Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited
June 2011 2011/2 Turnage Anna Nicole New from Included in this issue: boosey.com Birtwistle Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new opera enjoyed a sell-out premiere run at The Royal Opera, New violin concerto travels followed by BBC television and radio broadcasts and a forthcoming DVD release. to BBC Proms ‘gentleman’s club’ in Houston... The more reflective passages often take the surprising form of beguiling, varied waltzes. Mr. Turnage and Mr. Thomas have come up with a slew of operatic characters that singers are going to relish, as this cast did. The London audience ate it up. But so did I, because in the end this is a musically rich, Online Scores launched audacious and inexplicably poignant work. The We are pleased to announce the launch of ovations were tumultuous.” New York Times Online Scores: a new boosey.com music “Turnage’s score is both immediately attractive service that allows you to view a digitised and dramatically purposeful, while Thomas’s pithy library of full scores from the B&H catalogue, text is integral to the success of an opera that hits free of charge. all the G-spots.” Sunday Times • over 400 scores currently available, with The Royal Opera’s production of Anna frequent additions Reich Nicole, with cast including Eva-Maria Kronos Quartet tours 9/11 wide range of leading composers from Westbroek, Gerald Finley and Alan Oke • Adams to Xenakis memorial to Europe conducted by Antonio Pappano, is released on DVD and Blu-ray by Opus Arte in August. first time access to many rare or • contemporary scores Turnage’s Blood on the Floor is choreographed by Wayne Macgregor in a available when you want, for study or • research new Francis Bacon-inspired ballet at the Opéra Bastille in Paris on 29 June. Macgregor • search by composer or genre is also choreographing Turnage’s new bookmark score sections and create 30-minute ballet score, to be premiered at • favourites Sadler’s Wells in December in a double bill Photo: Bill Cooper www.boosey.com/onlinescores Party time for Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Anna Nicole (Eva-Maria Westbroek) in Richard Jones’s with his monodrama Twice Through the Heart. production at The Royal Opera in London Sheet Music Downloads “When people say that a celebrity’s opera so exciting, however, is that Turnage seems We welcome you to our new sheet music to have found precisely the right musical idiom for Holloway rollercoaster life would ‘make a good opera’, downloads shop. they aren’t usually being literal” wrote The such a drama – an Americana, brashly Interview about Fifth Concerto over 1200 downloads from the B&H Times of the premiere of Anna Nicole at The orchestrated and violently propulsive which Shepherd • premiered at BBC Proms embraces jazz, blues, musical comedy, and catalogue Royal Opera in London on 17 February. “But lounge smooch so ingeniously and responsively as selected highlights from other publishers an opera, or at least an unusually discordant to transcend mere pastiche. It doesn’t set out to • signs with from folksongs and theme tunes to musical, is exactly what the British composer be a complex or a subtle score, but it packs an Rachmaninoff and MacMillan Mark-Anthony Turnage and writer Richard irresistibly visceral punch.” Daily Telegraph Thomas have made of the tacky and • genres include classical, jazz, musicals tragically short life of Anna Nicole Smith, the B&H and education Playboy centrefold known for her massive “…jazzy, bitter-sweet, fake boobs, marriage to a billionaire 62 years fizzing, moody and often Young American composer Sean Shepherd instant download and printing via your • computer her senior, and death at 39 from an (b.1979) has signed a publishing agreement touchingly tender” The Times accidental drug overdose...” with Boosey & Hawkes covering his existing secure payment and customer service output and future works. His colourful • “I’ll eat my six-gallon hat if it’s not a stonking great “Mr. Turnage’s music is the primary reason that so orchestral and ensemble works have been http://boosey.epartnershub.com hit... It’s often very funny, but it’s not just a crude much seemed so right in Anna Nicole. There are attracting attention on both sides of the (Not currently available in North America and farce with a downbeat ending: I think it is flashes of Weill in the clattering, cabaret-like Atlantic: Shepherd’s Wanderlust received its Australasia) underpinned by genuine compassion for Anna scenes when the reporters, wielding microphones, European premiere from the BBC Symphony van der Aa Nicole and genuine scorn for the forces that mutter like a Greek chorus; and jazzy sneering Composer video documentaries Up-close blends cello mould, and then destroy her. What makes this Orchestra conducted by Oliver Knussen last brass writing in the scene with the dancers at the Our library of boosey.com documentaries is concerto and film November and future performances are scheduled by the National Symphony growing. Each combines an in-depth (Washington) under Knussen and the interview filmed at the composer’s home Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Franz with video footage and audio clips. Welser-Möst. films on Carter, Andriessen, Jenkins Jenkins Peacemakers • and van der Aa The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace is Orchestra conducted by the composer. new 10-minute documentary on established as the most successful new Premiere performances of The Peacemakers • Steve Reich recently released large-scale choral work of recent decades are planned in London and New York. and Karl Jenkins has further developed its plans underway for films on Birtwistle, This month brings the world premiere of a • theme in his latest project The Peacemakers, Gruber and Schwertsik further choral work, The Bards of Wales, due to be released on disc by EMI in www.boosey.com/av which forges an unexpected link between October. The hour-long work for choir, Hungary and Jenkins’s homeland. The string orchestra and optional brass sets Hungarian poet János Arany (1817-82) was BooseyTube texts by Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson asked to write a poem in praise of the Visit our new YouTube site for videos on Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Emperor Franz Joseph but, as the Austrian composers and premieres. Albert Schweizter and Shelley, as well as overlords had just suppressed the 1848 Photo: Jamie Kingham drawing upon the Bible, Quran and short videos of composers discussing Revolution, the poet did the opposite. • Hinduism. One line from Rumi, the 13th Shepherd’s ensemble work These Particular their new works To satisfy the censor, the poem was written century Persian mystic poet, sums up the Circumstances was premiered in the New in terms of Welsh history, telling how musicians talking about performing the ethos of the score: “All religions, all singing York Philharmonic’s CONTACT! series • Edward I of England executed Welsh bards latest pieces one song; Peace be with you”. conducted by Alan Gilbert, and the work for failing to sing his praises at a 13th links to other relevant videos on YouTube travelled to Amsterdam in April for a • The EMI recording will feature an assembly of century banquet. performance by the Asko/Schoenberg www.youtube.com/BooseyTube choirs including the Rundfunkchor Berlin, the Jenkins has set The Bards of Wales text in Ensemble. New works are premiered this City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Hungarian, Welsh and English, and it is summer by the Talea Ensemble at Lincoln To visit BooseyTube, scan the Youth Choir and the Really Big Chorus, intended that the work can be sung Center and by oboist Liang Wang with the code with your smartphone. together with violinist Chloë Hanslip, soprano throughout in a single language or a Orion String Quartet at the Santa Fe Lucy Crowe and the London Symphony Download the scan app from combination. The 40-minute work, scored Chamber Music Festival. Shepherd has www.i-nigma.com. for tenor, chorus and full orchestra, is future commissions from the Cleveland premiered at the National Concert Hall in Orchestra where he is a Composer Fellow Budapest on 21 June. next season, and from the Ensemble Intercontemporain, to be performed in to his personal journey, with that of the Jenkins travels to Lincoln Center in New York January 2012 in Paris and Cologne under composer as craftsman. Shepherd grew up in September to conduct a commemorative the baton of Susanna Mälkki. in Reno, Nevada, and his observations of the performance of The Armed Man on the 10th natural world – its geography and anniversary of 9/11. The concert also includes Sean Shepherd has said that “my life as a landscapes – play a significant part in many the first US performance of his remembrance composer is tied into my life as a listener and of his compositions. work For the Fallen, with the Really Big observer”. He sees himself combining roles Chorus from the UK joining the singers of as a musical novelist, describing places and For further information on Sean Shepherd
Photo: courtesy Virgin Records Ltd Distinguished Concerts International. times past and present and their relationship visit www.boosey.com/shepherd Holloway Fifth Concerto Chin
Robin Holloway discusses how his Fifth Concerto for Orchestra, premiered at total Photo: Weonki Kim the BBC Proms on 4 August, seeks to combine constructivism with virtuosity. You’ve exhaustively studied orchestral music across Can orchestral showmanship and compositional Concerto, to renotate the immersion the centuries. Who are your heroes? argument sit comfortably together? earlier movements and There are great orchestrators across a bewildering Yes, absolutely. You just have to think of pieces like revise the later This Spring was an exceptionally busy period for range of styles. To take two polar examples, Daphnis and Chloë, Jeux or The Rite of Spring. Virtuosity movements. I was Unsuk Chin, with a Total Immersion day presented by Stravinsky is unambiguously hard-edged whereas is an intrinsic part of the music but this does not demean rediscovering my young the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, the Photo: Pippa Patterson Debussy is veiled and full of suggestion. And Richard the greatness of the work. Even a score like Bolero can self of nearly half a century premiere of Fanfare chimérique by the Ensemble Strauss is an orchestral master totally unlike either, be viewed as a concerto for orchestra. When Ravel ago when I was a total constructivist and raving Intercontemporain in Paris, and a sequence of major who finds a technique to perfectly suit his style, just as notoriously said it was an orchestral work without music expressionist; something of both is recaptured in the performances in Europe, Asia and the USA. In its Bruckner does for his own world. The absolutely he was uttering a provocation, but we can view it now in concentration of the Fifth Concerto, though obviously review of the Total Immersion day at the Barbican in infallible orchestrators are Mahler and Ravel, and I a chain of works defining new orchestral forms the experience and range of expression are much April, featuring 10 of the composer’s works, The greatly admire Britten for his exceptional clarity. Just as culminating in Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. wider. The scale demanded there should be no Guardian praised “the extraordinary range of Chin’s interesting are those composers who are examples of sprawl, so rather like Manhattan the only solution was sensationally accomplished writing”. Your Fourth Concerto was described by the San how not to orchestrate, yet achieve a totally personal to build upwards. Among the works new to London, a highlight for idiom: any other sound would be inappropriate. And Francisco Chronicle as “huge and splendiferous”. Yet - Inspiration for your concertos has ranged from many was Gougalon as performed by the London there are many byways — lovely or exciting orchestral the Fifth is compact in scale. memories of travel to medieval epic poetry. Is this Sinfonietta conducted by Stefan Asbury. discoveries in countless composers that give pleasure, Yes. After the epic Fourth I wanted to do something concerto as abstract as it appears? instruction, example. different, so was pleased when the BBC Radio 3 “…a 15-minute, four-movement suite illustrating Chin’s Yes, it is. It neither tells stories nor depicts places or childhood memories of down-at-heel street entertainers in commission for the Fifth was humorously firm that it - When does an orchestral piece become a concerto for “should not be long”. I was also writing a series of events. The only pre-compositional triggers I suburban Seoul. Like all of Chin’s music, Gougalon is most orchestra? miniatures, the Five Temperaments for wind quintet remember were a couple of intense colour notable for its use of colour: vivid, extravagant and technically assured to the point of virtuosity… the brilliance It is the emphasis on display and prowess that defines and Six Quartettini for string quartet, so was exploring experiences. One was walking across one of those a concerto for orchestra and makes it unlike a Cambridge lawns that have been so lovingly tended of its externals is matched by a strength of idea that makes compact forms which might be thought to be ‘against the result genuinely fascinating.” The Guardian symphony in form and content. There are no givens, type’. One model for the Fifth Concerto was down the ages. The grass was sumptuous and so it appeals to me as a very ‘open’ genre. Despite Schoenberg’s Five Orchestral Pieces, a large work in a velvety and the light was skimming: the sensation Chin’s latest work, Fanfare chimérique, was their very different starting points and aims, all five of short duration that had the intensity I was seeking. was of swimming through green. The other was commissioned by IRCAM and the Ensemble my concertos relish the multiple opportunities for sitting on a bus in a traffic jam and fixing my eyes Intercontemporain and premiered at the Centre virtuosity: showpiece sections for the orchestra as a The Fifth returns to the density of your earlier onto a newly-painted pillar post box in the sunlight, Pompidou in Paris in April conducted by Patrick Davin. whole, passages that focus on family sections, and concertos. Why is this? astounded at the visual thrill of the brilliant red. The 18-minute work for winds, brass and electronics solos where the individuals can emerge and shine. Its composition followed a revisiting of my First This prompted the idea of coloristic ideas for each explores the composer’s continuing fascination with of the five movements, not in the literal heraldic reflected and refracted sound, with an octet at front of manner of Bliss’s Colour Symphony but in a more stage mirrored by an octet at the back, plus the sensory way. additional blending of recorded samples. How did the Fifth Concerto evolve? “The instruments in each pair confront each other in the It grew organically from nuclei, which initially had no soundspace, then are replayed and treated by the MacMillan Xenakis thematic basis. They were ideas of texture, sound electronics through writing where the first object and its mirror double mingle, and where the games of contrast and and character before any pitches were defined. The chiaroscuro unfold with generosity. Conjuring up every first movement starts from a total blackness of mood espressivity, this seductive work bears witness to a firm in the USA 10th and spirit, moving through a dense chord sequence craftsmanship and a playful interplay between abstraction James MacMillan’s music has whose elaborate decoration fills the total chromatic and decoration.” Resmusica.com been prominent in the USA in and entire orchestral space. The second movement, Chin’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, premiered recent months with the world anniversary with its springing momentum and buoyant airiness, to great acclaim at the BBC Proms in 2009, provides the complete antithesis. The remaining three premiere of his new Piano While many composers go into eclipse following their continues to travel with Alban Gerhardt as soloist. The Concerto No.3 in Minneapolis, movements occupy the space between the extremes, Boston Symphony Orchestra presented the US death, interest in Iannis Xenakis has grown strongly in the last attempting a synthesis of all these elements the first North American the past decade, as witnessed by the number of premiere conducted by Susanna Mälkki in February, performance of his Violin through a flowing lyricism akin to the last of the Asian premiere followed in April with the Seoul special features in this 10th anniversary year. Schoenberg’s Five Orchestral Pieces. My aim was to Concerto in Philadelphia, and Geneva’s Archipel festival included a selection of his Philharmonic and Stefan Asbury, and Cologne played a feature at Carnegie Hall in achieve from the polyphonic density a totally host to the German premiere in May with the Photo: Philip Gatward works in March and Xenakis concerts by the London expressive dissonant luminosity. New York. Next season brings Sinfonietta and Ensemble Exposé were hosted by the Gürzenich-Orchester and Markus Stenz. orchestral performances in Baltimore and Saint Paul, Ether Festival at the Southbank Centre in April, “…a fiercely inventive work in which Chin manages that rare and plans are underway for the US premiere of his together with an international conference organised Holloway balancing act of honouring the genre’s history while creating one-act opera Clemency in Boston. by Goldsmiths, University of London. something bracingly new. This is music of primal expressive Fifth Concerto for Orchestra (2009-10) 25’ force yet also pinpoint timbral precision… Chin’s cello writing The New York Times, observing this renewed surge 4 August 2011 (world premiere) is hugely virtuosic while avoiding cliché, and her orchestral of American activity, summed up MacMillan as writing is even more inventive, with a harmonic palette “a creator who replaced modernist aridity with BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London widened through microtonal inflections, and an overall sound communicative directness. His initial promise has BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/ world subtly shaded through extended techniques. been borne out since in a diverse body of substantial Donald Runnicles Gerhardt’s playing was superb…” Boston Globe works — including multiple symphonies, concertos and operas — through which he has grappled fruitfully with the contrasting tugs of modernity and history, Celtic folk traditions and Roman Catholic convictions.” Valtinoni Snow Queen The Komische Oper in Berlin premiered The Snow Palestinian territories and received a new staging at “…a wild ride, overflowing Queen, a new children’s opera by Pierangelo Leipzig Opera last month. The Three Riddles by with colour and incident…” Valtinoni, with a Christmas run of 12 performances. Detlev Glanert, which combines child and adult Star Tribune on Piano Concerto No.3 Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy-tale, the singers on stage, has received over 90 performances new commission followed the company’s successful since its premiere in 2003 and a new production MacMillan’s Piano Concerto No.3 was commissioned staging of Valtinoni’s Pinocchio and, like the earlier opens this month in Koblenz. Karl Jenkins’s children’s by Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra and Photo: Felix Kindermann work, The Snow Queen effectively combines adult opera Eloise is enjoying a growing number of premiered on 14 April by Jean-Yves Thibaudet. The Oresteia in the Muziektheater Transparant production and children’s roles with children’s chorus and international performances, including stagings at the work travels to the Cabrillo Music Festival on chamber orchestra. An alternative simplified version Leipzig Gewandhaus last season and at the Bonn 5 August and plans are underway for further Xenakis’s powerful 50-minute setting of Aeschylus’s for an all-children cast was unveiled at the Kampnagel Theater this July: the work is suitable for both school performances by Thibaudet in the USA and Europe. Oresteia, scored for solo baritone, chorus and a in Hamburg in February, presented by the Staatsoper productions and opera house educational The 25-minute concerto bears the subtitle The percussion-rich ensemble, was staged in February on and a second staging opened at the Teatro programmes. Mysteries of Light but, as ever with MacMillan, the a Belgian and Dutch tour by Muziektheater Communale in Vicenza in April. meditative roots of inspiration are transformed into Transparant and the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble and “The new fairy-tale opera has the makings of a crowd-puller. Pierangelo Valtinoni’s The Snow Queen in Anisha Bondy’s a vibrant, dramatic landscape, described by the Star Choir. The production by Caroline Petrick travelled to production for the Komische Oper in Berlin. Bruges, Antwerp, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The Italian composer’s music is tonally sensual and catchy… Tribune’s reviewer as “turbulent, incantory and, at Rhythmically-accented numbers match the children’s urge moments, luminous”. A further production of Oresteia opened in Vienna last month, a co-production between the Wiener to keep moving. Counting rhymes and nursery rhymes find “...there’s no doubt that MacMillan knows his way around an their place in the score just as much as the shimmering Festwochen, Wiener Taschenoper, Remix Ensemble sound atmosphere which accompanies the gleaming violet orchestra. His score is a cascade of instrumental coloration. Porto and the Anton Webern Kammerchor. The There were times, for instance, when the performance castle of ice.” Berliner Morgenpost shimmered in a tingling shower of ethereal voices... the staging by Carlus Padrissa, a member of La Fura dels piano’s voice is often eerily doubled by chimes, vibraphone Baus, provided a pyrotechnic realisation in the open “…an exemplary children’s opera or other instruments, creating a sonority that is at times air on the Karlplatz. tingling. In all, it’s a masterfully challenging piece for from Andersen’s fairy-tale. ” Kraanerg, Xenakis’s major 75-minute ballet score for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung performers and listeners.” Saint Paul Pioneer Press ensemble and electronics, forms the culmination of a Charles Dutoit conducted the first American Xenakis weekend (4-5 June) at the Holland Festival, “The first performance was given a tumultuous welcome performances of the Violin Concerto in Philadelphia performed by Asko|Schönberg directed by Arturo with cries of bravo and long applause. Italian composer and at Carnegie Hall in New York in March, with Tamayo, with visuals from the Brussels collective Pierangelo Valtinoni has created a work which is melodic Vadim Repin as the virtuosic soloist. The New York Visual Kitchen. Both Oresteia and Kraanerg feature in almost throughout. Some of the catchy arias even verge on Times described how the concerto combines the five days of Xenakis concerts at the Flâneries musicals-style songs. But the musical harmony is also archetypal song and dance sources with the Musicales de Reims between 13 and 18 July, with necessary, for the story of Gerda and her friend Kay is traditional three-movement format: “A crackling many leading interpreters of his music including sometimes melancholy and sometimes even downright opening movement is followed with a more lyrical pianist Roger Woodward, Les Percussions de creepy...” Der Tagesspiegel section and a finale filled with exuberant display. The Strasbourg, cellist Rohan de Saram, the Jack Quartet Other operas in the Boosey & Hawkes catalogue solo part’s torrential flurries and sweetly spun and the Asko Ensemble conducted by Diego featuring young performers and children’s chorus melodies are custom fitted to a virtuoso like Mr. Masson. Other highlights include Xenakis’s ground- include The Arabian Princess, a pasticcio of music by Repin... Mr. MacMillan’s estimable mastery of breaking early stochastic score Metastaseis A in a Arriaga with new text by Paula Fünfeck. This made
orchestral timbre and effect is evident throughout.” programme by the Orchestre de Lille and Tamayo. history in 2009 as the first opera presented in the Photo: Iko Freese/DRAMA van der Aa Birtwistle violin concerto Rouse Up-close Symphony travels No.3 Michel van der Aa’s new concerto for Argentinian- French cellist Sol Gabetta fuses music and film to Christopher Rouse’s new create “a richly intriguing affair” (The Observer). Symphony No.3 was welcomed Up-close enjoyed an extensive premiere tour to six with a standing ovation at its countries in March, resulting from its commission by premiere conducted by David the European Concert Hall Organisation, visiting Robertson in St Louis in May. Stockholm, Luxembourg, Brussels, Amsterdam, Co-commissioned by the St London and Hamburg. The 25-minute work, scored Louis Symphony Orchestra, for solo cello, strings, soundtrack and film, has also Singapore Symphony, Baltimore been recorded for future release on van der Aa’s Symphony and Royal Disquiet Media label. Stockholm Philharmonic, the Photo: Christian Steiner new symphony takes as its stepping-off point the two movement form of “A work that captivates Prokofieff’s Symphony No.2, itself influenced by from beginning to end.” Beethoven’s final piano sonata op.111. As the Photo: Michael J Lutch Dagens Nyheter St Louis Post Dispatch observed, “all three works Harrison Birtwistle takes his bow with Christian Tetzlaff and Marcelo Lehninger at the Boston premiere of Concerto for have two main parts: an aggressive, declarative Violin and Orchestra “This hauntingly beautiful work is among van der Aa’s finest. opening movement followed by a second consisting Gabetta, in a print frock, sits among the black-clad Christian Tetzlaff gave the world premiere of Harrison ‘discussed’ by the soloists, the concertino-chorus, the tutti, of theme and several variations.” orchestra, spinning out a rapturous song without words, Birtwistle’s new Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in but are not ‘argued’ over... Clear to begin with — Birtwistle while on screen a similarly dressed older woman creeps The reviewer went on to note how Symphony No.3 March, with the Boston Globe describing the solo really has ensured that the soloist’s every note is audible — fused thrilling orchestral writing with a musical furtively to a disused house to use an old, unspecified piece the concerto seemed increasingly inevitable and substantial.” of electronic equipment. Black-out screens cover the part as “highly athletic, compacted and Sunday Times language that can readily appeal to a general windows and the machine communicates in code. The gestural…played with fierce commitment and audience: “Combining the classical clarity of Paul “Mr. Birtwistle, 76, is a towering figure in British music. His woman may be reliving wartime memories, possibly as a technical brilliance.” The work was commissioned by language, though complex and modernistic, is distinctive Hindemith, at some points echoing the gentle member of the Dutch resistance. But we will never know for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the premiere and exhilarating… Throughout the piece the violin plays a minimalism of John Adams, as well as the primal certain. Being ‘up-close’ can never give us the bigger was conducted by Marcelo Lehninger, standing in stream of jagged chords, gnarly intervals and twisted energy of, yes, Prokofieff and Beethoven… this could picture, and we are left with a mystery that continues to impressively for an indisposed James Levine. The thematic flights. Then something will happen in the orchestra easily become a programming staple of orchestras resonate after the music has faded.” The Guardian orchestra toured the concerto to Carnegie Hall in — a pungent harmony, a twitch of sombre counterpoint — worldwide…” “Film and live images intermingle poetically, and van der Aa’s New York and the European premiere is scheduled at and the violin responds with a wafting melodic line in its “Commentators on Rouse’s work frequently use words like wonderful music does the rest. Van der Aa retains all the the BBC Proms on 7 September with Tetzlaff joining shimmering high range.” New York Times elements of concerto form, but has the piece begin with the ‘exciting’ or ‘energetic’, and from the opening trumpet the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by David In addition to presenting the European premiere of the fanfare of the first movement, you can see what they solo cadenza, in a magnificent performance by the lithe- Robertson. limbed Gabetta. When music, electronics and string violin concerto, the Proms also features the UK mean… All of this is supported by lively, active percussion – orchestra then suddenly converge, the magic that you so “A work of true originality... a continuous 25-minute span premiere on 20 August of Angel Fighter, Birtwistle’s a constant rhythmic pulse that takes hold of you and often hear in Van der Aa’s music is there once again. A fine that evokes traditional form while always keeping at a subtle dramatic cantata retelling the Genesis story of Jacob won’t let go. addition.” De Trouw remove from it. It is as though Birtwistle has to rediscover wrestling with the Angel. Scored for chamber chorus, “The five variations that follow vary in mood and style, the concerto paradigm from scratch... Ideas flow forth, are tenor, countertenor and ensemble, the performance beginning with a gentle, romantic statement of the theme at Cadogan Hall combines soloists Andrew Watts and floating over a soft cushion of strings. Then a couple of Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, the BBC Singers and the snappy variations are separated by one for strings alone, London Sinfonietta conducted by David Atherton. At which sounds a bit like the blues with low, slow bass lines its Leipzig Bach Festival premiere it was described as merging with overlapping melodies higher up. The final variation is full of little flashes of sound punctuating the a score of “enchanting beauty and monumental orchestral fabric; it comes full circle, mirroring the wild Clyne power… a major work which points to a new abandon of the first movement…” St Louis Post Dispatch direction for sacred music.” (Leipziger Volkszeitung) Rouse’s Symphony No.2 forms the grand finale of Three Birtwistle orchestral works have just been Manchester’s American Raptures series devoted to Chicago released on a new NMC disc with the Hallé Orchestra his music (14-15 June), with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth (D156). The conducted by Clark Rundell. Other highlights include Shadow of Night and Night’s Black Bird are a diptych String Quartet No.2 played by the Kreutzer Quartet residency exploring the theme of Elizabethan melancholy as and performances by the RNCM New Ensemble. exemplified by Dowland, while The Cry of Anubis is a Rouse is featured at many of the US’s leading Anna Clyne’s first Chicago tuba concerto for the jackal god of Egyptian festivals this summer including Aspen, Santa Fe, Symphony Orchestra mythology. The Arditti Quartet is recording Birtwistle’s Cabrillo, and Tanglewood. His recent orchestral work commission since her Tree of Strings and Nine Movements for String Odna Zhizn (A Life) is conducted by Marin Alsop in appointment by Riccardo Muti Quartet for the Aeon label for release in Spring 2012. Cabrillo and Hans Graf in Houston in coming months. Photo: Sebastien Grebille as Mead Composer-in- Sol Gabetta (cello) and Vakil Eelman (on film) in Up-close Residence was inspired by the orchestra’s legendary brass “What you see and hear interlocks secretively and with success because ultimately it is all put together with an section. Spangled Unicorn was imagination that is purely musical. It works because van der Photo: Todd Rosenberg premiered in the orchestra’s Reich Kronos on tour Aa is an unequalled master at creating a high-tech whole MusicNOW series in March conducted by Pablo from barely profiled gestures, which gets its meaning from Heras-Casado and takes its name from a collection of The Kronos Quartet toured Steve Reich’s WTC 9/11, to the place that I have prepared’ — the dissonance of the the interconnection of all these elements. It makes for a very poems by Noël Coward, with Clyne making up for the a powerful memorial to the victims of the September opening returns, and we hear a voice saying, “And there’s contemporary form of intelligent but nevertheless accessible surprising absence of the fabled beast from the 2001 attacks, to Europe in May with performances in the world right here.” In no uncertain tones, Reich suggests music theatre.” Het Parool poetry itself. Chicago Classical Review described how London at the Barbican’s Reich Reverberations that history is circular, that horror will recur.” The New Yorker Van der Aa’s The Book of Disquet, based on “typical of Clyne’s music, it packs a lot into just 11 weekend, in Essen, Glasgow and Norwich. Scored fragmentary texts by Fernando Pessoa, received its minutes… Well-crafted, virtuosic and written with for string quartet playing live against two pre-recorded German stage premiere in Saarbrücken with Klaus great flair and a quirky off-centre humour, Spangled quartets and voices on tape, the new 15-minute work “…taut and unflinchingly Maria Brandauer last month, and his orchestral song- Unicorn is fully characteristic of Clyne’s engaging and is Reich’s third for the Kronos Quartet following eloquent…” Musical America on WTC 9/11 cycle Spaces of Blank is heard in the UK for the first distinctive style.” Different Trains and Triple Quartet, and was time on 18 June at the Spitalfields Festival with mezzo “…full of amiable fanfares, faintly queasy dances and some commissioned by the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, Duke Stephanie Marshall and the BBC Symphony growling complaints. The blend of mellow horns, sharper- Performances/Duke University, Krannert Center for “…[WTC 9/11] combined [Reich’s] signature juxtaposition of Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Renes. A DVD of edged trumpets and sinewy low brass is sumptuous, and the Performing Arts/University of Illinois at Urbana- taped and live instruments to the manipulation of the spoken the monodrama One has just been released on the the players handed off Clyne’s shifting melodies and decisive Champaign, the Philharmonic Society of Orange word, in a sober memorial, as sad and brief as the Disquiet label featuring the extraordinary performance rhythms amongst themselves in a seamless flow.” County, the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, and the catastrophe of Sept. 11 itself and as compact as a Musical America gravestone… a portrayal of the act of remembering.” by Barbara Hannigan (DQM 03). National Endowment for the Arts. Washington Post Anna Clyne’s next Chicago commission is a 20-minute orchestral work, Night Ferry, to be “…a restrained, taut piece in three continuous movements, almost ritualised in its plainness, and tremendously powerful premiered under the baton of Riccardo Muti in in effect.” The Guardian February 2012, then toured to San Francisco. Other plans include a chamber orchestra score with The Kronos Quartet’s performance of WTC 9/11 will dancers, programmes curated for the MusicNOW be included on a new Nonesuch disc in September, series, and ongoing outreach projects linking music to one of a number of recordings issued in the film, dance and the visual arts. composer’s 75th birthday year. Chandos has released a disc of orchestral music conducted by Clyne orchestral works are increasingly programmed, Kristjan Järvi (CHSA 5091) in anticipation of his including <