Olga Neuwirth (*1968 )
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© Harald Hoffmann Olga Neuwirth (*1968 ) 1 CoronAtion I: io son ferito ahimè ( 2020 ) for percussion and sample 06:06 Commissioned by Klangforum Wien and funded by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung 2 Weariness heals wounds I ( 2014 ) in memoriam Michael Glawogger for viola 13:08 3 Torsion ( 2003 ) for bassoon 14:10 4 Magic flu-idity ( 2018 ) for flute and Olivetti typewriter 14:45 5 Fumbling and Tumbling ( 2018 ) for trumpet 10:43 1 Björn Wilker, percussion 6 incidendo / fluido ( 2000 ) 2 Dimitrios Polisoidis, viola for piano with CD 12:46 3 Lorelei Dowling, bassoon 4 Vera Fischer, flute 5 Anders Nyqvist, trumpet TT 71:42 6 Florian Müller, piano 2 3 “I can’t make the real world any better than it is.” Olga Neuwirth This realisation, however, by no means pre- unusual, particular equation, the solution of vents the cosmopolitan from interfering which lies in itself. Neuwirth calls it “Calam- with old (listening) habits, from provoking, ity-Music”; it is dominated by her outrage polarising and of course from taking a po- which, however, endows her with the pow- litical stance. Her music contains deferrals, er for creative expression. fractures, deformations and associative links. Always in search of the fascinating “I know that the arts won’t change anything, Other, she explores the materials at hand – but art can point towards what has become sounds, images and languages of various ossified and reveal the desolate state of so- textures and from the most diverse back- ciety and politics. I refuse to be yodelled grounds – and manages to link them with- away.” (Olga Neuwirth) out compromising their originality. Even the solo performance is interfered with – as in And so she produces continuously changing Magic flu-idity – the help of an Olivetti type- musical textures, incessantly posing ques- writer. Unpredictable developments result tions, boldly and impetuously combining in a certain disorder, but her music unfolds the most contrasting elements. Like in Tor- organically, rampantly, leading to a strange, sion for bassoon, where long drawn-out 5 notes of the instrument are contrasted sounding instrument from the first days of for withdrawal. As a result, the piece opens with electronic recordings – without either electronic sound production. Musical dis- up a highly charged tension-field between of them disturbing the other. The support- ruptions, quotations and allusions coalesce calm and unrest. Long drawn-out notes and ing sounds of the bassoon begin to trem- in a subtle fashion. The work coronAtion I: rapid, nervously driven movements are con- ble, harsh scratching sounds graze the at- io son ferito ahimé for percussion was com- trasted with noises and sonorous sounds, mosphere and in between, fragments of missioned for this solo-project. Wonderful- quiet retreats and loud eruptions. This is all traditional music repeatedly invoke short ly ambiguous titles can frequently be found expressed in unusual proportions owing to moments of remembrance. Past and pres- in Olga Neuwirth’s oeuvre; this one could a special scordatura, a systematic re-tuning ent oscillate in a striking manner, revealing loosely be translated as: The culmination of of the viola’s strings. their roots. humanity: Oh, I’m wounded! Fumbling and Tumbling could be a possible This juxtaposition of different sound reali- During the middle 1980s, Olga Neuwirth, reaction to such a listening experience; ex- ties can be seen as the avant-garde char- drawn by her great affinity towards the cin- cept for Olga Neuwirth they represent her acteristic of Olga Neuwirth’s music – a ubiq- ema, embarked on a training course in San way of pushing the limits – a process that uitous element. In incidendo / fluido – which Francisco, where her compatriot and future lies at the core of this work. In this piece, roughly translates into I’m burning, I’m flow- film director, the late MichaelGlawogger, various techniques, extremes of pitch and ing – she adds a CD-recording of notes also studied. Her work Weariness Heals quarter tones are demanded of the trumpet from an Ondes Martenot to the sound- Wounds I is dedicated to his memory – player; but at the same time they represent space created by a piano, which remains because he had indeed looked very tired a sympathetic interpretation of the epon- restricted to medium range. The CD play- during their last meeting. The title refers ymous processes. Time and again, Olga er is positioned inside the body of the pia- to a Japanese mass phenomenon called Neuwirth places the listeners between no which thus becomes an additional res- Hikkikomori, which denotes young grown- chairs, where she also finds herself, inviting onance chamber. The scant number of ups who withdraw from the world for sev- them to change perspectives and to think overtones of the narrow piano part is aug- eral months or even years at a time, owing about things in a fresh way. mented by the notes of the ondes Marte- to the immense pressure to achieve, cou- not in new ways; the piano itself is innova- pled with social constraints, to which they tively prepared. Fast moving, virtuoso parts are subjected. From her own experience, Sylvia Wendrock are thus amalgamated with the spheri- Olga Neuwirth adds “hyperactivity and its cal sounds of the electronic feed, the pia- confederate, multitasking” to the mix, al- Translated from German by no with the ondes Martenot, this ethereal lowing her to feel close to such yearnings Dr Vera Neuroth 6 7 Klangforum Wien Open-minded, virtuosic in performance and tivals in Europe, America and Asia. In a mu- aurally perceptive, Klangforum Wien – one tually rewarding collaboration with many of of the internationally most renowned en- the world’s leading composers, the ensem- sembles for contemporary music – devotes ble has formed a great number of formative itself to the artistic interpretation and ex- artistic friendships. Since 2009, the mu- pansion of experiential space. A perfor- sicians of Klangforum Wien have devoted mance of Klangforum Wien is an event in themselves to sharing their comprehensive the best sense of the word; it offers a sen- mastery of playing techniques and forms of sual experience, immediate and inescap- expression with a new generation of artists able; and the novelty in its music speaks, in the context of their collective professor- acts and beguiles. ship at the University of Music, Graz. Ever since it was founded by Beat Furrer in Klangforum Wien is made up of 23 musi- 1985, the ensemble – which, over the years, cians from Australia, Bulgaria, Germany, has received a great number of awards and Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Austria, Swe- distinctions – has written music history: It den, Switzerland and the United States. has presented around 600 world premières At the start of the 2018/19 season, Bas of works by composers from four conti- Wiegers was appointed First Guest Con- nents; it boasts an extensive discography ductor, taking over from Sylvain Cambreling of more than 90 releases, appearing at the who, however, has maintained a close re- most important concert and opera venues, lationship with the ensemble as its First but also in the context of young, commit- Guest Conductor Emeritus. ted initiatives, and at the major music fes- 9 Olga Neuwirth tra under Franz Welser Möst performed the history of the house and was named World work in Autumn 2019. Premiere of the Year by the magazine Oper- nwelt. A new work for orchestra, counter- The BBC Proms programmed Aello-ballet tenor and children’s chorus Keyframes for mecanomorphe in August 2018 for Claire a Hippogriff – in memoriam Hester Diamond Chase and the Swedish Chamber Orches- was commissioned for world premiere by Olga Neuwirth was born in 1968 in Graz, eras while living in New York (2010/11): The tra. Most recently her new opera Orlando the New York Philharmonic in May 2020, Austria and studied at the Vienna Acad- Outcast – Homage to Herman Melville and after Virginia Woolf was premiered at the sadly that performance was postponed emy of Music and San Francisco Conser- American Lulu, based on Alban Berg’s Lulu. Vienna State Opera in December 2019, the due to the outbreak of Covid-19. vatory of Music, also studying painting and first woman commissioned in the 150 year film at San Francisco Art College. Her com- For over 30 years Olga Neuwirth’s works position teachers included Adriana Hölszky, have explored a wide range of forms and Tristan Murail and Luigi Nono. She sprang genres: operas, radio-plays, sound-installa- to international prominence in 1991, at the tions, art-works, photography and film-mu- age of 22, when two of her mini operas with sic. In many works she fuses live-musicians, texts by Nobel prize-winner Elfriede Jelinek electronics and video into audio-visual ex- were performed at the Vienna Festwochen. periences. Among numerous prizes, she Since then her works have been presented was the first-ever woman to receive the worldwide. Grand Austrian State Prize in the category of music (2010). Highlights include two portrait concerts at the Salzburg Festival (1998); her multi-me- Le Encantadas from 2014 is an immer- dia opera Bählamms Fest (1993/1998) after sive electronics/space/ensemble work re- Leonora Carrington; Clinamen/Nodus for ceiving multiple performances throughout Pierre Boulez and the London Symphony Europe. Orchestra (2000); composer-in-residence at the Lucerne Festival in 2002 and in 2016; Masaot/Clocks without Hands, for the Vien- world première of her music-theatre work na Philharmonic under Daniel Harding was Lost Highway (2003), after David Lynch premièred in 2015 and in New York at Car- which won a South Bank Show Award (ENO negie Hall as co-commissioner, conducted © Harald Hoffmann © Harald at the Young Vic, 2008); and two new op- by Valery Gergiev; the Cleveland Orches- 10 11 Björn Wilker Dimitrios Polisoidis © Tina Herzl © Tina Herzl Björn Wilker was born in Gelsenkirchen-Buer, Dimitrios Polisoidis was born in Thessa- ic projects at the Electronic Institute of the Germany, in 1968.