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Tagged with 'Orchestra'

Work of the Week – Julian Anderson: ECHOES

A concert by and for the LGBTQ+ community: The world premiere of the new orchestral work ECHOES by Julian Anderson will take place on July 07 2023 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in London. Oliver Zeffman will conduct and Davóne Tines will sing the baritone solo part.

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Work of the Week – Fazil Say: Concerto

We want more trumpets! In Fazil Say’s exciting new work Concerto, he features not only one, but two solo trumpets! World-renowned virtuosos Gábor Boldoczki and Sergei Nakariakov will perform the world premiere with the FOK Prague Symphony Orchestra and conductor Andrey Boreyko on 13 May 2023 in Budapest’s spectacular Béla Bartók National Concert Hall.

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Work of the Week – Sebastian Hilli: Miracle

Audiences can expect a true revelation at the upcoming world premiere of Sebastian Hilli's orchestral work, Miracle. Hilli’s new work bursts with surprising and unconventional ideas and will be boldly taken under the direction of Ryan Bancroft and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra as they embark on the composition’s first live performance on February 1st, 2023 at the Konserthuset Stockholm.

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Work of the Week – Jörg Widmann: Zeitensprünge

The Staatskappelle Berlin celebrates its impressive history as it marks its 450th anniversary this year. The earliest sources mentioning the orchestra date from 1570. On 11 September, the world premiere of a new work by Jörg Widmann commissioned specially for the occasion, Zeitensprünge (Leaps in time), will be given in a concert conducted by Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera House. 

The title Zeitensprünge is a pun about musical time-travel and stylistic escapades. Widmann explores the multiple stylistic periods through which the orchestra has lived during its long history, with the opening bars featuring an off-stage ensemble playing renaissance dances. Only when the musicians enter the stage does the idea of conducting start to take form, and a concert of today’s understanding commences. 

Jörg Widmann – Zeitensprünge: A Concerto for Orchestra in a nutshell


Though Zeitensprünge is a condensed 10-minute orchestral work of only 450 bars (one for each year of the Staatskapelle´s history), it nevertheless has everything a full-scale Concerto for Orchestra needs. There are solos from nearly every section of the orchestra, ensembles such as fanfares emerge from the texture, medieval winds and consorts play next to each other, and Widmann uses a variety of musical forms to lead to a brilliant final canon that symbolises many becoming one. 
“When I sit in front of a sheet of manuscript paper, I don’t keep thinking ‘you have to invent something new’. Not at all. My head is full of harmonies, connections and combinations that have never been heard before. My problem is to find forms for them. I am now in a stage of fighting to find these new forms.” - Jörg Widmann 


Photos:Marco Borggrve, Adobe Stock / spuno