Upcoming Performances & Anniversaries
Heinz Holliger
born: 05/21/1939
nationality: Switzerland
Upcoming:
Songs without words
11/28/2008 | Hochschule für Musik, Konzertsaal - Freiburg - Germany
Three Sketches
12/01/2008 | Hochschule für Musik, Kammermusiksaal - Freiburg - Germany
Chronology
1939
Born in Langenthal (Switzerland) on 21 May
1950
Studied oboe with Emile Cassagnaud in Berne
1953
First compositions (chamber music, lieder, stage music)
1956
Studied with Emile Cassagnaud (oboe) and Sándor Veress (composition) at the Berne Conservatory
1958
Final examinations at the Burgdorf Gymnasium, teacher´s diploma at the Berne Conservatory
1958
Studied at the Paris Conservatory with Yvonne Lefèbre (piano) and privately with Pierre Pierlot (oboe)
1959
First Prize for oboe at the International Music Competition in Geneva
1959
First oboist of the Basle Orchestral Society
1961
First Prize for oboe at the International ARD Competition in Munich
1961
Recordings and Worldwide concerts as a soloist
1961
Studied composition with Pierre Boulez
1963
First stage work "Der magische Tänzer": the comparison of two persons and puppets between everyday life and magic results in a "break-out from private life into the universe" (Nelly Sachs)
since 1965
Professor at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg im Breisgau
since 1968
With "h" for wind quintet and "Dona nobis pacem" for voices, Holliger abandoned the aesthetics of absolute pitch control, starting to work with sound effects and phonetic elements as compositional material
1970
"Pneuma": the physical experience of the breathing process, transferred to the "huge lung" (Holliger) of the wind band, drives the sound-effect music to a tonal extreme and to its physical limits: destruction (death)
since 1975
Regular guest conductor of Paul Sacher´s Basle Chamber Orchestra
1975
Begann to concern himself with Hölderlin: created the first "Die Jahreszeiten" cycle
1976
"Come and Go / Va et vien / Kommen und Gehen": multiple figures on a tripartite stage in three languages, texts by Samuel Beckett
1978
Began to work on "Übungen zu Scardanelli" with "Sommerkanon IV "
1978
Cycles II and III of "Die Jahreszeiten"
1980
"(t)air(e)" for solo flute, later the focus of the "Scardanelli-Zyklus" [to be read as "taire" ("keep quiet"), "air" and "te" ("you")]
1985
Composition award of the Schweizerischer Tonkünstlerverein
The Scardanelli-Hölderlin works ("Die Jahreszeiten", "(t)air(e)", "Übungen zu Scardanelli") were put together in the "Scardanelli-Zyklus" as a sort of a sound diary, a music which "express a sort of rigidity, almost of paralysis" (Holliger)
The Scardanelli-Hölderlin works ("Die Jahreszeiten", "(t)air(e)", "Übungen zu Scardanelli") were put together in the "Scardanelli-Zyklus" as a sort of a sound diary, a music which "express a sort of rigidity, almost of paralysis" (Holliger)
1986
"Zwei Liszt-Transkriptionen": attempt "to translate Liszt´s late work released from all harmonic chains, into my own language"
1987
Co-founder (together with Jürg Wyttenbach and Rudolf Kelterborn) of the Basler Musikforum
1987
Léonie Sonning Music Award of the city of Copenhagen and the Frankfurt Music Award. Holliger donated his prize-money to Greenpeace and the Ensemble Modern
1989
Art Award of the city of Basle
1990
"Beiseit": 12 lieder after poems by Robert Walser
1991
"Alb-Chehr": as a Swiss German story with authentic instruments, dance elements and noisy "Geischtervolk" ("ghosts"), the "Geischter- und Älplermüsig" ("music of the ghosts and the inhabitants of the Alps") creates a synthesis of Swiss folk-music and modern tonal language
Ernst von Siemens Music Award
"Ostinato funebre", hitherto last work of the "Scardanelli-Zyklus"
Ernst von Siemens Music Award
"Ostinato funebre", hitherto last work of the "Scardanelli-Zyklus"
1992
"(S)irató", monody for large orchestra [to be read as "sirató" (Hungarian: "lamentation/beailing of the dead") and "irato" (Italian: "angry")]
1993
Composer-in-resindence of the Orchestre de a Suisse Romande
1994
Composition award of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco for "(S)irató"
1995
Premio Abbiati of the Biennale Venezia for "Scardanelli-Zyklus"
"Violinkonzert"
"Violinkonzert"
1998
Composer-in-residence of the Lucerne Festival
