Christopher Peter

A full year after the originally scheduled date, Salzburg Festival is presenting a new production of Intolleranza by Luigi Nono on 15 August. Directed by Jan Lauwers,  Sean Panikkar and Sarah Maria Sun will take the leading roles as 'the emigrante' and his fellow. In the pit, Vienna Philharmonic will be conducted by Ingo Metzmacher.

Intolleranza, composed in 1960/1961 is Luigi Nono’s first work for the stage. Its Italian description as Azione scenica underlines its renunciation of a narrative form of music theatre – the libretto has no coherent plot. Nono instead employs poems and documentary texts such as political interrogations and news headlines which are interwoven into the action as periodical highlights. Influences from Brechtian theatre are clearly recognisable, for example the audience becomes actively involved in what is happening on stage and is confronted by a question: under what conditions and against what political opposition is it possible to be consciously humane?

In eleven scenes, Nono describes the journey of the protagonist ‘emigrante’ on the way to his new homeland, making reference to contemporary and past historical events. The emigrante experiences a demonstration for peace, political interrogation and torture. Intolleranza is a politicalethical plea against violence, intolerance, discrimination and racism and has lost none of its relevance 50 years after its composition.

‘You, who shall resurface following the flood / in which we have perished, / remember / also the dark time / that you have escaped.’ (from the libretto)

After the opera was called Intolleranza 1960 at its world premiere, it has become common to add the current year to the work title. Wuppertal Opera is currently presenting a series of streamings, entitled Intolleranza 2021. The upcoming season will also see a number of stage performences with audience at Wuppertal.

• Luigi Nono: Composer Profile


• Intolleranza: Werkdetails, Termine und Online-Partitur 


• Salzburg Festival


• Oper Wuppertal

 

 

In August, we commemorate the 100th birthday of the Czech-American composer Karel Husa, and we would have loved to personally celebrate this centenary with him. Although he remained active up to a very advanced age, we had to bid him farewell only a few years ago.

Husa’s cooperation with Schott Music was focused on his early compositions, but the close association and collaborative work on the published compositions has continued to the present day.

Husa’s life, which was above all marked by World War II and its aftermath, took him to
numerous locations between Prague and the USA where he continued to work as a conductor and professor at Cornell University and Ithaca College until 1992. Husa received a
number of awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for his Third String Quartet and the  Grawemeyer Award for his Cello Concerto. Additionally, Husa was prominently represented on nearly one hundred sound recordings.

• Karel Husa: Composer Profile

Genesis – creation is the title of Toshio Hosokawa's new Violin Concerto which he wrote for violinist Veronika Eberle. As part of the International Music Festival Hamburg, the world premiere will take place on 19 May 2021, 8 pm local time (6 pm UTC), after the date had to be postponed multiple times. It will be live streamed on the YouTube channel of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg, Kent Nagano is conducting.

"Veronika Eberle gave birth to a baby last November. I composed the piece as a present for
her and her baby. In the concerto, the soloist represents a human being, while the orchestra is imagined as nature and the universe surrounding him. At the beginning, the orchestra repeats wave motions suggestive of amniotic fluid, then the melodic line of the violin solo (= life) is generated from the inside of ‘cradle’, and is developing while imitating melodies inside the orchestra, then becomes independent of it, conflicts with it, however, finally finds a harmony inside the orchestra and dissolves into it." Toshio Hosokawa

Toshio Hosokawa
Violin Concerto
Genesis · 18’
19 May 2021 | Hamburg (D)
Elbphilharmonie
Veronika Eberle, violin
Philharmonic State Orchestera Hamburg
Kent Nagano, conductor

Commissioned by Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (SOČR) and Grafenegg Festival

• Toshio Hosokawa – composer profile


• Live Stream on YouTube


• Website of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg

 

The Frontiers of Knowledge Award of the Spanish BBVA Foundation in the Music and Opera category in its thirteenth edition is going to  the Hungarian composer and conductor Peter Eötvös,  "undoubtedly one of the most important musical voices of our time," in the words of the citation. "His artistic significance, originality and contribution to the advancement of music since the second half of the 20th century can be recognized in his writing for voice, solo instrument and orchestra in operas such as Three Sisters, Love and Other Demons and Senza Sangue. His instrumental compositions have been played by the most important ensembles and orchestras around the world," committee chair, Joana Carneiro, Principal Conductor of the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, states.

The annual Frontiers of Knowledge Award comprises seven further categories, such as Information Technologies, Ecology and Basic Sciences. With 400.000 €, it is one of the most significant cultural awards of the world. Former awardees include composers such as Pierre Boulez, Sofia Gubaidulina and Arvo Pärt.

• Peter Eötvös - composer profile


• BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award Website

photo: © Szilvia Csibi

Pēteris Vasks, like no other composer, is an ambassador for the music of his native country
Latvia and the rich culture of the North. Prior to 1991, he was subject to repression for his beliefs and artistic convictions, but today he has long achieved international acclaim.

Vasks will receive a lifetime achievement award at the 49th Istanbul Music Festival in June, less than two months after his 75th birthday. The award is given annually by the festival: previous laureates include Daniel Barenboim, Philip Glass, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky, Zubin Mehta, Arvo Pärt, Krzysztof Penderecki and Murray Perahia. Following the award ceremony, the Modigliani Quartet will give the Turkish premiere of his String Quartet No. 6 for which Vasks received the Latvian Grand Music Award in March.

His instrumental works are performed across the world by renowned musicians and also utilised for ballets, most recently in ‘Solitude’, choreographed by Mario Schröder for Leipzig Ballet. Vasks incorporates archaic and folkloristic elements from his homeland in his compositions, bringing them into an exciting relationship with contemporary musical language. Topics as contrasting as the beauty of nature and the ecological and moral destruction of the world find their way into his music.

On the occasion of his birthday, Schott Music has issued a brochure featuring selected choral works which is available free of charge in printed form or as a download under the order number KAT 3485-99.

You can also discover our Vasks playlist at https://en.schott-music.com/shop/vasks-playlist/

•  Pēteris Vasks – composer profile

Wilfried Hiller has created his poetic and imaginative music independently of the rules and constraints of the avant garde. His collaboration with the author Michael Ende has played a significant role in his compositional career. Works such as Die zerstreute Brillenschlange
(1979), Vier musikalische Fabeln (1980–1982), Der Goggolori (1982–1983) and Das Traumfresserchen (1989–1990) have become classics in the field of contemporary music theatre for children.

In 2018, Hiller once again selected one of Ende’s texts for his composition Momo, but has additionally created numerous stage works for adult audiences, chamber music compositions, solo concertos, and works for choral and orchestral forces. He received the
Bavarian Maximiliansorden für Wissenschaft und Kunst and is a member of the Bavarian Academy of the Arts. Happy birthday!

• Wilfried Hiller – Composer Profile

In his substantial compositional output, Aribert Reimann has created a rich collection of compositions which have unquestionably exerted an influence on contemporary music theatre. His unmistakable personal style is characterised by strict logic and highly complex
tonal structures which are finely chiselled down to the smallest detail. At the same time, his music possesses a powerful innate emotionality which directly captures his listeners. This is borne out by his instrumental works and vocal compositions and to a particular degree, his operas, which are considered the most significant of the entire contemporary period.

Reimann primarily selects his plots from world literature and transforms them into unique forms through his own musical language. Schott offers Aribert Reimann its heartfelt congratulations on the occasion of his 85th birthday.

• Aribert Reimann – biography, photos, works and more

photo: Bernd Uhlig

On 4 February 2021, 21:05 GMT Konzertmusik for violin and small chamber orchestra by Hans Werner Henze will receive it's world premiere. After several attempts to perform the work had to be cancelled in 2020, the Bavarian Radio will broadcast a studio recording with Peter Tilling and the Ensemble risonanze erranti. This will officially mark the world premiere of the composition.

Konzertmusik is the earliest work composed by Hans Werner Henze and published by Schott: the concerto for violin and small chamber orchestra, written when he was only 17. It was not until the end of World War II that he was able to devote himself intensively to composition: a short time later, he was signed by Schott. The composition reveals its inspiration from Paul Hindemith. In its chamber music structure, a series of instruments from the ensemble including flute, trumpet and the first player of violin I repeatedly take on small solo passages and accompany the solo violin in groups of two or three. In the finale however, a ‘genuine’ virtuoso violin concerto unfolds in miniature.

• Hans Werner Henze – composer profile


• Konzertmusik – Werkdetails und Online-Partitur


• Bavarian Radio Broadcast Site

Porträt Hans Werner Henze: © Schott Music / Hans Kenner

Schott Music is looking forward to working with composer Sebastian Hilli.  The publishing partnership commences with his orchestral works Peach and Miracle followed by new compositions for Ensemble Musikfabrik, Uusinta Ensemble, Time of Music Festival, Gaudeamus Festival, International Ensemble Modern Academy and IRCAM.

Sebastian Hilli is a Finnish composer born in 1990, who received his Master’s degree in Composition from Sibelius Academy in 2016. Hilli has had success in numerous composition competitions by winning the Teosto Prize in 2019, the Gaudeamus Award in 2018, the ”Under 30” category in the International Rostrum of Composers in 2017 and Toru Takemitsu Composition Award in 2015.

Tervetuloa! Welcome, Sebastian Hilli!

• Sebastian Hilli – Composer Profile

 

• Download Press Release in Finnish

 

We commemorate the upcoming 50th anniversary of the passing of Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971). Schott is proud to have published several of Stravinsky’s best-known works including The Firebird, Symphony in C, Symphony in Three Movements and the Violin Concerto.

He remains, of course, one of the greatest artists of any era and it is hard to write anything
about him which has not been said before. One thing which is fascinating is how many contemporary composers, irrespective of their own personal style, feel a strong connection with Stravinsky and his works. Perhaps this is because his compositional voice is so powerful and unmistakable that it transcends any single style he wrote within. In a musical world where questions of aesthetic are often treated with great importance, Stravinsky provides a reminder that we should look beyond this.

• "Listen to Stravinsky": Schott Journal special issue on occasion of the 50th anniversary


• Igor Stravinsky composer profile