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Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor is a well-established piece in the solo violin repertoire. This month alone, the work will be performed by four different orchestras: on 11 December by the Kodály Philharmonic Debrecen in Budapest, on 11 and 12 by the Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal as well as the Rotterdam Student Orkest and finally on 18 December by the Badische Philharmonie Pforzheim.

The Concerto begins with a quiet, foggy soundscape of muted tremolo strings, over which the mysterious melody of the solo violin emerges, expressivity outlining the first themes of the movement. Sibelius conceived this effective opening while travelling in 1901, in what was the beginning of an inspired compositional process. Sibelius had aspired to be a virtuoso violinist himself for many years and the Violin Concerto is the largest work he composed for his own instrument. However, many passages of the Concerto are likely to have exceeded Sibelius’ own abilities, for instance the prolonged cadenza in the first movement containing highly demanding double stops.

Sibelius' Violin Concerto - Warmth in a Nordic winter

By and large, Sibelius adheres to the traditional concerto structure of three movements. In the second movement, ‘Adagio’, the orchestra evokes the melancholy of a gloomy Scandinavian Winter, which is mitigated by the warm tone of the solo violin. Thematically connected to the Adagio, the work’s finale is a virtuosic Rondo making use of extended technique with a relentlessly pounding pulse in three-quarter time.

[Sibelius] stays up all night, plays beautifully, cannot let go of the enchanted notes. It’s incredible how many ideas he has. And all his motives are so ripe for development, so full of life. – Aino Sibelius

The Violin Concerto was premiered under the direction of the composer on 8 February 1904. Although Sibelius had intended Willy Burmester to perform as soloist, Burmester was replaced by the alledgedly overworked Viktor Nováèek. Perhaps in consequence, critical reactions were mixed. Some lauded the richness of the Concerto’s ideas, while others criticized it as being too unclear in its development and too technically demanding. Sibelius was unhappy with this reception and revised the work, reducing its dissonances and simplifying the solo part.

Schott Music now represents the publisher Robert Linau internationally, making many great works by Jean Sibelius, Carl Maria von Weber, and others a valuable part of the Schott catalogue. Performance material for Sibelius' Violin Concerto can by hired from Schott in the 1905 revised version and the original 1904 version, which was only made available for performance in 2015.

 

• Jean Sibe­lius — Profile


• Violin Concerto in D minor, revised version 1905 — Details


• Violin Concerto in D minor, first version 1904 — Details

 

Photo: San­teri Levas

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 28 November, the European premiere of Gerald Barry’s new opera Alice’s Adventures Under Ground will be given in a concert performance with Britten Sinfonia conducted by Thomas Adès. The performance at London's Barbican Centre closely follows the world premiere in Los Angeles on 22 November with Adès conducting members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Both performances are sung by a distinguished cast led by Barbara Hannigan in the title role, with Allison Cook, Hilary Summers, Allan Clayton, Peter Tantsits, Mark Stone, and Joshua Bloom.

Barry’s previous opera The Importance of Being Earnest (2009-10) has been widely performed to sold-out audiences and is heralded as a masterpiece of modern opera. The similarly subversive Victorian classics of Lewis Carroll’s two beloved novels “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass” were, to Barry, an obvious choice for the subject of his next opera.

Alice's Adventures Under Ground by Gerald Barry - Down the rabbit hole

In the same manner as the books, Alice’s Adventures Under Ground begins with Alice falling down the rabbit hole. In the opera, this becomes an occasion for a masterclass in singing: as she falls, Alice competes with the orchestra for who can perform the best scales and arpeggios. Such vocal acrobatics have been written primarily for the deftly agile voice of Barbara Hannigan, with whom Barry has a longstanding collaboration. A second virtuosic masterclass occurs at the Red Queen’s croquet lawn. Barry explains his emphasis on virtuosic technique:

The book is very dramatic, and is an ideal vehicle for divas, male or female. It’s tremendous material for showing off – it takes these unbelievable things for granted, viewing them as normal. – Gerald Barry

In his vocal compositions Barry has often played with language, and Alice’s Adventures Under Ground is no exception. The composer wrote the libretto himself, cutting down to the very core of Carroll’s stories and making them even more surreal and funny. One of the best-known passages from Carroll’s Alice, the Jabberwocky, appears in no fewer than five languages. For Barry, the feverish linguistic whirlwind of Alice’s libretto reflects the original madness of Carroll’s texts. Barry also chose to use the book’s original title, rather than “Alice in Wonderland”, to mirror the slightly darker madness of the opera.

I love the original title as it combines light and dark and more truly reflects the white and black energy at the heart of the work. It is this careering between ecstatic nonsense and violence which has made the text timeless and grips generation after generation. – Gerald Barry

Alice’s Adventures Under Ground will receive its Irish premiere with Adès conducting the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in the New Music Dublin Festival on 4 March 2017. Further upcoming premieres for Barry include a new work for chorus and orchestra, Humiliated and Insulted, on 10 February 2017 with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonic Choir, and 5-6 May 2017 with Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus.

• Gerald Barry — Pro­file


• Alice’s Adven­tures Under Ground — Details


• Bar­bi­can Hall

On 25 November, Ensemble Modern will give a concert focused on the music of Alexander Goehr at the Wigmore Hall in London, including the UK premiere of his major song cycle Vanishing Word with mezzo-soprano Lucy Schaufer and tenor Christopher Gillet. The following day, the same performers present the concert at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, marking the work’s German premiere.

First composed in 2013 for two voices and piano, Vanishing Word is a cycle of songs, duets and instrumental pieces orchestrated in 2015 for mezzo soprano, tenor and ensemble. The work explores the ambiguities of words, of ideas, and of human understanding. Goehr has set seven texts by six different authors, among them Jakob Böhme, Rainer Maria Rilke and Ingeborg Bachmann, that address in some manner man’s distance from nature and the ways in which language and meaning diverge over time. Between the sung movements, the words ‘vanish’ in five instrumental preludes.

Vanishing Word: The meaning of meaning

Vanishing Word begins with a metaphor of language as a tree, as described by the 17th century German mystic Jakob Böhme. Through growth and separations, the universal language of nature becomes divided into increasingly weaker languages. In the second song Goehr sets the story of how Adam was ordered by God to assign a name to each animal, and the following texts are settings of poems which reflect on the nature and use of words. The texts captured Goehr’s attention while he was working on his earlier song cycle for baritone TurmMusik (2009) which tells the biblical story of the Tower of Babylon, and is thus related thematically to Vanishing Word.

Vanishing Word had its world premiere on 22 January 2016 in New York by the Juilliard Ensemble, after which the cycle was lauded for its combination of mysticism and transparency.

The impression I aim to create is one of transparency: the listener should perceive, both in the successive and simultaneous dimensions of the score, the old beneath the new and the new arising from the old. – Alexander Goehr

Alongside Vanishing Word, Ensemble Modern will give the world premiere of two other pieces by Goehr, Manere II for clarinet and horn and Manere III for clarinet, horn and violin, to complement Goehr’s existing Manere I (2008). The title ‘Manere’ refers to a particular melisma from Gregorian chant that, for several centuries, was frequently used in works by composers including by Pérotin and Machaut before largely disappearing.

• Alexander Goehr - Profile


• Vanishing Word - Details


• Wigmore Hall 


• Alte Oper Frankfurt

On 13 November the complete original version of George and Ira Gershwin’s classic opera Porgy and Bess will premiere at La Scala in Milan in an evening dedicated to the memory of conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who passed away earlier this year. The production is directed by his brother, Philipp Harnoncourt, and conducted by Alan Gilbert.

The original full-length version of Porgy and Bess more noticeably reveals an influence of the European avant-garde than the more frequently performed 'reduced version' of the opera. In the late 1920s, Gershwin was profoundly impacted when he met the Austrian composer Alban Berg. Gershwin referred to Porgy and Bess as ‘his Wozzeck’, referring to Berg's first opera, and while its more avant-garde passages are often cut, they can be seen to strengthen the dramatic effect of the opera.

Gershwin's Porgy and Bess - And the livin’ is easy…?

Arguably, no other opera has produced so many hits, such as the ever popular Summertime, one of the most recorded songs of all time. Yet the calming lullaby of Summertime at the beginning of Porgy and Bess contrasts starkly with the violent reality of the opera’s setting in Catfish Row, Charleston, South Carolina. In a run-down tenement block dominated by criminals, a crippled beggar, Porgy, attempts to rescue the beautiful Bess from the clutches of her violent lover and the local drug dealer. The opera is based on the novel “Porgy” by Dubose Heyward, who also wrote the libretto.

While the world premiere in 1935 was a success, Porgy and Bess was often criticised for Gershwin's decision to cast African American singers in the main roles. A classically trained musician, Gershwin intended to write a piece that fused traditional form with other musical styles, and shows a great breadth of stylistic diversity. Classical influences, such as a fugue in the opening act, can be heard alongside jazz, ragtime and blues. Gershwin wished Porgy and Bess to be respected as a fully-formed opera, not a Broadway musical, and can therefore be regarded as an attempt to close a stylistic gap that Kurt Weill once described as:

“Metropolitan: the worst example of old fashioned opera on the one side, and musical comedy which tries to be sophisticated and low brow at the same time on the other side. Nothing in between.”

Porgy and Bess will run at La Scala until 23 November, and a production by Sydney Opera will open in Australia on 26 November.

• George Gershwin — Pro­file


• Porgy and Bess — Details


• Tea­tro alla Scala

 

Photo: Lena Obst, Staats­thea­ter Wies­ba­den 2013.

On 11 November, Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s 1930s opera Simplicius Simplicissimus will be given its UK premiere at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. The Independent Opera production, directed by Polly Graham with Timothy Redmond conducting the Britten Sinfonia, will use a new English translation by David Poutney.

In three acts, the opera tells the story of a naïve shepherd boy, Simplicius Simplicissimus, during the horrific Thirty Years' War which devastated Germany in the seventeenth century. Simplicius doesn’t understand his father who tries to warn him of the evils of the world, nor his mysterious dreams of a ‘tree of life’. After a series of unfortunate events, such as the destruction of his family farm and his kidnapping, Simplicius retrospectively understands his dream as a metaphor for social injustice.

Hartmann's Simplicius Simpliccissimus - History repeats itself

Hartmann’s work, based on the 1668 novel “Der Abentheurliche Simpliccimus Teutsch” by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, was also shaped by the political circumstances of his present time. Though it was composed in 1934-1935, Simplicius Simplicissimus was not premiered until 1949 since Hartmann’s music was classified as “degenerate Art” by the Nazi regime. A parallel is drawn between the two historically distinct events, and the opera becomes an allegorical outcry against war and tyranny.

I became acquainted with the book and the descriptions of the Thirty Year’s War captured my attention. How current the line seemed to me: “The times are so strange, that nobody knows whether they will get out of it all without losing their life.” Then, as now, the individual was helplessly at the mercy of the devastating brutality of the age, where people were close to losing their souls. There was no hope for salvation, except in the most simple-minded human brought forth against it. – Karl Amadeus Hartmann

Hartmann realises this historic parallel musically by incorporating among others passages of Jewish melodies, creating a complex network of compositional meaning. Also prominent is the use of a German folk melody from the 13th century, put to the words “oh world I must leave you” (“Oh Welt ich muss dich lassen”). Withdrawal from the world is a very important theme in Hartmann’s work, but at the same time, the opera shows its impossibility: reality can be found reflected in Hartmann’s engagement with an older history, and even in Simplicius innocent fantasies.

The Independent Opera’s production of Simplicius Simplissimus will have repeat performances on the 15, 17 and 19 November. Next year the work will be performed in Bremen, Germany from 28 January.

 

• Karl Ama­deus Hart­mann — Pro­file


• Sim­pli­cius Sim­pli­cis­si­mus — Details


• Inde­pen­dent Opera at Sadler’s Wells Lon­don 

 

Photo: Monika Rit­ters­haus, Oper Frank­furt 2009

On 5 November Heinz Holliger will conduct the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música for the Portuguese premiere of his violin concerto "Hommage à Louis Soutter" with the work’s dedicatee, violinist Thomas Zehetmair, as soloist.

Like other concertos by Holliger, such as Siebengesang and Turm-Musik, Hommage à Louis Soutter is inspired by the life of an artist. As a painter, Louis Soutter’s art was shaped by mental illness and an obsessive creative urge. He spent the last 20 years of his life in a care home where he produced most of his artworks, often painting with his fingers and sometimes with his whole body. In his youth, Soutter was also a gifted violinist and performed with the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, and Holliger composed the concerto in honour of the orchestra’s 75th anniversary.

Holliger’s Hommage a Louis Soutter – ‘Paint Truth. The Truth is terrifying.’ (Hermann Hesse)

The concerto is divided into four movements – Mourning, Obsession, Shadows, and Epilogue – which are played continuously without breaks. The first movement contains musical quotations from the third violin sonata of composer/violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, who was Soutter’s violin teacher for many years. The elegiac and sombre tone of the first movement gradually descends into madness for the second movement (‘Obsession’) as stirring rhythms are developed in the music. In ‘Shadows’, Holliger evokes a sense of alienation, a dislocation from one’s former experience of life in an eerie third movement that builds to a climax before the music collapses in on itself.

The concerto’s final movement ‘Epilogue’ was added much later and captures the resigned atmosphere of Soutter’s painting ‘Before the Massacre’. Like Soutter’s black and crooked figures, the music is in agony. The violin plays tormented chords over gloomy sonorities from the orchestra to create an overwhelming sense of despair.

For me, being different is something natural in life. I don’t look for sickness in a person; I am looking for people who do not have limits to their imagination, who can break through, into either the world of insanity or a hereafter. Such people have finer antennas than others; they have a more direct access to their subconscious minds. – Heinz Holliger

On 1 November, Casa da Música will also present Holliger’s large scale work Scardanelli-Zyklus based on texts of Friedrich Hölderlin, a poet who was also affected by mental illness in the last years of his life. Prior to the national premiere of Hommage à Louis Soutter on 5 November, Holliger’s solo works will be performed in different locations throughout the venue in preparation for the evening’s performance.

• Heinz Hol­li­ger — Pro­file


• Concerto “Hom­mage à Louis Sout­ter” — Details 


• Scar­da­nelli-Zyklus — Details


• Porto Casa da Música

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

On 20 October, Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman (“Der Fliegende Holländer”) will celebrate its opening night at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, Belgium. Directed by Tatjana Gürbacas and conducted by Cornelius Meister and Philipp Pointer, the production will run until 4 November, followed by performances in Gent until the 22 November. This production is the first to use material for The Flying Dutchman from the Richard Wagner Complete Edition.



First completed in 1841 as a “Romantic Opera in One Act and Three Scenes”, The Flying Dutchman went through a tale of constant revision. Even before the Dresden premiere (2 January 1843) Wagner undertook fundamental alterations. He transposed the location from Scotland to Norway, changed characters’ names as appropriate, divided the opera into three acts, and transposed Senta’s Ballad from A minor to G minor. It was this version of the opera that went to print in 1845. For a performance in 1860 he composed the later so-called ‘Tristan’ or ‘Redemption’ ending to the Overture. As with Wagner’s later opera Tannhäuser, to this day there is no definitive final version of The Flying Dutchman.

The Flying Dutchman – An eternal work in progress?

 

Despite claiming to have written the original version in just seven weeks, Wagner ultimately found The Flying Dutchman to be unendingly problematic, and the lack of a final version continues to fascinate Wagner scholars. The Wagner Complete Edition, however, rejects the concept and priority of the last available version, instead endeavouring to assemble all of Wagner’s multitudinous revisions as completely and accurately as possible. Despite Wagner’s difficulties with the work, it endures as one of his most popular operas today.

If I reach my aim [of approval] among merely a handful of individuals, that attainment will richly compensate me for all those who remain unconvinced; and cordially do I grasp the hands of those valiant artists who shall not feel shame to concern themselves with me, and more familiarly to befriend me, than is typical in our modern art world. – Richard Wagner

Because the Compete Edition consolidates all available source material and the most current developments of Wagnerian scholarship, it allows performers a deeper understanding of the composer’s processes and musical intentions. This new performance material is now available from Schott for any production of The Flying Dutchman.

• The Flying Dutchman, Version 1842-1880 - Details


• The Flying Dutchman, Original Version - Details


• Opera Vlaanderen 

A new production of Nino Rota’s Aladino e la lampada magica ("Aladdin and the Magic Lamp") directed by Julien Ostini will open in Saint-Etienne in France on 16 October, performed by the Orchestre Symphonique Saint-Etienne Loire and conducted by Laurent Touche. The fairytale opera will be performed in a French translation.



Rota, sometimes called the “Italian Mozart”, composed his first children’s opera Il principe porcaro (1925-26) at the age of 13. A sense of childlike wonder has infused Rota’s music throughout his career, evident particularly in his film scores composed for director Federico Fellini, which remain among his best-known works today. For Rota, fairytales were never trivial; although they provided fantastical entertainment, they stemmed from deeper moral motivations and life lessons. Such is Rota’s understanding of Aladdin, which was first recounted to him as a child by his Grandmother.

Aladino e la lampada magica by Nino Rota – an opera for everyone

Aladino e la lampada magica (1968) comes from one of the most popular tales of the well-known collection of stories “One Thousand and One Nights,” commonly known as “Arabian Nights”. The narrative follows Aladdin, an impoverished young boy, who dreams of wealth. After a sorcerer gains Aladdin’s trust, intending to use him only as a tool to obtain a mysterious oil lamp from a magical cave, an exciting and dangerous adventure begins.

The enchanted world of Rota’s Aladino e la lampada magica gives great scope for appealing staging, with colourful bazaars and extravagant costumes, presenting an ideal first opera experience for young children.  The work is further full of refreshingly tonal musical language, employing the traditions of operatic composition yet in a modern and distinctive fashion. Despite being termed a children’s opera, it will nonetheless appeal to audience members of all ages.

When I’m creating at the piano, I tend to feel happy; but, the eternal dilemma arises - how can we be happy amid the unhappiness of others? I'd do anything I could to give everyone a moment of happiness. That's what's at the heart of my music. – Nino Rota

The Leipzig Opera will perform a reduced orchestration version of Aladino e la lampada magica, as arranged by Rainer Schottstädt, on 28 and 31 October.

 

• Nino Rota - profile


• Aladino e la lampada magica - workdetails


• Reduced version by Rainer Schottstädt - details


• Grand Théâtre Massenet