16 Cristóbal Halffter Premio Fronteras del Conocimiento en Música Contemporéana for his life's work 13 Pierre Boulez Boulez celebrates his 85th birthday on 26 March 21 Manfred Gurlitt Nana at the Theater Erfurt 30 Franz Schreker Die Gezeichneten – US-première of reduced version at the LA Opera 33 Alban Berg 2010 – a Lulu-year Jay Schwartz World première of Music for Eight Double Basses in Frankfurt 1 newsletter 02/10 • springthema 2010 Contents nEws New website — 4 New editor's report — 5 The Gustav Mahler Blog — 5 coMposErs Borisova-Ollas — 7 Wilson — 7 Cerha — 8 Luke Bedford — 8 Haas — 9 Pärt — 10 Schwartz — 10 Rihm — 11 Baltakas — 12 Sotelo — 12 Boulez — 13 Sawer — 14 Birtwistle — 14 Staud — 15 Sotelo — 15 Lentz — 15 Halffter — 16 Kurtág — 17 Feldman — 17 Stockhausen — 18 Meale — 18 Berio — 19 Gurlitt — 21 Ligeti — 22 Liebermann — 22 Schnittke — 22 Weill — 23 Krenek — 24 Milhaud — 24 Casella — 24 Martin — 25 Braunfels — 25 = world première Bartók — 26 2 contents 02/2010 Kodály — 26 Martin� — 27 Shostakovich — 28 Delius — 28 Szymanowski — 29 Dear Readers, Schmidt — 29 Schreker — 30 Zemlinsky — 31 In this modern age it is comforting Webern — 32 to rediscover the excellent radio Berg — 33 programming that is still going Schönberg — 34 strong. France Musique’s Lundis de Mahler — 35 la contemporaine, the BBc’s Hear Janá�ek — 36 and Now, SWR2’s JetztMusik, orF’s Haydn — 37 Zeit-Ton and wDr3’s Studio Neue Musik are just some of the excel- lent programmes available. With all major radio stations now online worlD prEMièrEs — 38 - 39 (i.e. worldwide), and now in im- pressive quality, it’s worth having annivErsariEs — 40 - 41 another look at the rich array of programmes of classical and con- New rElEasEs — 42 - 43 temporary music. Every month, we pick out some of the best broad- New on cD & DvD — 44 - 45 casts of UE works and include them in our new radio E-mail news- worklisT letter. David Sawer — 46 Sign up at www.bit.ly/ue-emails acknowlEDgEMEnTs — 48 The Editorial Team 3 www.UnivErsalEDiTion.coM New UE Website The sheer number of composers, works, world premières and performances make any publisher’s website a considerable challenge. We had come (perhaps not alone) to the conclusion that our website www.universaledition. com needed a major update. So we listened very carefully to the people who matter most: you, the ensembles, orchestras, festivals, programmers etc. What resulted from our discussions was a completely new website, built from scratch. The aim of the website is not to be cool, hip and covered in web 2.0, but simply to work, be fast, clear, understandable, and give you better access to more information than ever before. We think our web team did an incredible job. The website will be live in time for the Frankfurt Music Fair on 24 March. 4 news UnivErsal EDiTion New editor's report Once again we have published a The full report can be downloaded new editors’ report, containing at www.universaledition.com/edi- details of all new music edited in torsreport. See the available study the year 2009. It was good to stop scores at www.universaledition. for a moment and have a look and com/studyscores the number of new works, revi- sions, new engravings etc. that our editors created. We produced 41 UnivErsal EDiTion completely new works, from Luke Bedford’s Willy and Hugh for chil- The Gustav dren’s concerts, to Haas’ Traum in des Sommers Nacht for orchestra, Mahler Blog with plenty of Cerha, Rihm, Sotelo, Staud, Halffter and Pärt included. We also produced 25 new arrange- Now that the Mahler anniversary ments, e.g. Jaroslav Smolka’s new years are in full swing (150th birth- Suite from the opera Katya Kabano- day in 2010 and 100th anniversary va, Schönberg’s Op.11 for ensemble of death in 2011), many orchestras by Richard Dünser, and Chris Gor- have begun special concert se- don’s arrangements of Alban Berg ries featuring Mahler’s music. Our Songs. Mahler blog (www.universaledi- In addition to the above, 15 works tion.com/mahler) contains infor- were revised and corrected and mation about many concerts and we made new engraved material also includes our video interview for 9 existing works. And on top series, now with 15 interviews, with of all this, our editors found time recent additions from Michael gie- to produce 19 new study scores in len, Mariss Jansons and lorin Maa- our new series, bringing the total zel. already available to 39. New study scores include Mahler’s Rückertlied- er, Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques, Boulez’ Improvisation II, No. 3 from Pli selon Pli, and Berio’s Eindrücke. 5 news Stockholm Concert Hall Foundation ROYAL STOCKHOLM PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA STOCKHOLM CONCERT HALL FOUNDATION CHIEF CONDUCTOR ALAN GILBERT STOCKHOLM CONCERT HALL FOUNDATION Viktoria Borisova-Ollas Golden Dances of Pharaohs – Clarinet Concerto Commissioned by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra World Première 6 & 8 May 2010 with Martin Fröst and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra Conducted by Mats Bäcker Foto: Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo Stockholm Concert Hall www.konserthuset.se Tickets +46 8 50 66 77 88 Foto: Martina Holmberg Foto: Universal Edition.indd 1 2010-02-11 10.34 Borisova-ollas Martin Fröst and the Royal Stock- holm Philharmonic Orchestra con- Dance of Pharaohs ducted by Sakari Oramo. www.bit.ly/pharaohs “Concerning Egypt, I will now speak at length, be- WILSON cause nowhere are there so many marvellous things, nor in A great fall the whole world beside are there to be seen so many things of unspeak- able greatness.” This is how Hero- This March, ian wilson’s dotus described Egypt, writing in Humpty Dumpty – music the 5th century BC. As victoria Bori- theatre for soprano, tenor, sova-ollas writes in the preface to clarinet and percussion – is given her new clarinet concerto, Dances its world première on 18 March by of Pharaohs: “We know practically the Psappha ensemble at a concert everything about daily habits of in Lancaster/UK. “In a novel reinter- the Pharaohs, but there is an im- pretation of the tale of Humpty portant part of this picture which is Dumpty’s fall – part morality play still missing: the sounds are not and part vehicle for some extrava- there. What were the timbres of gant singing – the vocal champion their voices; the moods of their rit- Don Dumpty is left looking rather ual songs? What was the music like eggy by a rival competitor.” The when they danced?” Borisova-Ollas work was composed for the Psap- has now created her own personal pha ensemble to a libretto by Brian answer to these questions which Leyden. will be premièred on 6 May by Victoria Borisova-Ollas 7 borisova-ollas / wilson cErha Praise of slowness The Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik will be focusing on Friedrich Friedrich Cerha cerha: about Bruchstück, geträumt (Klangforum Wien, c. Stefan As- bury, world première: 23 Apr), Cerha lUkE bedforD writes: “It’s like in a dream: one tries to move forward; but it’s impos- Walking with Mahler sible. The music feels its way as if blind. The piece is an epitome – the highest praise of slowness.” As part of the Mahler in Neun Bagatellen for string trio Manchester series at the (world première: 24 Apr, Zebra Trio) Bridgewater Hall, renowned was inspired by a suggestion by composers have been asked to violinist Ernst Kovacic. In this piece, write new works to accompany the Cerha once again indulges in his performances of Mahler’s sympho- love of the “gripping translation of nies. UE composers Friedrich cerha the direct, spontaneous idea” – as and luke Bedford are amongst in the orchestral works Momente those taking part. Bedford’s new and Instants. The programme in work will be performed before Witten also features Netzwerk- Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 on 27 Fantasie (soloist: Marino Formenti, May by the Hallé Orchestra con- 24 Apr) and an excerpt from Eine ducted by Mark Elder. See bit.ly/ Art Chansons (Klangforum Wien, 25 luke1 and bit.ly/luke3 for details. Apr). www.wittenertage.de The first Asian performance of Or On 14 Apr, Remix Ensemble will be Voit Tout en Aventure for soprano performing Les Adieux for the first and 16 players will take place this time in Porto/P. spring, with Roland Kluttig con- ducting the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra on 6 April. The six move- ments of the work comprise of set- tings of three texts written in me- dieval French and Italian, all linked in some way by the theme of music. 8 cerha / luke bedford haas haas The deepest … und … will also be heard in Am- register sterdam. The Swiss première of the 7 Klang- räume takes place in Basel on 5 The relationship between May. The piece can also be heard in Klangforum Wien and France in Eguisheim on 9 May and georg Friedrich haas is a on 8 May in Freiburg in Germany. long and fruitful one. One of the many highlights of the collabora- “In iij. Noct.” has its Dutch tion was the première of in vain première on 5 March with the Kai- by the solo ensemble under Syl- ros Quartett. On 20 May tria ex uno vain Cambreling in 2000. The same and Sextett can be heard in London team has just premièred La profon- with members of the Philharmonia deur for 13 performers, written for Orchestra. the 25th anniversary of Klangforum. The composer said of the piece: “The deepest register of the ensemble: both foundation and abyss. Music on the edge of sound. Once-familiar parameters like time, interval and volume are lost.