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Twenty years have passed since the release of the first CD in the series Franz Schreker's Masterclasses in Vienna and Berlin – a long period in which the works of many of Schreker's pupils have gradually received wide recognition after decades of being forgotten and suppressed.

Online world premiere on 9 December: The Ensemble Modern is presenting the first performance of the ensemble work ENSMO ↔ OMNES for 16 instruments by Heinz Holliger as part of its anniversary concert.

Th e composer dedicates his technically challenging work to the Ensemble Modern on the 40th anniversary of their foundation. The first part of the title plays on the syllables of the famous ensemble whereas OMNES refers to its total of 16 members. The opening cadenza
featuring pianos, xylophone and marimbaphone is interrupted by the other instruments.
In the central section, the woodwind, brass and strings are independently superimposed above one another. Finally, the musicians depart from the piece singing softly.

‘I have written music spanning our common thread of almost 40 years of memories, culminating in a glassy C major chord.’ (Heinz Holliger)

9 December 2020 | Frankfurt am Main (D)
Alte Oper, Großer Saal
Ensemble Modern
Ingo Metzmacher, conductor

• Heinz Holliger – composer profile


• Live Stream and Details on the Ensemble Modern website

 

Born into a Korean working-class family, Younghi Pagh-Paan became the first woman in Germany to hold a chair in composition in 1994, where she became an important teacher for the younger generation. Her energetic yet gentle music seeks connections between Korean tradition and European modernity, both traditions that are pushed to the edge of social perception by commercial mass culture. To celebrate Pagh-Paan's 75th birthday on 30 November 2020, WERGO has released the unique portrait CD “Silken Thread” with excellent first recordings. The book "Auf dem Weg zur musikalischen Symbiose" by Schott Music has also just been published to match this.

Seidener Faden - Silken Thread. Chamber Music
Auf dem Weg zur musikalischen Symbiose

Helmut Lachenmann's composing and aesthetic reflection has influenced New Music more than almost any other composer of his generation. For a long time opinions were divided with regard to the often noise-like musical lines, and for decades WERGO has published recordings of his compositions and has accompanied his development from the 1960s until today. Only recently the CD "Other Stories" was released by the Trio Accanto, which contains, among others, his latest irritatingly cheerful, tonally popular pieces - including a vocal interlude by the composer. On November 27, 2020, Lachenmann celebrates his 85th birthday - congratulations!

Dal niente. Chamber Music
Accanto / Consolation I / Kontrakadenz
Got Lost
Gathering Thunders
Other Stories

The WERGO CD "Earthing" with compositions by Clara Iannotta has been awarded the Quarterly German Record Critics’ Award, List of Best Recordings 4/2020, category "Contemporary Music".

In the music of the Italian composer Clara Iannotta, conceptual thinking and technique are combined with imagery and subtlety. This is particularly evident in the four-string quartets, interpreted here by the phenomenal Jack Quartet. In the oldest from 2013, the natural sound remains untouched, and it is only enhanced by materials such as bird songs or styrofoam. Sometimes it shimmers sharply, sometimes it scratches darkly. This evocative, mysterious soundscape full of acoustic creatures is electronically amplified and distorted in the newer pieces. A sound full of elemental, deeply moving energy!
(for the jury: Thomas Meyer)

Clara Iannotta: Earthing
JACK Quartet
WER 64332

Luciano Berio (1925-2003) profoundly influenced contemporary music since the 1950s and would have celebrated his 95th birthday today. His approach to European folklore and re-contextualizations of citation within a postmodern aesthetic are inseparably connected with his name. His famous "Sequenza" series is considered a paradigmatic example of a "work in progress". As head of electronic studios in Milan and Paris, he also set important accents in this field.

Circles / Sequenza I / Sequenza III / Sequenza V
Canticum novissimi testamenti / A-Ronne
zeit(t)räume

Toshio Hosokawa has worked in Europe and Japan for extended periods, and the majority of his works have premiered in Europe. His musical roots are based on tradition al Japanese musical concepts; key among them is 'the calligraphy of sound'. Every sound in his music has a life of its own: once it has been born, it contains a calligraphic line and keeps transforming itself within its individual existence. Hosokawa listens acutely to a certain sound, immerses hirnself into it and listens to its inner workings. The sound gradually shapes the harmony of the universe in which humans merge into nature, acknowledging that they are actually part of nature. His music can be a ray ofl ight in these difficult times. On 23rd October it is Hosokawa’s 65th anniversary.

John Cage: Two4 / Toshio Hosokawa: In die Tiefe der Zeit
Silent Flowers. String Quartets
Quintets & Solos
Deep Silence
Voyage VIII / Voyage X Nozarashi / Stunden-Blumen / Arc Song / Lied
Frozen Time

On 18 October at the Donaueschingen Festival, Ensemble Musikfabrik and with conductor Mariano Chiacchiarini will give the world premiere of Gerald Barry's No People. for 13 instruments. The work which has been commissioned by SWR, draws on Barry's earlier work by the same name.

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Please note:
After the publication of this article, the Donaueschingen Festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, we would like to invite you to learn about this interesting composition.

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The title, No People. is taken from surrealist Raymond Roussel's 1932 poem New Impressions of Africa for which he commissioned 59 drawings to illustrate the text. The commission was given to the artist via a detective agency - the artist, not knowing who the commissioner was and having never seen the texts, would receive simple instructions such as 'Nocturnal Landscape. Very starry sky with a thin crescent of moon. (No people.)' from which to realize the drawing.

“together, the ordinary everyday drawings take on a strangeness they might otherwise not have had if the artist had drawn on with the poem's text in front of him. It's the juxtaposition of both unknowns - poem/drawings - that give the final work its strange quality.” - Gerald Barry

No People. will be performed twice at the festival at 11.00 and 15.00 on 18 October allowing for as many attendees as possible to hear the music.

• Gerald Barry: composer profile


• No People.: work details


• Donaueschinger Musiktage

Xiaogang Ye is the compositional voice of his native country, China. He explores sounds, nature, and the spirituality of his homeland in works that have received acclaim across the world. He has also left his mark on the music scene in modern China and its exchange with other cultures as the founder and artistic director of the festival Beijing Modern and his committed work for the Chinese Music Couneil. Since his studies in America, the composer has developed a particularly close relationship with musical life in the USA. One of the core aspects of his artistic activities is the harmonization of these two musical worlds and the emphasis of their common values. On September 23rd he celebrates his 65th birthday.

Nine Horses - New Music from China
The Last Paradise / Winter / Pipa Concerto / Horizon

Two new productions of Viktor Ullmann´s one-act chamber opera The Emperor of Atlantis or Death’s Refusal are opening in Germany this week. On 26 September the opera opens at Landestheater Neustrelitz, and on 27 September Deutsche Oper am Rhein will present a new production at Opernhaus Düsseldorf. With its compact cast of characters and instrumentation, as well as its timeless staggering subject matter, it is the piece of the hour. 

The opera is a parable of a cruel emperor, whose senseless war is claiming many lives. Death puts an end to the chaos by refusing his duty – now, everyone lives for eternity. The king becomes disempowered, but the people long for a release from the pain of life. Only the voluntary death of the emperor can restore death’s original purpose.

Ullmann wrote The Emperor of Atlantis while imprisoned at the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1943, based on a libretto by Peter Kien, a fellow prisoner. The opera was rehearsed by a chamber ensemble founded with the permission of the SS, but its performance was prohibited after the final rehearsal. Just before his deportation to Auschwitz in 1944, Ullmann handed the score and libretto to a friend who was able to save both manuscripts.

Viktor Ullmann – The Emperor of Atlantis: a theatrical memorial

I composed quite a lot of new music in Theresienstadt, mostly for satisfying the demands of conductors, directors, pianists, singers and thus for the leisure activities in the Ghetto […]. I need to emphasize that my musical work was encouraged and not inhibited by Theresienstadt. We were not merely succumbing to grief at Babylon’s streams, and our cultural will was equal to our will to live; and I am convinced that all those who have attempted to shape reluctant material in either life or art would agree with me. – Viktor Ullmann

There will be two further performances at Landestheater Neustrelitz with the last night being presented on 24 October. In Düsseldorf, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein will run for a further eight performances until 19 November. Several versions and manuscripts of the opera are available that show the work in various stages before and after its censorship. A new Eulenburg study score from Schott (ETP 8067) shows each version together in one edition.

• Viktor Ullmann – composer profile


• Der Kaiser von Atlantis – work details and online score 


• Landestheater Neustrelitz


• Deutsche Oper am Rhein

photo: Deutsche Oper am Rhein / Hans Jörg Michel