclat /Multiples and … explosante-fixe …on 12 and 16 Dec at the Cité de la Musique. The same venue alsoplays host on 16 Dec to performan-ces of Mémoriale and Messages-quisse with Vicen Prats, fl, Éric Picards, vlc and members of the Orchestre de Paris under ChristophEschenbach.

And in the UK, the London Contem-porary Music Group played Impro-visé for 5 instruments on 12 Novunder the baton of Michael Francis,the first time it has been heard inthis form in England.

18

stockhausen / borisova-ollas

STOCKHAUSEN

Intuitive music

‘I have called this music, which isborn out of the musicians’ spiritualstate with the aid of short texts, intuitive music. … It is a question ofusing these texts to discover diffe-rent archetypes of musical process-es, each of which leads to quite individual musical events …’ This washow, in 1969, Karlheinz Stockhausendescribed his 15 text compositionsAus den sieben Tagen for indeter-minate forces. Ensemble rechercheis giving its interpretation of thework on 10 Jan in Freiburg.More Stockhausen works are beingperformed on 22 Feb at the Accade-mia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia inRome: the Piano Pieces 7 and 8 withMaurizio Pollini and Kontra-Punkteand Zeitmasse with KlangforumWien under Peter Eötvös.It’s hard to believe, but on

22 August 2008, Stockhausen is celebrating his 80th birthday!

BORISOVA-OLLAS

Journey to

the Beyond

Victoria Borisova-Ollas wrote herorchestral piece The Kingdom of Silence in 2003, as a reaction to thedeath of her teacher Nikolai Korn-dorf. In this work her music doesnot strike dramatic poses, nor depict any struggle: it is muchmore like a smooth transition, apassage through various emotio-nal states. ‘The mysterious place towhich we all go after our lives hasmany names. The Kingdom of Silence is one of them.’ The SwedishRSO is playing the work in Stockholm on 10 and 11 Jan, conducted by Lionel Bringuier.

Victoria Borisova-Ollas

19

halffter / ligeti

HALFFTER

Effective

soundscapes

63 years, almost to the day, afterDresden was destroyed in WorldWar II, Cristóbal Halffter’s orches-tral work Memento à Dresden(1995), commissioned by the Dresden Philharmonic, is beingperformed in the Dresden Kultur-palast (12 and 13 Feb).In it Halffter attempts ‘to reflectthe annihilation of Dresden usingmusical means … The work derivesits impetus from effective sounds-capes, an expansive percussionsection, extreme rhythmic demandsand rare, highly effective melodicphrases and harmonic elements’(Sächsische Zeitung).

In Madrid, the Orquesta Sinfonicade RVTE under Adrian Leaper is

playing Palimsesto (1956/2004) fortimpani and orchestra at the TeatroMonumental on 24 and 25 Jan.Here Halffter superimposes soundtextures of varying dynamic density on a work from 1956, sothat both old and new elementscan be heard.Also in Madrid, Jesús Amigo is con-ducting the Orquesta de Extrema-dura in Obertura festiva (2006) forbrass and timpani.

LIGETI

Studio experiences

Composed in 1958/9, two years be-fore Atmosphères, the orchestralwork Apparitions is a product ofthe Cologne years, when György Ligeti was working in the electro-nic studio and spending a lot oftime with Karlheinz Stockhausen. ‘I applied my studio experiences toorchestral music – albeit in modi-fied form – in the second move-ment of Apparitions in 1959, imme-diately after my time in Cologne,’wrote Ligeti. Ivan Volkov conductsthe work on 13 Dec with the BBCScottish SO in Glasgow.

Dresden

SIX CONCERTS BY THE IVES ENSEMBLE

FEBRUARY 7 - 10, 2008

PIET HE INKADE 1, AMSTERDAM THE NETHERLANDS | WWW.MUZIEKGEBOUW.NL

MORTON FELDMAN FESTIVAL

WORKS BY MORTON FELDMAN

TO BE FEATURED AT THE FESTIVAL

For Stefan Wolpe

Rothko

Routine Investigations

Three clarinets, cello and piano

For Frank O’Hara

Violin and String Quartet

Crippled Symmetry

Words and Music

21

feldman

21

FELDMAN

Labour of love

In 1961 Samuel Beckett wroteWords and Music for BBC radio, aplay featuring the two characters“Words” and “Music” (also referredto as Joe and Bob). The work waswithdrawn following the premièredue to Beckett’s dissatisfaction. 20years later, Beckett suggested thatMorton Feldman should composethe music, resulting in the firstcomplete performance in 1987 (theyear of Feldman’s death), producedfor the American Beckett Festival ofRadio Plays. In Feldman’s words: ‘Itwas a huge amount of fun to dosomething for Beckett, a sort of tri-bute to him, i.e. someone who hasbeen part of my life since the ‘50’s… it was to some extent a labour oflove, which I happily undertook.’

From 7 to 10 Feb, the Ives Ensembleand the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ arepresenting a four-day festival ofmusic by Morton Feldman, presen-ting a wide portrait of Feldman’smusical output. This includes per-formances of For Stefan Wolpe,Rothko Chapel, Routine Investi-gations and the Dutch première ofViolin and String Quartet, CrippledSymmetry. The festival closes witha staged performance of Wordsand Music. The Ives Ensemblemakes the short trip across theborder to Bruges and gives a

second performance of the workthere on 13 Feb. The Bruges audi-ence can also attend a second con-cert of Feldman’s music on 15 Feb,with the Prometheus Ensembleand the Vlaams Radio Koor con-ducted by Etienne Siebens. See Tim Conley’s site on Words andMusic here:www.tinyurl.com/2geopo

22

weill

WEILL

Mahagonny:

‘Berlin sin’

The huge success that Kurt Weilland Bertolt Brecht had enjoyed in1928, with the première of theThreepenny Opera, gave rise tofalse expectations in the audience– and, in part, the press – when theRise and Fall of the City of Maha-gonny was first performed in Leipzig in 1930. Many were expecting another play with music,but for Mahagonny Weill had anew, original style of opera in mind– a first attempt at which he hadalready tried out even before theThreepenny Opera in Baden in 1927in the shape of the MahagonnySongspiel, and which came to maturity in the opera The Rise andFall of the City of Mahagonny. Weillregarded the song style he hadused in the Threepenny Opera orHappy End as non-repeatable, andin Mahagonny he made a finalbreak from it.

Fortune did not smile on the work’spremière, which took place on 9 March 1930 in Leipzig to the accompaniment of fierce uproar.These disturbances were mostlypolitically motivated and, in thegrowing climate of anti-Semitism,directed to a large part against theJewish composer Weill and the

communist Brecht. The more serious music critics, however, realised well enough that this wasa groundbreaking event for opera.To counteract the false assess-ments of style that were alreadyemerging, Weill repeatedly stres-sed at the time that The Rise andFall of the City of Mahagonny was a‘song opera’ which could not beperformed with actors, and whichas a through-composed work mustnot be subjected to any alteration.

Because of the worsening politicalclimate in Germany, it soon became clear that no Berlin operahouse dared stage the piece. Theonly possibility on offer was theprivately run Theater am Kur-fürstendamm. In this production,using a mixed cast of singers andsinging actors, Lotte Lenya took therole of Jenny, which required somechanges to make it singable forher. This was ultimately a compro-mise that Weill saw himself forcedto make because of the political situation, and cannot be taken as aprecedent. It took 30 years afterthis production to purge the worldof the ‘Berlin sin’ and establish thework on the world’s operatic stages in the form originally inten-ded by Weill and Brecht.

23

weill

Even today, we are still haunted bythe spectre of the misunderstand-ing that the Rise and Fall of the Cityof Mahagonny is a kind of Sing-spiel, and therefore to be per-formed with singing actors ratherthan opera singers.

Here, as Kurt Weill’s publisher, Uni-versal Edition is already performing valuable explanatory work at thepreparatory stage, by clearly setting out the general conditionsunder which the opera may be per-formed.

A further part of this explanatorywork is securing the general agree-ment of all those involved in a pro-duction that the work remains pro-tected in its authentic form as intended by Weill and Brecht. It isthen also the publisher’s responsi-bility to check the progress of pro-ductions and, if need be, also inter-vene with appropriate rigour, if therights of Kurt Weill or Bertolt

Brecht are violated by disregard forthese general conditions (as wasnecessary recently in Madrid).

In the years when Mahagonny wascomposed, political persecutionforced Weill to make unpleasantcompromises in order to see hiswork performed at all. It is not acceptable that, under the pro-tective cloak of ‘artistic freedom’,he should be subjected to similarpressures today.

Kurt Weill / Bertolt Brecht The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny Spoleto Festival 2007

24

schnittke / messiaen/ shostakovich

SCHNITTKE

(K)ein Sommer-

nachtstraum

Adorno once said of Mahler’s Sym-phony No. 4 that it was like onelong ‘“as though” from first note tolast’. Something similar could alsobe said of Alfred Schnittke’s (K)einSommernachtstraum. The music –a model of polystylistic writing –begins quite harmlessly in the styleof a Mozart minuet, but then –with stylistic ‘forgeries’ and ironicdistancing – gradually assumes thecharacter of the type of musicaljoke whose mood threatens tolurch into nightmare at any mo-ment (16–17 Dec, Brunswick Staats-orchester under Georg Mark).

MESSIAEN

Exotic birds

In his colourful, eloquent Oiseauxexotiques for piano and small orchestra, written in 1955–6 at Pier-re Boulez’s suggestion, Olivier Mes-siaen incorporates a total of 47 dif-ferent types of exotic birdsongfrom India, China, Malaysia andboth Americas. Homogeneity ofmusical language, compact formalorganisation and the constant balance between instrumental

episodes and piano cadenzas arecited by Boulez as characteristic ofthe work. He performs it in Paris on3 Dec with the Ensemble Intercon-temporain.

SHOSTAKOVICH

The Golden Age

suite

Three performances of the suite ofThe Golden Age, the composer’sfirst ballet were given by the Wichita SO in Wichita/USA on 6, 7and 8 Nov. Composed when DmitriShostakovich was very young (it was premièred in 1930) and ex-ploring all aspects of dramaticmusic, the ballet itself takes as itstheme the tour of an heroic Sovietfootball team to the decadentWest, and as such is full of all thepopular dances of the day, such asfoxtrots, charlestons and tangos,all orchestrated with characteristicflair and wit.

25

milhaud / martin

MILHAUD

Viola concerto

The Concerto for Viola Op. 108 byDarius Milhaud, dedicated to PaulHindemith, appeared in 1929 intwo versions: for 15 solo instru-ments and for symphony orchestra.The latter was heard in Amsterdamin May 2007, with Suzanne van Elsas soloist. Now she is playing theversion for 15 solo instruments inGouda on 2 Dec, accompanied bythe Schönberg Ensemble. The piecehas certainly not managed toestablish a fixed place for itself inthe repertoire, but viola players stillkeep returning to it …

MARTIN

Glittering

background

The title Cantate pour le temps deNoël was devised by Maria Martin,widow of the composer Frank Martin. At the suggestion of theconductor Alois Koch she comple-ted the unfinished manuscript,begun in 1929–30 by her husband,and thus enabled the first perfor-mance to take place in Lucerne in1994. We know from Maria Martin thather husband was inspired by the

Ravenna Basilica di San Vitale

Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna. ‘Thekinship between the work and thisart is obvious: statically conceivedmain figures (soloists) against aglittering, colourful background(orchestra). The influence of Grego-rian chant can also be felt. This im-pression of an archaic atmospherewas certainly intentional.’ PeterDijkstra is conducting the work inBerlin with the Deutsches SO, theBerlin Radio Choir, Cathedral Choirand Berlin Staatschor on 22 Dec.

26

zádor / apostel

ZÁDOR

A true

rediscovery

Born in Bataszék, Hungary in 1894,Eugen Zádor, who died in the USAin 1977, was in recent decades doomedto an existence only as a dictionaryentry. However, in his lifetime heenjoyed great success, both beforehis emigration in 1939 with hisstage and orchestral works, andlater in Hollywood with his filmmusic – a (sadly) typical careerpath for many composers of ‘entar-tete Musik’. His opera burlesque X-mal Rembrandt, composed in1928/9, was first performed in 1930in Gera, and then enjoyed severalproductions in Germany in the fol-lowing years, before it more or lesssank without trace. Curiously thepiece is now being resurrected in 2productions at the same time: atthe Cologne Opera (première 16 Dec)

and in Giessen (10 May). Since theplot unfolds in an art gallery, director Uwe Hergenröder hastransferred the Cologne productionto the Wallraf Richartz Museum.

APOSTEL

So clear, so witty

When you read the unanimouslypositive reviews of the 7-minutestring quartet 6 Epigrams (1962) byHans Erich Apostel, you wonderwhy it is so seldom heard. ‘An out-standing work’ was the judgementof the Österreichische Musikzeit-schrift in 1964. ‘Seldom is music soclear, so witty, so succinct’ wroteDie Presse on 1 Mar 1972. Apostelhimself, who died 35 years ago inVienna, regarded it as his bestwork. The Athena Quartet’s Cologne au-dience will be given a fresh chanceto reach its own verdict on 26 Jan.

Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Köln

27

korngold / kodály

KORNGOLD

Little Korngold

The pantomime Der Schneemann(1908), written when Erich Wolf-gang Korngold was only 11, wasfirst performed at the Vienna Hof-oper on 4 Oct 1910 in the orchestra-tion by his teacher Alexander Zem-linsky. The sensational success of this evening made ‘the little Korngold’known far beyond the boundariesof Vienna. The music is thoroughlycharming, full of refined melodicand harmonic ideas, and does notsound at all childish. A concert per-formance is in the programme ofthe Anhaltisches Theater in Dessauon 8, 14 and 22 Dec.

KODÁLY

125th Anniversary

On 16 Dec Zoltán Kodály’s birthdaycomes round for the 125th time. InBudapest the celebrations start asearly as 12 Dec, with concerts in thelarge and small halls of the Academy of Music lasting frommorning until night-time. The bestHungarian soloists, ensembles,choirs and orchestras will all be taking part. Then on 16 Dec there is a birthdayconcert in the large hall. The wholemusical world celebrates Kodály bycontinuing to programme hisworks as a matter of course, with aregularity enjoyed by few 20th cen-tury composers.

In the coming months listeners inHeidelberg can hear the Háry JánosSuite (2 Dec), while the Dances ofGalánta are being played in Olden-burg, ’s-Hertogenbosch and Breda(6–12 Dec). The Serenade can alsobe heard at the Berlin Konzerthaus(2 Dec).

28

bartók / eisler

BARTÓK

Turning point

The number of staged and concertperformances of Béla Bartók’s TheMiraculous Mandarin in the last 10years has already far exceeded 500.In the next three months alone thepiece is being played 7 times – inGlasgow, The Hague, Essen, Wup-pertal, Stuttgart, Frankfurt andAmsterdam.And yet this epoch-making masterpiece did not escape thefate of being severely censured atits Cologne première in 1928 – in-deed, shame and abuse were heaped on it. In Bartók’s homelandThe Miraculous Mandarin could notbe performed at all before 1945 –the breakthrough did not occuruntil 1955/6. György Kroó sees theMandarin as a turning point in Bartók’s work and asserts: ‘It is aconscious settling of the accounts

with the outlook and the music ofhis youth … Here language andtechnique are transformed com-pletely into expressive tools of the20th century.’

EISLER

Ballads

1930 was a productive year forHanns Eisler. He composed a wholeseries of works, including Die Mass-nahme to a text by Brecht, theSuite for orchestra, and two worksfor voice and ensemble, the Balladevom Nigger Jim and the Balladevon der Krüppelgarde to texts byDavid Weber (pseudonym of Robert Winterfeld). HK Gruber hasnow taken these up and incorpora-ted them into the programme ofhis concert with the Zankel Band.The concert took place on 8 Nov atthe Zankel Hall in New York.

Béla Bartók The Miraculous Mandarin Grand Théâtre de Genève 2007

29

szymanowski /schoeck

Othmar Schoeck Notturno Theater St Gallen 2007

SZYMANOWSKI

Refined sounds

Driven into isolation by World War I,for some years Karol Szymanowskicomposed at his family’s estate inthe Ukraine, drawing on memoriesof his travels in the Mediterraneanregion, which provided inspirationfor several of his works. In Masques, three pieces for piano(1915–6), dreamy sounds alternatewith resolute rhythms and multi-layered tonality. The Polish pianistPiotr Anderszewski is performingthe work in Berne (9 Dec) and Paris(12 Dec).In his Mythes and Violin ConcertoNo. 1 (1916), Szymanowski createdhis own unique style of ‘violin impressionism’. The solo part ofthe Violin Concerto is extraordina-rily virtuosic, and an unusuallyrichly scored orchestral accompani-ment shimmers with every possible

colour. The Munich PhilharmonicOrchestra under Markus Poschner,with Christian Tetzlaff, vln, is per-forming the work on 19 and 20 Janin Munich.

SCHOECK

Notturno on stage

The Theater St Gallen is comme-morating the 50th anniversary ofSwiss composer Othmar Schoeck’sdeath with a staged production ofhis Notturno for low voice andstring orchestra, composed in1931/33. A setting of texts by Nikolaus Lenau and Gottfried Keller, it lasts 45 minutes. The director is Aurelia Eggers, PhilippEgli is responsible for the choreo-graphy and Peter Tilling conducts,with Thilo Dahlmann (baritone)and the dance company of theTheater St Gallen (until 16 Jan2008).

30

braunfels /foerster

the oppression that Braunfels him-self suffered under the Nazis.

FOERSTER

The Great Night

The Czech composer Joseph Bohus-lav Foerster was one year olderthan his friend Gustav Mahler andyet survived him by 40 years. His extensive output has been over-shadowed by Janácek’s, but stillhas many staunch supporters. JiriBelohlávek, for example, is con-ducting his Concerto for Violin on 8 Dec at the Barbican in London,with Ivan Zenaty and the BBC SO.Written in Vienna in 1911, the workpresents the soloist with extrememusical and technical challenges.It belongs to the tradition ofBrahms and Dvorák, though in itstreatment of the solo part and inthe relationship of violin and orchestra it emerges as thoroughlyoriginal.

Hermann Bäumer has scheduledthe Symphony No. 4 (1905) for per-formance with the Osnabrück SO(10/11 Dec). It bears the title TheGreat Night, reflecting a personalexperience of Christ’s message andof the Easter tradition in Bohemia.

BRAUNFELS

A provocation?

Walter Braunfels’ opera, Scenesfrom the Life of St Joan is being pre-sented for the first time ever onstage at the Deutsche Oper in Ber-lin in April 2008, directed by the critically acclaimed theatre produ-cer and artist Christoph Schlingen-sief. Simply to describe him withthe cliché ‘enfant terrible’ hardlydoes justice to his artistic talents.The press expects provocation, butis curious to see what is coming.The opera deals with the life ofJoan of Arc, and reflects unavoidably

J.-A.-D. Ingres Jeanne d’Arc

31

schreker / krenek

Ernst Krenek Jonny spielt auf Vienna State Opera 2002

SCHREKER

Dance Creations

James Conlon conducts the Juilliard Orchestra in New York in anew production of contemporarydance, set to 3 ‘Recovered Voices’:Schreker's Prelude to a Drama: DieGezeichneten is performed to anew choreography by Adam Houg-land; Zemlinsky's Sinfonietta to achoreography by Nicolo Fonte; andSchulhoff's Ogelala (Ballettmyste-rium) to a new choreography byRobert Battle.The Neue Philharmonie Westfalenalso presents Schreker’s music,ahead of the 75th anniversary of hisdeath in 2009. They perform thePhantastische Ouverture in Reck-linghausen on 29 February 2008and then in Gelsenkirchen andKamen (all Germany).Schreker’s Der Wind, after a scenicdesign for a dance performance by

Grete Wiesenthal, is a programma-tic expedition into the vivid charac-ter of a stormy wind. The work willbe performed in Basel on 17 Feb bysoloists from the Bern SO.

KRENEK

Box-office hit

During his long and productive career Ernst Krenek passedthrough several changes of styleand aesthetic attitude. However,his fame has been largely influen-ced by the success of his operaJonny spielt auf (1925–6), for whichhe also wrote the libretto. First per-formed in Leipzig on 10 Feb 1927,the opera quickly established itselfas a box-office hit and enjoyed 421performances in 45 different citiesin the 1927–28 season. It is in reper-tory at the Pfalztheater in Kaisers-lautern from 16 Feb.

32

zemlinsky / martinu

composers: Schreker’s Prelude to aDrama, Schulhoff’s Ogelala (USpremière) and Zemlinsky’s Sinfo-nietta.

MARTINU

Guest appearance

in China

As part of the Year of Greek Culturein China, three extracts from theoriginal version of Bohuslav Martinu’sopera The Greek Passion are recei-ving their concert première in Bei-jing on 14 Dec. Miron Michaelidisconducts the Thessaloniki State Orchestra, with Marina Fideli andAris Argiris in the leading roles.Les Fresques de Piero della Francescafor orchestra is being performed bythe Munich Philharmonic with MarkusPoschner on 19 and 20 Jan, and Jaapvan Zweden is conducting it on 14Feb in Brussels with deFilharmonie.

ZEMLINSKY

Conlon conducts

It is thanks to the utter commit-ment and unbounded enthusiasmof James Conlon that AlexanderZemlinsky’s music is now also receiving increasing numbers ofperformances in the USA. Since 2006James Conlon has been musical director of the Los Angeles Opera,where he quickly established a programme emphasis on themusic of composers expelled bythe Nazis (Recovered Voices: A LostGeneration’s Long-Forgotten Mas-terpieces). On 17 Feb a new pro-duction of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwergtakes to the stage in a productionby Darko Tresnjak, with James Conlonconducting. As early as December(13) Conlon is conducting an eve-ning with the Juillard Orchestra inNew York, with three new danceworks using pieces by defamed

Alexander Zemlinsky Der Zwerg Opera Frankfurt 2007

33

webern

WEBERN

Masterpieces of

concentration

It is impossible to imagine the con-cert repertoire today without theworks of Anton Webern, whose125th birthday falls on 3 Dec 2008.During Salzburg’s Mozart Week2008 sacred works by Mozart canbe heard in counterpoint with mo-dern and contemporary music,with the works of Webern in parti-cular occupying a central place.Some of Webern’s sacred workswill be programmed alongside Mozart, as well as masterpiecesfrom his chamber music output –tiny miniatures of great resolutionand intensity, often of only a fewminutes’ duration, which with themost extreme clarity and concen-tration seem to hold sound transfi-xed. Between 27 Jan and 2 Feb theprogramme includes the 5 Canonsop. 16, 5 Spiritual Songs op. 15, Kan-tate No. 2 op. 31, various other Pieces (op. 7, op. 10 and op. 11) andSongs (op. 4, op. 12 and op. 25), aswell as Variations op. 30 for pianoand the arrangement of Bach’sRicercare.

The Berliner Philharmoniker underBernard Haitink is performing Webern’s arrangement of the BachRicercare on 10–12 Jan, while underSir Simon Rattle’s direction it is

performing the Variations for orchestra in Berlin on 9 Feb and the4 Songs op. 13 for voice and orches-tra, with Dorothea Röschmann, inBerlin on 16 Feb.

James Levine and the MetropolitanOpera Orchestra are performingthe 6 Pieces op. 6 for orchestra on17 Feb in New York, and SusannaMälkki is conducting the reducedversion of the 6 Pieces with the Ensemble Intercontemporain inParis on 26 Jan. The 5 Pieces op. 5 forstring orchestra can also be heardin Paris, on 5 Dec with the Orchestrede Paris under Christoph Eschen-bach.

Sir Simon Rattle

34

schönberg

SCHÖNBERG

El Gran Èxit

No, it’s nothing to do with the wayout: èxit is simply the Catalan wordfor success. ‘El Gran Èxit de Schön-berg’ is the title of a concert givenby the Orquesta Simfònica de Bar-celona in January and featuring Arnold Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder.

In Krefeld, Germany, this lastspring, Schönberg’s monodramaErwartung was presented in an innovative and surprising context:in the middle of Henry Purcell’sDido and Aeneas. Schönberg’s workwas placed in the final scene ofDido, just before the famous aria‘When I am laid in earth’. The action on stage was frozen,and Kerstin Brix gave a criticallyacclaimed performance as ‘DieFrau’ in Erwartung. The opera thencontinues and comes to its drama-tic end. The press applauded a boldconnection of two contrastingworks which can so often go thewrong way. Erwartung shines of course on itsown, and does so on 12 Dec in Hel-sinki, with Susan Bullock as the so-loist with the Finnish RSO underLothar Zagrosek.

Duisburg enjoys an evening withMaeterlinck on 13 and 14 Feb, whenthree musical interpretations of hisplay Pelléas et Mélisande are given

in one concert. Schönberg’s symphonic poem was composed in1902, just before the première ofDebussy’s opera in Paris – a factSchönberg was unaware of at thetime. The Duisburger Philharmoni-ker is conducted by Jonathan Dar-lington.

In Tychy, Poland, the AUKSO Cham-ber Orchestra, founded in 1998,gives a performance of VerklärteNacht on 12 Dec. The conductor isMarek Mos.

Arnold Schönberg ErwartungTheater Krefeld 2007

35

berg

BERG

Discovery

Concerts

Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto ‘Tothe Memory of an Angel’ is on theprogramme at the Gewandhaus inLeipzig three nights in a row in January. The first concert is part ofthe Gewandhaus Orchestra’s seriesof Discovery Concerts. In theseone-hour concerts the conductor,in this case Riccardo Chailly, pre-sents key elements on the works inquestion and then gives a full per-formance. With an entrance price

of EUR 10, discovery doesn’t have toburn a whole in your pocket. As Chailly says: ‘I want to give theaudience the chance to overcometheir fear [of unknown, new andcontemporary music] and to disco-ver new music as well as compo-sers who in my opinion are centralto the musical profile of a wholecentury.’ The soloist on 16, 17 and 18Jan is Benjamin Schmid.

Jürgen Flimm (current director ofthe Salzburg Festival) producedBerg’s opera Wozzeck at La Scala inMilan in 1997. This acclaimed pro-duction – ‘intelligent enough toallow the actions to become vividwithout lapsing into naturalism’ –returns for seven performances on19 Feb. Daniele Gatti follows in thefootsteps of Sinopoli (1997) andConlon (2000).

At La Monnaie Theatre in Brussels,a new Wozzeck is being producedby David Freeman, and will be pre-mièred under the baton of MarkWigglesworth on 26 Feb. A musicalecho of the opera can be heard inParis on 29 Feb, when the Orchestredu Conservatoire de Paris and Ensemble Intercontemporain per-form the Wozzeck Bruchstücke.

Alban Berg WozzeckStaatstheater Wiesbaden 2003

36

mahler

MAHLER

Mahler 2010/11 –

the handbook

for concert

programming

In preparation for the two Mahlermemorial years 2010 (150th birth-day) and 2011 (100th anniversary ofdeath), Universal Edition has justproduced a brochure which givesan overview of the works of Gustav(and Alma) Mahler, and also drawsattention to several interesting

arrangements, some the work offamous hands. In addition, the brochure also presents works byother composers which make direct or indirect reference to Mah-ler. You can download the brochureas a PDF file or order it at www.universaledition.com/mahler

The many interesting new releasesinclude several reduced versions oflarge-scale Mahler works whichcan help them reach small and medium-sized concert halls (theSymphony No. 4 for chamber orchestra, Das Lied von der Erde forchamber orchestra or chamber ensemble, Lieder eines fahrendenGesellen for chamber orchestra,either by Schönberg/Riehn or Eberhard Kloke); the new CriticalEdition of the Symphony No. 2(ed. Gilbert Kaplan); and the recon-struction and re-orchestration ofthe complete Symphony No. 10 byRudolf Barshai. The fact that Das Lied von der Erde– whose texts, after all, derive fromChinese poetry – can now also besung in Chinese will surprise manyand may justifiably awaken theircuriosity. The brochure will tell you,however, why this Chinese versionis more than just a curiosity. Mahler is, and remains, a fascina-ting subject.

Gustav Mahler

37

janácek / einem

JANÁCEK

Across the Atlantic

Following the acclaimed success ofLeos Janácek’s opera From theHouse of the Dead, produced byPierre Boulez and Patrice Chéreau,the work crosses the Atlantic to theCanadian Opera Company in Toronto, where a new production istaking place in February. The director is Dmitri Bertman, artisticdirector of the Helikon Opera inMoscow. His recent Traviata in Toronto was described both as exciting and controversial and ‘hadopera audiences on fire’ accordingto Opera Now.Jenufa comes to the Opéra de Toulon for three performances inFebruary. Friedrich Pleyer conductsand Ruth Orthmann produces astaging by Jean-Louis Martinelli.The Cunning Little Vixen returns tothe Deutsche Oper Berlin for four

performances in Katharina Thal-bach’s acclaimed production from2000. Her staging ‘is crawling withideas like a forest with animals’, asthe Berliner Zeitung wrote.

VON EINEM

Genuine joy in

music-making

On 24 Jan 2008 Gottfried vonEinem (1918–1996) would have celebrated his 90th birthday. The per-formance of his Serenade for doublestring orchestra (1949) by Ernst Kovacic and his Wroclaw ChamberOrchestra Leopoldinum in Wroclawon 7 Oct could therefore be seen asan advance birthday tribute to thegreat Austrian composer. The four-movement, tonal Serenade, with itsmelodic and harmonic beauty, is ‘awork born out of genuine joy inmusic-making’ (Die Furche).

Leos Janácek From the House of the Dead Vienna Festival 2007

anniversaries

38

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

125th Anniversary Alfredo Casella * 25 July 188390th Anniversary Gottfried von Einem * 24 January 191870th Birthday Zygmunt Krauze * 19 September 193880th Anniversary Gerhard Lampersberg * 05 July 1928

100th Anniversary Olivier Messiaen * 10 December 190860th Birthday Nigel Osborne * 23 June 194860th Birthday Peter Ruzicka * 03 July 194875th Birthday R. Murray Schafer * 18 July 193370th Birthday Tona Scherchen * 12 March 193875th Anniv. of Death Max von Schillings † 24 July 1933

80th Birthday Karlheinz Stockhausen * 22 August 1928100th Anniversary Eugen Suchon * 25 September 1908125th Anniversary Anton Webern * 03 December 1883

2009

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

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

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

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

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

anniversaries

39

201050th Anniv. of Death Hugo Alfvén † 08 May 196075th Anniv. of Death Alban Berg * 24 December 1935

80th Birthday Paul-Heinz Dittrich * 04 December 193080th Birthday Cristóbal Halffter * 24 March 1930

100th Anniversary Rolf Liebermann * 14 September 1910150th Anniversary Gustav Mahler * 07 July 1860

75th Birthday Arvo Pärt * 11 September 193580th Anniversary Toru Takemitsu * 08 October 1930125th Anniv. of Death Egon Wellesz * 21 October 1885

2011

75th Birthday Gilbert Amy * 29 August 193675th Birthday Richard Rodney Bennett * 29 March 1936

100th Anniversary Paul Burkhard * 21 December 191175th Birthday Cornelius Cardew * 07 May 1936

80th Birthday Mauricio Kagel * 24 December 193175th Birthday Ladislav Kupkovic * 17 March 1936

100th Anniv. of Death Gustav Mahler † 18 May 191175th Birthday Steve Reich * 03 October 193675th Anniv. of Death Ottorino Respighi † 18 April 193650th Birthday David Sawer * 14 Seotember 196150th Birthday Daniel Schnyder * 12 March 1961125th Birthday Othmar Schoeck * 01 September 188650th Birthday Mauricio Sotelo * 02 October 196125th Anniv. of Death Alexandre Tansman † 15 November 198675th Birthday Hans Zender * 22 November 1936

world premières

40

VYKINTAS BALTAKAS Information für die Durchführung einer alten Liebesbeschwörung, dieIhre/Ihren Geliebte(n) auf einmal und für immer an Sie binden wirdfor 6 voices, Festival Éclat, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart14 February 2008 · Theaterhaus Stuttgart/D

LUKE BEDFORD Wreathe for orchestraBBC National Orchestra of Wales, c. Thierry Fischer07 December 2007 · Wiltshire Music Center Bradford-on-Avon/GB

LUCIANO BERIO 4 Dédicaces for orchestraChicago SO, c. Pierre Boulez31 January 2008 · Symphony Center Chicago/USA

GEORG FRIEDRICH HAAS Open Spaces II for string instruments and 2 percussion playersversion for four spatially distributed instrument groupsEnsemble Resonanz, Ulrich Grafe, Roland Neffe, perc.01 December 2007 · Ballhaus Naunynstraße Berlin/D

SAED HADDAD La Mémoire et l'Inconnu concerto for oud (Arabic lute) and ensembleOn Love II for piano and ensembleStockholm New Music Festival KammarensembleN, c. Franck Ollu, Elia Khoury, oud23 February 2008 · Philharmonic Concert Hall Stockholm/S

GEORGES LENTZ Ingwe for el. guitar, Zane Banks, el. guit08 December 2007 · Philharmonie Luxembourg/LUX

ARVO PÄRT Morning Star for choir (SATB) a cappellac. Jeremy Dibble10 December 2007 · St Martin-in-the-Fields London/GB

The Deer’s Cry for mixed choir a cappellaState Choir Latvia, c. Fergus Sheil 14 February 2008 · Louth/IRL

world premières

41

MAURICIO SOTELO Como llora el viento for guitar and orchestraFestival de Música de Canarias, Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest II,c. Yakov Kreizberg,Juan Manuel Cañizares, guit18 Jan 2008 · Auditorio Alfredo Kraus, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria/E

ROXANNA PANUFNIK The Conversation of Prayer for solo fluteElisabeth Möst, fl03 February 2008 · Stade/D

Modlitwa for string orchestraIsis Ensemble, c. Jacques Cohen31 January 2008 · St. James Cathedral London/GB

JAY SCHWARTZ / ROBERTA FLACK / EWAN MACCOLL The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face for 6 voicesLove Songs, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart15 November 2007 · Theaterhaus Stuttgart/D

JOHANNES MARIA STAUD Im Lichte for 2 pianos and orchestraMozartwoche, Camerata Academica Salzburgc. Jonathan Nott, Pierre Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich, pno31 January 2008 · Mozarteum Salzburg/A

new releases

42

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACHSuite 1 for cello soloUrtext Edition, newly ed. by Ulrich Leisinger UT 50260

LUCIANO BERIO6 Encores for piano (new edition) UE 33013

MIKE CORNICK Blue Baroque Violin for violin and piano UE 21397

FRANZ HABÖCK (HRSG.)Die Gesangskunst der Kastraten Eine Stimmbiographie in Beispielen for voice (counter tenor) and pianoUE 7032A

ROXANNA PANUFNIK Ave Maria for choir SSA and organscore UE 70293, choral score UE 70294

ARVO PÄRT Da pacem Domine for string orchestrastudy score UE 33664

ARVO PÄRTSumma for choir SATB or soloistsvocal score UE 33686

JAMES RAE Play it Cool – Saxophone with CDfor alto or tenor saxophone and piano UE 21404

RICHARD STRAUSS Sonata Eb-Major op. 18 for violin and piano UE 33385

ANTONIO VIVALDI Complete Sonatas for cello solo, harpsichord (piano), vcl. continuo (ad lib.)Urtext Edition ed. by Bernhard MoosbauerUT 50175

new releases

43

UNIVERSAL EDITION

Piano Project

for pianoed. by Anne-Lise Gastaldi and Valerie Haluk UE 33662

New contemporary pieces for teaching and the concert platform

Language classes in music!

It’s Greek to some people, for others it’s simply mumbo jumbo.But for those who can master thelanguage of contemporary music,it’s the passport to fascinatingworlds of sound. And the earlieryou learn this language, the morefun it is speaking it.

This is why, for Piano Project, someof the most important composersof our time have placed their talents entirely at the disposal ofthe young. Taking as model thoseworks such as Anton Webern’sKinderstück or Béla Bartók’s Mikro-kosmos, Georges Aperghis, PierreBoulez, Peter Eötvös, Ivan Fedele,Cristóbal Halffter, Michael Jarrell,György Kurtág, Luis de Pablo andSalvatore Sciarrino have each introduced young pianists to theircharacteristic musical language.

In 11 original compositions speciallywritten for this album musicians-to-be and great masters can set off

together on an exciting and variedexpedition through the musicallanguages of our time. ‘Eureka’ mo-ments included!

44

new on cd

BÉLA BARTÓK Der wunderbare MandarinRSO Bavaria, c. Mariss JansonsSony BMG CD 0886971236323

SAED HADDAD Joie voilée Donaueschinger Musiktage 2006 Vol.1, Arditti Quartet NEOS Music CD 10724

CRISTÓBAL HALLFTER ParafrasisRSO Berlin, c. Cristóbal HalffterRCA RED SEAL CD 74321 73613 2

ERNST KRENEK Alpbach Quintett, Symphonische MusikPetersen Quartett, Rosetti BläserquintettCapriccio CD 67176

ERNST KRENEK String Quartets No. 3 and 5Petersen Quartett Capriccio CD 67197

GYÖRGY LIGETI AtmosphèresVienna Philharmonic, c. Claudio AbbadoDeutsche Grammophon DG 4 CDs 477 644-3

PAUL PATTERSON Missa brevis op. 54 London Philharmonic Choir, c. Owain Arwel Hughes EMI Classics British Composers series CD 505 9212

STEVE REICH Piano PhaseLondon Steve Reich Ensemble cpo 777 CD 337-2

WOLFGANG RIHM Chiffre Zyklus musikFabrik, c. Stefan Asburycpo CD 777 169-2

WOLFGANG RIHM Akt und TagArditti Quartet, Claron McFadden, sopranoNEOS Music CD 10724

WOLFGANG RIHM Umriss – Aufzeichnung RSO Berlin, c. Gerd AlbrechtRCA RED SEAL CD 74321 73611 2

WOLFGANG RIHM Ungemaltes BildRSO Saarbrücken, c. Leonid GrinRCA RED SEAL CD 74321 73612 2

WOLFGANG RIHM Im InnerstenDoelenKwartet Attacca 2 CDs 27108-109&110

ROBERT SCHUMANN Symphonies No. 2 and 4 (arr. Gustav Mahler) Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, c. Riccardo ChaillyDecca CD 4758352

45

new on cd

KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN Stimmung Theatre of Voices, Paul Hillier harmonia mundi usa HMU 807408 / LC 7045

ALEXANDRE TANSMAN Le SermentOrchestre Philharm. et Choeur de Radio France, c. Alain AltinogluHarmonia mundi 90 FRF 001

KURT WEILL Matrosen-Song, Seeräuber Jenny, Bilbao-Song, Alabama Song Christiane Oelze, Eric Schneider, pnoCapriccio CD 71062

FELIX WEINGARTNER Aus ernster Zeit Ouverture Sinfonieorchester Basel, c. Marko Letonjacpo 777 101-2 SACD

IAN WILSON Veer, In fretta, in vento, … wander, darkling, Lyric Suite The Callino QuartetRiverrun RVR CD 77

FRIEDRICHCERHAConcerto forcelloHeinrich Schiff,vcl, Netherlands Radio ChamberOrchestra ECM New Series CD 1887

MORTON FELDMAN String Quartet Ives Ensemblehat (now) ARTCD 167

GEORG FRIED-RICH HAASHyperion SWR SO Baden-Baden/FreiburgRupert Huber,rosalie (Licht)NEOS MusicCD 10725

DAVID SAWERSounds: ThreeKandinskyPoemsExmoor Singersof London, c. James JarvisClassical Record-ing CompanyCD CRC 1716

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martinu worklist

BOHUSLAV MARTINU (1890–1959)Worklist

Concerto 17’30’’ 1935for harpsichord and small orchestra

Concerto da camera 24’ 1941for violin and string orchestra with piano and percussion

Concerto grosso 16’ 1937for chamber orchestra

Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca 19’ 1955for orchestra

Das Gilgamesch-Epos 50’ 1955Oratorium for soli, mixed choir and orchestra

(Soli: soprano, tenor, baritone, bass; choir: SATB)

The Greek Passion Music drama in 4 acts 130’ 1957Text source: Christ Recrucified by KazantzakisLibretto: Bohuslav Martinu1st version (London version) edited by Ales BrezinaMusicological edition and reconstruction of the original versionDie griechische Passion Opera in 4 acts 170’ 1957–19592nd version (Zurich version) Concerto No. 5 in Bb-Major 23’30” 1957–1958Fantasia concertante for piano and orchestra

2 Pièces 7’ 1935for harpsichord

The RockPrélude symphonique for orchestra 13’ 1957String Quartet No. 2 20’ 1925

Samstag 01.12.2007 18:00 & 20:00opera silens: «see my songs» Vadim Karassikov, Jochen Neurath

Sonntag 02.12.2007 20:00basel sinfonietta / Emilio Pomarico / Thomas LarcherFerruccio Busoni, György Ligeti, Claude Debussy Georg Friedrich Haas: Konzert für Klavier und Orchester (Auftrag basel sinfonietta, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Wien Modern)

Freitag 07.12.2007 19:00 & 20:00 (Bock-Kasematten & Église Saint-Michel)Schüler des Conservatoire Luxembourg / Brice Pauset LeitungNoise Watchers UnlimitedJames Tenney, Salvatore Sciarrino, Claude Lenners (UA), …

Samstag 08.12.2007 19:30 & So. 09.12.2007 18:30«the moon in the moonless sky.» United Instruments of Lucilin / Claudia Doderer RaumKlaus Lang: the moon in the moonless sky. (UA)

Samstag 08.12.2007 21:00«Nocturne» – Marcus Weiss Saxophon, Zane Banks E-GitarreGiorgio Netti: Necessità d’interrogare il cieloGeorges Lentz: Ingwe für E-Gitarre solo («Caeli enarrant…» VII) (UA)(Auftrag Philharmonie Luxembourg

Sonntag 09.12.2007 20:00«I am a mistake» – Jan Fabre Text, Choreographie, Bühne, LeitungWolfgang Rihm Musik Chantal Akerman Film Matthias Horn, Johannes M. Kösters, Hilde van Mieghem Stimme ensemble recherche / Lucas VisTroubleyn /Jan Fabre actors & dancers(Commissioned and produced by the European Concert Hall Organisation ECHO)

Tickets 0–25 €Festivalpass 45 € (<27 Jahre: 27 €)www.rainydays.lu – www.philharmonie.lu

(+352) 26 32 26 32

«…zum einen die leuchtende Sternennacht in der Wüsten-Stille, zum anderen … die ‹innere Nacht›» (Georges Lentz)

paint it blackrainy days23.11.–09.12.2007

Festival de musique nouvelle

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Groth, Vereinigte Städtische Bühnen Krefeld-Mönchengladbach /

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