Work of the week

On 3 October 2015, Gerald Barry’s The One-Armed Pianist (2015) will receive its world premiere at London’s Science Museum. Nicholas Collon will conduct the Aurora Orchestra in a walk-through concert, the culmination of NMC’s Objects at an Exhibition project, held in association with the Science Museum for the label’s 25th anniversary year. The accompanying CD was released on 18 September.

The six works in Objects at an Exhibition are all inspired by artefacts or spaces within the museum. Barry’s The One-Armed Pianist was written in response to an artificial right arm, whose middle three fingers are disproportionately small, with the rigid thumb and little finger outstretched so as to cover an octave on the piano. It was made for a woman who used it to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in 1906. The piece, which does not involve a piano in its instrumentation, is hauntingly sparing in its use of material. Barry’s imaginative approach to the orchestration of a single repeated two-chord figure draws the listener in and compels them to examine each sound intently. This forms the work’s first half, which Barry calls ‘the everyday’; the second half is the octave played by the wooden arm. A friend of Barry said on hearing the piece:

It's hearing the Mind of the Composer. The calls at the end are like the Austro-Hungarian empire – traces of glory fading forever.

Following this performance at London’s Science Museum, Barry has two further world premieres this month: Midday (2014) for violin and piano on the 14th at The Forge, Camden with Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea, and The Destruction of Sodom (2015) for eight horns and two wind machines on the 31st in Granada, Spain. Hugh Tinney will perform Barry’s Piano Concerto with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin on the 30th.

• Gerald Barry - profile


• The One-Armed Pianist - information


• Science Museum London

photo: Science Museum London

(09/28/15)

On 25 September 2015 Pēteris Vasks’ String Quartet No. 4 will be performed at the Kongelige Teater in Copenhagen, as part of the ballet Short Time Together. In one of the evening’s three parts, choreographer Natalia Horecna offers up a deep reflection on the speed of modern life through the medium of contemporary dance.

Vasks’ String Quartet No. 4 was composed in 1999 and premiered by the Kronos Quartet at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris on 21 May 2000. It has five movements, which form a continuous dramatic structure: Elegy, Toccata I, Choral, Toccata II, and Meditation. Slowly beginning with a line of trills, Vasks considers the first movement an 'encounter with the past'; Horecna takes this looking-back as inspiration for her dance. In contrast to the intimate atmosphere of the Elegy, Toccata I is strident with glaring harmonics and rhythmic accentuation, mirroring the aggression of the 20th century, whereas the lyrical Choral at the work’s centre appears to avoid clear expression. The whole piece has a symmetrical structure, with the two Toccata movements referencing each other and the dark mood of the Meditation borrowed from the quartet’s opening Elegy.

Horecna’s choreographed version of the quartet sends the audience on a journey of contrasts, transcending the limits of time and focusing on human existence:

In this ballet I look at the past, at what it has saved for us, and at death as a new beginning from which the best preserved memories flourish and become something new, something that is even better.

Short Time Together runs at the Kongelige Teater until mid-November with 13 performances. On 1 October, Vasks’ concerto for violin and string orchestra, Vox amoris, will be performed in Kiel by Roland Reutter and the NDR Symphony Orchestra, with subsequent performances in Hamburg and Wismar on 2 and 3 October.

• Pēteris Vasks - profile


• String Quartet No. 4 - information


• Det Kongelige Teater Copenhagen

photo: Det Kongelige Teater

(09/21/15)

On 19 September, Flemish Opera will begin its run of Richard Wagner’s ‘Paris version’ of his
Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg at the Opera Gent. Dmitri Jurowski will conduct this production by Catalan director Calixto Bieito, whose staging focuses on the contradiction between natural impulses and social conventions, and explores the place of the artist in society.

Tannhäuser exists in three versions: the original version, premiered in 1845 and revised in 1860, referred to as the ‘Dresden version’; the ‘Paris version’ for the Paris Opéra in 1861, with substantial amendments and a new instrumentation; and an 1875 ‘Vienna version’ with further revisions. Tannhäuser is the only opera for which Wagner himself produced a piano reduction. Despite the opera’s numerous versions, Wagner felt that his work was not yet completed, and wrote to his wife Cosima in January 1883 a few weeks before his death,

"I owe the world a Tannhäuser".

As part of the Richard Wagner Complete Edition, editors Egon Voss, Peter Jost and Reinhard Strohm have dedicated more than 30 years of careful study to producing a comprehensive picture of the genesis of Tannhäuser. Based on this edition, Schott Music has recently published a full score, orchestral parts and vocal scores that allow the comparison of all the opera’s stages, offering a clear overview of the Dresden, Paris and Vienna versions.

Three performances follow the opening night in Ghent until 27 September, after which the production can be seen at the Opera Antwerp from 4 to 17 October. Wagner can also be heard at the Teatro Campoamer in Oviedo, Spain, with Die Walküre on 16 September, and in Bochum, Germany, with Das Rheingold on 18 September. Das Rheingold is also runs in Minden with the Northwest German Philharmonic Orchestra until 22 September.

• Richard Wagner - profile


• Tannhäuser - information


• Opera Gent

photo: Pierpaolo Ferrari

For its season opener, the Swiss Musikkollegium Winterhur has commissioned a new orchestral work from Fazıl Say. Douglas Boyd will conduct the premiere of the new piece, Symphonic Dances, at the Stadthaus Winterhur on 9 September.

Say stands out amongst contemporary composers for his fusion of the Western European and Turkish musical traditions. His Symphonic Dances are strongly influenced by Turkish music, with Say using a typical alternating 8/8–7/8 meter in the first dance. The second movement features Say’s characteristic string glissandi, before a slow third movement and a wild and ecstatic finale. In the spirit of Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Bartók, Say has often incorporated the dance music of his homeland into his chamber music; Symphonic Dances is his first orchestral work to use traditional dance elements so explicitly.

It’s my nature and desire to unite people through music without any borders, not even in the mind. Music is very powerful. Music needs no translation. Everyone understands it, whether Chinese, Turkish or German. A great musician is someone who is able to reach people in a positive or dramatic way. When talking about human nature, music plays an important role. - Fazil Say

The premiere will be followed by a second performance in the same venue on 10 September. Later this month, Say’s double piano concerto Gezi Park 1 will receive its American premiere in Toledo, Ohio on 25 September. On the same day in Mannheim, the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie will give a concert with Say at the piano, featuring his Istanbul Symphony, Water (Su) for piano and orchestra, and Gezi Park 3 for mezzo-soprano, piano and strings, alongside Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G.

 

• Fazil Say - profile


• Symphonic Dances - information

(09/11/15)

Carl Orff's masterpiece Carmina Burana will take the stage on 6 September at this year's BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall in London. Keith Lockhart leads the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Symphony Chorus, London Philharmonic Choir, Southend Boys' and Girls' Choirs, with soprano Olena Tokar, tenor Thomas Walker and baritone Banjamin Appl.

Carmina Burana remains one of the most performed works of the Twentieth century, with productions internationally by professional and amateur orchestras and choirs alike. Through its captivating music, Carmina Burana addresses the ups and downs of life - love and death, happiness and unhappiness, growth and decay - dictated by Fortune's ever-turning wheel. The work consists of 200 medieval verses and songs divided into three major parts: in the first, spring and nature are praised; the second part tells of earthly pleasures from the perspective of an abbot with a set of grotesque solo songs; and the last part pays tribute to love in its many manifestations. The large choir begins and ends the piece by singing to the capricious goddess Fortuna. Throughout the work, archetypal characters such as the adventurer, the girl and her companion, or the lovers, are used as in folk song to depict the facets of human life.

Orff wrote:
A special stylistic feature of Carmina Burana is the static architecture. In its strophic structure it knows no development. A once found musical formulation - the instrumentation has always been included from the very beginning - remains the same in all its repetitions.

Further major performances this autumn include those on 26 September at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, on 5 September and 24 October at the Munich Marionette Theatre, and a ballet production at the Volksoper Wien on 22 October.

• Carl Orff - Profile


• Carmina Burana - information


• BBC Prom's 2015

foto: Carmina Burana at the Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin

On 27 August, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra will premiere Heinz Holliger’s new song cycle Dämmerlicht (Hakumei) at Suntory Hall in Tokyo. The piece, based on a haiku written by Holliger himself, will be sung by soprano Sarah Maria Sun and conducted by the composer.

The traditional Japanese haiku form often plays with the dichotomy of sound and silence. In Dämmerlicht, Holliger makes deliberate musical use of this notion, whilst creating a smooth and atmospheric progression through his haiku. Another common theme in haiku is the idea of peace and contemplation; this is certainly present in Holliger’s poems with themes such as the sunset and the “lonely cloud”. Musically, the composer skilfully evokes the twilight of the title by using unpitched sounds, string glissandi and shimmering woodwind, whilst frequent changes of pace reflect the uncertainty felt in the transition between day and night.

Lonely cloud

the red evening sky

Souls move homeward

- Haiku no. 5

The concert at Suntory Hall will also include the Japanese premiere of Holliger’s Recicanto for viola and small orchestra. The Tokyo venue has recently featured many of Holliger’s works in its programmes, including his Trio for oboe, viola and harp; Trema, his Quintett for piano, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn; and Increschantüm, for soprano and string quartet.

• Heinz Holliger: composer profile


• Dämmerlicht (Hakumei): Details and online score


• Tokyo Symphony Orchestra

(08/24/15)

On 23 August, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra will give the Japanese premiere of Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s monumental Requiem for a Young Poet. The performance at Suntory Hall in Tokyo will be conducted by Kazushi Ono.

Combining a symphony orchestra, three choirs and a jazz band with vocal soloists and speakers, Requiem for a Young Poet is one of Zimmermann’s largest-scale works, completed in 1969. The composer chose the term ‘lingual’ for the subtitle: a speech piece. It uses elements of radio play, speech and reportage alongside those of cantata, mass and oratorio, frequently transitioning between spoken language, speech with music, and sung text. The piece also uses tape with recordings of armoured vehicles, jet fighters, narration of James Joyce’s Ulysses and speeches by Pope John XXIII, Josef Goebbels and many others. Here, Zimmermann paints a portrait of diverse sonic phenomena that, despite fundamental differences, sound together in one musical work.

‘The Requiem does not refer to a specific young poet (though three poets, namely Mayakovsky, Yessenin and Bayer, are given special attention in the work) but, as it were, to the epitome of the young poet as we can imagine him during the past fifty years – in his many and diverse relations with the things that had a decisive influence on his intellectual, cultural, historical and linguistic experience and thus our experience in Europe from 1920 to 1970.’ — Bernd Alois Zimmermann

20 March 2018 would be Zimmermann’s hundredth birthday. Despite the complexity of his work, he was extremely popular with his contemporary audiences. The conductor Ingo Metzmacher was once asked whether or not audience members might be overwhelmed by Requiem for a Young Poet. His answer: ‘Astoundingly, it was one of the greatest successes of our season. It is a massive, striking piece, and it has much to do with Zimmermann’s concept of ‘spherical time’—of the simultaneity of what we often assume to be far apart.’

 

• Bernd Alois Zimmermann - Profile


• Requiem for a Young Poet - information

(08/17/15)

On 16th August, Pierre-Laurent Aimard will perform György Ligeti’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the International Contemporary Ensemble in New York. Part of the Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the performance will be conducted by George Benjamin at Avery Fisher Hall.

Ligeti’s Piano Concerto was composed in two stages: the first three movements were premiered in 1968 but Ligeti subsequently expanded the work to five movements, premiered in their entirety in 1988. The composer was working on the first two books of his famous Études pour piano around this time, and the superimposed African rhythms, shifting accents and changing tempos so characteristic of those pieces can be heard too in the concerto. The concerto also notably uses some unusual instruments, including a slide whistle and ocarina.

Aimard worked closely with Ligeti for many years. He writes:

When I first worked with Ligeti in the early 1980s, I was a member of the Ensemble Intercontemporain. Our collaboration intensified, I regularly played his music, took part in portrait concerts, and premiered new works. It was a fascinating experience. Although Ligeti already had a precise vision or idea of his piece, he was always looking for ways to transfer his ideas into the real world. He would search for the right tempo, tone, articulation and the correct character. He had a lot of imagination.

An insight into Ligeti’s piano works, created in collaboration with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, can be found online at the Ruhr Piano Festival’s ‘Explore the Score’ project. Amongst multimedia scores, audio samples and video recordings of Ligeti’s work, Aimard talks about the music, interpretation and his own piano master classes.

 

• György Ligeti - Profile


• Concert for Piano and Orchestra


• explorethescore.org

(08/10/15)

The focus of this Work of the Week is not in fact a single work, but Japan’s most popular contemporary film composer, Joe Hisaishi. On 6 August, a portrait concert "My Neighbor Totoro: The Best of Joe Hisaishi" will be given by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in Singapore’s Esplanade Concert Hall.

Hisaishi is a prolific film composer, having written well over a hundred works for the big screen, TV and advertising. He is responsible for the scores of some of the most successful animated films to come out of Japan, including "Howl’s Moving Castle" and the Oscar-winning "Spirited Away", working in collaboration with Studio Ghibli and director Hayao Miyazaki. Hisaishi’s scores are often atmospheric: using gentle, melancholic piano lines or the power of a large orchestra he is able to abduct his listeners into a fairytale world.

Hisaishi on the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki:

Many of his works have flying scenes and flying has always been the dream of human beings. So I tried to connect with this feeling of hope, to the spirit of these scenes. Music that is slower, that allows the audience to experience what’s in the space between movements. It still starts the same way - with a piano. I use technology but don't rely upon it. I think it should be part of the process, not the entire process.

 

• Joe Hisaishi - performances


• Film Scores and other works by joe Hisaishi


• Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay

(08/03/15)

Joaquín Rodrigo‘s Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra is arguably one of the most important guitar concertos ever written. This year marks the 75th anniversary of its 1940 première in Barcelona, and the piece still enjoys frequent performances around the world. Its success lies partly in Rodrigo’s technical mastery of the potential acoustic problems: he succeeds in making the solo guitar an equal counterpart to the orchestra.
Concierto de Aranjuez was composed in Paris in 1939, just before Rodrigo’s return to Madrid following the Spanish Civil War. With the piece Rodrigo intended "to provide a reminder of past times, the magnificent gardens of Aranjuez, its trees and its birds". The Palace of Aranjuez and its gardens, the 18th century summer residence of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain, now form a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The first movement takes the bolero rhythm as its inspiration, with Rodrigo using pizzicato and arpeggio effects to produce a characteristically Spanish sound. The famous theme of the second movement is based on an old Spanish religious song, the Saeta, which is sung during Holy Week in Andalusia. The melody has Arabic, Jewish and Spanish influences and is often ornately decorated.

In 1939, standing there in my small studio in the heart of the Latin quarter, vaguely thinking about the concerto, I heard a voice inside me sing the entire theme of the adagio all at once, without hesitation. Immediately afterwards, without a break, I heard the theme of the third movement. There it was! … Where the adagio and the allegro were born of a supernatural inspiration, the first movement required more thought, calculation and determination. I finished the work where it should have begun. Paris, 1939. - Joaquín Rodrigo

Concierto de Aranjuez can be heard on 27th July in Chautauqua, NY as part of the Colorado Music Festival, and on the same day in Hersbruck, Germany. It will also be performed on 29th July at the Teatro di Verdura in Palermo, Sicily and in Manchester, UK and Washington, D.C. in September.
This summer’s edition of schott aktuell is dedicated to the 75 anniversary of the première. It will include more background information about the composer and his work, as well as a Palace of Aranjuez wall calendar for the 2015/2016 season. You can read schott aktuell online using the following link and order the calendar via e-mail: [email protected].

• Joaquín Rodrigo - composer profile


• Concierto de Aranjuez - work details


• schott aktuell "Concierto de Aranjuez"

(07/27/15)