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Home , Brett Dean, Colin Currie, Final Symphony, Louis Andriessen, Michel van der Aa, Sebastian Currier

Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited

June 2015 2015/2 Chin Alice and Mannequin Prokofieff has enjoyed a busy spring, with a multimedia staging of New York Included in this issue: Alice in Wonderland and first performances of her new orchestral archive Gruber work Mannequin. Interview on his new work The Serge Prokofiev Archive has relocated to New York for percussion and In the 150th anniversary year of ’s classic book, and is now housed at the Photo: Prokofieff family Rare Books & Manuscript Library of Columbia Photo: Priska Ketterer performances of Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland drew packed University. This combines the collections from houses in Los Angeles and . Goldsmiths College in London and the Following productions in , Geneva, Bibliothéque Nationale in Paris, with materials Bielefeld and Saint Louis, the new staging by assembled over a century by Prokofieff and his multimedia artist Netia Jones was presented family. The archive move was launched with a by the at Walt New York concert in April attended by the Disney Hall and the BBC Symphony ’s grandchildren, great-grandchildren Orchestra at the Barbican. and trustees of the Serge Prokofiev Foundation. “This is a wonderland of When the composer returned to the Soviet Union in 1936, the papers and manuscripts a score…” The Times he had accumulated during his time in the Simpson West were stored in Paris and were reclaimed Premieres of new works “With the ever-fertile musical imagination of Unsuk by his wife Lina in 1974. She formed the Serge Israfel and The Immortal Chin, and with Netia Jones’s characteristically Prokofiev Foundation in 1983 and continued to brilliant meld of projected graphics and live action; track down her husband’s personal effects with pen-and-ink-blot drawings by veteran until her death in 1989, after which the archive cartoonist Ralph Steadman, and with a -on- was established at Goldsmiths College and speed by the prolific , this opera on Lewis Carroll’s evergreen fable was a curated by Noëlle Mann. The Bibliothéque show of all the talents...” The Independent Nationale housed many of Prokofieff’s manuscript scores and the move to New York "Chin's opera is so brilliantly orchestrated that the signals the unification of the two collections. instruments alone are more than enough to steal all of an audience's attention... Finnish conductor The Serge Prokofiev Archive contains the Susanna Mälkki got a dazzling array of bright largest collection of published material on colours from the LA Phil. As Alice, soprano Photo: Mark Allan/Barbican Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland in Netia Jones’s new staging at the Barbican in London Prokofieff in the West, including 500 scores Rachele Gilmore took a listener to seemingly new and over 400 books and periodicals. The places; the higher her voice went, the more papers dating from the period 1919-36 wondrous the wonderland. But Chin's Alice is not Chin’s newest work is Mannequin, a gurgle of the contrabassoon, the story grips… Chin childish. It is a dream opera with a dark side.” collection of ‘tableaux vivants’ forming an is a gourmet, using vast resources with delicacy include correspondence with , MacMillan Los Angeles Times orchestral choreography inspired by a and discipline” The Times Maurice Ravel and Serge Diaghilev, Sir Henry Symphony No.4 premiere surrealist short story by E. T. A. Hoffmann. conducts the German premiere Wood, Sergei Koussevitzky and Feodor “The UK premiere conducted by Baldur Chaliapin. Manuscripts for over 50 works at the BBC Proms Brönnimann immediately confirmed Chin’s talents Following performances by the National of Le Silence des Sirènes with the as a composer... Chin’s Alice revels in paradox Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and Ilan Philharmonic and soprano principally composed in the United States, and riddles, pastiche and parody. The timbres are Volkov on a UK tour including the Southbank on 24 June, and the Swedish premiere follows Germany and Paris include the orchestral ear-piercingly bright, precise and often Centre in London, the 25-minute work travels with the Gothenburg Symphony on Scythian Suite, his opera The Love for Three mesmerising.” The Observer to the Boston Symphony, Danish National 30 September. Recent features on Chin’s Oranges, Nos. 2-5, and Symphony and Symphony music have included a three-concert focus by Symphonies Nos.1, 3 and 4. . the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in March. A Prokofieff highlight this summer is a “…Chin’s glittering, rattling, whirring sequence The Festival d’Automne in Paris presents a blockbuster BBC Proms concert on 28 July Andriessen based on ETA Hoffmann’s The Sandman, a story series of five concerts with six French containing all five piano concertos conducted of seductive automata, stolen eyes and broken premieres in October/November and the BBC by Valery Gergiev, with soloists Daniil Trifonov, hearts… From the first icy touch of the to Scottish Symphony Orchestra explores Chin’s Sergei Babayan and Alexei Volodin with the new opera the speakeasy muted and the last oily concertos throughout the 2015/16 season. London Symphony Orchestra. ’s new opera, Theatre of Offenbach the World, has been announced with first Fantasio returns to stage performances in Los Adams Scheherazade.2 Dean in Offenbach Edition Keck Angeles and at the ’s new dramatic symphony for Holland Festival in violin and orchestra, Scheherazade.2, reboots unveiled summer in May Rimsky Korsakov’s exotic Arabian Nights and June 2016. The tableaux for a modern, grittier world. festivals Photo: Mark Coulsen Commissioned by the , production by Pierre ’s Dramatis Royal Concertgebouw – hall and orchestra– Audi is to be personae is on a festival journey this designed by the and Sydney Symphony, the 50-minute score

Photo: Francesca Patella summer, performed by Swedish virtuoso is Adams’s most ambitious concert work since , and Håkan Hardenberger. Since its premiere Naïve and Sentimental Music in 1999. Written will conduct the Los at the Grafenegg Festival in 2013 the work for Leila Josefowicz, who has played Angeles Philharmonic and Dutch National has received 30 performances – to date Adams’s concertos over 100 times, the Opera with the Asko|Schönberg ensemble. or scheduled – in 12 countries. The cast includes Leigh Melrose, Lindsay violinist delivered a musical tour de force as Kesselman and Christina Zavalloni. protagonist at the premiere in March. The concerto is toured by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in August from the The opera is inspired by the German Jesuit Tanglewood Festival to the BBC Proms in scholar Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680), who “…aflame with staggered, London and the , with was seen as the last true Renaissance man: pulsing chords and a further performance at the Cologne Egyptologist, Sinologist, mathematician, Philharmonie, all conducted by Andris desire…” New York Times physicist, volcanologist, music theoretician and Nelsons. Also at , Dean’s a composer. One of the tasks of the Jesuits Pastoral Symphony is paired with

was to seek God’s presence in everything, the “What would a Scheherazade for our own time be Photo: Pete Matthews/Feast of Music Beethoven’s, performed by the Aurora results being shown visually in a ‘theatre of the like? This work offers [Adams’s] answer in the John Adams with Leila Josefowicz in New York Orchestra under Nicholas Collon. world’. In Andriessen’s opera Kircher travels portrait of a beautiful, empowered and fearless through time and space with a twelve-year-old woman confronting oppression… Ms. Josefowicz almost as if it were a spoken text. She brought a As violist, Dean travels widely in Europe this gave a dazzling and inspired performance, backed measure of physicality to the part as well: In June, joining quartets for his Epitaphs for boy, recapturing the memories of a lifetime of by the glittering, rhapsodic and supremely learning and experience. Scheherazade’s disputes with the True Believers, and for classic chamber confident playing of the orchestra under Ms. Josefowicz’s moves were overtly dramatic – repertoire. Performances are scheduled in As well as the world premiere of Theatre of Mr. Gilbert.” New York Times more combative trial lawyer than solo fiddler.” Cologne, Brussels, the Wigmore Hall in the World, the Los Angeles Philharmonic “…a grand dramatic narrative that turns the Wall Street Journal London and the West Cork also presents the US premiere of central character of the Arabian Nights into a Following its premiere in New York the Festival. Back in his native Australia, Dean’s Andriessen’s orchestral work Mysterïen, feminist heroine who rebels against a patriarchal work travelled under the baton of the arrangement of Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées conducted by on society... The four movements introduce composer to the Cincinnati and Atlanta is premiered in Sydney on 29 July under the 15 October. In London Andriessen is Scheherazade and her independent spirit and set Symphony Orchestras, and crosses the baton of Simon Rattle, with Magdalena her in flight; show her in love; have her face a trial celebrated next season at the Barbican with and condemnation; then describe her escape Atlantic in October for performances by the Kozená and the Australian World Orchestra. the series M is for Man, Music & Mystery and journey to freedom…” Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Next season sees Dean as soloist in his (9-13 February). Highlights include the UK New York Classical Review Amsterdam and the London Symphony Concerto with the Royal Scottish premieres of his -winning “The premiere was electrifying, not least because Orchestra. 2016 sees Scheherazade.2 National Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, opera La Commedia, and Mysteriën and the the violinist Leila Josefowicz embraced the idea of reaching Sydney, Helsinki, , Saint and in London within his three-year Artist in suite Rosa’s Horses in a Total Immersion day Scheherazade as a flesh-and-blood character and Louis, Los Angeles and Toronto, all with Association residency with the BBC with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. played the solo line with vehemence and passion, Josefowicz as soloist. Symphony Orchestra. Glanert Gruber into the open… American

HK Gruber introduces his new work for percussion and orchestra, performed at the Preludes Photo: Ronald Knapp BBC Proms and Wien Modern by . Over the past five years Detlev Glanert’s music has been crossing the Atlantic increasingly, with US premieres of Theatrum bestiarum with the Chicago What draws you to percussion in Colin Currie has worked at Symphony, Shoreless River with the National general? refining and rationalising the Symphony in Washington DC, Three Songs Without Percussion is a fundamental element instrumentation, substituting Words at the Cabrillo Festival, and most recently in music relating to rhythm. You can percussion where necessary for Frenesia with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra trace it to the heartbeat itself, but in practical reasons while retaining conducted by David Robertson. Glanert is currently the modern musical world it probably the overall colour and function. working on a series of American Preludes with two of grew out of military drumming. If you I’m grateful for Colin’s specialist the planned three works premiered this year by the listen to a top fife and drum marching expertise, as this means that the San Antonio Symphony in May under Sebastian Lang- band who cares about the bagpipes? piece is performable in terms of Lessing and at the Tanglewood Festival in July with It is the extraordinary variations and the percussion layout on stage, Stefan Asbury on the rostrum. permutations of the drummers that could be more readily grab my ears. I look for the same transportable, and further down Though the American Preludes started as independent fantasy in the percussion writing in the road should be more works, Glanert is viewing the triptych as interlinked, so notated concert works. If it is attractive for a range of soloists. that together they could form a short three-movement supporting the rhythmic activity of the The finalised collection ranges symphony lasting 20 minutes, which will be heard rest of the orchestra it has to be done from conventional orchestral complete in San Antonio next year. From the fanfare- intelligently, and this is a problem percussion, through mallet like opening of the first prelude, the music is cross- I have with a lot of pop or light music keyboards, to more exotic genre in approach, embracing the tradition of

where it merely doubles what can Photo: Lucerne Festival instruments including Chinese American including Ives, Copland and already be heard without the temple gongs, Caribbean Bernstein, nodding the head to , and forging links percussion. At its best, perhaps in a Mahler symphony, How did ideas for into the open… come about? cencerros and South American cajón. with the old European world of waltz and Lied. every triangle stroke or cymbal clash has a purpose and It had a curious and slightly uncanny genesis. How do you view the concerto genre in the 21st This October introduces Glanert’s Brahms-Fantasie to is an essential part of the journey. Composing the opening I opted for a slow, century? American audiences, with Semyon Bychkov How does into the open… stand in relation to your meditative processional, as if the soloist is walking Much the same as I viewed it in the 20th century. conducting the work both with the Chicago Symphony first concerto Rough Music? through a ‘pitch landscape’. Then partway into the I’m drawn to concertos that are symphonic in and the New York Philharmonic. The composer Rough Music was largely concerned with percussive single movement span, I heard of the death of conception, for instance the Stravinsky Violin describes his reworking of Brahms material into his noise-making in all its extrovert forms and was very David Drew and this influenced the course of the Concerto, or the concertos of Prokofieff, or even own idiom as akin to ‘heliogravure’ – the 19th century much a traditional solo vehicle. into the open… is very rest of the piece, but the first section now seems to pieces like Britten’s Our Hunting Fathers or technique where photographs were painted over by different because it is a symphonic piece without a be a premonition of what the work would become. Serenade which I view as concertos for the voice. means of a chemical process, so that the original display of wild drumming, concentrating instead on A broken melody emerges, building upon the ritual I always really wanted to write symphonic works, image appeared redesigned: “We hear Brahms and percussion with distinct pitches, either tuned or opening and trying to form itself into a half- but it was a welcome quirk of fate that I was yet not hear him, we listen to my music but it is not reinforced by orchestral instruments. The percussion remembered lament, with successive interruptions. approached by fellow musicians, such as Ernst quite mine. It is a picture puzzle – a mind game and a part is shadowed in the orchestra, sometimes David was – and still remains – a powerful mentor Kovacic, Gerald Fromme, Yo-Yo Ma and Håkan fantasy in a foreign yet familiar land.” Hardenberger, to write concertos. In my early anticipated, sometimes prolonged with a pedal note. to me as well as a much-loved friend. He signed me A new web introduction to Glanert’s music, including career, when my tonal music was distinctly Together they form unexpected sonorities with bell-like to be published by Boosey & Hawkes which was the an interview at his home in Berlin and extracts from unfashionable, I would rather write a concerto for a attacks. day that changed my life. I view the piece as a stage and concert works, can be viewed at tribute not a memorial, because David is still very friend who would love a piece, than a symphonic What are Colin Currie’s special qualities as a soloist? www.boosey.com/av. much looking over my shoulder, prompting, work for critics or audience who didn’t want to hear I’ve worked with Colin a lot, including many suggesting, encouraging, and in the final pages it. If you have an engaged performer there is a performances of Rough Music, and for me he is I wanted to capture the sense of his spirit going out special chamber music intimacy that goes beyond exceptional as a percussionist for combining two into open space. virtuosity and this inspires the orchestra in turn – qualities. He is a precision time-piece, whose body is a then you have the best conditions for an ideal metronome functioning like a digital computer. Yet in What percussion colours did you select? concerto performance. MacMillan Sym slower, lyrical music he is more like a violinist, cellist or I started with particular sonorities in mind, with each even a singer, drawing out sustained melody from the pitch linked to an instrument so that there is a ‘register James MacMillan’s new Symphony No.4 is unveiled at the percussion instruments. fix’ from low to high. Then, with the score complete, Gruber BBC Proms in London on 3 August, with the BBC Scottish into the open… (2010) 25’ Symphony Orchestra conducted by the work’s dedicatee for percussion and orchestra Donald Runnicles. This is MacMillan’s first composition to bear the title ‘symphony’ for over a decade, following a 20 July 2015 (world premiere) period that has been dominated by a sequence of BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London concertos, and the new single movement score takes a Carter Shepherd Colin Currie/BBC Philharmonic/John Storgårds fresh approach, as described by the composer: 15 November 2015 (Austrian premiere) “My earlier three symphonies employed programmatic final premiere Concerto for Wien Modern, Konzerthaus, Vienna elements, whether exploring poetic imagery or literary Colin Currie/Wiener Symphoniker/Erik Nielsen references, but the new work is essentially abstract. I’m March brought the last Elliott interested here in the interplay of different types of material, Carter premiere – not his final Ensemble following upon a fascination with music as ritual that has work Epigrams, unveiled the stretched from Monteverdi through to Boulez and Birtwistle. year following his death in 2012 Sean Shepherd’s music There are four distinct archetypes in the symphony which – but the only one of his late has been much in can be viewed as rituals of movement, exhortation, petition scores awaiting a first evidence in Paris in and joy. As the work progresses these can be individually performance, his song cycle for recent months, with the developed in an organic way, or can comingle, or they can and ensemble The French premiere of his be opposed and argumentative in a dialectic manner. American Sublime. James orchestral work

Photo: Jeffrey Herman Wanderlust in Radio Levine, who did much to “In broad terms the symphony has a trajectory from slow to France’s Présences champion Carter’s music during his 90s, conducted fast: the pace may step back for some more reflective festival and the world the MET Chamber Ensemble at Carnegie Hall with episodes, but there is a general cranking up of tempo and premiere of his Concerto baritone Evan Hughes. This setting of five poems by Photo: Jamie Kingham energy driving through the single movement. The work as a for Ensemble with the Wallace Stevens sits alongside other works in Carter’s whole is also a homage to Robert Carver, the most Ensemble Intercontemporain conducted by final decade drawing upon poets active in the interwar important Scottish composer of the high Renaissance, Matthias Pintscher. The EIC commission follows the era, such as William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, whose intricate multi-part choral music I’ve loved since success of Shepherd’s Blur for ensemble which the Louis Zukofsky, Marianne Moore and e e cummings. performing it as a student. There are allusions to his 10- group toured in 2012 from Paris to Cologne voice Mass Dum sacrum mysterium embedded into the “In all of the songs, the voice is almost constant, smoothly and Lucerne. cresting and subsiding but ever-present, almost submerged work and at a number of points it emerges across the in sparse textures of wind, brass and percussion. In the tiny The new Concerto for Ensemble is Shepherd’s Life Is Motion, there’s just a dancing lyrical line and rattles of largest-scale work to date, running for 35-minutes Scottish Opera’s new production of James MacMillan’s Ines de Castro tambourine and temple blocks and a quiet cymbal stroke; in and in marked contrast to many of his works that The Woman in Sunshine, the baritone duets lambently with explore image, mood or landscape. Shepherd the , with only a piano and a for company. explains how he has always “been attracted to so- And the alluringly radiant last song, This Is the Thesis..., called absolute music, or music for music’s sake” softens to a tranquil pianissimo, instruments falling away as and how in planning the work “I thought it the voice alone finds the metaphysical ‘merely in living as and paramount to find a way to feature both the where we live’.” New York Times

individuals and the group a whole” while avoiding Photo: Graz Opera/Werner Kmetitsch “This is a dramatic, vibrant work, direct and forceful when so emulating the many concerto examples where much of late Carter is playful and elusive. The composer was sections and solos are invited into the spotlight as The new Ginastera ballet Estancia, drawing on a sensitive and intelligent reader of literature, and the music circus acts which “can be like listening to a grocery Dances from Estancia and Pampeana No.3 and articulates strong yet mysterious reactions to the poems.” list being read out loud”: choreographed by Darrel Toulon, part of a South New York Classical Review American themed triple bill Malambo! at the Graz Recent months have brought the German premiere “Each player’s musical role ebbs and flows nearly Opera premiered in March. of the String Trio in Munich, a homage concert in constantly. At the opening of the piece, the entire Paris by the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Carter ensemble acts as a large bloc, and over the course of features at the Intonations festival in Berlin and at the the first movement, smaller blocks (the percussion, or Royal College of Music in London, and the Chilean the strings, etc.) begin to break and spin off from each composing the piece was less about patent virtuosity premiere of the Flute Concerto in Santiago by other, obsessively preoccupied with their own and more about musical character.” Guillermo Lavado. The Tanglewood Festival includes disparate musical materials. In music in the second A Sunbeam’s Architecture conducted by Oliver and fourth movements, soloists emerge and textures Shepherd’s next project is a Violin Concerto for Leila Knussen and No.5. and dimensions are in flux, ranging from small Josefowciz, co-commissioned by the National chamber groups to full tuttis. The third movement is a Symphony in Washington DC, the ZaterdagMatinee A new journal, Studies Online, devoted to kind of anti-concerto – a sparse texture where no one series in Amsterdam and the BBC. The premiere is the music, life and times of the composer, is inviting person or group is really featured, virtuosically announced for June 2016 at the Kennedy Center in

submissions: please visit www.carterstudies.org. speaking, at all. In the end, the interest while Washington conducted by James Gaffigan. Photo: Scottish Opera/Ken Dundas Simpson Israfel trumpets Panufnik Currier Divisions ’s newest Mark Simpson’s new Inspired by John Gray's book, The Immortalization in Glasgow orchestral work, Divisions, was orchestral concert-opener Commission, Simpson's work explores the obsession premiered by the Seattle Following on from the Israfel was premiered in April with death that lies at the heart of the human Symphony under the baton of Panufnik anniversary by the BBC Scottish experience. For most of our history religion provided a Ludovic Morlot in April. The celebrations last year, Symphony Orchestra in clear explanation for life and the afterlife. But in the late 12-minute score was Glasgow plays host to a major Glasgow, conducted by 19th and early 20th centuries this framework came commissioned as part of an retrospective of the Andrew Litton. The 10-minute under relentless pressure as new ideas – from international centenary

composer’s music at City Photo: Jeffrey Herman score is named after the fiery psychiatry to evolution to Communism – seemed to commemoration of the First Halls on 21 and 22 June, with angel of Koranic and Judeo- suggest that our fate was now in our own hands. World War and travels to Flanders on 12 June for a Photo: Kaupo Kiippas all concerts free of charge. Christian scripture “whose The world premiere of The Immortal is paired in performance in Brussels by the National Orchestra of The programme has been heart-strings are a lute, and who has the sweetest Manchester with Mozart's Requiem, a further reflection Belgium and Andrey Boreyko. Andris Nelsons devised by the BBC in voice of all God’s creatures”. This line from Edgar Allan on death and the beyond. conducts four further performances in Boston and collaboration with _Lukasz Poe's poem Israfel (1831) chimed with the composer Carnegie Hall in New York in October. The Immortal's text was written by Melanie Challenger Borowicz, who recorded the who "wanted to write a piece that sang, morphed, who is librettist for Simpson's forthcoming opera recent acclaimed 8-CD series The work explores the multiple meanings of Divisions,

moved, moved us... something otherworldly, Photo: Camilla Panufnik Pleasure. The premiere production starring Lesley of Panufnik’s works on CPO. both referencing the opposing wartime armies in something transcendental – something to shake us”. Garrett is staged for Opera North by Tim Albery, touring Europe, and the 16th century musical form where Repertoire in the two orchestral programmes by the “…there’s something refreshing about Simpson’s honesty. in April/May 2016 from Leeds to the composer’s native each successive variation employs smaller note values. BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra spans the This music isn’t shy; it doesn’t play hard to get. It isn’t trying city of Liverpool, then to Aldeburgh and the Lyric The composer describes how the trajectory of the composer’s output, from his first symphony Sinfonia to be anything but itself, and its blithe, uninhibited energy Hammersmith presented by The Royal Opera. piece “is from the one meaning of the word to the pays honour to Poe’s “Israfel, who despisest an Rustica, through his most popular work Sinfonia other. It first simply refers to the destructive force unimpassioned song”. Sacra, to his final Symphony No.10. Other works The Angel Israfil in the Wonders of Creation of al-Qazvini whereby we humans work against each other instead include the Violin Concerto and Piano Concerto with of together. World War I is certainly an all too familiar “…26-year-old wunderkind Alexander Sitkovetsky and Ewa Kupiec as soloists, the instance. Divisions also has its military associations, as Mark Simpson is clearly an haunting microtonal Lullaby, the Elgar-inspired Polonia, in a ‘division’ of troops. After an opening of disjunction and the composer’s arrangement of trios by the Polish and fracture, the piece finally settles down into a set of enormous talent…” Daily Telegraph émigré composer Janiewicz who spent the last 30 simple variations. However, this movement towards years of his life resident in Edinburgh. A piano recital _ wholeness proves ephemeral. The drum beat of war is “…a good piece, ambitious in its canvas, short, but of epic couples Panufnik with Lutoslawski, and an never far off.” dimensions, wide-screen in its feel, but with a melodic spirit introductory talk includes Lady Camilla Panufnik and _ at its heart.” The Herald Lukasz Borowicz on the panel. “…tone clusters, fluttering motifs and effective passages for the harp and the brass, many of them disjointed and The Manchester International Festival presents the Of all the Panufnik works discovered afresh in the fragmentary. It’s not hard to discern elements of both warfare world premiere of Simpson's largest-scale work to centenary year, it is the Violin Concerto written for and mourning in the score…” Seattle Times date, a 'modern-day oratorio' entitled The Immortal. that is now travelling most widely. Currier premieres last month included the virtuosic The 30-minute score for orchestra and voices is With its inward and Apollonian mood, eschewing Spark, written for the 12 cellos of the Berlin performed at the Bridgewater Hall on 4 July by conventional virtuosity, it is an ideal meditative work for Philharmonic and unveiled at De Doelen in Rotterdam, baritone Mark Stone, the choral voices of EXAUDI chamber and programmes. In the and Glow, a pianistic exploration of the image of and the BBC Philharmonic, when Simpson’s new past few months it has been heard as far afield as gleaming light at night, first performed by Inon Composer in Association role with the orchestra is Mexico, Turkey, Latvia, Russia and China. The Barnatan at the Wigmore Hall in London. The launched by the baton of Chief Conductor Juanjo summer brings a tour with 20-year-old violinist Chad composer is currently working on a new Concerto for Mena. The new work was commissioned by Hoopes and the Yehudi Menuhin School Orchestra Orchestra, commissioned by the Cincinatti Orchestra Manchester International Festival with support from including the Gstaad Festival, and a seven-concert and the ZaterdagMatinee series in Amsterdam, due for the MIF Commissioning Circle and Sky Arts tour of Australia with Alexander Sitkovetsky and the premiere in November.

Academy Scholarship in association with IdeasTap. Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum Australian Chamber Orchestra. mphony No.4 Offenbach Fantasio on stage centuries in a more discernible form. The polyphony is 1869 – in a sparkling collaboration between young muted and muffled, literally in the distance as it is played singers and members of the . This delicately by the back desks of the , cellos and double witty chamber opera, ideal for festival and basses.” conservatoire performance, describes how a troupe of Following its London premiere, Symphony No.4 will travel to tightrope artists enjoys a windfall, but the performers the US for performances in future seasons by the Pittsburgh eventually abandon their newfound riches to return to Symphony with Manfred Honeck and by the Berkeley the vagabond life. According to the Badische Zeitung, Symphony under Joana Carneiro. American highlights this the production explained why “the great Viennese summer include two performances in June of MacMillan’s literary and theatre connoisseur Karl Kraus thought it large-scale cantata Quickening at the Grant Park Music one of Offenbach’s best works” revealing the Festival in Chicago conducted by Carlos Kalmar, and a composer as “the brilliant musical satirist of the 19th feature at the Cabrillo Festival in August, where century and great-grandfather of Dadaism”. conducts the US premieres of Epiclesis with trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth and No.2 with Photo: Badisches Staatstheater/Falk von Traubenberg Colin Currie. Fantasio at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe MacMillan’s first opera Inés de Castro received its second Chen Luan Tan production by Scottish Opera in January, employing the “Spirit, wit, irony, motor energy and explosive political A highlight of the 2015 BBC Proms season at the composer’s new version with dramatic trims and musical power…” So wrote the Stuttgarter Nachrichten premiere Royal Albert Hall promises to be the all-Bernstein reworkings bringing 20 years of experience to bear on this summing up the new production in Karlsruhe of Qigang Chen’s new orchestral programme conducted by John Wilson on early work. Olivia Fuchs as director offered a powerful female Fantasio, returned to the stage thanks to the work, Luan Tan, follows his 5 September. Taking the theme of ‘stage and screen’, perspective on the historical tale of a Spanish noblewoman Offenbach Edition Keck. The opera tells how the recent scores in drawing upon the programme features music from Leonard destroyed by the violent intrigues of the 14th century lovelorn Fantasio impersonates a court jester to save a folk traditions of Chinese musical Bernstein’s Broadway musicals, including On the Portuguese court, proclaiming a love that travels beyond the princess from an undesirable suitor. The character’s drama, but inhabits new Town, Wonderful Town and West Side Story, together grave. The Times praised “a score of astonishingly vivid and ambiguity was ideal for the composer to explore a emotional territory for the with songs from Candide and 1600 Pennsylvania visceral instrumental ideas” while the Daily Telegraph more overtly Romantic flavour in contrast to his lighter Shanghai-born and Paris-based Avenue, plus the suite from his only film score On the described how “MacMillan clothes this macabre tale in a operetta style, and Jean-Christophe Keck’s sleuthing composer. The 22-minute work Waterfront – soon to be available for live performance richly embroidered musical robe, weaving a complex of has revealed the opera as a missing link between Les builds layers upon a flute melody, complete with the original film. thematic threads into the material. It glitters, it slithers, it Fées du Rhin and The Tales of Hoffmann. Photo: Liu Hui Bolero-like through a sequence rustles, it moans… rare sensuality and dark-hued intensity.” Classic Proms repertoire includes all five Prokofieff “In this version the work is a real discovery. What fascinates of variations, and is a tribute to Chen’s son Yuli, who piano concertos and music by Bartók, Stravinsky, above all alongside the exceptional multifaceted sound is the died tragically in a car crash aged 29. Shostakovich and Britten. Mark Simpson is in the o by Olivia Fuchs, with Stephanie Corley in the title role fantastically will o’ the wisp multi-layeredness of this Opéra- comique… Buffa comedy, romantic melancholy, political As the composer described in an interview with the spotlight as soloist in Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto. appeal… a finely-woven sound tapestry which was never South China Morning Post, the loss of his only child Contemporary music at the Proms includes the world dense or diffuse. The sound simply sparkled with exquisite halted his creativity for a year and the long gestation of premieres of HK Gruber’s into the open… for colours.” Die Deutsche Bühne the new work marked the depth of grief to be percussion and orchestra and James MacMillan’s “Jean-Christophe Keck has re-assembled Offenbach’s overcome: “I wanted a breakthrough of my musical Symphony No.4, the London premiere of Qigang autograph manuscript from sources all over the world. It’s style, which tended to be refined, melancholy, and Chen’s Iris dévoilée, and performances of Brett Dean’s never been clearer why Offenbach in fact regarded himself as soft. So I chose the folkish elements in China’s long trumpet concerto Dramatis personae and Pastoral the exact opposite of Wagner… This music is familiar with theatrical tradition that is strong in rhythm and Symphony. the secrets of simplicity… The colours are dabbed on the dynamics… The overall tone of Luan Tan is energetic canvas with the greatest care, some passages seem almost and happy, and that’s my boy’s personality… my son For all dates and details visit www..co.uk/proms like a sketch. Everything sounds ‘nocturnal’, shot through and I co-exist in the music, which is positive, dynamic with romantic shimmer.” Süddeutsche Zeitung and full of life.” “…an unbelievably imaginative, original, bitter-sweet, music the temple block, with the almost cacophonous In his programme note, Chen explains how Luan Tan often tinged with melancholy, with the most unusual tonal counterpoint of the Chinese cymbals.” colours and sophisticated combination of musical numbers… “was almost a battle with myself. Elements that usually a wonderfully diverse, varied piece, which you want to hear appear in my works, such as long melismatic lines, Luan Tan was premiered at the Hong Kong Cultural again as soon as possible – a real gem…” Salzburger Nachrichten attractive melodic themes or imposing harmonies are Centre in April, with Zhang Xian conducting the Hong almost completely absent, replaced by ceaseless Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Further performances The recent Opera Rara recording of Fantasio conducted rhythmic pattern, leaps of tiny motifs, and gradually are planned in Europe by co-commissioners the Royal by Mark Elder, with virtuoso performances from singers accumulated force through repetitions. Since the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre Brenda Rae and , was selected by critics inspiration was from the traditional form of Luan Tan – Philharmonique de Radio France. This summer brings as a highlight of 2014 and recently won the CD an outgoing musical style in Chinese drama originating the London premiere of Iris devoilée at the BBC category in the International Opera Awards. around 1600 – timbres and characters from this style Proms and a visit by the Guangzhou Youth Orchestra Offenbach’s The Princess of Trébizond returned to the make an inevitable appearance in the work, for to the Berlin Konzerthaus with Chen’s piano concerto Baden Baden Theatre – where it was premiered in instance in the shape of the important role played by Er Huang as part of the Young Euro Classic festival. The centenary of Alberto editor and translator Milena Ginastera in 2016 offers the Jesenská. The Serenata opportunity to explore his focuses upon smaller-scale suites and cantatas which forces with baritone, cello New New distil the colourful essence and chamber ensemble, of his South American setting Chilean poetry by Recordings Publications roots. The two ballets from 2016 Pablo Neruda which for the Boosey Voice Coach his early career have found composer offered a glimpse Violin Concerto Singing in German a home in the concert hall of “a vision of the greatness edited by Mary King thanks to orchestral suites and magic of a whole Andriessen Mysteriën High voice extracting the musical continent”. The soundworld 979-0-060-11944-6 £14.99 highlights. The Suite from Suites & Cantatas is akin to Bartók’s ‘night Glanert Frenesia Medium/low voice Panambí, dating from 1937 music’, with the poems of 979-0-060-11945-3 £14.99 and depicting an ancient Photo: Annemarie Heinrich love and despair delivered Janine Jansen/Royal Guaraní legend, made a name for the young through recitation and chant as well as song. Concertgebouw Orchestra/ Michel van der Aa composer thanks to its Rite of Spring-like primitivism Vladimir Jurowski/ /Xian Zhang Miles Away Ginastera considered the hour-long Turbae ad and vibrant percussion writing. Its balletic successor RCO Horizon 15001 (CD+DVD) for mezzo, violin, double bass Passionem Gregorianam of 1974 his most important Estancia, evoking the Argentinian gauchos in the and piano symphonic work. It grew from plans for an opera pampas, was similarly turned into a 12-minute suite, Score and parts examining the character of Barabbas, evolving into a 13 Anniversaries/Piano Sonata Dances from Estancia, whose insistent rhythms and 979-0-2025-3324-6 £17.50 large-scale concert work for soloists, mixed chorus, Alexandre Dossin traditional folk melodies have ensured it has remained children’s choir and orchestra. Infused throughout with Naxos 8.559756 Leonard Bernstein a staple of the orchestral repertoire to this day. Gregorian chant, the work’s trajectory is from the Broadway Piano Solos Ginastera’s Cantata para América mágica is one of expectant Hosannas of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, 979-0-051-24683-0 £9.99 Angel Fighter/Virelai/ the most extraordinary works in his output, scored for through the tormented Passion to the darkness of Enrico Chapela In Broken Images soprano and an orchestra of 53 percussion Golgotha and back to the light of the Resurrection. Melate Binario instruments, performed by 11 percussionists, The chorus is the violent crowd at the centre of the Andrew Watts/ Guitar score 2 timpanists, 2 pianists and a celeste player. drama while also offering collective reflections via Old Jeffrey Lloyd Roberts/ 979-0-2025-3220-1 £13.50 Returning to the pre-Columbian world of Panambí, Testament texts such as Psalms and Lamentations. BBC Singers/ the 25-minute work sets texts by Mayan, Aztec and Composed ten years before his death, this summatory / Brett Dean Incan mystics, moving from dawn, through love and work turned out to be Ginastera’s final score to David Atherton Eleven Oblique Strategies war, to the death of the ancient world. The premiere employ the human voice. NMC D211 Cello score 979-0-2025-3397-0 £9.99 in Washington DC in 1961 caused a sensation and, Antal Doráti together with String Quartet No.2, established the Cello Concerto composer’s career in North America. Raphael Wallfisch/BBC National Orchestra of Wales/ Violin Concerto Music from two of Ginastera’s three , Gábor Takács-Nagy Study score composed in the mid-1960s at the height of his Nimbus NI5919 79-0-060-11982-8 £24.99 Deutsch Reduction for violin and piano neo-expressionist period, can be heard in 25-minute Irving Fine concert compilations. The Sinfonia Don Rodrigo, 979-0-060-12593-5 £18.99 Complete orchestral works scored for soprano and orchestra, extracts three arias portrait CD Clarinet Trio Toccata Concertante/Notturno/Serious Song/ from the opera sung by the heroine Florinda, whose Score and parts Blue Towers/Diversions for Orchestra/Symphony seduction by her supposed protector Don Rodrigo A new portrait disc of 979-0-060-12624-6 £23.99 precipitated the end of the Visigoth kingdom in Spain. music by Bernd Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose Piano Trio Music from Bomarzo is purely orchestral, while the Richard Deutsch BMOP 1401 Score and parts (Kairos 0013352) Cantata Bomarzo is for narrator, baritone and Gerald Finzi 979-0-060-12982-7 £23.99 orchestra. Both works transport the listener back to introduces listeners to Five Bagatelles/Elegy/ James MacMillan the Renaissance court of Duke Bomarzo, beset by the madcap virtuosity Romance/Diabelleries/ The Keening violent passions, jealousy and hallucinatory visions. of this young Austrian composer who has Introit/Interlude/ Study score In the early 1970s Ginastera composed two major won major prizes and Prelude and Fugue 979-0-060-12902-5 £24.99 works setting love poetry, reflecting his new already enjoyed a Cologne Chamber Soloists St Luke Passion relationship with Aurora Nátola which had broken the focus at the Wien MDG 903 Vocal score compositional silence following the banning of Modern festival. The three featured works were written Robin Holloway 979-0-060-12978-0 £14.99 Bomarzo in Argentina. The cantata Milena, for soprano for Ensemble ‘die reihe’, the Arditti Quartet and Trio Stomp (with Fate and Elvira) and orchestra, employs Spanish translations of letters Klangforum Wien in close succession between 2011 Richard Watkins/Paul Watkins/Huw Watkins Study score which the composer’s favourite writer, Franz Kafka, and 2013, and the triptych can be viewed as a unified NMC D203 979-0-060-12223-1 £22.99 sent as passionate communications to the Czech creative statement. Tod Machover Tryst Deutsch employs an approach to material and timbre Death and the Powers Study score that is constantly surprising and ear-catching, as if a Dallas Opera/Diane Paulus/Nicole Paiement 979-0-060-12242-2 £24.99 succession of sudden images or situations is burned Buy Blu-ray online from cdbaby.com Meredith Monk onto the retina. As Gerhard Koch explains in the CD British classics Nightfall notes: “numerous quasi-crypto-dramatic mini-scenes James MacMillan Choral score or even brief character motifs appear as virtuosic St Luke Passion 979-0-051-48274-0 £3.99 gestural kaleidoscopes. They sometimes recall Radio Philharmonic surrealist and Dadaist picture-puzzles – not to be and Choir/National Youth Choir/ made out clearly, of course, but always revealing Radio Rewrite exceptional fantasies of agility that occasionally Challenge Classics 72671 Study score approach maximum playable speed…” Oboe Concerto/One 979-0-051-09777-7 £18.99 Mad Dog for ensemble may at one level depict a Nicholas Daniel/ Mike Svoboda canine day, starting under the heat of the noonday Britten Sinfonia/James MacMillan Dowland Suite sun, moving through evening and dreamtime, to the Harmonia Mundi 807573 for brass quintet irritation of the new morning. But the surface of the Score and parts Boosey & Hawkes continues to mine its British music music is in constant flux with underlying zoomorphic 979-0-2025-3403-8 £47.50 archive and collaborate with composer estates to transformations as Deutsch notes: “Man likes to publish hidden gems by leading 20th century humanize the dog. Or is it rather the dog who composers. Hot off the press is the first publication of ‘dogisizes’ the man?” The strangeness of the animal Gál behind wire Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Four Hymns as a study world also plays its part in String Quartet No.2 in “A compelling read from start Newfound interest in Hans Gal’s music has resulted in score of the version for tenor, viola and string which the four players leave their natural habitats to to finish.” So wrote BBC a growing number of broadcasts and recordings orchestra (979-0-060-12666-6). This 17-minute work take on percussive roles. Music Magazine reviewing including all four symphonies released on the Avie label. shares the mystical, meditative world of the Tallis the new translation of Hans He was subject of BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Fantasia and could be effectively programmed by The ensemble work Dr Futurity is named after the Gál’s diary of summer 1940 Week last year, and his Scottish post-war connection chamber orchestras with that work, or with Finzi’s Dies science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick and the author’s entitled Music Behind (working as a lecturer at Edinburgh University) is natalis or Britten’s Serenade. visionary worlds and dystopias provide a context for viewing our own planet, such as in the opening …trip Barbed Wire (Toccata Press increasingly celebrated, with recent performances by As Hugh Cobbe notes in his preface to the score, the – from Mars to here. The central Chimaera has an £29.95). Gál (1890-1987) the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Queen’s Hall first performance of the Four Hymns was planned for eerie calm, while the final Red Alert signals a calamity sought refuge in Britain from plays host to a Gál programme of music for voices and the Three Choirs Festival in 1914, but the outbreak of in which a frantic accordion adds to the horror. Nazi Germany but found strings on 7 June and a two day chamber music event the war meant it was not heard in public until 1920. Impressive performances on the Kairos disc are by himself interred in camps by is planned in Aberdeen next March. Vienna, the city of The tenor soloist sings three historic hymn texts by Klangforum Wien conducted by Enno Poppe. a panicky Churchill decreeing the arrest of recent his youth and early career, presents a concert on 16 Jeremy Taylor, Isaac Watts and Richard Crashaw, emigrés as ‘enemy aliens’ because of the threat of June in the series Echo des Unerhörten at the ORF together with Robert Bridges’s version of the Evening Deutsch is currently completing an Organ Concerto for German invasion. The composer was imprisoned not Radio Café in honour of the composer’s 125th birthday Hymn dating back to the early Greek church. The Four premiere at the Musikverein in November by Wolfgang only with other Jewish musicians such as the year. For full information visit www.hansgal.com. Hymns therefore share affinities with George Herbert’s Kogert and the Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien eminent Schubert scholar Otto Erich Deutsch, poetry in the Five Mystical Songs, composed by under Stefan Asbury. His new ‘twin’ for Bartók’s composer Egon Wellesz and string players who were Sonata for Two and Percussion, is unveiled at Vaughan Williams a decade earlier. to form the Amadeus Quartet, but also with recently Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in August. captured German soldiers who were Nazi Aldwych House, 71-91 Aldwych, From the same pre-war era is Herbert Howells’s sympathisers. epic Violin Sonata in B minor, published on sale for the London WC2B 4HN first time (979-0-060-12766-3). The work was Classical Music describes how “his diary conveys the Telephone: +44 (0)20 7054 7200 Recent Gerald Finzi publications include a new grim conditions of daily life and the muddled Promotion email: [email protected] composed in 1911 as part of his entry application for Hire email: [email protected] edition of the moving Requiem da Camera, written as inefficiency of the camps… Written in a vivid and the Royal College of Music and lay untouched in the Website: www.boosey.com/composers library for a century before being prepared for a memorial tribute to his teacher Ernest Farrar who engaging style… an essential volume on this David Allenby Editor David J Plumb ARCA PPSTD Designer performance and publication by Paul Spicer. With a lost his life in the First World War. Christian Alexander’s fascinating composer… Unreservedly recommended.” Printed in England span of 40 minutes, the sonata is a major addition to edition is available as study score and vocal score, In addition to the diary the volume includes an the violin repertoire, demonstrating the prevalent together with a reduction of the chamber orchestra for interview with the composer, a memoir by his influence of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius upon the organ by Francis Jackson. Similar organ daughter Eva Fox-Gál, and an article by historian young Howells and only a few hints of Vaughan accompaniment versions have been created by Richard Dove. An accompanying CD includes Williams’s new style that was to become such a vital Robert Gower for In Terra Pax and For St Cecilia, and performances of two works composed by Gál while in ingredient. The first performance finally took place in John Ireland’s These Things Shall Be is in preparation, camps near Liverpool and on the Isle of Man: the 2013 with Rupert Marshall-Luck and Matthew Rickard all encouraging performance of these works by smaller Huyton Suite for flute and two violins, and songs for and is availale on disc (EMR CD019-20). choirs without recourse to orchestra. the satirical review What a Life.