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Home , Alexander Frey, Alex Ross (music critic), Christian Gerhaher, Horn Concerto (Carter), Interventions (Carter), Piano Concerto (Carter)

QNotes 72 (23-9) 24/9/07 5:20 pm Page 2

Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited

October 2007 2007/3 Carter

Included in this issue: Rattle opens Berlin towards 2008 Chin celebrates his 100th birthday on Munich premieres Alice 11 December 2008 and plans are in place in Wonderland opera season with Lindberg for international celebrations, featuring the most recently completed scores by this elder statesman among Magnus Lindberg’s new master. Adopting its title from the final “Again and again the huge releases American sunrise chorus of Schoenberg’s epic cantata bolts of energy… Lindberg’s sun does not smile orchestral work, Seht die mildly upon its worshippers. Instead, it fires up the . Major Gurrelieder, the work explores the tipping birthday events are Sonne, provided a dramatic point from late-Romanticism to modernism. music and lends it a lasting resplendence.” Berliner Morgenpost so far confirmed in Boston, New York, opening to the Berliner “…an extravagant and glittering piece on a grand London, Paris, Philharmoniker’s season. “Sharp as a knife – scale, full of bold gestures and big effects… The second movement ends with a solo cello cadenza Berlin, Cologne, a tour de force”Der Tagesspiegel Following the August premiere of Seht die so lengthy that it is almost a miniature , a Amsterdam, Turin, Sonne, commissioned by the Stiftung mournful lament full of ethereal harmonics. The Basel, Vienna, “…a work that liberally mixes the exquisite colours third movement is the work’s darkest, opening in Lisbon, Porto and Berliner Philharmoniker in association with of the orchestra… and that in its luminescent the , the lower depths of the registers and rising Photo: Meredith Heuer Gothenburg. excess is indeed reminiscent of Schoenberg’s to a howl of anguish before settling into a pensive Kats-Chernin tours the work with the orchestra to Gurrelieder: as a revolving sphere of sound in conducts the premiere of Interview reveals her chorale and slipping unobtrusively into silence.” Carnegie Hall in New York on 13 November. which opulence follows upon opulence. Financial Times Carter’s on 15-17 November influences and interests Jukka-Pekka Saraste will conduct the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its Toronto Symphony Orchestra in the and violin concerti travel principal horn James Sommerville. The same Canadian premiere in February 2008. The forces tour the concerto to Carnegie Hall in Other summer highlights for Lindberg San Francisco Symphony under Sakari 2008 and Somerville gives the European included a rapturously received BBC Proms Oramo gives the first West Coast premiere at a ZaterdagMatinée concert at performance of the Clarinet Concerto with performance on 19 June 2008. the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on Kari Kriikku as soloist. The Times described 19 January 2008 with the Radio Kamer Programmed at its premiere with Mahler’s the work as “a perfect concerto, perfectly Filharmonie conducted by Peter Eötvös. Symphony No.9, Lindberg’s work is scored performed….” and the Daily Telegraph for the same forces as that of the Viennese praised its “fabulous glittering orchestral will premiere Carter’s new palette, and glowing harmonies… It was 15-minute work for and orchestra, heartening to see a packed Albert Hall , in December 2008 with James audience rising to its feet and cheering a Levine the Boston Symphony contemporary piece.” Orchestra. The work is co-commissioned by MacMillan the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Turnage Hall and the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin. Orchestral tribute to the “If there’s any justice With his fecundity continuing unabated, city of Chicago Sacrifice it will soon be as Carter has also recently completed 3 Mad-regales for six solo voices, Sound oft-performed as Fields for strings, and new instrumental on tour Mozart’s concerto” miniatures for piano, , viola and double James MacMillan’s new opera, The The Times on Lindberg’s Clarinet Concerto bass. Sacrifice, premiered by Welsh National In recent months the , Opera in Cardiff on 22 September, tours to

Photo: Hanya Chlala/Arena PAL premiered last year, has been heard for the seven UK cities over the coming months: first time in Copenhagen, London and Liverpool (16 October), Southampton Helsinki with soloist Lisa Batiashvili, whose (24 October), Llandudno (31 October), new recording has just been released on Bristol (7 November), Oxford (14 November), Sony Classical (88697 129362). The Birmingham (21 November) and Sadler’s concerto’s Swiss, German, Spanish and Wells in London (26 November). A full Panufnik Norwegian premieres are scheduled during round-up of reviews of the opera will appear the 2007/08 season. For news of Carter events in the centenary Andriessen in the February 2008 issue. CD sampler year please visit www.boosey.com/carter "… a wonderfully effective concerto, entirely Sailing to the City of Dis Your performances can be added to our in Los Angeles typical of Lindberg's recent music yet thrillingly “…a new opera with direct in its impact. Batiashvili's playing was web calendar by emailing us at explorations CD Sampler exceptional, too; other violinists will surely rush to [email protected] instant appeal.”Daily Telegraph take up the work, but she has set a standard that For programme notes on Carter’s complete will be hard to match." The Sacrifice’s libretto by award-winning output visit www.carter100.com poet and novelist Michael Symmons Roberts is the latest in a series of collaborations with MacMillan. Drawing on The Mabinogion, the ancient collection of

Welsh folktales, the opera tells of a ruler’s PANUFNIK ultimate sacrifice to safeguard the future of www.boosey.com his war-torn, faction-ridden country. The performances are conducted by MacMillan

and directed by Katie Mitchell. Andrzej new-look website launched

SELECTED WORKS

Boosey & Hawkes has released a new promotional CD sampler of the music of Andrzej Panufnik (1914-91), exploring the works of this important Polish .

There is plenty to discover beyond Panufnik’s popular Sinfonia Sacra in an Photo: Neil Bennett output that chronicles his experience in war- Michael Symmons Roberts (librettist), James MacMillan, Katie Mitchell (director) torn Poland, survival as a composer under and John Fisher (General Director, WNO) at Socialist Realism, and life as an exile after workshops for The Sacrifice. his dramatic escape to the West in 1954. Beyond the autobiographical influences, his MacMillan has extracted three interludes compositions set out to reconcile emotion from the opera to form a 20-minute and intellect, reaching back to a near- symphonic suite which he will conduct at medieval fascination with metaphysics and Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on 22 geometry. The music on the disc ranges February with the BBC Philharmonic. from Apollonian serenity to the propulsive Further MacMillan premieres in 2008 include rhythmic writing that has proved so attractive to the dance community. the full-evening St John Passion performed Our new-look website is now live, featuring both English and German, an updated design and by the London Symphony Orchestra and improved navigation, including quicker links to deeper level material. Chorus under (27 April), and The new sampler is available to performers, a new work for the Takács Quartet to be promoters and choreographers: please Our shop area, offering sheet music from all publishers, CDs, DVDs, ringtones and premiered at the South Bank Centre (21 May). contact [email protected]. downloads will be relaunched later this autumn. QNotes 72 (23-9) 24/9/07 5:20 pm Page 3

Elena Kats-Chernin Chin Alice in Munich discusses her musical influences and interests The first night of ’s new opera, Alice in “Chin’s sound world is seductively cavernous, suggesting Her new basset clarinet concerto, Ornamental Air, is performed Wonderland, provided the opening of the Munich not only the magical rabbit hole down which Alice tumbles Opera Festival on 30 June with a fair measure of but also the psychological crevasses beneath the surface of in the USA, Europe and Australia by Michael Collins in 2008. controversy. Some of the gala audience, stockful of Carroll’s writing... Within a few minutes, the entire orchestra is glittering weirdly: familiar shapes hover at odd angles; age- dignitaries and official guests, seemed increasingly old harmonies materialize from clouds of timbre and texture; perturbed - perhaps objecting to some of the You grew up in Uzbekistan, can be complex or simple and childlike snatches of song appear and disappear, like the alienation techniques in Achim Freyer’s colourful and body of the Cheshire Cat... The wondrous thing is how studied in Moscow and it will influence the way the characteristic production - and reacted vociferously at effortlessly Chin changes pace, from delicacy to Germany, and settled in piece will turn out. This, of the curtain call. But as the Los Angeles Times noted grotesquerie, from cutesiness to dementia. Everything flows Australia. How do these course, meshes with the initial in a review headed ”Alice in Wonderland triumphs in organically.” The New Yorker cosmopolitan ingredients come commissioning parameters like Munich”, the second night of the run ”proved a hit... together in your music? instrumentation, proposed When the performance was over, thunderous If forced to generalise about duration, etc, which also play a applause and foot-stomping on the resonant wood the influences on my music I’d role in the unfolding of the floors greeted cast, conductor and composer... ” say that my Russian composition. background provided the What draws choreographers to “A wondrous new work strong rhythmic features, the your music? strange mixture of Maybe it’s the fact that my has, like Alice from her lightheartedness and heavy music has clear rhythmic melancholy, the bright rabbit hole, emerged.” qualities and is not too Los Angeles Times orchestra colours, a sense of descriptive or overly developed contrast and a tendency – it leaves breathing space for towards high energy. The early , a long-time supporter of Chin’s music, the dance element. I in turn years of my initial stay in expertly conducted the Bavarian State Opera forces, really get a buzz out of working Australia (1975-80), fresh out with a strong cast including Sally Matthews in the title with choreographers and a of Moscow, added the role, Piia Komsii, Dietrich Henschel, Guy de Mey and perfect example of this was excitement of new Andrew Watts. The veteran soprano Gwyneth Jones collaborating with Meryl experimental sounds and Photo: Bridget Elliot revelled in the role of Queen of Hearts and, as The Tankard on the ballet Wild much freedom in the New Yorker’s Alex Ross noted, her rendition of ”Off Swans, based on the fairy story of Hans Christian structuring of the pieces. Then the years of study and with their Heads!” made you ”stroke your own neck a Andersen, made for Australian Ballet. I improvised on work in Germany focused me upon the serious nature bit nervously”. The opera returns in the main Munich the piano to the dancers’ movements and most of of the psychology of music, specifically in the theatre. autumn season for further peformances on 15, 17, 20 the music for the ballet was created directly in the Upon my return to Sydney in 1994 a lot of the above and 23 November. rehearsal space. The final length of the score for merged into a language. “Alice has found the way from wonderland to grand opera,

orchestra and soprano was about 90 minutes. with a luxuriant orchestra as welcoming committee: guided Photo: Wilfried Hosl You’re equally at home composing for dance and How do you react when your music is used in new and presented by Unsuk Chin... Expectations ran high, the Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland at the Bavarian theatre as for the concert hall. Has this versatility contexts, for instance Eliza Aria in the recent Lloyds preparations were considerable – and the result is as State Opera in the production by Achim Freyer come about through chance or design? TSB advertising campaign? colourful as a look through a kaleidoscope...” Each genre provides its own opportunities for Hannoversche Allgemeine I had a wholly positive reaction to hearing my music in ”Unsuk Chin has internalised Carroll’s diction completely. learning. I have never planned the way my career these adverts: it’s a great pleasure for a composer’s She describes Alice’s inhospitable dream world with would work - it has happened mostly by chance and music to be given a second chance! The animation wonderful humour and cheekiness, but also with tender step by step. I’ve always enjoyed the rehearsal artwork in the adverts is masterly and clever, and the empathy and generous amounts of mockery… the tea party process in the theatre where there are often long way it fits with the music is incredibly thoughtful. The with Baroque sounds, the sweetly broken lullaby in C-major phases of making changes to sounds, when the for the Piglet… The for the Caterpillar, which stories are all very cute and charming and one just CD IO D both cheekily and wistfully paraphrases Gershwin, is as

relationship between music and theatre is in constant U A

H

T I has to love them. And it has made my music known W flux. That experience has in turn helped me when delightful as the mouth organ for the Mock Turtle... First and to a whole new audience. Viewers’ reactions after composing music for the concert hall - I can make ARTÓK foremost, the music is fast, rhythmically lively and therefore viewing the YouTube video took me by utter surprise B quick decisions with regards to form or very close to the text with its rapid emergence and - it was just amazing to see that so many people disappearance of situations.” Tageszeitung (Munich) instrumentation. One of the things I have learnt is to Connections were making really generous comments. And now A guide for performers and programmers be un-precious about my music. I can happily throw “Accompanied by plummeting semiquaver runs of the that even pop and disco versions of Eliza Aria have away huge chunks of material if it does not seem violins, Alice tumbles into the rabbit hole; later, she dives into been released, I’m experiencing another completely exciting enough for me. the pool of her own tears that shimmers impressionistically new sensation. I feel like I’m entering a world that was like phosphorescent plankton. Bell tones, sound clusters and closed to me previously. the thread of the bass provide the background for the Your music ranges widely in style from piano rags to lament of the Mad Hatter… And the steaming, flashing the complex textures of Clocks. Are you more What are your future ambitions or dreams? orchestral thunder storm during the croquet match is a well- interested in reflecting the world around you than My current ambition is to write a full-length opera, not nigh illustrative masterpiece.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung creating a private style? a chamber opera (of which I have written three “Unsuk Chin’s score, a testimony to commanding musical I am too interested in people not to pursue that already), with soloists, choir and orchestra. Other craft, is sophisticated and has a high entertainment value - human connection. I constantly need to invent a way dream projects would be a big choral symphony, equally for those unaccustomed to modern music… Chin’s to make that connection translate into a piece of perhaps in a 12 movement form – this number has a synaesthetic sense for musical colour and aroma is music. For me that is the ultimate aim in composing. special significance for me – or something for kids phenomenal.” Opernwelt It is not about describing the world, it is about along the lines of Young Person’s Guide to the by Chin’s orchestral and ensemble music continues to describing what I think the world is in relation to Orchestra. I also enjoy working with visual artists and Malcolm Gillies be much in evidence this autumn, with festival something other: a person, an event, a thought, an film makers, so am hoping for some lively features at Settembre Musica in Milan and Turin, idea or sometimes just a sentence. That relationship collaborations in the coming years. Musica in Strasbourg and the Venice Biennale. Her new work commissioned by the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and the Bavarian State Boosey & Hawkes has collaborated with Bartók Opera receives first performances next spring in expert Malcolm Gillies to produce Bartók Montreal (3-4 March), New York (8 March) and Connections, a new guide exploring repertoire Chicago (24-29 April) conducted by Kent Nagano. Dean vexations & devotions themes for this towering figure of 20th century music. A printed version with CD sampler is available upon Brett Dean’s the maddening automated telephone voices that keep you request for performers and programmers by emailing Vexations and on hold, and the vacuity of corporate mission statements.” [email protected], and a web version of ° Devotions received Daily Telegraph the guide with soundclips is available to all at Martinu 2009 its European “Thank you for holding,” said the irritating mechanised voice www.boosey.com/bartokconnections. 50th anniversary of death premiere at the BBC in Brett Dean’s Vexations and Devotions, adding that our Bartók Connections contains repertoire notes for the Proms on 23 July, holding was important to them, and finally embarking on a composer’s complete output of works published by The 50th anniversary of providing a hilarious philosophical disquisition on different types of Bohuslav Martin‡’s death holding. The texts of Dean’s ‘sociological cantata’ by Boosey & Hawkes, Universal Edition and Editio refreshing critique of Musica Budapest. The recorded extracts draw falls on 28 August 2009. Australian poet Dorothy Porter and cartoonist Michael Planned events include the ‘vexatious Leunig articulate some of the intolerable vexations of modern extensively on the Hungaraton complete edition, and operatic and orchestral banalities’ of modern life with bracing wit. Evening Standard the printed guide is illustrated with a rich variety of life. David Robertson features in Prague, Brno, “The second ‘movement’, Bell and AntiBell, starts with violas images provided by the Bartók Archive Budapest and conducted the BBC the composer’s son Peter Bartók. A timeline links Boston, London, buzzing like angry wasps around an almost unbearable Amsterdam, The Hague Symphony crescendo of real and synthesized bell sounds. And then the Bartók’s creative life with contemporary events, both Orchestra and voiceover, which apologises for being busy, and thanks us cultural and in the world at large. and Porto. Chorus together with for holding. Holding what? The voice takes on a wild life of Photo: Noosa Weekender Magazine Boosey & Hawkes the young Australian Themes explored by its own, in psychological speculation, while violin tremolandi, publishes a selection of choir Gondwana Voices. First performed at the 2006 shaken aluminium foil and ticking pizzicato reverberate like Malcolm Gillies in the guide include Bartók’s Martin‡’s works including Perth Festival under Matthias Bamert, the work’s wounded nerve endings…” The Times Photo: Boosey & Hawkes the cycle of six German premiere takes place in Stuttgart on roots in late- Dean continues working towards his new opera symphonies of which the sixth, Fantaisies 13 March conducted by Andrey Boreyko. Romanticism and folk Bliss, based on the novel by Peter Carey, to be music, his engagement Symphoniques, is one of his most performed scores. premiered by Australian Opera. His 25-minute with nationalism along Other classic works include the , as “… a work that skilfully orchestral study for the opera, Moments of Bliss, with Kodály and frequently set to dance as heard in the concert hall, has been performed in Melbourne, Cologne and Dohnányi, relationships and symphonic works dating from his years in reveals music’s ability to Manchester. Dean is currently completing Songs of with contemporaries American exile including Sinfonietta Giocosa, Tre mock and to mourn Joy, a Liverpool Capital of Culture commission to be including Stravinsky, Ricercari and Sinfonietta La Jolla. His chamber operas premiered by Simon Rattle and the Royal Liverpool Debussy and The Marriage, a setting of Gogol’s comedy, and simultaneously.”The Times Philharmonic Orchestra in October next year. These Szymanowski, the Comedy on the Bridge, now available in an English songs for and orchestra set texts by the appearance of Arabic Image: Bartók Archive Budapest version by Tony Kushner, are ideal candidates for opera’s librettist Amanda Holden intended for Harry double bills. “Brett Dean is rapidly becoming Australia’s best-known influences in his music Joy, the adman in Carey’s novel who is offered a (the CD includes a recording from a field trip to North To discuss Martin‡ repertoire and to let us know of composer…His new piece Vexations and Devotions deals nightmarish view of his life and family after suffering with things which on the surface are crushingly banal; the Africa), and late works written in American exile your 50th anniversary plans please contact us at creeping deadness of soul that comes from too much telly, a heart attack. including his personal take on jazz in Contrasts. [email protected] QNotes 72 (23-9) 24/9/07 5:20 pm Page 4

Turnage Chicago Remains Bernstein now available ’s complete songs and incidental music for JM Barrie’s classic play Peter Pan are available for the first time in a new performing edition. Bernstein was invited to provide music for the 1950 Broadway production with Boris Karloff and Jean Arthur, and wrote seven additional songs. With the composer away in Europe, numerous alterations, cuts and additions were made, moving it far away from his original intentions. The music was largely forgotten for 50 years until

conductor Alexander Frey prepared a successful Photo: Alistair Muir recording in 2005 (Koch KIC CD 7596), signalling the Peter Pan at the King’s Head Theatre in London need for a full orchestral score and of a complete set of parts. The disc provided a reminder Symphonic Dances from West Side Story of some magical vocal numbers, such as Who am I? arr. for solo percussion and wind band and Dream with Me, revealing the composer at an Evelyn Glennie and the London Symphony Orchestra intriguing midpoint between On the Town and premiered Craig Leon’s new arrangement of Candide. With the new edition, the major barrier to Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story productions of Bernstein’s Peter Pan has been in Daytona Beach in July under the baton of Marin broken, and this score can now return to its rightful Alsop. Scored for solo percussion, winds, brass, place in the theatre. piano and harp, Leon’s arrangement was described Photo: Steve Geer For full background to Peter Pan and the new edition as “brilliant, syncopated and more intense than the is at the helm of the Chicago symphonies, and the new work seeks modern visit the News section at original” and Glennie as “a petite dervish whirling from Symphony Orchestra for the premiere of Mark-Anthony equivalents to those epic chords and chorales spaced www.boosey.com/bernstein one bank of marimbas, xylophones and various Turnage’s Chicago Remains on 25 October. The over broad spans. The score is headed with a percussion instruments to another” (News Journal work was commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky personal dedication to Sir John Drummond, who Online). Foundation as part of the composer’s ongoing Turnage remembers as a staunch supporter while Performing materials are now available from our hire residency with the orchestra, and Turnage has Director of the BBC Proms and “as a crusader for library. created a vibrant 20-minute tribute to the great city. true creativity against encroaching superficiality”. Turnage’s title draws on the fact that the Great Mass Choral Suite A Prayer out of Stillness Chicago Fire of 1871 devastated large swathes of the A new choral suite from Leonard Bernstein’s Mass Turnage’s new work for jazz bassist John Patitucci, metropolis, leaving only a few buildings standing in was successfully premiered at Disney Hall in Los A Prayer out of Stillness, is premiered on 18 October. the centre. The combination of these relics alongside Angeles on 9 June. The suite has been assembled by Performances are scheduled by the work’s co- the stunning skyscraper architecture of the late 19th Doreen Rao, editor-in-chief of the best-selling Choral commissioners: the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the and 20th centuries is an illustration of Chicago’s Music Experience series, and consists of 14 NYDD Festival in Tallinn (21 October) and the Scottish ongoing powers of reinvention. The life force of this movements lasting 35 minutes. The extravagant Chamber Orchestra (16 November), with the hub of humanity is summed up for Turnage in the forces demanded by Bernstein’s original score, Norwegian premiere by the Trondheim Symphony collection of Chicago Poems (1916) blending theatre and liturgy, have been reduced so Orchestra following next season. by Carl Sandburg, opening with: that it can feature on standard choral society and Turnage’s earlier Bass Inventions was written for Dave college programmes. The new suite requires soloists, Hog Butcher for the World, Holland, who largely improvises pizzicato, whereas chorus and an ensemble of flutes, keyboards, guitars, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, the new concertante work emphasises Patitucci’s percussion and strings. Materials are currently available on hire and a vocal score is in preparation. Player with Railroads and equal skill at arco playing and his gift for performing on both double bass and six string electric bass the Nation’s Freight Handler; guitar. The orchestration is restricted to unobtrusive Stormy, husky, brawling, and often lush strings allowing the bass to sing City of the Big Shoulders… above, and the composer has built in opportunities for Patitucci to improvise. The soloist’s religious “Quote... The tough grandeur of the city in Sandburg’s poetry nature led Turnage to create a sequence of prayers, finds parallels in Turnage’s score, cast as a single 20- extending melodic material from a set of choral carols, Photo: Ballet Zürich minute movement. Once the composer knew Bernard while the third movement, Call and Response, is a Heinz Spoerli’s new ballet Prime Time, choreographed to Haitink was to conduct the work, his thoughts turned contrasting duel between solo bass guitar and the James MacMillan’s No.2. Zürich Ballet to the conductor’s championing of Bruckner’s lead double bass from the orchestra. gave the premiere at the Zürich Opera House on 12 May. Schwertsik Doctor Atomic Adams Symphony divertimento conducted the in the final movement, Trinity, can we premiere of his Doctor Atomic imagine how the vocal writing might Kurt Schwertsik’s new Symphony at the BBC Proms on sound. Oppenheimer’s last, soul- Boosey & Hawkes: The Publishing Story work for Håkan 21 August, continuing in his role as searching aria sets an anguished by Helen Wallace Hardenberger, a devotional poem by John Donne (Batter the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Paperback, 256pp, 150 illustrations £12.99, $24.95 Divertimento for trumpet my heart). An eloquent trumpet solo, at Artist-in-Association. The new ISBN 9780851625140 and orchestra, is once noble and elegiac, leaves its 42-minute orchestral work brings Published May 2007 Europe; September 2007 North America premiered on plaintive melodic mark in this most to the concert hall music from his 19 December at the expressive finale.” Evening Standard “Rivalry, romance, jealousy, generational change: opera Doctor Atomic, telling the Essen Philharmonie with the Boosey story is a ripping yarn worthy of a story of J Robert Oppenheimer, the Tonkünstler- novel, if not a grand opera… Wallace’s racy who was the lead scientist in the “…powerfully Orchester conducted by digest shows us how backroom businessmen development of the atom bomb, Kristjan Järvi. The eloquent… It’s a continue to shape musical history.” tested in the New Mexico desert Austrian premiere follows Financial Times Magazine in summer 1945. As the Evening big statement on at the Musikverein in “Scandal, feuding and fraud; who said music Standard wrote, the “vivid account Vienna on 29 March and a big subject.” publishing can’t be sexy?... This is far from a whetted one’s appetite for the Independent on Sunday

the Royal Scottish Photo: ©Deborah O’Grady quaint tale about the simple type-setting, opera proper but also proved National Orchestra printing and selling of sheet music, and much effective as a stand-alone piece.” “The humanity of both pieces – symphony and opera – is to presents the UK be found in the music reflecting the private world of more about the role companies such as B&H premiere in the 2008/09 Highlights from the opera have been arranged by Oppenheimer and his wife Kitty, a world essentially torn have played over the decades in spotting future season, all with Adams into the four movement symphony, with apart by the terrible implications of his discovery. But stars, signing them up, nurturing them and Photo: Karl Kleemayr Hardenberger as soloist. newly composed transitions and orchestrations of Adams looks at the bigger picture in the slow movement of weathering occasional rocky relationships with the vocal lines. It was co-commissioned by the Saint his symphony… through transfixing solos for horn, the “celebrity” composers they helped create... Schwertsik remembers a surfeit of divertimenti during Louis Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall and BBC and cellos he has us stargazing in wonder at The true value of Wallace’s book lies in its vivid his youth in Vienna, but he has finally succumbed with Radio 3 for the BBC Proms. The symphony’s worlds beyond the one we inhabit – the implication being illustration of what really makes a music a work that in characteristic fashion subverts “where next?” Then, in a furious finale evolving from a dedicatee David Robertson conducts its US premiere publishing house tick... Who would have thought expectations and is not as simple as it appears. The vortex of string figurations, he arrives at his moment of truth with the Saint Louis Symphony on 7 February 2008 that the inside story had all the trappings of a score is headed by a quote from the close of Italo – that trumpet solo. Heavy with anxiety, it is an aria of regret and the orchestra visits Carnegie Hall on 16 February bestseller?” The Scotsman Calvino’s Il cavaliere inesistente (The non-existent for the American Dream betrayed; the loneliest sound in the to give the New York premiere. knight) which heralds an unknown future: it may be a world for the loneliest man in the world.” The Independent “…a surprisingly gripping narrative. For those Golden Age or a time when beloved castles and “The opening movement, Laboratory, launches explosively This autumn brings the world premiere of Adams’s who wonder what really goes on in music gardens are destroyed. For the composer the illusory with surging brass, motoric strings and thunderous Son of Chamber Symphony, a successor to the publishing, it offers a fascinating read.” percussion. Urgent, throbbing, industrial music ebbs and BBC Music Magazine Golden Age was the 1920s and the music of this era Chamber Symphony of 1992, one of his most subtly infuses the five movements of the Divertimento. flows before moving, without a break, to the second section, Bedroom. The poetry-loving scientist J Robert popular pieces with close on 300 performances to “Well written and illustrated with an alluring Compagnie Masquerade, Schwertisk’s mixing of Oppenheimer, the central character, is in bed with his wife. date. Son of Chamber Symphony is commissioned selection of scores, correspondence, portraits Mozart with commedia dell’arte, has just been A gorgeous wash of sensuous music, with a tender cello by Stanford Lively Arts and Carnegie Hall for Alarm and action shots.” Tempo released on CD by the Wiener Mozartisten (Gramola theme, depicts Oppenheimer - finally dragged away from Will Sound and San Francisco Ballet for Mark Morris. “A full-length exposé, immaculately researched, his statistics and data - reading erotic Baudelaire to her as 98791). Future plans include a full-evening ballet The premiere takes place in Stanford on that brings the various figures both in front and an expression of love. based on Kafka’s America for the Landestheater in 30 November with a Carnegie Hall date set on behind the scenes to life.” Classic FM Magazine Linz for the 2009/10 season: the composer is writing “Back in the lab, panic is rising in the third movement, as 28 February 2008. Ballet performances a linked orchestral work for the Salzburg Mozarteum the team of scientists prepare for the test explosion. choreographed by Mark Morris are scheduled during Orchestra for premiere in October 2008. Haunting chromatic brass lurches into robotic chaos. Only San Francisco Ballet’s 2008 season. …unquote” QNotes 72 (23-9) 24/9/07 5:20 pm Page 1

Stravinsky Andriessen ship of fools New anniversary discs the flaming towers. The work closes with a vision of a Recordings A number of important Stravinsky releases have figure walking over the water and Dante sings: “I was marked the composer’s 125th anniversary year, led certain that she was sent from Heaven”. ‘Terezín’ by Sony Classical’s celebratory 22-CD box set Andriessen’s complete La Commedia comprises five (SX22K 46290). This first appeared as Stravinsky – scenes of 18 minutes each. After The City of Dis or Four Songs on The Recorded Legacy, drawing together the The Ship of Fools the opera continues with Racconto Chinese Poets composer’s historic Columbia recordings of his own dall’Inferno, premiered as a separate work in Cologne Hans Krása works, but is now re-released at an unmissable in 2004. The third scene, Lucifer, concludes the Three Songs on super-budget price. rightly Inferno section with the appearance of the fallen angel Rimbaud summed up Stravinsky’s discography as “the greatest himself, and the fourth takes us to The Garden of Christian Gerhaher/ landmark in the history of recorded music from the Earthly Delights continuing the Hieronymus Bosch classical tradition.” 477 654-6 connection. Just as Bosch painted a notable Ship of Naxos has released a 125th Fools, so the Garden provided the central panel of his anniversary album of Robert Magnus Lindberg extraordinary triptych, flanked by Hell and Paradise. Craft’s Stravinsky recordings Violin Concerto The final section of Andriessen’s opera is Luce including and Lisa Batiashvili/Finnish Radio Symphony Eterna, drawing upon the transcendent closing Symphonies of Wind Instruments Orchestra/Sakari Oramo stanzas of Dante’s Paradiso. (8.557508). As the Times noted Sony Classical 08869 712 93623 Andriessen events over the coming months include “this CD has a direct line to the composer himself… The fizzing first UK performances of his recent string quartet James MacMillan electricity in the Philharmonia’s miserere by the Smith Quartet in London (8 Tenebrae Responsories/ response to Craft makes this still November) and at the Huddersfield Festival (25 Missa Brevis/ one of the most exciting performances on disc.” Tony November). In February Lukas Vis performs De Staat Strathclyde Motets Palmer’s acclaimed Stravinsky film Once at a Border on a Dutch tour with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble. Cappella Nova/ (Digital Classics 10015) has been reissued on DVD, Reinbert de Leeuw remains a staunch champion of Alan Tavener once again drawing plaudits: “As an introduction to Andriessen’s music with performances last month of Linn CKD 301 De Tijd with the Asko and Schoenberg Ensembles in Stravinsky it would be hard to beat… Palmer lets Stravinsky speak for himself: through his own words, Rotterdam and Maastricht and plans for the complete Nicholas Maw and through his music… a magnificent tapestry De Materie in Rotterdam and Amsterdam next May Scenes and Arias Image: © Louvre, Paris, France/ Lauros / Giraudon/ The Bridgeman Art Library offering a narrative of its own… Strongly and June as an upbeat to the premiere of La Jane Manning/Anne Howells/Norma Proctor/ recommended.” (BBC Music Magazine) The Ship of Fools (detail) by Hieronymus Bosch Commedia. BBC Symphony Orchestra/Norman Del Mar (c.1500) Lyrita SRCD 267 (reissue) In 2008 Stravinsky and his music will hit the big Los Angeles audiences are promised a taster of Louis screens in the movie Coco and Igor, exploring the Andriessen’s forthcoming opera this autumn with the Andrzej Panufnik composer’s relationship with fashion icon Coco premiere of The City of Dis or The Ship of Fools. Sinfonia Sacra/ Chanel. The film’s director, William Friedkin, most Scored for voices and large ensemble, the new work Cherubini Sinfonia di Sfere/ famous for The Exorcist and French Connection, has is performed at Walt Disney Hall on 18 November by new Médée Heroic Overture/ also had a lifelong engagement with classical music the Los Angeles Master Chorale conducted by Grant Landscape and in the past decade has developed a parallel Gershon. It will form the first scene of Andriessen’s edition Tampere Philharmonic career as an opera director including productions of ‘film opera’ La Commedia, scheduled for premiere at Orchestra/ Wozzeck in Florence, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle in Los the Holland Festival in Amsterdam on 12 June 2008 The first stagings of Médée John Storgårds Angeles and Salome in Munich. Coco and Igor is in a production by filmmaker Hal Hartley. using the new authoritative Ondine ODE 1101-5 based on the novel by Chris Greenhalgh and stars Cherubini Edition take (Hybrid SACD) Marina Hands and Mads Mikkelsen, with filming The City of Dis is the burning city in Hell, visited by place in Vienna and planned for early 2008 and release later in the year. Dante in the Inferno section of his epic poem, and the Brussels this season. composer has added references to The Ship of Fools, Fabio Luisi conducts six performances opening on bearing humanity through life as man wastes himself 6 March at the Theater an der Wien in a production on hedonistic pleasures. As well as an opening by Torsten Fischer. The following month Christophe Offenbach chorus setting a Latin verse from the Psalms about Rousset is on the podium in Brussels for a new the drunkards aboard the ship, Andriessen follows staging at the Theatre de la Monnaie with Les Talents New with a 16th century text about the Blue Bark, a Dutch Lyriques providing the orchestra. The production by Rhinefairies ship of fools, carrying those who gamble, dance and Krzysztof Warlikowski runs for nine performances Publications pursue beautiful women. Beatrice sings in Italian of between 12 April and 2 May. in print Boosey Voice Coach Dante’s mission to reach Heaven, and English texts The Offenbach Edition Keck has This new edition of Médée is the major achievement Singing in English describe passengers on a boat nearing the City of published the first-ever vocal to date for the Cherubini Edition published by Anton edited by Mary King Dis, as they see the screaming Furies on the roof of score of the composer’s grand J. Benjamin (Edition Simrock), the most historic of the for low/medium voice Romantic opera, Les Fées du Boosey & Hawkes family of imprints. It is the first Vocal score M-060-11921-7 Rhin, marking the latest stage in score and performing materials for the opera to be £12.99 based on a critical-scholarly consideration of all the the progressive rehabilitation of this neglected work. Severely surviving original sources: Cherubini’s autograph, the Leonard Bernstein truncated at its premiere in Kronos Collection set of parts from the premiere, and the composer’s Riffs for clarinet and piano 1864, the opera was restored to its full glory at the subsequent alterations found among the holdings of (percussion and double bass) Montpellier Festival in 2002 and a recording was first volume released the Bibliothèque de l’Opéra in Paris and the Score and parts M-051-10629-5 released on Universal’s Accord label. Stage Bibliothèque du Conservatoire in Brussels. £10.99 Beyond its technical productions soon followed in Ljubljana, Trier and brilliance and Luigi Cherubini’s Médée, premiered in Paris in 1797, Art Songs and Arias Cottbus, and has conducted a charismatic presence, was popularised for the modern age by the 29 Selections for high voice and piano concert performance in Lyon in 2005 and highlights the Kronos Quartet is remarkable artistry of Maria Callas who revived the Vocal score M-051-93391-4 £12.99 from the opera in Zürich earlier this month. admired for the opera at the 1953 Maggio Musicale in Florence and 34 selections for low voice and piano dozens of outstanding prompted stagings in Milan, Rome, Venice, London Vocal score M-051-93392-1 £14.99 The availability of a new score of Les Fées du Rhin is pieces it has and Dallas. However, that Italian-language version was thanks to the long-term efforts of OEK editor-in-chief commissioned in the far from the work that Cherubini would have Gerald Finzi Jean-Christophe Keck. He has created a coherent course of its 34-year recognised. It translated German recitatives by Franz edition by consulting the sources scattered in various history. With the Lachner dating from the 1850s, which displaced the ed.Raphael Wallfisch libraries around the world or in private collections. It is Kronos Collection, the original French dialogue, and perpetuated cuts totalling Reduction for cello and piano M-060-11941-9 £15.99 now possible to study and perform not only the first volume in a new 600 bars of music, alterations to the orchestral score German version, translated for the Vienna production series published in and mistranspositions in the choral parts. Magnus Lindberg by Alfred von Wolzogen, but also the original French collaboration with Clarinet Concerto version which returns the opera to its original musical The original and complete French version of Médée Boosey & Hawkes, Study score M-060-11677-3 and theatrical conception. In addition to the vocal only resurfaced at a New York concert in 1997, and a a selection of these works is available to players for £35.99 score now on sale, full performance materials for both staging in Giessen the following year used materials the first time (M051106141). versions, including full scores and orchestral parts, are representing work-in-progress by editor Heiko Piano Jubilees available on hire. The volume includes pieces such as Sunrise of the Cullmann in preparation for the new Cherubini Edition. Piano score M-060-11341-3 Planetary Dream Collector by Terry Riley, Escalay Instead of a Romantic music-drama laden with £10.99 Plans are now well underway for the much (Water Wheel) by Nubian composer Hamza El-Din veristic effects – as exemplified by Callas’ anticipated OEK edition of Les Contes d’Hoffmann from the Kronos’s best-selling Pieces of Africa disc, interpretation – the new edition reveals the opera as a James MacMillan (The Tales of Hoffmann), combining the researches of and the Balkan-tinged Pannonia Boundless by young masterpiece of the French revolutionary era, Three Scottish Songs Jean-Christophe Keck and Michael Kaye, which will Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalov. stylistically indebted to the eighteenth century yet for voice and piano for the first time provide an authoritative edition of this retaining its dramatic power for modern audiences. Vocal score M-060-11552-3 repertoire favourite. Each work is introduced by comments from the £6.99 composer and interpretative notes from the quartet, in The Lamb has come from the house of David accordance with the group’s stated aim for the series: Einojuhani Rautavaara for chorus and organ “We think of composers as teachers who can provide April Lines for violin and piano Choral score M-060-11925-5 us with evidence and first-hand information in Violin part and piano score £1.99 exploring the mysteries of their pieces. We have tried M-060-11923-1 £7.99 to incorporate what we have learned into these Missa Brevis for chorus Passonale for piano volumes.” Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited Choral score M-060-11926-2 Piano score M-060-11899-9 The Kronos Quartet has been commissioning music Aldwych House, £6.99 £4.99 since it was founded in 1973. Throughout these 71-91 Aldwych, On Love for solo voice or Dmitri Shostakovich years, musicians have repeatedly requested music, London WC2B 4HN unison trebles and organ The Bolt information about the composers, and details about Telephone: +44 (0)20 7054 7200 Vocal score M-060-11927-9 Piano reduction M-060-11170-9 £29.99 the playing techniques used to perform many of the Promotion email: [email protected] £2.50 works. The new series not only makes the music Hire email: [email protected] The Golden Age Website: www.boosey.com/composers Success for chorus Piano reduction M-060-11168-6 £24.99 available in an edition designed for performance for Choral score M-060-11930-9 the first time, but answers all the musicians’ questions David Allenby Editor David J Plumb ARCA PPSTD Designer £1.10 The Limpid Stream in detail. Printed in England Piano reduction M-060-11169-3 £24.99