Tagged with 'world premiere'

Toshio Hosokawa’s new piece, Texture for octet will be premiered at the Digital Concert Hall by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on June 6th. The first performer is the Philharmonic Octet Berlin.

Texture was co-commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation and the Japan Arts Corporation for the Philharmonic Octet Berlin, and is dedicated to the ensemble. The instrumentation of octet is the same as Octet D803 by Franz Schubert which is the ensemble’s specialty; clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin 2, viola, violoncello and double bass.

The instrumentation is divided into the following 2 groups; a group consisting of a string quartet and another consisting of clarinet, bassoon, horn and double bass. Each group plays melodies with a lively calligraphy-like shape, an unforced linear of the Eastern brushstrokes which is one of the characteristics of Hosokawa’s music. In this piece, like the Yin and Yang of the East, just as polar opposite elements, such as man and woman, high and low, strength and weakness, light and dark coexist and complete each other - become tied together without defeating the other, whilst gradually shaping the sound of the universe.

Toshio Hosokawa
Texture (2020)
for octet

World Premiere

June 6, 2020, 19:00  Philharmonie Berlin (Berlin, Germany)
June 7, 2020, 13:00  Philharmonie Berlin (Berlin, Germany) Broadcast from Digital Concert Hall by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Philharmonic Octet Berlin (Wenzel Fuchs [clarinet], Mor Biron [bassoon], Stefan Dohr [horn], Daishin Kashimoto, Romano Tommasini [violin], Amihai Grosz [viola], Christoph Igelbrink [cello], Esko Laine [double bass])

• Toshio Hosokawa - Profile


• Digital Concert Hall

On 28 February, Pierre Jalbert’s Ephemeral Objects for cello and piano will receive its world premiere at Middlebury College, Vermont. The new work, which was commissioned by Middlebury Performing Arts Series in celebration of its 100^th Anniversary, will be performed by cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han.

Ephemeral Objects is composed in seven self-contained movements which may be performed on their own, grouped into smaller sets of any length.

Pierre Jalbert’s music immediately captures one’s attention with its strong gesture and vitality. Rich in instrumental color and harmonically engaging, its narrative is dramatically compelling yet always logical in its flow. – American Academy of Arts and Letters

Jalbert draws inspiration from a wide variety of sources, including English and French folksongs (the composer’s family moved to Vermont from Quebec), as well as catholic liturgical music. Elements of timeless and suspended music, an energetic scherzo, Gregorian chant, and French-Canadian folksongs all find their way into Ephemeral Objects.

The duo will perform Ephemeral Objects again on 1 March at Laidlaw Performing Arts Center, University of South Alabama.

• Pierre Jalbert – Profil


• Middlebury College


• Mobile Chamber Music

Christian Jost’s opera Egmont premieres at Theater an der Wien on 17 February conducted by Michael Boder. The work was commissioned by the theatre for 2020 in celebration of Beethoven’s 250 Anniversary. Keith Warner has created the production for the premiere.

Egmont is based on the play of the same name by Goethe, a work to which Beethoven famously wrote incidental music. The libretto for Jost’s Egmont was adapted from the play in collaboration with Christoph Klimke for a cast of six characters and addresses both topical issues and conflicts. In the original, Prince Egmont of Gaure is portrayed to be an advocate for freedom, peace, and justice – themes that resonated strongly with Beethoven throughout his life. However, these ideas are sometimes approached from an altered perspective in the opera, which explores how society may be manipulated, and what can happen when a system falls short of its own moral and ideological values.

Christian Jost – Egmont: freedom, peace, and justice

My opera reveals a different side of Beethoven: extracts from his famous letter ‘to the immortal beloved’. The ubiquitous six-voice chorus leads us into the interior of the figures and behind the masks of their social functions in a fragile, chiseled vocal texture. – Christian Jost

Egmont will run at the Theater an der Wien until 26 February with the German premiere of the opera set to take place at Theater Bielefeld during the 2020/21 season. On 30 March, another of Jost’s operas, Voyage vers l’espoir (Reise der Hoffnung), will open in its world premiere production at the Gran Théâtre de Genève.

• Christian Jost – Profil


• Egmont – Work details


• Theater an der Wien

On 12 February, Pascal Rophé will direct the Orchestre National de Radio France and soloist Alban Gerhardt in the world premiere of Julian Anderson’s Litanies for cello and orchestra as part of the annual Festival Présences.

Litanies is the result of a joint commission between Radio France, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Det Norske Kammerorkester, The Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. It is Anderson’s third solo concerto, following In Lieblicher Bläue for violin and orchestra and The Imaginary Museum for piano and orchestra.

Like the previous two concertos, in Litanies Anderson presents a reimagining the concerto’s archetypal musical form. While Litanies may not on the outset sound like a traditional concerto, below the surface the work confronts the three-movement form directly, dividing the work into three defined sections. At the heart of which is a chorale in memory of Anderson’s friend, the composer and conductor Oliver Knussen, who died in July 2018.
Julian Anderson – Litanies: “style incantatoire”

The slow central movement became a sustained threnody for him, and to some extent the incantatory character of the music became more pronounced - hence the title. Litanies is my contribution to the so-called ‘style incantatoire’ – Julian Anderson

Further performances of Litanies this season will be given by Alban Gerhardt with Hong Kong Sinfonietta (21 March), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (2 April), and Det Norske Kammerorkester (12 May). Later this year, on 13 June, the BBC Singers will give the world premiere of SING, an early choral work by Anderson at Aldeburgh Festival.

• Julian Anderson – Profil


• Litanies – Work Details


• Orchestre National de Radio France

On 11 December 2016, Krzysztof Penderecki´s Quartetto per archi no. 4 will receive its world premiere at Wigmore Hall, London by the Belcea Quartet, for whom the work was written. The work was commissioned by Wigmore Hall, London with the support of André Hoffmann, president of the Foundation Hoffmann, a Swiss grant-making foundation; Flagey, Brussels; Centro Nacional de Difusión Musical, Madrid; the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music programme and with the support of the Belcea Charitable Trust.

The compositional history of Penderecki’s four major string quartets is marked by a significant interruption: the first two experimental, improvisatory quartets were composed in swift succession in the 1960s, while the third and fourth quartets followed substantially later, but were also written in relatively quick succession in the years 2008 and 2016. The quartet cycle as a whole exemplifies the composer’s two distinctive creative phases, highlighting a stylistic shift which is rare in the history of music. The very short unnumbered quartet Der unterbrochene Gedanke ("The Interrupted Thought"), written in 1988 in the middle of the ‘quartet break’, could be seen as Penderecki's commentary on this shift.

The best time for composing is before breakfast - the mind feels so fresh at this time. I usually get up at 6 am, when everybody else is still sleeping, and I start to write. To express myself through music is perhaps my only way to stay in contact with the outside world. But it's also a great deal of fun, composing makes my day, otherwise I wouldn't have written so many pieces. - Krzysztof Penderecki

Further performances by the Belcea Quartet of Quartetto per archi no. 4 include the Spanish premiere a the Auditorio Nacional de Música, Madrid (13 Dec) and the Belgium premiere at the Flagey, Brussels (15 Dec).

• Krzy­sztof Pen­der­ecki — Pro­file


• Quar­tetto per archi no. 4 — Details


• Wig­more Hall

On 27 October the opening of the new Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr concert hall in Bochum, Germany, will be celebrated with an inaugural concert featuring the world premiere of Stefan Heucke’s cantata Baruch ata Adonaj. Commissioned by Bochumer Symphoniker, the new 30 minute work for solo baritone, three treble voices, choir and orchestra will be performed by Bochumer Symphoniker, ChorWerk Ruhr and Philharmonische Chor Bochum under the baton of Steven Sloane. The baritone part will be sung by Martijn Cornet and the three treble parts will be performed by members of the Chorakademie Dortmund.

Baruch ata Adonaj by Stefan Heucke – Space and sound rearranged

Heuke’s intended staging of Baruch ata Adonaj aims to showcase the new hall’s excellent acoustics. Beginning with an empty stage, the solo baritone and trebles sing the cantata’s opening rhapsodic melody in call and response from opposing balconies to form the basis of eight sequential variations. The eight movements alternate between instrumental and vocal settings of the central melody as Heucke gradually develops delicate chamber music-like textures into the full sound capabilities of the combined large ensembles. As the empty stage gradually fills with musicians the concert hall is progressively filled with sound.

For the inauguration of the new Musikforum, Bochum Symphony commissioned from me a work to celebrate the completion of the long term project as well as a blessing for its future. In it, more and more singers and instrumentalists enter the stage, leading to a radiant culminating Amen, at which point the whole room is inhabited and inaugurated with music. - Stefan Heucke

The text ‘Baruch ata Adonaj’ is a Hebrew blessing that holds an important place in Jewish tradition. Whilst it is customarily used to give thanks for food or wine, it can also be used to remark on exceptional occasions, such as the opening of the Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr promises to be. The Musikforum will also become the first permanent venue of the Bochumer Symphoniker.

A second performance of Heucke’s Baruch ata Adonaj will take place on 28 October and on 29/30 October, Bochumer Symphoniker will present a program including Igor Stravinsky’s ever popular Firebird Suite.

• Stefan Heucke - Profile


• Baruch ata Adonaj - Details


• Bochumer Sinfoniker