June 2019

Deutsch from to Cleveland Austrian composer Bernd Richard Deutsch is attracting international attention with his sequence of prestigious commissions and a residency with the Cleveland .

The US premiere of Bernd Richard Deutsch’s Deutsch’s home city, when Die Presse described Okeanos, for organ and orchestra, launched his it as “a gripping dramaturgy, in which melodic composer fellowship with the Cleveland Orchestra particles and complex , virtuoso passages, in March, drawing praise both for the work’s range thundering chords and chamber -like of expression and for its brilliant orchestration. transparent dialogues intertwine both with logic This was a successful introduction for American and individual surprises”. audiences to this imaginative Austrian composer, “The variety in Okeanos was stunning. From subdued and his residency promises a newly and mysterious, à la Messiaen, soloist Paul Jacobs and commissioned score, to be premiered in the orchestra were as likely to turn bubbly, playful, or Cleveland in 2020 under the baton of Franz even crazed as they were to let out a thunderous, Welser-Möst with further performances by the screaming yawp… If Okeanos had one key virtue, it was Vienna Orchestra. orchestration. Time and again, Deutsch found spine- tingling parallels between the organ and a raft of percussion in ways that can only be described as “…an inexhaustible magical.” Cleveland Plain Dealer abundance of lifelike Deutsch first made his name in Europe with two startling ensemble works dating from the early musical characters, 2010s, which were swiftly taken up internationally situations, and gestures.” and recorded by Klangforum Wien on the Photo: Stefanie Luger Die Presse label. Mad Dog depicts a day in the life of a hound, but also explores the possible transformations between human and canine whose sense of calamitous danger is ramped up Murales pits an ensemble against orchestra to Okeanos’s title refers to the mythological Titan who worlds via a constantly fluxing sound palette. by an unstable and frantic accordion. forge an intricate yet dramatic 30-minute score. His rules the seas, and the colours and characters of Shifting perspectives also inform Dr Futurity, sheng for Wu Wei, Phaenomena, received the four elements – earth, air, fire and water – are inspired by the science fiction novel by Variations on the concerto form provide the central first performances with the Basel Sinfonietta and depicted in music that stretches the sonic Philip K. Dick, opening with a trip – from Mars focus of Deutsch’s recent output. His Triple Seoul Philharmonic last month, and next season possibilities of the full symphony orchestra. to here, followed by an eerily calm central Concerto turns a rare spotlight on brass with solo brings a new for Johannes Moser The work was first heard in 2015 in Vienna, Chimaera, and a virtuosic finale, Red Alert, roles for trumpet, trombone and tuba, while travelling from Vienna to Frankfurt.

Stravinsky Chin SPIRA in LA 2021 anniversary

The 50th anniversary of Stravinsky’s death falls in 2021, offering opportunities for a timely reappraisal of this iconic figure of the 20th century. In preparation for the anniversary year Jonathan Cross has collaborated with Boosey & Hawkes to create Stravinsky Connections, a new guide for performers and programmers. The composer’s rich web of connections is explored, embracing dance, , art, jazz Photo: Priska Ketterer and faith, as well as his links with a range of Unsuk Chin travelled to Los Angeles in April for the composers from Bach to Boulez, via Debussy, world premiere of her new orchestral work SPIRA, Bartók, Prokofieff and Britten. Notes on key conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla in a perfect works are provided, offering programming tips, pairing with Debussy’s La Mer. The 19-minute while a detailed timeline combines Stravinsky’s score is a joint commission by the Los Angeles life and works with the momentous cultural and

Poster illustration and scene from The Golden Age/GATOB 1930 Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Orchestre de political events across his 88 years. Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Jonathan Cross offers a modern perspective Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. on Stravinsky 50 years after his death, with Shostakovich and Football SPIRA takes its title from the mathematical growth enough distance to offer a clearer, objective spiral, in which small cells are replicated through view. Perhaps we can now appreciate how the A new book by Dmitri Braginsky explores Dmitri are joined by the local workers to defeat the police. logarithmic expansion, as observed in nature. Chin composer’s seeming seismic shifts of style are, Shostakovich’s lifelong passion for football. His Shostakovich also composed a Football scene for describes the work’s shifting between macro and in reality, bound by the common themes, widow Irina Shostakovich writes in her foreword a 1944 wartime performance by the NKVD Song micro “as if zooming in with a microscope to interests and obsessions that stretched that he “could not live without football, he lived and Dance Ensemble. research the inner life of sound”. throughout his extraordinary creative life. in football, as though it was a special, parallel The book examines Shostakovich’s newspaper “…a that takes its soundworld from dimension… In this terrain, he was forever young, Conductors, performers and programmers can articles and diary entries on football, his a pair of bowed vibraphones spreading overtones all over happy and free.” request a copy of Stravinsky Connections by friendships with fellow fans, and his fascination the place, so they can be picked up by strings and winds emailing [email protected]. This lavishly illustrated book, produced by with rules and statistics. Other sporting interests and brass and bloom spring-like into ever-expanding DSCH Publishers in collaboration with Dmitri are explored including boxing, ice hockey, tennis, bouquets of glittery vibration…” Los Angeles Times Shostakovich’s Archive and the Rimsky-Korsakov chess and billiards, offering an intimate picture of Last month saw Chin attending a focus on her St Petersburg State Conservatoire, was first the composer seeking relaxation and a freedom music at the Bergen International Festival and published in Russian and is now available in a new denied him as a prominent Soviet composer. next season she will be Composer in Residence English translation. Its aim is to depict a panorama Shostakovich and Football is on sale from at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg with 14 of her of the football and sports events and facts in the , priced £42.00. works programmed. composer’s biography against the broad www.boosey.com/shop sociocultural background of Soviet life in the 1920s-1970s. The text is accompanied by a rich collection of photographs, and many archive documents are published for the first time. Inside this issue… As well as being a devoted supporter of Dinamo Leningrad and the Soviet team, Shostakovich was something of a football connoisseur, even gaining a National Football Referee permit, allowing him tickets at stadiums nationwide. His enthusiasm for the sport also found its way into his work as a composer. His first ballet The Golden Age (originally MacMillan Adams Glanert Kats-Chernin titled Dinamidia), tells of a Soviet football team Interview about Yuja Wang tours latest opera premieres visiting the West, whose captain is imprisoned by his new choral Oceane triumphs in Germany and fascist agents only to be released as the footballers symphony internationally in Berlin Australia

MacMillan choral symphony in Edinburgh James MacMillan’s new Symphony No.5: ‘Le grand Inconnu’ Studzinski, gave me a copy of The Holy Spirit, Fire offer me enough expressive potential but they still of Divine Love by the Belgian Carmelite Wilfred hover on the periphery of my imagination from time provides the finale to his 60th birthday feature at this year’s Stinissen. It was a good point of entry, theologically, to time and there is a conceptual compulsion in Edinburgh International Festival. but it also called to my attention some visionary their deployment here. poetry by St John of the Cross, and this line from How did you weave the choral voices into the With your symphony’s inclusion of choral voices the book in particular drew me in; “Even his name orchestral score? and its focus on the Holy Spirit, did you have any reveals that the Holy Spirit is mysterious. The My joy of writing for persists and I had to musical models in mind? Hebrew word ‘ruah’, the Greek word ‘pneuma’ and break work on the symphony to compose a There are many great motets from the past which the Latin ‘spiritus’ mean both ‘wind’ and ‘breath’”, 40-part motet, Vidi Aquam, which is a companion set texts devoted to the Third Person of the Trinity, and it was these words which provided the very first piece to Tallis’s Spem in Alium. Before tackling it I and in the 20th century the one piece which stands sounds heard in my symphony. out is the setting of the Veni Creator Spiritus in the was terrified of the complexity but, once settled first movement of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. One What is the form of the symphony? into the task, I was in a very special place and can speculate on Mahler’s inspiration; was his idea The first movement is called Ruah, the second Zao enjoyed building up the contrapuntal edifice. of the Holy Spirit orthodox and in keeping with (ancient Greek for living water) and the third is Igne Some of this got carried over into the symphony, received theological understanding? Or did it vel Igne (Latin for fire or fire). So, each has links with with its chamber and large chorus. At the involve various intellectual and cultural threads the physical elements connected to the Holy Spirit end of the second movement I divide these two pointing in the direction of inspired but general, (wind, water, fire). Sound associations and ensembles into 20 parts, which allowed me to spiritual creativity? impressions guided the choice of texts in each of continue communing with the English the three movements and often dictated the overall Renaissance master. Do you see this theme as particularly relevant structure; which bits of St John of the Cross to use, at the moment? which corresponding moment in Scripture might There is a genuine burgeoning interest in spirituality amplify or reflect the general direction, which MacMillan in our contemporary post-religious and now sounds to use in the orchestra as well as extended Symphony No.5: ‘Le grand Inconnu’ (2018) 50’ Photo: Marc Marnie Photo: Marc post-secular society. Music is described as the vocal sounds in the choir which were not for chamber choir, chorus and orchestra How do you approach writing a new symphony? most spiritual of the arts, even by non-religious necessarily sung. Commissioned by the Genesis Foundation The symphonic tradition, and Beethoven’s music lovers, and there is a genuinely universal for Harry Christophers and The Sixteen Was there a particular soundworld you wanted monumental impact on it, is an imposing legacy understanding that music can reach deep into the to create? which looms like a giant ghost over the shoulder of human soul in a mysterious way. This is summed 17 August 2019 (world premiere) In broad terms I wanted to explore the elemental any living composer foolhardy enough to consider up by the fifth symphony’s subtitle – Le grand Usher Hall, Edinburgh International Festival and primal sounds and words associated with the adding to it. Some turn away in terror while others Inconnu – a French term used to describe the Holy Scottish Chamber Orchestra/The Sixteen/ Spirit. I’ve also used quarter-tones more in this can’t help themselves. Perhaps not fully knowing Spirit which I cannot find replicated in the English Genesis Sixteen/Harry Christophers piece than many others, with material springing what writing a symphony ‘means’ any more, some spiritual tradition. forth from various harmonic series. I’ve always been of us are drawn towards it like moths flapping 14 October 2019 What was the starting point for the composition? fascinated by spectral sounds, ever since hearing around a candle flame. After my fourth I felt the itch Barbican, London The symphony was commissioned by the Genesis Gerard Grisey and Tristan Murail talk about them in of a fifth: Dah-dah-dah-dum! Britten Sinfonia/The Sixteen/ Foundation, and its founder, the philanthropist John Darmstadt in 1980. Many of these trends couldn’t Genesis Sixteen/Harry Christophers

Currier concerto in the Aether Glanert Oceane success in Berlin Sebastian Currier’s new celestial bodies, takes in Currier’s , Aether, is a work with mysterious, distant chords in strings with cross-Atlantic commission the woodwind making ephemeral air sounds. shared between the Boston Against this surrounding backcloth are placed the Symphony Orchestra and four primary movements of the concerto. Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, both led by conductor Andris Nelsons “…arresting and with Baiba Skride as

Photo: Jennifer Taylor soloist. First performances mesmerizing in effect.” took place in Boston and Leipzig last month, and Boston Classical Review the work travels on to Amsterdam in October for an appearance in the ZaterdagMatinee series at the “A traditional concerto on one hand, the work segues Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio from delicate passages to brief episodes of explosive Philharmonic conducted by Karina Canellakis. intensity...” Boston Classical Review Currier is particularly acclaimed for his writing for “The final cadenza was a thing of raging beauty, a last strings, with Aether being his third violin concerto, shout before the violin was subducted into the rising following Chamber Concerto for violin and strings aether... the hall overflowed with applause.” and Time Machines written for Anne-Sophie Mutter Boston Globe and the New York Philharmonic. The composer is equally active writing string-based chamber music: Boston also played host in February to the this March saw the premiere of his new Ghost Trio premiere of Currier’s new ‘moonstruck’ work for written for Mutter with cellist Daniel Müller-Schott and chamber ensemble, performed by Photo: Bernd Uhlig and pianist Lambert Orkis. Boston Musica Viva. Eleven Moons employs texts Detlev Glanert’s new opera Oceane staged by Robert Carsen at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. ranging from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and As Currier explains, “the word ‘aether’ itself looks , through the Upanishads to back to Greek mythology. It means ‘pure, fresh Detlev Glanert’s new opera, Oceane, was At its opening night Oceane was emphatically celebrated Wikipedia and Neil Armstrong. The composer air’ and was thought to be the air of the upper premiered to public and critical acclaim at the as a completely successful new opera.” describes how the moon “has captured the atmosphere, the air the gods breathed. With Deutsche Oper in Berlin in April, in a production Neue Musikzeitung imagination of humankind since our beginnings” Einstein’s theory of relativity the concept became by Robert Carsen conducted by Donald playing roles “in countless mythologies and outmoded, but it still lingers as a term referring to Runnicles. Drawing upon novella fragments religions, associated with love, insanity, beauty, something remote, mysterious, invisible, and out by Theodor Fontane, whose bicentenary is mystery, supernatural forces, alien beings. “Glanert’s music of reach.” celebrated this year, the libretto by Hans-Ulrich Humans have, over the years, projected all their Treichel tells of a mysterious woman from the sea, transports the darkness This invisible substance, that was historically fears, desires, and fantasies onto this bright form whose appearance at a fading beach resort into something profoundly thought to pervade all the universe between in the night sky.” disrupts bourgeois social conventions. human.” Die Deutsche Bühne The dark, brooding sea is omnipresent in Carsen’s fled Spain in 1939, eventually settling in staging, providing a backdrop to the Baltic Cambridge in the UK. Don Quixote moved summer holiday setting and mirroring the This summer brings the world premiere of through a number of musical guises until it psychological disjunction between Oceane and Glanert’s new at the reached its final form in 1950, staged by Sadler’s the other guests. Der Tagespiegel praised the Tanglewood Festival on 8 July, featuring soloist Wells Ballet at the Royal Opera House Covent opera’s “magically atmospheric” music, “precisely Thomas Rolfs and dedicated to the memory of Garden in London. Alongside the complete composed” and described how “Glanert and Oliver Knussen. This year has seen Semyon 40-minute ballet score, Gerhard’s short Treichel received the enthusiastic cheers of the Bychkov conducting Glanert’s music suite Dances from Don Quixote soon became audience. Here are two who may feel that they internationally, with Weites Land performed by established as his most performed orchestral have just produced one of the most successful the Czech Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra work and is also frequently heard in a popular new of recent times.” and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The piano arrangement. BBC presents a Total Immersion day exploring “A great beginning, at first only the textless singing of a the composer’s music at the Barbican on Don Quixote represents a unique fusion of woman, the voice of the sea… something unspeakable, 7 December, including the UK premiere of his Spanish themes, both musical and literary, enticing, intense… a siren call that promises salvation in for Hieronymus Bosch, conducted together with the modernist techniques the destruction… And so the opera will also end.” by Bychkov. composer was developing in his early years in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Photo: Boosey & Hawkes exile. The work is a masterly response to “Glanert knows how to set maritime themes to music: Cervantes’s great epic, with colourful water is his element, so to speak, and here he plays to Roberto Gerhard’s complete Don Quixote ballet characterisation of the lead protagonists, vivid was heard for the first time in Barcelona in his strengths... At last a world premiere which will surely scene-painting, musical explorations of themes be replayed soon.” Bavarian Radio Klassik February, providing an important upbeat to events of love, illusion and chivalry, and glowing in 2020 honouring the 50th anniversary of the depictions of the Spanish Golden Age. “…well-crafted vocal lines, superb orchestration, clear Catalan-born composer’s death. Two dramatic shape and descriptive sound-painting… performances of this major work took place at A new recording of the compete Don Quixote It looks and sounds gorgeous.” Financial Times L’Auditori with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra is planned by Chandos in its Spanish series conducted by Josep Caballé-Domenech. with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by “The role of Oceane was written by Glanert for Maria Juanjo Mena, for release in 2020. Bengtsson, who is able to express the peculiarity of Born in 1896 near Tarragona, Gerhard spent the this character – condemned to silence due to social

early part of his creative life in Barcelona until he Visit www.boosey.com/gerhard2020. barriers – in a vocally and dramatically moving way... Photo: Bettina Stoess

Kats-Chernin Iphis in Hannover Holloway Mackey Phaeton’s Journey MTT celebrations

Robin Holloway new Steven Mackey’s newest concertante work for orchestral work, Portals, trumpet and orchestra, Scenes and Celebrations, written for Håkan was written as a tribute to Hardenberger and Michael Tilson Thomas on commissioned by the his 75th birthday and BBC Philharmonic, seized premiered by the conductor the stage in Manchester in at the helm of the San February, travelling on to Francisco Symphony in Amsterdam in October February. While the with the Residentie ‘celebrations’ in the title are Photo: Jane Richey Photo: Charlie Troman Orchestra in the readily explainable, the ZaterdagMatinee series. Phaeton’s Journey: Son ‘scenes’ are five contrasting but connected of the Sun is the second in a series of Holloway tableaux, and the composer describes how the works fusing concerto and tone poem and ‘portals’ are “the joints within and between the

Photo: Thomas M Jauk/Stage Picture drawing upon mythical tales from Ovid’s scenes” leading to “other dimensions rather Metamorphoses. than logical consequences”. Elena Kats-Chernin’s Iphis staged at the Hannover Staatsoper. There may be few of today’s composers willing “…a 15-minute orchestral showpiece… It’s a joyous, Elena Kats-Chernin’s chamber opera Iphis, “Would you like to be a boy or girl? Or something or able to meet a tone poem’s demands for brightly colored extravaganza, one in which seemingly exploring the topical theme of gender identity, completely different? The question is very ‘today’ but descriptive and narrative expertise but, as the every member of the orchestra gets a turn in the received its German premiere at the Hannover was already tackled two decades ago in this opera – Sunday Times noted, “Holloway is brilliant at it, spotlight. Certainly Mackey is never at a loss for Staatsoper in March. This saw the Uzbek-born both compact and concise… Musically, the 70-minute not only in finding his musical equivalents, but ideas… elaborate instrumental sonorities come Australian-resident composer returning to the city score is highly attractive and employs a practical in… building a continuous form from numerous tumbling forth in bold profusion.” where she studied with , orchestra oscillating between moderate modernity, small sections, and rediscovering in the process San Francisco Chronicle before striking out in her own stylistic direction. dance rhythms, ragtime and klezmer…” Die Presse a great deal that tonality is still capable of doing Iphis was Kats-Chernin’s first opera, dating from — an expanded, highly flexible tonality, maybe, “Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas called the opening 1997, and its scoring for six singers and an Three new Kats-Chernin stageworks are premiered but still able to harness the dramatic power of work by Steven Mackey a musical amusement park, ensemble of nine instrumentalists makes it ideal over the next 12 months. First up is Opera decisive harmonic events.” and it was… Portals, Scenes and Celebrations is a for youth opera programmes and conservatoires. Australia’s production of Whiteley, opening at the series of colorful miniatures, each of which begins with “Long experience with the orchestra has left him The drama is based on one of Ovid’s Opera House on 15 July, directed by David a salient sound and then runs with it. A flighty viola formidably fluent: everything sounds clear and right, Metamorphoses, with the libretto by Richard Toop Freeman and conducted by Tahu Matheson. The solo becomes a spirited call-and-response that and the single-movement structure has gripping combining comedy, pathos, sexual confusion and libretto by Justin Fleming explores the tumultuous parades through the orchestra, down to the nearly momentum… Phaeton’s incompetence with the chariot heart-warming resolution. life of artist , his meteoric rise to fame, unpitched drums. The subtle pointillism of spritzing – ‘the bumpy ride’ – leads to such aggravations as the his fascination with the murderer John Christie and aerosol cans transforms into jaunty harmonies “Elena Kats-Chernin’s opera is about the girl Iphis, who boiling up of the oceans, the devastation of the planet, his fatal addiction to drink and drugs. that sound like Copland.” secretly has to grow up a boy because her father only the scattering of the Zodiac and the disruption of the San Francisco Classical Voice wants to have sons. Years later, when the father presents Whiteley is followed in November by a children’s seasons… Altogether, Phaeton’s arrogance is bad news the charming Ianthe as the bride for his supposed son, opera for the Komische Oper in Berlin, Jim Knopf for climate change. But Hardenberger’s unbelievable Gustavo Dudamel was resident at Princeton they all become trapped with no escape route… and Lukas the Engine Driver, based on the dexterity with his relentlessly challenging part spoke University in May and conducted a concert Because the youngsters love each other the message award-winning book by Michael Ende. Kats- only of deep musical devotion.” Sunday Times featuring the world premiere of Mackey’s is – they want to choose their own way forwards… Chernin’s new operatic version of The Wind in the “Anyone’s who’s been asked ‘Dad, can I borrow the car Measuring. Ensemble Berlin, formed from nine This jumbling of emotions is staged in a touching and Willows receives its premiere at the Staatstheater keys?’ will know how Apollo felt, and of course his wind and string instrumentalists of the Berlin amusing way.” Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung Kassel in June 2020. forebodings were justified… There’s a rightness about Philharmonic, unveiled the new work, which associating the sound of the trumpet with the golden explores metaphors connecting music to sun, both in respect of its god and his over-ambitious properties of natural law. Next season brings offspring… Phaeton is presented as asking for his a concerto from Mackey, premiered Adams concerto for Yuja Wang privilege again and again, and tension is raised by by the Dallas Symphony and receiving its first taking the trumpet part higher and higher in its French performance by the Orchestre national ’s new piano concerto, Must the Devil engines going again. They eventually do in a dotted- tessitura.” The Arts Desk d’Île de France at the Paris Philharmonie. Have all the Good Tunes?, was composed to groove that suggests rock ’n’ roll.” showcase the distinctive keyboard style of Los Angeles Times Chinese-born virtuoso Yuja Wang, as heard at the John Adams’s latest opera, Girls of the Golden premiere in March with the Los Angeles West, received its first European performances at Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel and on tour Dutch National Opera in February, with the same to Seoul and Tokyo. Further LA Phil performances young rising star cast as at its San Francisco are planned in the US, Mexico, at the Edinburgh premiere in 2017. Adams and librettist/director International Festival and at the Barbican in Peter Sellars have since revised the score and London, before the solo part is taken up by staging and, as the Los Angeles Times noted in pianists Jeremy Denk and Vikungur Ólafsson and Amsterdam, “the opera has come into formidable, other in future seasons. inescapable focus. There should be no doubt that “His latest work definitely leans in the trickster direction Girls of the Golden West is the most powerful as per its mischievous title… like Century Rolls, it bristles opera of the moment.” with a percussive, highly-rhythmic, technically fearsome “Girls is an outright rejection of the romantic West of piano part… an excitable, satisfying, boisterous vehicle Puccini, of the hubris of Manifest Destiny, of all the rosy for Wang and Dudamel.” Musical America myths you’ve heard about the Golden State. It is revisionist – or, rather, corrective – American history, a tale of men turning feral as they swarmed California like “…driving syncopations an invasive species. In many ways, it is also an opera about the present.” New York Times

and a riot of orchestral ZVG Image: Vorabfoto

color…” Washington Post John Adams has recently been doubly honoured Humanoid by Leonard Evers was staged in Winterthur and Bern in February. This science fiction youth opera, with the prestigious Erasmus Prize in the scored for six singers and 14 instrumentalists, poses the question how human can a robot be? The new work Netherlands and the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge follows the success of Evers’ Gold! which has received over 600 stage performances since 2012. “The piano is constantly busy throughout the 25-plus Award in Spain. The composer is currently minutes, and even in the contemplative slow movement, completing a new orchestral work celebrating caressed by Adams’s typical sustained strings, there is Michael Tilson Thomas’s 25 years on the rostrum underlying tension and an impatient desire to get the of the San Francisco Symphony. Little JFK opera staged in Europe

in Bielefeld and Schwerin and Soldier Songs in Saarbrücken. Jointly commissioned by Fort Worth Opera, American Lyric Theater, and Opéra de Montréal, Little’s three-act opera has been celebrated for its complex and intimate portrayal of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the twelve hours leading up to the president’s infamous assassination in November 1963. “The scenes change quickly: the white limousine becomes a hotel bath, a bed, a tombstone, because Little’s opera is not made up of acts, but a total of Photo: Jan-Pieter Fuhr 31 moments that fold together a commemorative collage David T. Little’s opera JFK at the Theater Augsburg. of the historic presidential couple into a dazzling kaleidoscope. Jackie’s nightmares and John’s morphine The successful European premiere of David T. delirium mix. Family members of the Kennedy clan Little’s opera JFK, presented at the Theater emerge, Marylin Monroe, Nikita Khrushchev and John’s Augsburg in March, demonstrated the expanding adversary Lyndon B. Johnson surrounded by cowboys German interest in the young American in glittering trousers.” Deutschlandfunk composer’s stageworks. As reported by Neue Little’s music received a New York profile recently Musikzeitung, “the unanimous final jubilation for with a concert closing the Miller Theatre’s the composer, librettist Royce Vavrek and the Composer Portrait season. The powerful double entire stage team signalled: Bravo!” bill combined performances of Haunt of Nightfall Photo: Martin Walz The new Augsburg staging by Roman Hovenbitzer by Third Coast Percussion and AGENCY by John Adams’s Girls of the Golden West, staged by Peter Sellars at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. followed on from recent productions of Dog Days American Contemporary Music Ensemble.

Offenbach bicentennial stagings New publications

Celebrations for Jacques Offenbach’s bicentenary production by Martin Duncan with Hanna Hipp and Louis Andriessen James MacMillan this year bring more than 30 stagings employing Jennifer France in the lead roles. Facing Death No.2 the Offenbach Edition Keck published by Boosey & for string quartet Reduction for percussion Hawkes. Over the past 20 years this authoritative In honour of Offenbach’s birthday on 20 June, the Full score and piano edition, under the direction of leading Offenbach composer’s native city of Cologne provides 979-0-060-13049-6 £33.99 979-0-060-13606-1 £31.50 scholar Jean-Christophe Keck, has featured the celebrations under the title Yes We Can Can. A Parts publication of definitive full scores semi-staging of Fantasio is presented by Opera 979-0-060-13479-1 £72.99 of the composer’s stageworks for the first Zuid at the Philharmonie, following a Dutch tour of Study score its new Benjamin Prins production, and time, together with the welcome return of Facing Death 979-0-060-13537-8 £28.99 lost works to the theatre and concert hall. festivities include a new staging of La arr. for saxophone quartet Reduction for trombone Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein. Cologne Full score and piano Offering a contrast to Offenbach’s also hosts the German premiere of 979-0-060-12905-6 £33.99 979-0-060-13536-1 £35.50 satirical comic stageworks, Fantasio Offenbach’s Barkouf in October in Parts is a poignant lyrical opera revealing the Mariame Clément’s production first staged 979-0-060-13482-1 £72.99 Veni, Veni, Emmanuel lovelorn romantic hidden beneath the by Opéra du Rhin last year. This bitter- Reduction for percussion jester’s costume, marking it as a highly 1860s Photo: Nadar, sweet satire, setting a libretto by Scribe and piano personal score for the composer. Its revival and Boisseaux, sees a dog appointed as vizier to A Charm of Lullabies 979-0-060-13522-4 £45.99 gathered momentum in 2013 thanks to an run the city government in Lahore. Die Zeit New edition with first publication acclaimed recording by Opera Rara and the described the opéra-bouffe as “a masterwork – the of two additional songs Steve Reich Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted sharpest musical satire of the 19th century” while Vocal score Pulse by Mark Elder, with a starry cast including Sarah Diapason praised “a series of comic numbers that 979-0-060-13534-7 £16.99 for ensemble Connolly and Brenda Rae. are irresistible”. Study score £27.00 Le Roi Carotte, telling of a deposed prince fighting Magnus Lindberg 979-0-051-09816-3 “The score of Fantasio against a tyrannical vegetable ruler, has also enjoyed Aldeburgh Trilogy: shows Offenbach at the a return to the stage thanks to the Offenbach Bubo bubo/Counter Phrases/ WTC 9/11 Edition Keck. The recent Hannover production by Red House for string quartet and tape Parts top of his artistic game. ” Matthias Davids travels to the Vienna Volksoper in Study score £27.00 Opera November, and the Laurent Pelly staging returns to 979-0-060-13487-6 £32.99 979-0-051-80206-7 Lyon Opera in December. Turning from major rediscoveries to classic repertoire, Orpheus in the Concerto for Orchestra A Paris staging of Fantasio by Thomas Jolly Underworld receives its 1000th performance in the Study score Pulcinella Suite followed in 2017 with Marianne Crebassa in the Keck edition this season, with new stagings by 979-0-060-11794-7 £32.99 arr. Daniel-Ben Pienaar title role, which has since travelled on to Rouen Barrie Kosky at the Salzburg Festival and by Emma ed. Jonathan Freeman-Attwood and Montpellier and received its Swiss premiere at Rice at English National Opera. Parada for trumpet and piano the Geneva Opera. The first UK staging ofFantasio Study score 979-0-060-13373-2 £16.99 opens at Garsington Opera this month with a new For full information on the OEK please visit 979-0-060-13583-5 £25.50 for trombone and piano English translation by Jeremy Sams, in a www.offenbach-edition.com. 979-0-060-13374-9 £16.99

New recordings

John Adams James MacMillan Roll Over Beethoven/ Saxophone Concerto/ Short Ride in a Fast Machine From Galloway Christina & Michelle Naughton Amy Dickson/Adelaide Warner Classics Symphony Orchestra/ 9029556229 Nicholas Carter Sony Classical 19075 944692 Gottfried von Einem Der Prozess Andrzej Panufnik Michael Laurenz/ String Quartets Nos.1-3/ Jochen Schmeckenbecher/ Hommage à Chopin

Photo: Pierre Grosbois Photo: Pierre ORF Vienna Radio Apollon Musagète Quartett Symphony Orchestra/ Frederick Chopin Institute Marianne Crebassa as Offenbach’s Fantasio in Thomas Jolly’s production, staged in France and Switzerland. HK Gruber NIFCCD059 Capriccio C5358 Einojuhani Rautavaara b.27 October 1927 | d.20 February 2019 Concerto for Orchestra/ Incantations Dominick Argento Nachtstück Christoph Sietzen/ Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Romanian National Boosey & Hawkes pays tribute to Dominick Berlin/Johannes Kalitzke Symphony Orchestra/ Argento, one of America’s pre-eminent composers Capriccio C5357 Cristian Mandeal of lyric opera, who died in Minneapolis earlier this Sony Classical 19075 821542 year, aged 91. Gerald Finzi By Footpath and Stile/ Born in York, Pennsylvania, in 1927, Argento Steve Reich Interlude/Romance/Elegy/ The Desert Music enjoyed a reputation centred upon his rich Five Bagatelles Sydney Symphony Orchestra/ catalogue of writing for the human voice, including Marcus Farnsworth/ Synergy Vocals/ 13 operas and an extensive selection of choral Robert Plane/Ruth Bollister/ David Robertson and vocal works. His music is marked by its Finzi Quartet ABC Classics 4817899 strong dramatic impulses, sharp wit, and colourful Resonus RES10109 lyrical lines, which have made his works favourites Proverb/Pulse/Mallet Quartet for singers. With honours and awards, Dominick Henryk Mikolaj Górecki Colin Currie Group/ Argento received the Pulitzer Prize for Music in String Quartets Nos.1&2 Synergy Vocals 1975 for his song cycle From the Diary Tippett Quartet Colin Currie Records of Virginia Woolf. He was elected to the American Naxos 8.573919 CCR0003 Academy of Arts and Letters in 1979. Photo: Tom Berthiaume Photo: Tom “…a real opera composer, Wedding Night (1981), Casanova’s Homecoming Arnesen Holy Spirit Mass who has mastered its (1984), and the Henry James adaptation The conventions and lets his Aspern Papers (1987). His last opera, The Dream of Boosey & Hawkes has published a church after the religious Valentino (1994), examined fame and the immigrant vocal score of Norwegian upheaval of the 16th century. imagination take wing…” experience, set in the early days of Hollywood. composer Kim André Arnesen’s But it also celebrates what the New York magazine Among his major song cycles are Letters from The Holy Spirit Mass, written for the Reformation has given us, such Composers (1968), From the Diary of Virginia Woolf National Lutheran Choir and as the ecumenical development Argento studied at Peabody Conservatory and the (1975) composed for Janet Baker, and Casa Guidi premiered in 2017. The 50-minute and increasing dialogue Eastman School of Music, where his teachers (1983) written for Frederica von Stade. work, scored for SATB chorus with between churches. The work included Henry Cowell, Alan Hovhaness and organ or strings and piano, was explores themes of mercy, Recent productions of Argento’s operas include commissioned for the 500th grace, promises, unity, praise, Howard Hanson, and travelled to Italy thanks to The Dallas Opera’s 2013 staging of The Aspern anniversary of the Protestant hope, vision and service.” Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships. He Papers, starring Susan Graham, Alexandra Reformation and performed in became music director of Hilltop Opera in Deshorties and Nathan Gunn, and Minnesota Arnesen’s new work for the Washington, Minneapolis and St Baltimore, and taught theory and composition at Opera’s 2014 staging of The Dream of Valentino, female voices of the acclaimed Paul. The European premiere the Eastman School. In 1958, he joined the faculty featuring James Valenti in the leading role. Norwegian choir Cantus, followed in Rome last October at of the Department of Music at the University of Over the past 60 years Argento became one of Ave regina caelorum, was the opening of the International Minnesota, where he taught until 1997 and later the most significant forces in Minnesota’s classical premiered in his home city Festival of Sacred Music and Art, held the rank of Professor Emeritus. music community. In 1997 he was honoured with of Trondheim in March. and the National Lutheran Choir the title of Composer Laureate to the Minnesota Seven recent Arnesen Opera companies across the US and in Europe toured the Mass in the USA earlier this year Orchestra and 8 August 2016 was officially choral works – both sacred and secular – can have performed Argento’s stageworks, which under the direction of David Cherwien. include the absurdist Postcard from Morocco declared Dominick Argento Day in the state of be heard at www.boosey.com/arnesen or (1971), the dark psychodrama The Voyage Minnesota, recognizing him as a master composer The composer describes how “The Holy Spirit on a complimentary CD available on request of Edgar Allan Poe (1976), Miss Havisham’s and revered educator. Mass reflects on the long conflict within the by emailing [email protected].

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