Tagged with 'Ludwig van Beethoven'

Back to the origin of the symphony: On 25 June 2023, the Klassische Philharmonie Bonn and the Barock Vokal Akademie will perform the world premiere of Pedro Halffter’s new arrangement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 as part of the RheinVokal Festival in Ingelheim. Pedro Halffter will be the conductor.

Friedrich Hölderlin’s famous poem Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) has inspired many composers to create musical settings of the text. Among them is Dieter Schnebel, whose last composition Schicksalslied for speaker, alto voice, chamber choir, chamber ensemble and tape will receive its world premiere on 21 September at the Beethovenfest Bonn. The performance will be given by the Prague Philharmonic Choir and the Symphony Orchestra Flandern conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig, with Franz Mazura and alto Markéta Cukrová as soloists.

Schicksalslied was commissioned by the Beethovenfest Bonn for their 2018 Festival curated around the concept of ‘fate’. In his work Schnebel draws on Hölderlin’s text, as well as referencing Beethoven and the famous fate motif from the Fifth Symphony, to explore the mechanisms of fate in an optimistic and at times playful manner.

Dieter Schnebel – Schicksalslied: Between Hölderlin and Beethoven

Schicksalslied begins with the speaker reciting Beethoven’s own description of his fate motif (‘thus fate knocks at the door’) followed by the beginning of the Fifth Symphony played on tape, over which the choir chants the word “fate” in different languages. Throughout the piece Schnebel employs the human voice in a unique variety of ways from blowing to noisy coughing, and Friedrich Hölderlin’s verses are alternated with quotations from other works by Beethoven such as the Appassionata and String Quartet No.16. In one of his final interviews Schnebel stated:

“Music is a medium, in which feelings play an important role. Music can express delight like no other kind of Art, but also abysmal sorrow. Death is one extreme, overflowing life the other, and in between there are thousands of possibilities.” – Dieter Schnebel

In Frankfurt, Schnebel’s Variationen über das Heidenröslein for voice and ensemble received its world premiere last week on 11 September, and a further version for voice and chamber orchestra will be premiered on 9 November together with Schnebel’s Trauermusik.

• Dieter Schnebel - profile 


• Schicksalslied - work details


• Beethovenfest Bonn

 

Ludwig van Beethoven and Canada. What do those two have in common?

Gerald Barry’s new work for voice and orchestra, Canada, will have its world premiere at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms on 21 August.



Specially commissioned for the Proms, it will be performed by tenor Allan Clayton and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

"Some time ago I was in Toronto airport returning to Dublin. When I got through security, Canada suddenly came into my head: a setting of the Fidelio Prisoners' Chorus for voice and orchestra." Gerald Barry

Gerald Barrys Canada – A tribute to Beethoven

The text, in English, French and German, includes the lines "Speak softly! We are watched with eyes and ears" from Beethoven’s politically charged and only opera, Fidelio. Barry holds Beethoven in high regard, considering him to be the greatest composer that ever lived. Many of his own works draw on the letters and works of Beethoven.  These include Schott and Sons, Mainz for bass solo and SATB choir which uses selected texts from Beethoven’s letters to his publisher and Beethoven for bass voice and ensemble which also features excerpts from Beethoven’s personal letters to his "Immortal Beloved".

“Canada, the name and country, is both everyday and strange to me - exotically normal.” Gerald Barry

Other new works for Barry this season include an Organ Concerto for organist Thomas Trotter commissioned jointly by Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.

Beethoven would celebrate his 250. birthday in 2020. If you’re still looking for suitable musical programme, you’re invited to have a look at the recent Schott journal for inspiration.

• Gerald Barry - profile


• Canada - work details


• BBC Proms

On 19 August, the world premiere of Christian Jost’s An die Hoffnung will be performed by Yutaka Sado and the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich with tenor Klaus Florian Vogt, opening the 10th annual Grafenegg Festival. Jost was commissioned to write An die Hoffnung as Composer in Residence at this year's festival. The residency will include performances of several of his existing compositions and he will also appear as a conductor and leader of the young composers' workshop INK STILL WET from 1-5 September.

An die Hoffnung—A modern allusion to Beethoven

In 1804, Beethoven set Christoph August Tiedge’s poem ‘An die Hoffnung’ (from Urania) to music, revisiting and revising the vocal work nine years later (Op. 94). Beethoven’s song provides the starting point for Jost’s orchestral work of the same name, which maintains much of Beethoven’s harmonic and sung material integrated into a newly composed orchestral score. Jost’s orchestration further draws from Beethoven by instrumentally mirroring his Symphony No. 9, which will also feature in the opening concert of the festival.

The agitated, rhythmically driven composition begins with an orchestral landscape characterised by minor thirds, expanding orchestrally on Beethoven’s fragile motif of ‘hope’ and interweaving with Tiedge’s final lines: ‘whether an angel waiting above will count my tears.’ – Christian Jost

Other performances of Jost's music at the Grafenegg Festival include the world premiere of another new work, a Fanfare for 9 wind instruments on 19 August, CocoonSymphonie on 25 August with the composer conducting, lautlos for solo cello on 28 August played by Georgy Goryunov, and Portrait for solo violin solo played by Sophie Kolarz-Lakenbacher on 10 September.

• Christian Jost - Profil


• Grafenegg Festival