Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited

February 2006 2006/1 Kurtág Included in this issue: Adams Dr Atomic van der Aa John Adams’s Doctor Atomic received its much-heralded world premiere at wins New opera After Life San Francisco Opera on 1 October, before an audience of expectant opera-goers opens Holland Festival and critics from more than a dozen countries. Grawemeyer

Adams’s long-time collaborator Peter Sellars Hungarian composer György Kurtág has provided Doctor Atomic’s libretto and won the 2006 University of Louisville staging, and Donald Runnicles conducted a Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition superb cast led by baritone Gerald Finley as for his ‘…concertante…’ for violin, viola and J. Robert Oppenheimer. The Sellars orchestra. The Grawemeyer Award, worth production is set to travel widely in coming $200,000, is granted annually by the years, with its European premiere scheduled Grawemeyer Foundation for a work that by Netherlands Opera for the Holland makes an outstanding contribution to the Festival in June 2007, and further stagings in field of musical composition. 2008 at English National Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. ‘…concertante…’ was premiered in 2003 by violinist Hiromi Kikuchi and violist Ken Hakii Nyman “Doctor Atomic is J. Robert Oppenheimer, who accompanied by the Danish Radio led a group of acclaimed scientists in the Music for The Libertine Orchestra under Michael Schonwandt. remarkable race to build the world’s first nuclear Since then, the 25-minute score has been starring Johnny Depp weapon. The opera focuses on the bomb’s secret test in summer 1945 in the New Mexico desert. performed in Austria, France, Germany, When, at the end, the test succeeds, so do Japan, the Netherlands and the USA. Adams and Sellars, forcing us to face exactly Forthcoming Kurtág events in London what that mushroom cloud means… Make no mistake, Doctor Atomic is a magnificent include a series of concerts at the Wigmore accomplishment that easily takes its place Hall in Autumn 2006 featuring artists alongside the other Adams-Sellars triumphs — including the composer and his wife as Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer and El pianists, Thomas Adès and the Keller Niño — and in important respects goes beyond Quartet. them. It contains music of unearthly splendour and gorgeous lushness, and its rich expressivity Kurtág celebrates his 80th birthday on will take many hearings to absorb.” Los Angeles Times 19 February 2006. Photo: San Francisco Opera / Terrence McCarthy “…a beautiful provocative Oppenheimer (Gerald Finley) and the bomb in Doctor Atomic at San Francisco Opera Turnage work that refreshes the Håkan Hardenberger tours “Since Britten’s death some 30 years ago, the are John Donne’s, the music is the creation of repertoire.” The Times American composer John Adams has emerged America’s greatest living composer, and the From the Wreckage as the most powerful voice in the creation of scene compresses all the terror and fascination of “Doctor Atomic, Mr. Adams’s third full-fledged opera… Doctor Atomic is a moving and the opera’s subject into eight minutes of opera, may be his most inventive and emotional compelling work of moral, as well as musical, wrenching, sinewy musical genius… a major score to date… Whole spans of the orchestral grandeur… one is left with a sense of the terrible addition to the operatic repertory of this new and choral music tremble with textural density… magnificence of atomic fission as well as its century.” San Francisco Chronicle unimaginable destructiveness.” Daily Telegraph You hear evocations of sci-fi film scores and The next stage collaboration between John bursts of Varèsian frenzy. When he needs to propel the music forward, Mr. Adams, true to For many the opera’s highlight was Adams and Peter Sellars, A Flowering Tree, form, creates a din of pummelling rhythms, Oppenheimer’s aria at the end of Act I is scheduled to be unveiled in Vienna on fractured metres and jolting repeated figures: call which provides the centrepiece of the 13 November as part of the Mozart 250th it atomic Minimalism. Yet tension runs even moral and psychological drama: celebrations. The work is commissioned by through the long, ruminative, wistful episodes, like “Oppenheimer begins to sing, pouring out his the Vienna Festival, Barbican Centre, San the poignant bedtime scene between soul in stark, anguished, cantorial phrases. The Francisco Symphony, Lincoln Center for the

Oppenheimer and his wife, Kitty.” New York Times words – ‘Batter my heart, three-person’d God’ – Performing Arts, and the Berlin Philharmonic. Photo: Andrea Felvégi

Carter Three Illusions premiere acclaimed in Boston Celebrations for Steve Reich’s 70th birthday on 3 October 2006 are already underway, with surveys of his output around the world. Lindberg Boosey & Hawkes has worked closely with performing organisations and venues to co- ordinate Reich@70 events. The calendar includes Sculpture in LA a London retrospective and rare collaborations between presenters in both New York and Los Angeles. “The score is sophisticated yet immediately engrossing… The bouncy fanfare figures are not For full information visit www.reich70.com

Photo: © Jeffrey Herman blatant but more like a filigree. The instrumental texture is often fast-moving and complex. A Sibelius sense of mysterious winds blowing European Tour (ECHO) 18 March – 3 April 2006 everything around is strong at first…” A new collaboration between Steve Reich and choreographer Akram Khan, Variations for “In the middle, Sculpture turns into a miniature Vibes, Piano and Strings, features the London Sinfonietta conducted by Bradley Lubman. concerto for orchestra, focusing on different European Concert Halls Organisation (ECHO) venues include Philharmonie Cologne, Cité de la instrumental sections competing to be the most Musique Paris, Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels, Konzerthaus Vienna, Concertgebouw dazzling. At the end the organ came rumbling in, lingering “Zarathustra”-like in its low register. Amsterdam, Symphony Hall Birmingham, Megaron Athens. The tour programme also includes Photo: Kira Gluschkoff Tubas and other brass instruments took positions Sextet and Different Trains. Esa-Pekka Salonen and Magnus Lindberg around the hall…The piece climaxes with rousing Stravinskyan rhythms. The score’s 23 minutes fly 1/4 March 2006 Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Kronos Magnus Lindberg’s new orchestral work, Barcelona by. The performance was spectacular.” Reich feature at Festival de Musiques Contemporanies Quartet and Bang on a Can. Highlights includes staging Sculpture, received its premiere on of The Cave, a dance triple bill and the world premiere of Los Angeles Times including Music for Eighteen Musicians performed by 6 October with the Los Angeles Barcelona 216. Daniel Variations for ensemble. Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka 3 October – 4 November 2006 The orchestral writing is Los Angeles 25–30 March 2006 New York Salonen. The score was inspired by Frank “ 70th celebrations at BAM Next Wave festival, Carnegie Reich works at Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Minimalist Gehry’s architecture for Disney Hall and that of a master.” Los Angeles Times Jukebox festival, curated by John Adams, include Hall and Lincoln Center featuring Steve Reich & Musicians, Kronos Quartet and London Sinfonietta Lindberg’s music explores the sonic spaces Variations for winds, strings and keyboard, Three Sculpture is scheduled on 17 May by the Movements and Tehillim. of the new concert venue. As well as Portugal/France 12–18 November 2006 deploying antiphonal brass in the final Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Copenhagen 28 March 2006 Steve Reich & Musicians tour of Daniel Variations including Casa da Mùsica in Porto and Cité de la section, the work as a whole reconfigures Christoph Eschenbach and performances Tivoli Hall plays host to all-Reich programme including by European orchestras are planned in the Scandinavian premiere of You Are (Variations) Musique in Paris. the orchestra from the bass register upwards, eliminating violins altogether: London and Helsinki. Orchestras wishing to Baden-Baden 7/9 April 2006 Los Angeles 20 January – 4 February 2007 programme the work or seeking perusal Two concerts by Ensemble Modern at the Festspielhaus Reich festival across Los Angeles. Performers include the “The result is a lot of low instruments — pairs of include City Life, Tehillim, Triple Quartet and Music for LA Philharmonic and LA Master Chorale. scores are invited to contact contrabassoons, pairs of tubas and Wagner [email protected]. Future Eighteen Musicians tubas, pairs of pianos and harps mellowing out If you are planning Reich events and would the whoops for joy. The violas are the highest Lindberg commissions include a new London 28 September – 8 October 2006 orchestral work for the Berlin Philharmonic Reich retrospective at Barbican features Steve Reich & like them included in our calendar please strings… Disney Hall is especially happy with bass Musicians, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC email [email protected] notes, and Lindberg gave it its fill.” and Simon Rattle. Michel van der Aa’s opera, After Life, opens the van der Aa Holland Festival on 2 June. The composer Floyd discusses his new stagework, based upon a

After Life Photo: Ben van Duin remarkable film exploring the nature of memory. Susannah

designer, so I can bounce ideas off them. I like opera that can draw you in close, which has an intimacy, in Wexford far removed from traditional grand opera. The drama can be just as powerful, even when it deals with Audiences and press concurred that Floyd’s ordinary people. This is the operatic area I want to Susannah was the hit of the 2005 Wexford Festival, explore, finding new angles and stretching the where the production proved the opera to be just as vocabulary. vivid and moving in a small theatre as at The Met. Though regularly performed throughout North Left: Scene from Hirokazu Kore-Eda's 1998 film After Life America, and having enjoyed major recent stagings in Vienna, Berlin, Geneva and Nantes, the opera awaits new productions in many European cities, and van der Aa “hopefully Wexford’s staging will have enough impact After Life (2004–06) to establish the piece more firmly”. (Opera Now) Opera for eight singers, ensemble, video and “Susannah quickly caught the public imagination, notching soundtrack up some 800 performances to become one of the most

Photo: Hirokazu Kore-Eda Duration: 90 minutes popular American operas ever. Watching Wexford’s taut new staging by John Fulljames, it’s easy to see why…Its What drew you to Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s film After Life? memories or those of others build up our idea of Commissioned by Fonds voor de Scheppende 10 sequential scenes are crisply enacted…Floyd’s music is ‘truth’. In the opera the relationship between Mr Toonkunst and Netherlands Opera tuneful, resourceful and admirably orchestrated…Wexford’s When I first saw the film it made an incredible audience adored the directness of drama and music alike.” impression on me and I knew it was a true Walter and Aiden develops in an unexpected way, as World Premiere The Independent masterpiece. So when I was asked to write a new they discover they have a shared memory. Some 2 June 2006 “Composed 50 years ago at the height of the McCarthy work for the Netherlands Opera, it was clear that this events stick indelibly in our mind as our memory is also 4/5/7/8/9 June replayed and subtly adjusted and seem true today, persecutions, it is a flawlessly effective melodrama focused had to be my subject. Although the basis of the film is Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ, Amsterdam on an innocent woman victimised by a narrow Evangelical very simple, it touched me deeply and raised one of whereas others are forgotten or hidden, and are only Otto Tausk Conductor community in rural Tennessee. …it speaks straight to the the biggest questions at the heart of humanity: “What triggered by an external stimulus. One of the heart through music of uninhibited tonal simplicity and Michel van der Aa Director is the defining moment of your life?” A group of people characters, Ilana, recognises a school chair and a Pucciniesque fervour.” Daily Telegraph who have recently died are asked this question at a memory floods back to her. But she cannot choose Asko Ensemble way station in transit to heaven. Their key moment is her defining moment and has to join the staff at the “Susannah packed powerful filmed and they view a screening, reliving the way station in limbo. experience, before disappearing to eternity. theatrical and musical How does your music recreate memories? You share with Kore-Eda interests in the relationship In many of my pieces I recreate musical moments punches…” Opera between narrative action and documentary film that have already passed, for instance in the Here footage. How is this explored in the opera? Trilogy where the singer makes real-time recordings “The story of Susannah and the Elders has as much relevance now as ever, hypocrisy and the destruction of One of the things that really appealed to me in Kore- with a cassette recorder, echoing them back to the innocence never going out of fashion… an impassioned Eda’s film was its focus on real life stories. This set ensemble and confronting the ‘now’ with a sampled reading… a strong argument for this neglected piece which me thinking about how to adapt this in stage terms, past. I’ve built on these techniques in the opera could offer so much pleasure if seen more widely.” Opera Now and led me to introduce a new realistic layer of my which is so concerned with memory, encouraging own. I interviewed 20 people and filmed the me to mess with time in an interesting way. The past Floyd celebrates his 80th birthday on 11 June and a response when I asked them about their defining can be an alter ego that challenges the present – it’s strong upbeat has been provided by the release of moment. I selected six of these interviews, and four a way to create polyphony and multiple time lines, the first recording of his comic opera Cold Sassy of these appear on screen during the opera, and the providing cyclic structures which complement the Tree (Albany Troy 758-59). The opera was co- material of two further interviews is sung on stage. linear narrative. commissioned by Houston Grand Opera, Austin These fit with the core narrative from the film, about Lyric Opera, Baltimore Opera, Opera Carolina and the old man Mr Walter reviewing his seemingly How do you approach text and vocal line? San Diego Opera, receiving its premiere in 2000. The humdrum life with the help of his young guide Aiden. The characters are real people and need to new recording features the original Houston cast communicate the text in a natural way, so I wanted a including Patricia Racette, Dean Peterson and John Your use of multiple perspectives can seem complex. vocal style that was as simple and down to earth as McVeigh. How should the audience best approach this? possible. The vocal lines are different to those in Left: Carlisle Floyd's opera Susannah at the Wexford I’ve tried to recapture the simplicity of the original film One, being more syllabic and less fragmented. Festival with Stephen Kechulius (Olin Blitch) and

and make the relationship between live action and I have, however, tried to portray the different Photo: © Clive Barda Emily Pulley (Susannah) video footage clear, even when the same characters characters by vocal means, for instance Ilana is appear on stage and on screen. That said, I’ve energetic and edgy, whereas the helper Sarah is avoided a rigid divide, allowing the two media to flow more vulnerable, open and lyrical. The elderly seamlessly into each other. I’ve extended the multi- Mr Walter struggles to remember and his line media techniques developed in my chamber opera sometimes jumps between styles. Overall, though, One, and we’re using screens that can function either the singing lines avoid exaggeration, and in that Schwertsik on Mozart as transparent glass or as a surface for projection, so sense the performance technique is closer to One Viennese composer takes a quizzical look at Mozart, auf und davon (up and away) is a light- that the live characters can literally move from stage to baroque music than to Romantic rhetoric. another in Kurt Schwertsik’s recent works circling hearted ‘puppet-theatre’ revue of the classical style screen. Everything leads towards the closing scene Mozart. Compagnie Masquerade is a divertimento for in three short movements, commissioned by Vienna where the defining memories are screened using 8mm What is your vision of what opera could or should be? chamber orchestra based on a Mozart violin Mozart Year 2006. Lasting five minutes, and scored film, almost like a surreal home movie. For the I think I am more positive about the future of opera fragment. The movements refer to the characters of for chamber orchestra, this five-minute concert audience it explains what has gone before and than many of my composing colleagues, because I Italian commedia dell’arte, including Pantalon, opener for chamber orchestra was premiered at the hopefully provides an intimate yet powerful ending. like the way it fuses different artforms. It matches my Harlequin, Columbine and Pierrot, and the scoring Konzerthaus in January by the Orchestra of the way of working - thinking of text, music, video and mirrors that of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella plus the Austrian Society for Contemporary Music. It joins in As the characters retell events from their lives, can stage direction at the same time. This may seem a characteristic Mozartian sound of basset horns. The the brevity stakes Schwertsik’s witty Shrunken there be a contradiction between memory and truth? lot to handle on my own, but I still benefit from premiere was given by members of the Vienna Symphony, described by the composer as “a This is an area that really interests me – how our own collaborating with performers, conductor and Philharmonic at a December curtain-raiser for the symphony in a nutshell”. 2006 Mozart 250th celebrations. Nyman The Libertine The music from Michael Nyman’s stunning new film As with The Draughtsman’s Contract, there are pounding score, The Libertine, is now available on Michael baroque rhythms that thump along with nutty energy (Upon Nyman Records (MNR CD104), featuring the Michael Drinking In A Bowl, The Maimed Debauchee, Against Nyman Orchestra and Hilary Summers conducted by Constancy) plus a period song - Signor Dildo - as frank and funny as anything produced by the Sex Pistols. the composer. Laurence Dunmore’s film, starring Johnny Depp, John Malkovich and “But where this emerges as a richer work is Samantha Morton, is a version of the that Nyman’s music these days has a celebrated Stephen Jeffreys play. It tells moving, elegiac quality that his Greenaway work only hinted at; the bold epic the story of the 17th century Earl of statements of A Satire Against Mankind, the Rochester (Depp), his friendship with the tentative enigmas of The History Of The King of England, Charles II (Malkovich), Insipid and The Submission and the glorious and his professional relationship with the heartbreak of Upon Leaving His Mistress. It actress Elizabeth Barry (Morton). occasionally drifts off, lost in its own mysteries but this emerges as exquisite For Nyman, there is a direct link back to melancholia, proof that Nyman is getting 1982 and his first major soundtrack The better with age.” Empire Draughtsman’s Contract, since both Nyman’s career continues to Photo: Bonn Theater/Thilo Beu films are late 17th-century based, successfully embrace music for live Johann Kresnik's ballet Hans Christian Andersen with music As a pendant to the composer’s 70th birthday last visually striking comedies of manners performance and for film. His recent by Kurt Schwertsik year, the Koehne Quartet has recorded Schwertsik’s and creativity. Once again the composer opera Love Counts receives its UK Schwertsik recently provided the music for Johann complete string quartet music, including the recent and his 25-year-old ensemble deliver a premiere at Almeida Opera on 14 July, Kresnik latest dance theatre work, Hans Christian Ein Namenloses Streichquartett, for future release as highly distinctive score, rich in detail with driving, and future projects include a percussion concerto for Andersen, honouring the Danish writer’s centenary. a 2-CD set from ORF. Schwertsik’s composition baroque-influenced tunes counterbalanced by a Colin Currie and a new work for the BBC Symphony Commissioned by the Bonn Theater, the ballet was plans include a new trumpet concerto, series of haunting melodies of the kind that has made Orchestra and Chorus. His film credits have included premiered in December with performances running commissioned by the St Pölten Festival and the Nyman’s work so attractive to a wide public. The Draughtsman’s Contract (Peter Greenaway), through until April. This is Schwertsik’s fifth ballet Essen Philiharmonie for Håkan Hardenberger, to be “Nyman’s score for the literary/sexual misadventures of the The Piano (Jane Campion), Gattaca (Andrew Niccol) collaboration with Kresnik, following Macbeth, premiered in the 2007/08 season conducted by Earl of Rochester is at once familiar yet still thrillingly fresh. and Wonderland (Michael Winterbottom). Picasso, Frida Kahlo, and Nietzsche. Kristjan Järvi. “The highlight was From the Wreckage… this was outstanding: a kind of rebirth piece in which the music Turnage begins hellishly but gradually picks up a bluesy swing as the Mackey Time Release soloist rhapsodically spirals higher and higher. I was mesmerised.” The Times Steven Mackey’s exciting new percussion concerto, 2007, and by the Baltimore Symphony under Alsop Time Release, has recently received first performances in 2008. Last month brought the premiere of Turnage’s From the in the Netherlands with the Residentie Orchestra “Currie is a consummate musician and an exciting Hidden Love Song for saxophone and orchestra, conducted by Clark Rundell, and in Scotland with the featuring soloist Martin Robertson and the London performer to watch - he was certainly put through his paces Scottish Chamber Orchestra under André de Ridder. by Mackey. Although the work centres primarily on the Wreckage Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop. The work was written for percussion virtuso Colin marimba, an exotic array of other instruments was also at The ten-minute work is further fruit of his composer Currie and future performances are already scheduled hand to ensure the soloist was running the musical Mark-Anthony Turnage’s compact new trumpet residency with the LPO, by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra conducted by HK equivalent of a marathon.” The Scotsman and is co-commissioned concerto, From the Wreckage, has been travelling Gruber in November, by the London Philharmonic Other recent Mackey premieres include Animal, internationally with Håkan Hardenberger as soloist. by the Risor Festival in Orchestra with Marin Alsop and the Ensemble Norway and the Rhine Vegetable, Mineral for saxophone quartet, either Premiered in the final concert of the Helsinki Festival Orchestral de Paris with Thierry Fischer in February alone, or with orchestra in a concerto grosso version. in September, the work was then toured by the State Philharmonic in Koblenz. Turnage The Prism Quartet performs the chamber version in a Helsinki Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen to the Mackey portrait concert at Carnegie Hall in New York BBC Proms in London. The Swedish premiere was continues his close association with the Nash on 9 February, and the European premiere of the given by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under orchestral version is planned with the Netherlands Peter Eötvös followed by a recording for Deutsche Ensemble: following the recent Onyx disc Bartók Radio Symphony under James MacMillan in Spring Grammophon. The 15-minute single movement work including Eulogy and Two 2007. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is not only a virtuoso vehicle for Hardenberger but conducted by Hugh Wolff gives the UK concert also plots a powerful musical course from low to high Baudelaire Songs, the Wigmore group will unveil his Bleak premiere of Mackey’s toccata and fanfare Lost and – both in terms of register and mood. Found on 3 May in Poole.

Moments for horn and Photo: Boosey & Hawkes “The concerto depicts a psychological journey from sorrow string quartet at the series to calm via barely repressed anger and rage, its emotional Wigmore Hall on Bartók’s unique contribution to 20th century chamber trajectory delineated by the fact that Hardenberger opens 22 March. music is celebrated in a major series at the Wigmore the work playing a dark-sounding flugelhorn, which he Hall in London (30 May – 12 June). Featured artists changes first for a standard trumpet during the agitated International highlights include the Belcea Quartet performing all six string central section, then for an ethereal-sounding piccolo over the coming months quartets across two programmes, Pierre Laurent

trumpet in the closing pages.” The Guardian Photo: Kennet Ruona include a new asteroid, Aimard in an all-Bartók recital culminating in the Håkan Hardenberger Ceres, for Simon Rattle’s Sonata for two pianos and percussion, and Leonidas Planets project with the Berlin Philharmonic Kavakos playing Violin Sonata No.1. Bartók authority (16 March), the Swedish premiere of the clarinet Malcolm Gillies presents two lectures examining Introducing concerto Riffs and Refrains in Malmo (16 March), String Quartets Nos.5 and 6, and Bartók the pianist. Photo: Dorothy Yeung and the Dutch premiere of A Relic of Memory in Steven Mackey (right) with Colin Currie and André de The Wigmore Hall series forms part of a series of Amsterdam (20 May). Ridder at rehearsals for Time Release in Glasgow Hans celebrations of Bartók’s 125th anniversary in 2006. Chicago composer residency These are headed by the Budapest Spring Festival In addition to his LPO position, Turnage starts a around the actual birthdate of 25 March, including an Gál prestigious two season residency with the all-Bartók concert by the Hungarian National Composer and Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the autumn. He Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zoltán Kocsis, Photo: © Gál Archive Maw at 70 and a triple bill of his stageworks at the State Opera. musicologist Hans Gál in Mainz (1931) will have works programmed on the orchestra’s main subscription series, including a new The Institute for Musicology in Budapest is hosting an Celebrations for Nicholas Maw 70th Hans Gál (1890-1987) birthday have highlighted the range of was one of that generation whose lives and careers commission for next season, will work with CSO international Bartók conference (22-24 March) and the musicians to curate MusicNOW new music newly renovated Bartók Memorial House, where the his output across the genres of opera, were disrupted by Hitler’s accession to power in the orchestra and chamber music. Of his 1930s. After teaching at Vienna University Gál was concerts, and will be actively involved in educational composer lived and worked between 1932 and 1940, and community events. will reopen on 25 March with a new exhibition. later works, published by Faber Music, appointed director of the Conservatory in Mainz, but Photo: Maurice Foxall Sophie’s Choice received a new co- with the banning of his works and mounting danger production at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and the for Jews in Germany he returned to Vienna in 1933 Volksoper in Vienna last Autumn with further and following the Anschluss emigrated to the UK in performances at Washington Opera in September, 1938. He was befriended by Donald Tovey and and his orchestral magnum opus Odyssey was settled in Edinburgh, teaching at the University and Stravinsky ballets anew performed in Berlin and London under Andrew Litton. playing a major role in the founding of the Edinburgh Festival. As well as enjoying a renewal of The Wigmore Hall in London is playing host to two performances in postwar Austria and Germany, he Maw birthday concerts this season. In the birthday was championed in his new homeland by conductor month of November Philip Langridge joined the Rudolf Schwarz with the Bournemouth and BBC Zivoni Quartet and the Emmauel Ensemble for a Scottish Symphony Orchestras. programme of chamber music and songs including Six Interiors, his 1966 setting of Thomas Hardy for Gál’s works blend post-Brahmsian technique with voice and guitar. Reviewing the concert, The neo-classical clarity. His love of Bach can be heard in Guardian noted how Maw’s language successfully his skilful contrapuntal ingenuity, and he carefully combines expression and intellect: balances lyrical and witty elements. Orchestral works “To say that Maw’s work is rooted in late romanticism, and within the Simrock catalogue, published by Boosey & sidesteps 20th century serialism has become something of Hawkes, include Symphonies No.1 (1927) and No.4 a critical commonplace, though it also narrows our (Sinfonia Concertante) (1974), the Triptych (1970), appreciation of his music. He thinks expansively, it is true, and a suite drawn from Hugo Wolf’s opera Der avoiding both neo-classical compression and modernist Corregidor. His complete piano works can be heard fragmentation. The best of his work, however, is on an impressive new set of 3 CDs (Avie AV 2064), underpinned by a kind of Brahmsian logic that offsets played by Leon McCawley, including the Sonata emotion with formal rigour.” The Guardian (1927), Suite (1922) and 24 Fugues (1980) written at On 10 May the second Maw programme at the the age of 90. Wigmore Hall features the Nash Ensemble in works including La Vita Nuova, with soprano Joan Rodgers A Hans Gál Society has recently been founded: for and conductor Martyn Brabbins. Other important further information visit www.hansgal.com Photo: Michael Clark Dance Company/Jake Walters works by Maw, published by Boosey & Hawkes in Michael Clark's ballet O, based on Stravinsky's Apollo, the 1960s and 70s, include the rapturous Scenes blends classical and modern and Arias, and the operas One Man Show and The Rising of the Moon. Carter Three Illusions The Michael Clark Dance Company has embarked Elliott Carter received a long The same night as Three Illusions received its on an ambitious three year Stravinsky project in standing ovation at the premiere premiere in Boston, Carter unveiled Soundings, his association with the BITE season at the Barbican in of his masterly new orchestral new work for Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago London. The first instalment was a new version of Birtwistle suite, Three Illusions, in Boston in Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra toured the work Clark’s O, his ballet based around Stravinsky’s at the October. The work was hailed as to Carnegie Hall in New York in November, and Apollo. This autumn will bring a reworking of Mmm… a perfect introduction to Carter’s Barenboim led the Berlin Staatskapelle in the set to The Rite of Spring and 2007 sees a brand new Holland orchestral music and, with a European premiere last month. piece based on Les Noces followed by a tour of all Photo: Jeff Herman duration of nine minutes, forms three danceworks. “Soundings packs a lot of invention into its dozen minutes. Festival an ideal concert-opener. Three Illusions was Carter celebrates the two Barenboims, giving him music to “There are oblique references to Balanchine’s famous 1928 6-24 June 2006, Amsterdam commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra play at the piano and a lot more music to conduct, but ballet, but Clark has stamped his personal style all over O. and its Music Director James Levine and further never at the same time… In between, Carter gives us a Shaped by his love of the classical technique, it’s a love 6 June Concertgebouw performances are planned in New York and London. letter to the building blocks of its language. Balances hang parade of rapidly shifting orchestral ideas: horn and Theseus Game (Dutch premiere) woodwinds chopping up a darting phrase; the subterranean in the air like unfinished sentences; the line of dance is “All three brief pieces are responses to literary fantasies - etched with the precision of a master draughtsman. The Asko & Schoenberg Ensembles rumbles of contrabass clarinet; a twittering trio of piccolos; Reinbert de Leeuw / Etienne Siebens Micomicón to Don Quixote; The Fountain of Youth to confident calm of the writing conjures a shimmering Roman myth; and More’s Utopia to Sir Thomas More’s a pensive tuba solo that’s actually longer than the entire serenity.” The Guardian 10 June Muziekgebouw vision of an ideal society. The music is fantastical too… piano part. Through it all, there’s Carter the high-modernist Neruda Madrigales (Dutch premiere) always surprising, inevitable, and vividly orchestrated. artisan, delighting in the virtuosic sinew of a great orchestra Kim Brandstrup is choreographing a new version of he knows well.” Chicago Tribune Nenia [UE] Micomicón is romantic and heroic; Utopia is dark and Pulcinella for Birmingham Royal Ballet opening on Schoenberg Ensemble / Netherlands Chamber Choir severe; Fountain is playful and takes a place in the great 2006 was launched with a Carter retrospective 3 May as part of the city’s continuing IgorFest. It will Reinbert de Leeuw tradition of iridescent water music...” Boston Globe weekend by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the be presented in an all-Stravinsky triple bill with 15 June Muziekgebouw Barbican in London. Premieres later in the year Balanchine’s Apollo and Fokine’s The Firebird. A Night’s Black Bird (Dutch premiere) include a new piano work for Peter Serkin (3 May) new BBC2 TV drama Riot at the Rite, due for “It’s a masterpiece” Boston Herald The Shadow of Night and a Wallace Stevens setting, ln the Distances of telecast in the UK on 18 February, portrays the Residentie Orchestra / Ingo Metzmacher Sleep, commissioned by James Levine and the MET “…a three-part work that, in barely 10 minutes, is a historic premiere of The Rite of Spring in Paris in 24 June Concertgebouw Ensemble (15 October). 1913. Adam Garcia and Alex Jennings star as thoroughly complete musical statement. The formal Earth Dances [UE] Nijinsky and Diaghilev, and the complete Micomicón, the playful Fons Juventatis and the formidable Dutch Radio Philharmonic / Markus Stenz More’s Utopia together form a kind of symphony that Celebratory events are developing for the Carter performance within the film features the Finnish sounds both densely packed and – at least as conducted by centenary in 2008: please let us know of your plans National Ballet and the BBC Symphony Orchestra For full information visit www.hollandfestival.nl Photo: Hanya Chlala/ArenaPAL Levine – delicately transparent at the same time.” Boston Herald by emailing [email protected] conducted by Osmo Vänskä. Bernstein Peter Pan New New Leonard Bernstein’s Bernstein’s songs remained and his incidental music largely forgotten score was replaced by the work of another composer. Publications Recordings for a 1950 musical Thanks to the new disc, Bernstein’s original concept version of J M Barrie’s can be heard for the first time in half a century, filling B&H Song Collection Vol 2 (1901–2004) John Adams classic Peter Pan has a major gap in his oeuvre. M-060-11624-7 Vocal score £15.99 I was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky enjoyed a welcome A second selection of 20th century songs and Soloists/The Band of Holst-Sinfonietta/Klaus Simon revival following the arrangements by leading vocal composers including Naxos 8.669003-04 “…smart and vigorously Vaughan Williams, Ireland, Quilter, Head, Rorem and release of a new Koch Leonard Bernstein San Francisco Chronicle Bernstein, plus a range of new songs to explore. recording featuring tuneful.” Serenade/Facsimile/ Broadway star Linda Louis Andriessen Divertimento Eder and baritone Daniel Narducci (KIC CD 7596). “As a precursor to his landmark shows Candide and West Zilver Bournemouth Symphony The acclaimed disc is the result of a seven-year Side Story, Peter Pan will provide endless listening pleasure for mixed ensemble Orchestra/Marin Alsop research project to reconstruct the songs and for folks eager to hear earlier versions of many of his M-060-11655-1 Full score £19.99 Naxos 8.559245 incidental music in their original sequence, led by trademark melodic and harmonic twists…This album is not conductor Alexander Frey in collaboration with the just about the songs. The incidental music is also Gerald Finzi David Del Tredici Bernstein Office and the Library of Congress. bewitching. Flight and skirmishes are expertly evoked, and Love’s Labours Lost Paul Revere’s Ride the thematic developments are nifty. “ NewMusicBox M-060-11675-9 Full score £42.99 Leonard Bernstein Peter Pan was first envisaged as a musical, and “So here it is, all of it for the first time…Wendy’s Dream with The first publication of the composer’s Lamentation from Jeremiah Bernstein was commissioned to write the score Me, heard here in a most gorgeous Sid Ramin complete music for Shakespeare’s play, Hila Plitmann/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and following his Broadway success with On The Town. orchestration; a Pirate Song handed down from Penzance; including orchestral miniatures, songs Chorus/Robert Spano and fanfares. However, following the casting of screen legends a soliloquy for Hook that could be a homage to Britten’s Telarc CD-80638 Jean Arthur and Boris Karloff, who were somewhat Billy Budd; and there’s pure Lenny – Build My Home, a Karl Jenkins challenged in their musical abilities, it was decided to tune which is Make Our Garden Grow in embryo, and the Frederick Delius The Essential Organ Album downplay the vocal element. In the version that exquisite Who am I? – at once wistful and inquisitive and Piano Concerto (original 3 movement version) Gramophone M-060-11644-5 Organ score £9.99 reached the stage on Broadway, only four of sweetly sung by Linda Eder.” Piers Lane/Ulster Orchestra/David Lloyd-Jones James MacMillan Hyperion CDA 67296 Ninian Michael Nyman M-060-11647-6 Clarinet and piano reduction £22.99 The Libertine Why is this night different Michael Nyman Orchestra for string quartet Michael Nyman Records MNRCD104 M-060-11739-8 Parts £19.99 Einojuhani Rautavaara Peter Maxwell Davies Book of Visions/ Orkney Saga II Adagio Celeste/ Passacaglia for orchestra Symphony No.1 M-060-11664-3 Belgian National Orchestra/ Study score £12.99 Mikko Franck Orkney Saga III Ondine ODE 1064-5 for alto saxophone and orchestra M-060-11665-0 Mark-Anthony Turnage Study score £14.99 Two Baudelaire Songs / Eulogy Sally Matthews/Lawrence Power/Nash Ensemble Orkney Saga V Onyx 4005 for chorus and orchestra M-060-11666-7 Study score £14.99 Isang Yun Novelette / Trio / Duo / Violin Sonata Kurt Schwertsik Kolja Lessing/Walter Grimmer/Holger Mixed Feelings Groschopp/Maria Graf/Roswitha Staege M-060-11653-7 Trombone and piano reduction Capriccio 67116 £16.99 Photo: Royal Ballet Covent Garden / Dee Conway Mark-Anthony Turnage Ned Rorem’s Violin Concerto provides the music for Alistair Marriott’s new ballet Tanglewood, choreographed Two Baudelaire Songs for the Royal Ballet Covent Garden and featuring Darcey Bussell. for soprano and ensemble “…the choreography opts for a dedicated articulation of musical structure, using moves that are shaped as precisely as the M-060-11756-5 Study score £12.50 score. Marriott builds each section fluently, decorating it with elegant detail…” The Guardian No Let Up “Marriott has emulated both Ashton and Balanchine in making his ballet all dance with no mime… this is very musical for ensemble choreography, in shape, timing and atmosphere.” Danceviewtimes.com M-060-11771-8 Study score £22.99 update

tonality and modernist elements… Matti Salminen in the title role dominates the stage whenever he Since its launch in September, Maxwell Rautavaara appears on it, demonstrating why this is one of the www.booseytones.com most important bass-baritone roles to be created has established itself as the within the past century.” leading provider of classical Davies Manhattan ringtones for the mobile Rasputin will receive its German premiere in a new phone to customers new releases Trilogy production in Lübeck on 3 February with around the world. performances running through to April. The top 10 items MaxOpusMusic, the “Rautavaara, the patriarch of contemporary Finnish range from popular classics such as Mozart’s The composer’s website composers, is much loved internationally these days, Magic Flute, Prokofieff’s Romeo and Juliet, and offering ‘burn your own’ and for good reason.” So wrote the New York Times Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, to the CDs and downloads, reviewing the successful world premiere of more modern sounds of Stravinsky’s The Rite of continues with its exciting Rautavaara’s new orchestral work, Manhattan Rouse Spring, John Adams’s Short Ride in a Fast Machine, programme of new Trilogy, commissioned by the Juilliard School for its and music by Elena Kats-Chernin. releases, including many orchestra’s centenary concert at Carnegie Hall new sampler Recent additions to the site include further ringtones premiere recordings and conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. The composer drawn from music by Leonard Bernstein, Peter works returned to the studied in the 1950s at Juilliard and his time in New Maxwell Davies and Steve Reich, taking the total catalogue. York provided a dramatic contrast to his experiences as a youth in wartime Finland, opening up new vistas number of high quality True Tones to 320. Special The best-selling new of promise and possibility, though tinged with Booseytones collaborations have taken place with recording of the Antarctic uncertainties. English National Opera, the Daily Telegraph and the Symphony (Symphony fanclub of the popular BBC radio programme The No.8) is joined in the first “His three-movement, 20-minute work is a reminiscence of Archers. For the months of October and November, release list by Seven the hopes and anxieties of his student years…The outer Boosey & Hawkes donated a proportion of profits movements, Daydreams and Dawn, are cast in consonant from its ringtone sales worldwide to the Red Cross’s Skies of Winter, but freely modulating chord progressions, with achingly performed by the Nash beautiful solo lines darting through the thick textures. Even Hurricane Katrina fund. Ensemble, and A Mirror of the central Nightmares movement, though darker and more A German-language version, www.booseytones.de Whitening Light, the composer’s powerful exploration New York Times freely dissonant, often has a lush quality.” has just been launched, including full ringtone of alchemical transformation for large ensemble. Rautavaara’s Book of information and technical support. Welcome new recordings include the Second Visions has just been Fantasia on John Taverner's In Nomine, performed by released on CD by the SWR Sinfonieorchester conducted by the Ondine, featuring the Boosey & Hawkes has released a new CD sampler composer. MaxOpusMusic is also reissuing Belgian National featuring the orchestral works of Christopher Rouse, recordings originally released on other labels, with Orchestra conducted one of the USA’s most frequently performed recent additions including The Doctor of Myddfai first by Mikko Franck (ODE composers. His music combines emotional heard on a Collins Classics set featuring Welsh 1064-5), and receives directness with masterly instrumentation and a National Opera. Recordings drawn from Unicorn- its UK premiere on a driving energy that owes some of its character to the Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited Aldwych House, Kanchana discs include Strathclyde Concerto No1 Royal Scottish National world of rock. The 20 tracks cover the diversity of Orchestra tour under Rouse’s musical output, ranging from the demonic 71-91 Aldwych, with oboist Robin Miller and the Scottish Chamber London WC2B 4HN Orchestra, The Martyrdom of St Magnus performed Stéphane Denève in (Symphony No.2), through the elegiac (Trombone April. Ondine has also Concerto, Flute Concerto) and tender (Rapture, Kabir Telephone: +44 (0)20 7054 7200 by Music Theatre Wales, and The Bairns of Brugh Promotion email: [email protected] played by The Fires of London. released the Padavali), to the playful (The Nevill Feast) and the composer’s most recent opera, Rasputin, on DVD surreal (Concert de Gaudí). Hire email: [email protected] (ODV 4002) drawing glowing praise from Opera Website: www.boosey.com/composers To browse the latest recordings visit News: “…a genuine masterpiece… Rautavaara’s For a copy of the Rouse sampler please email David Allenby Editor David J Plumb ARCA PPSTD Designer www.music.maxopus.com libretto is poetic and his music is a unique blend of [email protected] Printed in England