Contemporary : Other Worlds Wednesday 31 October 2018 8pm, Hall

Giacinto Scelsi Uaxuctum: The Legend of the Maya City, destroyed by the Maya people themselves for religious reasons UK premiere interval 20 minutes Become Ocean

London Contemporary Orchestra and Choir conductor Universal Assembly Unit art direction Artrendex artificial intelligence

London Contemporary Orchestra and Universal Assembly Unit are grateful to Arts Council England for their support for the visual elements of this concert Part of Barbican Presents 2018–19

Programme produced by Harriet Smith; printed by Trade Winds Colour Printers Ltd; advertising by Cabbell (tel 020 3603 7930) Please turn off watch alarms, phones, pagers etc during the performance. Taking photographs, capturing images or using recording devices during a performance is strictly prohibited. Please remember that to use our induction loop you should switch your hearing aid to T setting on entering the hall. If your hearing aid is not correctly set to T it may cause high-pitched feedback which can spoil the enjoyment of your fellow audience members. We appreciate that it’s not always possible to prevent coughing during a performance. But, for the sake of other audience members and the artists, if you feel the need to cough or sneeze, please stifle it with a handkerchief. The City of London If anything limits your enjoyment please let us know Corporation is the founder and during your visit. Additional feedback can be given principal funder of online, as well as via feedback forms or the pods the Barbican Centre located around the foyers. 2 even though it was written over 50 years ago. is thefirst timeithasbeenheard intheUK, civilisation; it’sawork sodemandingthatthis and thedestructionof anancient Mayan Giacinto Scelsi’s worlds butwhichhave acommontheme. works thatoccupy quite different sound Co-Artistic Director Robert Amesintwo Contemporary Orchestra andChoirunder This isexplored musicallyby theLondon that thisposesto ourentire planet. global warming andtheimminentthreat that couldnot bemore pertinent:thatof Titled ‘OtherWorlds’, itexplores asubject A warm welcome to thisevening’s concert. Welcome Uaxuctum looks to thepast Huw Humphreys, Head of Music,Barbican occasion. Ihopeyou enjoy it. It promises to beanextraordinary algorithm inresponse to thelive music. are generated by anartifical intelligence visuals which,inanunprecedented step, the musicwillbeaccompanied by audio- To increase theimpact of tonight’s message, which won himaPulitzerPrizein2014. the sonorously beautiful aspects cometogether to potent effect in activism asheiswithmusicandthetwo is afigure asconcernedwithenvironmental was just13 whenScelsiwrote The AmericancomposerJohnLutherAdams Become Ocean Uaxuctum . He . He , In the 1930s he became interested in in interested became he 1930s the In dandy. a of life the lived he 1920s, where the in Paris to moving before Berg’s pupils, Alban of one of astudent became He . himself taught he believed It’s path. musical own his pursue to free was Scelsi position, financial his With London, his extolling with critics esoteric style. in venues trendy in performed arenaissance, of something through going is music his and time, his of ahead aman as regarded Today is he musicologists. confuse to deliberately manuscripts re-date also would He line. ahorizontal of top on circle a as publications in represented be to instead preferring photographed, be to refused and the world, dabbled in philosophy eastern travelled count playboy –the eccentric an of something was He time. his in recognised little was and Naples, outside countryside the in living family 1905 aristocratic an in into born was Scelsi premiere. UK its for 31 years another wait to had has piece the that extraordinary seems It 83. of age the at 1987, in death premiere Scelsi’s before ayear just 1966 in its and written being it between gap a21-year was there that intricacies these were particular complexities.very So problematic own its presents Scelsi the but universal, are they Uaxuctum Adams’sBoth concept. adramatic such of visions different very two offer they But civilisation. of destruction the theme: one Two matter. masterpieces, subject grand ashared simply than pieces these to more However, there’s much climactic. are themselves works the as reasons’, obvious as is religious for themselves people Maya by the destroyed City, Uaxuctum Adams’s John Luther between The connection thematic apocalypse of the Sounds compositional languages and techniques such Become Ocean Become , subtitled ‘The Legend of the Maya Maya the of Legend ‘The , subtitled are in the same vein in the sense that that sense the in vein same the in are Become Ocean Ocean Become and Giacinto Scelsi’s and Scelsi’s writes this meditative chant into 1969’s into chant meditative this writes He interests. musical his with aligned ‘om’ clearly the of note single –the travels his on encountered he’d that philosophies eastern the in interested deeply became also Scelsi that time this at was It be. can note one dynamic and powerful how just of 1959) ademonstration is sola nota una su work. his of rest the of much define to came concept many-pitches one-note, This again. over and over piano a key on asingle playing recovery his of much spending note, by one produced be can that sounds different many by the fascinated became he convalescing, spent time the In breakdown. amental war, the of Towards suffered end he the vein. Classical the in more much are and works, later his to different very are These 1(1944). No Trio (1942)String Quartet String and the as such works wrote he where Switzerland, War World in Second the spent Scelsi theory. music’ ‘colour of as Schoenberg’s 12-tone serialism and Scriabin’s a 2m thunder sheet. a 2m thunder with rubbed barrel a200-litre plus players, seven least at requiring section percussion formidable a basses, double six and bass double tuba, bass on calls instrumentation The music. feel-it-in-your-stomach of minutes 20 of consists it and work best-known his probably is This atheremin. and organ an between –across martenot ondes the to 1966 his For masterpiece scores. choral and orchestral full into composer Vieri Tosatti translated the results fellow while tone, and pitch alter would he the analogue synthesiser. Turning the dials of –aforerunner ondiola an used Scelsi concept one-note the into forays earliest his In Pax , and it feels present in in present feels it , and (‘Four Pieces on a single note’, asingle on Pieces (‘Four Uaxuctum Ai ô n (1961). (1961). Quattro pezzi pezzi Quattro , Scelsi Konx-Om- turns turns

3 Programme notes 4 London Contemporary Orchestra. ‘There are are ‘There Orchestra. Contemporary London the of Director Co-Artistic Ames, Robert explains tunings,’ strange and tones quarter with working was he because language, own his has ‘Scelsi premiere. its for decades two nearly wait to had it reasons the of one is which realise, to music one of the technically most pieces of difficult also to, it’s listen to demanding just not it’s But experience. unsettling adramatic, produce to sound of breadth and flexibility its employing –fully asampler with crossed ondiola an like voice human the uses sounds and breathing The noises. composer trills, tremolos, microtonal oscillations, nasal including techniques, vocal unusual employ to Throughout the piece, calls Scelsi on the chorus future. uncertain an into off drifts voices their of memory the and city, the destroy people Maya ancient the unfolds, music the as ending: happy or escape lucky no is there time this Only force. mysterious overwhelming an encountering Kirk Captain Enterprise’s The mind to bring that clanging and blasts brass its with sci-fi into venturing times –at soundscapes threatening grand, into movements, five Over note. single a on doom, of pronouncements great thunders brass the before winds, of whistling a choral exhalation, an with opens movement first The Uaxuctum progresses progresses the right prizes. It seems that every time I had the the Ihad time every that seems It prizes. right the win Ididn’t on, ‘Early NPR, told he As Arts. the in composition from the California Institute of graduated he’d after decades four –afull Prize 2014 when in prominence to 1953, in came Adams Born music.’ of alover just or academic you’re an whether levels many on approachable very it’s so appeal, universal has It masterpiece. a It’s decade. last the in written music of pieces incredible most the of one probably is ‘It Ames. out points that, than more Yet much it’s history’. musical in apocalypse loveliest the wrote, Ross Alex critic As fate. peaceful almost laden doom- and foreboding Scelsi’s Giacinto Unlike seas. by the consumed being world the of picture Adams’s Luther John interval before.’ UK the in performed been never has it why –explain experience our in case the not absolutely is –which come won’t people music, of sort this on put you if that programmers orchestral some among fear aslight there’s still ‘The technical challenges, plus the that fact properly. resonate to it for intonation good incredibly be to needs there time the all but textures, dense of lots and layers many also Uaxuctum 20minutes Become Ocean Become , it feels like a darkly beautiful, beautiful, adarkly like feels , it Become Ocean Become Become Ocean Ocean Become The New Yorker New The won the Pulitzer Pulitzer the won paints a a paints ‘may be be ‘may music music American composer – and Adams’s friend of honour in wrote Cage John apoem from comes itself, title the like sentiment, That ocean.’ become literally quite may we again once that prospect the facing ourselves find humans we rises, level sea and melts ice polar the As sea. the from emerged first earth this on ‘Life score: Adams’s the in is note hell’ all as –‘doom it put Ocean Become that indication only The we’re what of destroying. beauty sheer the with us by presenting face we plight the of awareness raise to is Rather, skill his work. his in overt aren’t views Adams’s political me’. in Iimagined music the make could else no-one politics, in my place take composing. He ‘someone decided else could or campaigning environmental achoice: make to had eventually he ever-present, –was it on man’s –and impact nature where there, Living wilderness. state’s the pristine protect to campaigned he where Alaska, of shores frozen and rugged more climate of Valencia, California, for the altogether sunny the 1973, in swapped he graduating after Shortly call. urgent amore was There university. of out straight music in acareer pursuing fully from him stopped –that activism environmental – passion great other his on focus his was It choice.’ artistic right the be to out turned run long the in which choice, career wrong the made I choice, career right the make to opportunity is – as one heavy metal website website metal heavy one –as is Programme notes ©JamesDrury depth of complexity. there’s further, oceanic an explore you once itself, nature like But, music. of piece awonderful is this surface, the on what’s appreciate just you If score.’ the in 42 are staves there that even and 42 minutes, lasts work the that figure, seven-note moving arapid- with motion in music the sets piano the that acoincidence seem doesn’t ‘It it: puts he As multiples. its and seven number the to relate all decrescendos, and points out that the passages mapped out its swelling crescendos and through. midway reverse that segments plays orchestra the of sections main three the of Each palindrome. the within palindromes also are There making it a palindrome. reverse, in running 316 bar starts at music the silence; of abar plus music, of bars 630 are there duration, 42-minute its In beauty. awesome than piece there’s this to more says, However, Ames as decrescendo. a into –recedes –exhale and crashes then you, and around swells wave growing the of crescendo the as breath your hold but help can’t You waves. the of top the on dancing sunlight In ocean.’ become we it to ‘Listening 2003: in died who Harrison, –Lou mentor and Become Ocean Become The New Yorker New The , on harps are the the are harps on , arpeggios ’s Ross has ’s has Ross

5 Programme notes 6 Lee Kirby About the performers Recent andforthcoming conducting at theTate ModernandRoyal AlbertHall. Opera House,Covent Garden, andBBC Proms the Royal Festival Hall,BarbicanCentre, Royal Printworks andOval Space inEastLondon, He hasledtheLCO insell-outconcertsatThe curator. also well known asaninnovative programme of theLondonContemporary Orchestra andis music. HeisCo-Artistic Director andConductor conventions andritualssurrounding classical generation of musiciansquestioningthe Robert Amesisattheforefront of anew Robert Ames composers of hisown generation, premiering about championingmusicfrom theleading Meredith and . Heisalsopassionate Muhly, Richard Reed Parry, Terry Riley, Anna Meredith Monk, Bryce Dessner, MicaLevi, Nico figures innew music,including PhilipGlass, He hasworked closelywithmany leading Camerata. Electronic Orchestra andtheManchester of India,CityOfLondonSinfonietta, London Symphony , Symphony Orchestra State, Kazakhstan State andWordless New MusicEnsemble,theAarhus, Belarusian Liverpool Philharmonicorchestras, Moscow engagements includetheRotterdam andRoyal Robert Ames conductor release onUniversal Music’sMercury KXlabel. Royal Liverpool Philharmonicthatisduefor Earlier thisyear hemade arecording withthe as well asatitsEuropean premiere inLondon. film inLosAngeles,New York andRotterdam, Phantom Thread year hehasconducted live performances of the Phantom Thread Covenant (Sundance Award 2015), ’s Oscar in2016), JohnMaclean’s Naji AbuNowar’s producer. Theseincludethesoundtracks for film projects, asconductor, orchestrator and His work hasencompassedanumberof Jamie xx andFrank Ocean. DJ Shadow, , ThomYorke, has collaborated withartistssuchasActress, taken himinto theworld of pop,where he Conrad Shawcross. Recent projects have also architect-designer Ron Arad andsculptor including fashion designerVivienneWestwood, with avariety of artistsinother fields too, ,amongothers. Hehasworked Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, CatherineLamband works by Shiva Feshareki, Claire MSinger, Thom Yorke, Mica Levi, Actress, Beck,William Greenwood, Steve Reich, Justice,Terry Riley, , Frank Ocean,JedKurzel, Jonny figures, platforms andvenues, suchas with awidearray of musicians, artists,creative Ames andHughBrunt,theLCO hascollaborated Formed in2008by Co-Artistic Directors Robert work atthehighestprofessional level. composers by creating opportunitiesfor themto next generation of players, conductors and known artists,LCO iskeen to nurture adiverse artistic output.Alongsideworking withwell- commissioning anddeveloping new musicand global orchestral group focused onplaying, London Contemporary Orchestra isaleading London Contemporary Orchestra (2017) andPaul ThomasAnderson’s soundtrack atscreenings of the (Oscarnomination2018). This Theeb (nominated for an Slow West

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interactive andmultimedia installations for live They have beencommissionedto create immersive andchoreographed environments. of lightandsoundto create transformative, the public.Thisisexplored through thecrafting space by expanding thesensesandengaging digital technology to enhanceourexperience of Association. Thestudioexplores thepotential for who both graduated from theArchitectural directed by SamanthaLeeand Patrick Morris technology. Founded in2013, thestudiois practice working attheintersection of artand Universal AssemblyUnitisaLondon-based UniversalUnit Assembly Cockayne Foundation. for thesupportof ArtsCouncilEnglandandthe London Contemporary Orchestra isgrateful Society. Ensemble Award by theRoyal Philharmonic The LCO hasbeengiven theprestigious Best Moon ShapedPool Skin on Suspiria Assassin’s Creed Alien: Covenant television, includingsoundtracks for The ensemblehasrecorded widelyfor film and Tate ModernandtheBBC Proms. , TheRoundhouse, Printworks, the Festival, BarbicanCentre, Arad, HannahPerry, NTS, BoilerRoom, DAZED, Nike, BillMorrison,Conrad Shawcross, Ron Lavelle, Secret Cinema,VivienneWestwood, Basinski, Richard Reed Parry, Goldfrapp, James Moonlight andfeatured onRadiohead’s 2016 album and American Animals , There WillBeBlood , , Y Macbeth ou Were Never Really Here . , Phantom Thread , performed live and The Master Under the Under the , , A , been collaborating withavariety of cultural in 2016 by DrAhmedElgammal, Artrendex has changes andtrends inhistorical data. Founded its modelswere shown to beableto predict style be subjective. Basedmainlyonvisualanalytics, concepts thatfor alongtimewere believed to its innovation istheabilityto quantifyaesthetic and thecreative domain.Thekey feature of artificial intelligence technology for theartmarket Artrendex isastartup thatbuildsinnovative Artrendex played live. organic imagery evoked by themusicbeing aesthetics of nature soitisableto reconstruct that embodythenatural theme,teaching itthe Artrendex to train theAIalgorithmonvideos several monthsUAU hasbeenworking with Leading theartdirection for thisconcert,for Festival andFotodok Utrecht. Abandon NormalDevices, LondonDesign Barbican Centre, Royal Festival Hall,Sonár+D, Blanche, Croydon Council,theRoundhouse, across theUKandEurope. TheseincludeNuit performance, exhibition andfestival venues in thisconcert. technology thatwillbepremiered for thefirst time Artrendex isproviding novel AImusic visualisation others. Science News Guardian in the international mediaattention, includingreports Artrendex technology hasreceived widespread Barnes Foundation inPhiladelphia andHBO. been usedby high-profile institutionssuchasthe Artrendex technologies andproducts have using AI. institutions inbuildinginnovative solutions Washington Post , The DailyTelegraph and New Scientist , New York Times , CBS,NBC News, , among many , amongmany , The The

7 About the performers 8 Gregor Riddell Sarah McMahon Zoë Martlew David Lale 1 Cello 1 Matthew Maguire Amy Swain Elitsa Bogdanova Ian Anderson 2 Ann Beilby Matthew Kettle Clifton Harrison Zoë Matthews Viola 1 Kirsty Mangan Nicole Stokes Laura Virtanen Rakhvinder Singh 2B Violeta Barrena Nicole Crespo Guy Button Emily Holland Eloisa-Fleur Thom 2 A Violin Venetia Jollands Charis Jenson Hannah Dawson Zara Benyounes Violin 1B Anna deBruin Anna Ovsyanikova Marianne Haynes Charlotte Reid Galya Bisengalieva 1 A Violin and Choir London Contemporary Orchestra Paul Cott Kate Hainsworth Phillippa Slack Horn Ashley Myall Andrew Watson Scott Lygate Bass Stuart King Piccolo Clarinet Anna Hashimoto Clarinet Chris O’Neal Emma Gibbons James Turnball Hollie Lukas Zinajda Kodricˇ Pasha Mansurov Laurence Ungless Frances Emery Andy Marshall Double Bass2 Elena Hull Roger Linley Dave Brown Double Bass1 Daisy Vatalaro Sergio Serra Nathaniel Boyd Reinoud Ford Cello 2 Craig Apps Vittorio Angelone Elsa Bradley George Barton Ric Elsworth Sam Wilson Percussion Dan Gresson Tom Kelly Contrabass Tuba Sasha Kousk-Jalili Tuba Andy White Andy Connington Iain Maxwell William Cooper Katie Hodges David Geoghegan Nathalie Forget Ondes Martenot Valeria Kurbatova Vicky Lester Harp Matthew Drinkwater Celesta Katherine Tinker Piano Nathan Gregory George English Josephine Josephine Soprano of goingto press was correct atthetime The listof musicians Jack Lawrence-Jones William Marsey Richard Latham Greg Link Joey Edwards Kent * Cheyney Bass James Rhoads James Robinson Jack Granby Oliver Martin-Smith Howard * Matt Tenor Clare Kanter Champion Sarah Anne Bethany Horak-Hallet Rose Martin Alto Patricia Aucherlonie Rebecca Lea Lucy Cronin Laurel Neighbour Fiona Fraser Werner * Héloïse Stephenson

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