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This year marks the 120th anniversary of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who would have celebrated his birthday in May. In honour of this occasion, Korngold’s opera Das Wunder der Heliane (The miracle of Heliane) will be performed this week in concert by the Volksoper Wien with conductor Jac van Steen.



The opera tells the story of a tyrannical ruler who prohibits his people any happiness, until one day when a stranger appears and excites the population by spreading a message of peace. But before any rebellion can ensue, the stranger is captured and sentenced to death. Heliane, the ruler’s wife, comes to comfort the prisoner and the two share a mutual attraction. Heliane prays for the stranger. When the ruler returns to the prison cell, he discovers Heliane there too. The ruler accuses her of adultery and places her on trial, where death sentences await them both. The stranger is brought in to testify against Heliane but instead of doing so he kills himself. Ruthlessly, the ruler decides that only a judgment from God can save Heliane from death. If she manages to resurrect the stranger and thus prove her innocence, Heliane's death sentence shall be overturned. A miracle happens and the stranger is brought back to life. The ruler remains alone in a world of joylessness, and Heliane and the stranger reunite in death.

Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane: Blessed are the loving

Korngold wrote Das Wunder der Heliane after a long creative break, later declaring it to be his greatest work. By composing music that completely moved him, Korngold has created an expansive and colourful orchestral pallet. The work is characterized by Korngold's typically Viennese-lyric melodicism and has influenced the music of Richard Strauss.

By no means am I opposed to the harmonic enrichments which we owe, for example, to Schönberg, but I similarly do not renounce the eminently expressive possibilities of "old music." My credo is: the idea. How, in the long run, could the most artificial construction, the most exact musical formula triumph over the primal power of the idea? – Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Das Wunder der Heliane was performed in concert in Vienna on 28 January, and there will be two more performances on 2 and 5 February at the Volksoper Wien. The opera will be performed in concert in Freiburg, Germany in July, and again this autumn in Antwerp.

• Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Profile


• Das Wunder der Heliane - Details


• Volksoper Wien

 

Photo: Hans-Jürgen Brehm-Seufert, Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern 2010

On 27 January, the Hungarian premiere of Peter Eötvös’ opera, Love and Other Demons, will take place at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest. The 2008 world premiere at the Glyndebourne Festival was directed by Silviu Purcãrete, who also directs here, and Eötvös himself will conduct. The opera bases its libretto on and takes its title from Gabriel García Márquez’s novel Del amor y otros demonios.



Love and Other Demons takes place in Colombia during the 18th Century and tells the story of the 12-year-old Sierva Maria, who is bitten by a rabid dog. Although no symptoms of disease appear, in a city dominated by superstition and religious delusion Sierva Maria still gains a reputation of being possessed. Imprisoned in the Convent of St. Clare by her father, it is decided that Cayetano Delaura, the bishop’s exorcist, will expel the demon. However, Delaura himself is soon possessed too, by the "wildest of all demons" - an overwhelming love for Sierva Maria.

A notable feature of Love and Other Demons is the consistent use of multilingualism. Eötvös and his librettist, Kornél Hamvai, have given the different levels of narration and action in the story their own characteristic language: English is the official language and everyday language of the nobles, Latin is the language of church rites, Spanish is used by Delaura whenever his conversations with Sierva Maria are more personal, and Yoruba is the secret language of the slaves. Eötvös’ music also makes use of different musical languages and styles.

Peter Eötvös' Love and Other Demons: Making the visible audible through musical theatre

In the opera, the orchestra is divided into two halves, creating a dialogue between the orchestra with the singers. This enables the players to project sound around the performance space and, in doing so, "paint" the atmosphere of the opera across the length of the stage. The singers’ lines sometimes develop from these orchestral soundscapes and often, the orchestra subtly takes notes sung by the singers and brings them into their own parts. This spatial moving of the music between the singers and orchestra intensifies the resulting dialogue.

My music is music for theatre – it is not accompaniment but theatre in itself – Peter Eötvös

The Hungarian State Opera production of Love and Other Demons will run until 27 May.

• Peter Eötvös - Profile


• Love and Other Demons - Details


• Hungarian State Opera

 

Photo: Paul Leclaire, Oper Köln 2010

To mark the 500^th anniversary of The Reformation, the German National Youth Ballet will be presenting the new work “Summit Meetings – Reformation” choreographed by Zhang Disha.  The music includes Enjott Schneider’s symphonic poem Ein feste Burg (A mighty fortress) and will be performed by the German National Youth Orchestra conducted by Alexander Shelley.



Ein feste Burg (2010) is based on the hymn of the same name by Martin Luther. It is unclear as to whether Luther wrote the melody as well as the text, but it is undoubtedly the song that embodies Protestantism like no other. In Schneider's composition, a stark opening gradually evolves to establish a cantus firmus. In turn, increasingly stormy music begins to interweave with counter-themes leading to a battle hymn historically connected to Luther’s original. Bringing the work to its conclusion, innocent birdsong is heard in a peaceful epilogue.

 Enjott Schneider’s "Ein feste Burg" – a battle hymn?

31 October 2017 will mark the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of his theses. In 1517, Luther was believed to have posted his 95 theses to the doors of the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg. By doing so, Luther pointed out the flaws in the Church, which at the time he felt concerned itself the sale of indulgences and was distancing itself from the Word of God.

Throughout the course of history the hymn Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A mighty fortress is our God) has played an important role in times of crises: during the First World War it was printed and distributed on postcards and evangelical expellees sang it in the Second World War when they were granted refuge in a Catholic church. The song became a self-portrait of Germany, in which faith in God would overcome all suffering, something that Schneider reflects with the epilogue of his composition:

The creation of God, which we increasingly treat with contempt, destroy, pollute and devastate, is the true place of a deep faith and the appearance of God, and  belongs equally to all whether Protestant, Catholic, Jewish or Muslim. – Enjott Schneider

The reformation project will be the National Youth Orchestra and National Youth Ballet second collaboration marking the Reformation. Both organisations embark on a tour of Germany this week performing in Berlin (16.01.), Dresden (18.01.), Marburg (19.01.), Ludwigsburg (20.01.) and Schweinfurt (21.01.).

• Enjott Schneider - Profile


• Ein feste Burg - Details


• National Youth Orchestra


• National Youth Ballet

 

Photo: Silvano Ballone

On 13 January 2017, Jörg Widmann’s new oratorio ARCHE will receive its premiere, marking the opening of the new Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg. Soprano Marlis Petersen and baritone Thomas E. Bauer will perform alongside the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano, with the combined choral forces of the Staatsopernchor, the choir of the AUDI Jugendakademie and the Hamburger Alsterspatzen.



ARCHE centres on mankind’s pleas to an indifferent god, vulnerably revealing all their wishes, fears and hopes for a better world. Widmann selected a variety of texts from different centuries, including from poets Matthias Claudius and Friedrich Schiller, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and the Bible. Scored for two soloists, three choirs, organ and orchestra, the music is similarly varied, ranging from intimate tonal passages to complex choral textures that make full use of the work's impressive forces.

Jörg Widmanns ARCHE – Let There be Sound!

ARCHE begins with the first act “Fiat Lux/ Es werde Licht” (“Let there be Light”), in which two child narrators chronicle, with factual innocence and at times ironic alienation, the act of creation. In the second act “Die Sintflut” (“The Flood”) vast cascading masses of sound evoke the power of the flood, rendering the violence of its destruction almost physically perceptible. This is followed by a gentler third act “Liebe” (“Love”), but even before the praise of love has faded away a double murder of jealously is reported – a reminder that mankind is not even capable of protecting the precious resource of love from evil. An apocalypse ensues in the fourth act, wherein Widmann sets “Dies Irae” alongside with Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”, exploring life, death and hope for salvation; appealing for divine intervention. The “Dona eis requiem” changes in the last act to “Dona nobis pacem”, but the children’s choir demands that man assumes the responsibility for his survival himself, and only then will peace be possible with a loving God.

The Elbphilharmonie’s location overlooking the water, and its architecture reminiscent of ships and sails, inspired Widmann:

It is an ‘ark of culture’, where we as humans may find refuge with our happiness but also our suffering, especially in this very turbulent time. It is a refuge in a politically stormy sea, where art takes place, and where music takes place. I think it is fantastic that it was built; it also contains something sacred. – Widmann

During the three-week festival of events for the opening of the hall, another of Widmann’s works, Sonatina facile, will be premiered by Mitsuko Uchida on 18 January.

• Jörg Widmann - Profile


• ARCHE - Details


• Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

 

 

Photos:
- Elbphilharmonie Hamburg: Maxim Schulz, 2016.
- Jörg Widmann (right) and Kent Nagano: Hannes Rathjen, 2016.

On 17 & 18 December, Bohuslav Martinů’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 1 will be performed by Alban Gerhardt and the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich conducted by Krysztof Urbański at the Musikverein Vienna. They will repeat the performance on 19 December at the Festspielhaus St. Pölten, Austria.

Martinů's first Cello Concerto comes from the composer’s neoclassical period beginning in the late 1920s, during which Martinů began to intensely study musical works of the 17th and 18th centuries. The original version of the Cello Concerto from 1930 is scored for cello and chamber orchestra, demonstrating the influence of Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerti Grossi. In 1939 however, Martinů re-orchestrated the concerto for large orchestra, lending the work a more symphonic character. This was most effectively realised in his final revision of 1955, widely acknowledged to be the most popular version of the piece, and the one which the Tonkünstler-Orchester will perform this week.

From Concerto Grosso to Concerto Grande

Compared to other compositions from Martinů’s neoclassical period, the Cello Concerto is freer in form. A colourful Allegro movement and light-footed Finale frame the more expressive central Andante, while modern orchestration and folkloric influences characterize the concerto's refreshing tonality. The result is a very accessible work - one on which Martinů spent more time than perhaps any other.

The artist is always searching for the meaning of life - his own, and that of mankind - searching for truth. A system of uncertainty has entered our daily life - the pressures of mechanization and uniformity call for protest, and the artist has only one means of expressing this: music. – Bohuslav Martinů

A recording the 1955 version of Martinů’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 1 by cellist Sol Gabetta with Krysztof Urbański conducting the Berlin Philharmonic was recently released on Sony Classical. The disc, which also features Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, would make a perfect Christmas gift for any lover of cello music.

• Bohus­lav Mar­tinů — Pro­file


• Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 1 (version 1955) — Details


• Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 1 (version 1930) — Details


• Ton­künst­ler Orches­ter Nie­der­ös­ter­reich

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.