Tagged with 'Zürich'

 

With its images of spring and renewal, Aribert Reimann's new song cycle for voice and string quartet will keep the cold at bay this winter. Die schönen Augen der Frühlingsnacht was written for soprano Moja Erdmann and the Kuss Quartett who will give the world premiere on 14 December at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam.

Commissioned jointly by the Muziekgebouw and Musik 21 Niedersachsen, Die schönen Augen der Frühlingsnacht is based on songs by the Romantic composer Theodor Kirchner setting six poems by Heinrich Heine. The images of sprouting and growing plants in spring are perfect for lyrical expressions of love, however two of the poems also touch on loneliness and the winter cold of a snowy landscape.

Aribert Reimann – Die schönen Augen der Frühlingsnacht: a connection to the Romantics

Having never been published, Kirchner’s song cycle for voice and piano remains relatively unknown. Reimann intersperses his arrangements of the songs with seven instrumental interludes. This is not the first time Reimann has worked in this way: in his cycle “…oder soll es Tod bedeuten”, he intersperses songs by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy for voice and string quartet with his own six Intermezzi. There are also plans for the seven instrumental sections from Die schönen Augen der Frühlingsnacht to be available as a stand-alone work entitled 7 Bagatelle.

While composing I always have a sound in mind, which I cannot express in words because there are no words for it. Of course I can describe the sound, but it is not the same. For me it is the most complicated and the most important to be able to grasp and organise this sound that I hear within me. – Aribert Reimann

Die schönen Augen der Frühlingsnacht will be given its German premiere on 16 December in Hannover as part of the concert series Musik 21 at NDR, and further performances with Mojca Erdmann and the Kuss Quartett will take place on 18 December in Berlin and 13 May 2018 in Zurich.

• Aribert Reimann - profile


• Die schönen Augen der Frühlingsnacht - work details


• Die schönen Augen der Frühlingsnacht - concert detail

Toru Takemitsu’s Nostalghia for violin and orchestra will be performed on 13 September in the Martinskirche in Basel, and on 14 September in St. Peter's Church in Zurich, by violinist Ilya Gringolts and the I Tempi chamber orchestra conducted by Gevorg Gharabekyan.

Composed in 1987 for Yehudi Menuhin, Nostalghia draws inspiration from Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1983 film of the same name, and its central theme of homesickness. While the word nostalgia refers to desire for a time since past, in both Russian and Italian nostalghia means to acutely miss a place or a person.

Nostalghia - “In Memory of Andrei Tarkovsky”

Takemitsu was attracted to the quiet camera work, sparing use of music, and tendency for long uncut scenes in Tarkovsky’s film, and after the filmmaker’s death in 1986 he dedicated Nostalghia to Tarkovsky’s memory. After a brief introduction, a simple solo violin melody dominates the composition, seeking to evoke a sense of memory, loss and longing. Maintaining the contrasts characteristically found in Tarkovsky’s films, Takemitsu uses a divided string orchestra beneath the violin to musically represent the differing states of water and fog. At the work’s end, the orchestral groups divide again into polyphony, while the solo violin remains in the highest heights.

I would like to follow both Japanese tradition and Western innovation, and to maintain both musical styles simultaneously has become the core focus of my compositional operations. It is a contradiction I do not want to solve – on the contrary, I want the two styles to combat each other. I want to achieve a sound that is as intense as the silence. – Toru Takemitsu

The same concert will also feature Karl Amadeus Hartmann's Concerto funebre for solo violin and string orchestra. On 14 and 15 September, the NHK Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paavo Järvi will play Takemitsu’s A Way a Lone II arranged for string quartet and How Slow the Wind for orchestra in the Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Also on 15 September, the Tokyo Sinfonietta conducted by Yasuaki Itakura will perform Rain Coming in the Supporo Concert Hall Kitara in Hokkaido. On 16 September, Pirmin Grehl plays Itinerant for flute at the Schumann Festival in Leipzig, and a day later the Philharmonic State Orchestra Mainz performs Night Signal at the theatre festival Mainz, conducted by Hermann Bäumer.

• Toru Takemitsu - profile

 

• Nostalghia - workdetails

 

On 6 July, Jörg Widmann’s Messe for orchestra will be performed by the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich with whom Widmann has held the title of ‘Creative Chair’ for the 2015/16 season.



First awarded in the 2014/15 season, the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich’s ‘Creative Chair’ creates a position for eminent composers, conductors and soloists to work with the orchestra, as well as to share their knowledge through workshops, lectures and discussion sessions. On 6 July, Widmann will also perform as the soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major.

Messe is one of a trilogy of orchestral works by Widmann, alongside Lied (2003) and Chor (2004), exploring the idea of vocal music for orchestral forces where the orchestra is used both as the soloist and choir. Messe also touches on the composer's academic interest in spiritual music. This work marked a turning point in Widmann's compositional style along with his fifth string quartet with soprano Versuch über die Fuge, which challenged him to use strict musical forms. Techniques that he had previously avoided set the tone for each movement in Messe.

The instrumental singing is the topic of my earlier orchestral works 'Lied' and 'Chor'. There is no singer or choir performing; the orchestra is singing, reciting and declaiming. That’s how it is with Messe: The musicians are the protagonists: Solos, choir and orchestra rolled into one. For example, there is an antiphony between choir and organ in the ‘Monodia’ of the ‘Kyrie’, but no choir or organ is really involved. In central liturgical passages, for example at the beginning of the ‘Kyrie’ or the ‘Gloria’, the notes appear like a gigantic choral score. Every musician ‘sings’ the particular mass text on his instrument. – Jörg Widmann

In performances between 6-8 July, Widmann will conduct Messe at the Tonhalle Zürich. Other upcoming performances of Widmann’s works include Versuch über die Fuge for soprano, oboe and chamber orchestra performed by the Saarländisches Staatsorchester on 10 July and in August the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim will perform Con brio in their 2016 summer tour, including concerts at the Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival and BBC Proms.

• Jörg Widmann - profile


• Messe - workdetails