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June 2008 2008/2 Birtwistle The Minotaur Mackey Harrison Birtwistle’s Included in this issue: in Manchester thrilling new reveals Andriessen The music of Steven Interview exploring opera the half-man, half-beast Mackey is celebrated in on Dante’s Commedia As the Sunday Times noted at the Covent Manchester between 16 Garden premiere on 15 April, “Harrison and 18 June, with 13 of his Birtwistle’s latest opera is a piece he might works performed across have been expected to write. The Minotaur, to three days. The Spring- words by David Harsent, was commissioned Loaded event combines by the Royal Opera House and premiered concerts by Psappha, the Photo: Alice Arnold there under Antonio Pappano, and is like a BBC Philharmonic and summary of Birtwistle’s preoccupations. students at the Royal Northern College of Greek mythology has rarely been far from his Music. Highlights include the UK premieres thoughts. Monstrous beings such as the of Measures of Turbulence for eight guitars Minotaur have regularly featured in his and of the electric cello concerto … and labyrinths such as the one Photo: Bill Cooper Banana/Dump Truck with its dedicatee Fred Daedalus made for King Minos, to cage the John Tomlinson as The Minotaur in Birtwistle's opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Sherry as soloist. Also in the final orchestral Minotaur, have provided Birtwistle with a concert, conducted by Clark Rundell, are principle of form.” his thoughts only in his dreams, and acquires the “The music begins like flowing magma, muffled Lost and Found, Turn the Key and Eating Cherubini power of speech only after the fatal blow has and dark, forming itself frequently à la Alban Berg Greens, offering a showcase of Mackey’s Award-winning edition in landed.” The Guardian into a lengthy adagio... A few times there is “The most powerful and exuberant and zany style. Vienna and “The moment when the beast stands revealed is a opportunity for excessive, indeed explosive visions original opera yet to have brilliant coup de théâtre. The drama is now both of sound using the powerful range of percussion, Mackey is currently completing a violin wonderful and dreadful; as more victims are raped particularly in depicting the murderous acts of the concerto, Beautiful Passing, commissioned emerged this century.” beast… Even the end of the Minotaur is dazzlingly The Scotsman and gored, blood upon blood, the crowd intones by the BBC and Saint Louis Symphony for reaffirmed in this manner… Compared with a drugged and ecstatic chorale brutally shattered Leila Josefowicz, which promises to travel “Blood-drenched and sorrowful, majestic and raw, by a screeching chorus of winged furies. Here the somewhat fussy myth adaptations such as Ulisse by Dallapiccola or some of Henze’s late works, through both antagonistic and tranquil The Minotaur plunders the extremes of human music’s crazy momentum displays Birtwistle’s territories. HK Gruber conducts the world nature in music of coruscating, storming beauty… talents at magnificently full stretch… the evening is Birtwistle demonstrates absolutely the hand of a heady, heavyweight storyteller-in-sound.” premiere in Manchester with the BBC Low woodwind, sensuous strings and the spangly a glittering success.” The Independent clatter of the cimbalom colour the orchestra in Frankfurter Rundschau Philharmonic on 24 October and David sombre, glistening tones. The rewards are at once “He is such a master of orchestration – he Robertson the US premiere performances in unsettling and exhilarating… the applause, though constantly takes the ear to new places, producing “It is that rare beast – Saint Louis on 14 and 15 November. deserved by all, was primarily for yet further proof brilliant colours. And no one knows better how to build a tension, hold it, resolve it. There is hugely a successful new opera.” Mackey describes how “the governing of Birtwistle’s epic creative clarity.” Evening Standard impressive writing for the slaughter of the Bloomberg News metaphor of the concerto has to do with the “…in the Minotaur himself, a role specially innocents, shriek upon shriek cutting a swathe violin gaining control of its own destiny, conceived for the bass John Tomlinson, Birtwistle through the orchestra. Elsewhere, keening high With the premiere of The Minotaur and two Marsalis productions of Punch and Judy, London competing with, commanding and ultimately has created one of his most complex and brass over strings and low brass produces a letting go of the orchestra. This metaphor Leading jazz composers fascinating protagonists… It is a dramatic tour de mesmerizing effect. The work is broken by three was the epicentre of Birtwistle attention this sign new contracts force for Tomlinson, who handles it superbly and orchestral toccatas, again with hauntingly beautiful spring. The operatic focus shifts abroad later arises from my experience, during the gives eloquence to a creature who can articulate material.” Opera America in the year with the Italian premiere of The composition of the piece, watching my Last Supper as part of a Birtwistle feature at mother gain control of her destiny to the Settembre Musica in Turin and Milan point of predicting the day she would let go, (4-11 September), and the German premiere predicting the day of her death. Her last of The Io Passion at the Kammeroper words to me were: “Please tell everyone I New Composers (7-16 November). had a beautiful passing”. Qigang Enrico Chen b.1951 Chapela b.1974 Boosey & Hawkes is pleased Mexican composer Enrico to announce a publishing Chapela has signed a Rachmaninoff contract with Chinese publishing agreement with composer Qigang Chen, who Boosey & Hawkes covering Rautavaara this year directs the music at his existing output and future concerto from symphony Tapestry of Life premiere the opening ceremony of the works. Chapela is one of the Dances and Matsuev performing the recently and new CDs Photo: Frank Harders Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. most exciting young talents rediscovered Suite in D minor and Fugue in The new agreement covers Chen’s future to emerge from Latin America, with a D minor, as heard on his acclaimed Sony compositions, while his earlier works remain growing number of international BMG recording (88697155912). published by Billaudot and Durand. performances and commissions. Current projects include a rock trio concerto for the The initial idea to create Piano Concerto Qigang Chen was studying music as a Dresden Sinfoniker for premiere in “No.5” came from record producer Pieter teenager at the Central Conservatory of September, a new work for the NYDD van Winkel who was responsible for its first Music at the outbreak of the Cultural Ensemble in Tallinn, and a commission from recording on Brilliant Classics (8900) with Revolution in 1966. He was confined for the Los Angeles Philharmonic for soloist Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy, the three years and underwent “ideological re- performance in the Green Umbrella new Janá÷ek Philharmonic Orchestra and education”, yet went on learning composition music series in 2009. Theodore Kuchar. A reviewer in FonoForum despite social and political anti-cultural praised the skill and sensitivity of pressures. In 1977 the state reopened entry Chapela studied guitar and composition at Warenberg’s arrangement: to the Conservatory and he studied there for the Centro de Investigación y Estudios de la “With the exception of occasional small five years with Luo Zhongrong. Música in Mexico City, and has combined activities as a guitarist with further studies at retouchings, Warenberg leaves In 1983 Chen won a postgraduate contest to the University of Paris at St Denis. His Rachmaninoff’s tonal language, his melody, travel abroad, and for four years was musical style fuses different geographic style of writing and instrumentation, Messiaen’s only student after the master’s traditions and musical soundworlds, so that Photo: Peter Joslin/ArenaPAL untouched. And in the newly-added solo retirement from the Paris Conservatoire. He contemporary techniques happily coexist This autumn brings the first concert part, he demonstrates a perfect sensitivity for described how Chen’s compositions “show with minimalist, jazz or rock idioms. This performance of a new arrangement of the work with his characteristic piano writing. real inventiveness, very great talent and a total dialogue of cultures is not ‘world music’, but Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No.2, It sounds from beginning to end like “real” assimiliation of Chinese thinking with rather a place where jam sessions can meet transformed into a three-movement piano Rachmaninoff. All in all, Warenberg must be European musical concepts.” Chen has complex metrical games, where the anarchic concerto with a duration of 42 minutes. credited with having perfectly assimilated received commissions from Radio France, drive of favela buskers can collide with the Rachmaninoff was himself ranked among an Rachmaninoff’s sound world, and he has Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Stuttgart chants of football fans. elite group of expert piano transcribers succeeded in creating a concerto not only RSO, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal together with Liszt, Godowski and Busoni, based on his music, but also in his style.” and the Koussevitzky Foundation. He was Chapela’s symphonic poem Ínguesu has travelled widely since its premiere by the and the new arrangement by Russian-born The Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation is composer-in-residence at the Strasbourg performer and composer Alexander Philharmonic from 2004 to 2006. Carlos Chavez Symphony Orchestra in supporting a project by the BBC 2003, including a North American tour last Warenberg similarly aims to recast this Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda to Works that have travelled internationally autumn by the Philharmonic Orchestra of much-loved orchestral music into a form for reassess the composer’s Symphony No.1, include Iris devoilée (2001) for orchestra, the Americas. The Dallas News described performance by virtuoso pianists. scarred for a century since its disastrous female voices and Chinese instruments, how the work “transmutes the cheers and The Paris premiere of Piano Concerto “No.5” premiere in 1897. A new Chandos recording available on a highly successful Virgin jeers of the 1999 Mexico vs. Brazil soccer at the Salle Pleyel on 21 November features is released this month and the orchestra Classics disc (7243 5 45549 2 6), and Raise match into an Ivesian collage of chatter, Rachmaninoff specialist Denis Matsuev and presents the symphony on 11 August within the Red Lantern (2002), a full-evening ballet blast and slide.” The work can be heard on the Orchestra Philharmonique de Radio the BBC Proms’s Rachmaninoff feature. All for National Ballet of China directed by a CD Baby disc entitled Antagónica, France conducted by Vladimir Spivakov. The three symphonies can be heard in the Zhang Yimou. Future projects include an together with the saxophone quartet La all-Rachmaninoff programme, presented in London Symphony Orchestra’s orchestral work for the Hong Kong Mengambrea and Lo Nato es Neta for rock collaboration with the Serge Rachmaninoff Rachmaninoff weekend conducted by Valery Philharmonic and a second ballet. trio and acoustic quintets. Foundation, also includes Symphonic Gergiev (20-21 September). Andriessen La Commedia Adam discusses his new opera, premiered in Amsterdam on 12 June. authentic When was your interest in Dante’s La How did you select the texts from the Are there any special features in the orchestration? Commedia first kindled? complete Commedia? The orchestra is a little smaller than my typical large I’ve had an ongoing interest in Dante The first principle was to select ensemble of the 1980s: triple winds, double brass, Giselle for close on 30 years. At the time of sequences of material in the same two pianos, two percussionists and strings without writing De Tijd I was researching order as in Dante’s book. So the first violas. As well as a harp there is a plucked combo of Following the launch last year of the new Boosey & possible texts in Florence. The work two scenes take us from the City of cimbalom, guitar and bass guitar which give some Hawkes performing edition of Adolphe Adam’s finally ended up using a text by St Dis down through Inferno to the sections of the score a distinctive, perhaps medieval Giselle, the version by David Garforth is being taken Augustine, but I did retain as a motto deepest regions of hell where we colour. I haven’t gone out of my way to create a up as the definitive way to perform the music of this a phrase from the Paradiso section of meet Lucifer in the third part. This is period sound as I did with Writing to Vermeer, though ballet classic as the composer intended. Commedia that describes “gazing on where Adam’s Fall is described. We I did decide against having synthesiser keyboards Acclaimed when created for the ballet of the Teatro the point beyond which all times are then pass upward through the lighter- which wouldn’t have sounded right. In addition to the alla Scala Milan, the version has already formed the present”. hearted Garden of Earthly Delights orchestra, I asked Anke Brouwer to provide a series basis of new Giselle choreographies at the Ballet de until we reach Paradise in the final of electronic soundscapes. Sometimes these are Nice and at the Theater Hagen by Monique How did the idea for a full-length section, Eternal Light. heard alone and sometimes they add a particular Loudieres and Ricardo Fernando respectively. opera come into being? coloration to the orchestral sound. I’d always wanted to return to While many may view the traditional ‘corrupt’

Photo: Francesca Patella How do the comic and serious Dante’s Florence by writing in Italian, elements balance in the work? How does the opera fit into your output – is it in some versions of Giselle as overblown and inauthentic, the and this came about through hearing the singer This is quite a complicated question to answer. Dante ways summatory? Wesfalenpost praised the new staging in Hagen as Cristina Zavalloni, who for me was the first since would simply have viewed comedy in the Greek Well, that’s really for others to judge. It has occupied “a refreshing, up-to-date, yet approachable Cathy Berberian to produce the right vernacular sense where it is a form of serious drama that has a my thoughts for many years, and perhaps there are version… greeted with bravo calls and a standing quality. I wrote Racconto dall’inferno for her, a happy ending. The adjective ‘Divine’ was only added more cross references and allusions to other music in ovation”. The edition follows a review of manuscripts grotesque scherzo setting texts from the Inferno to Dante’s title in the 16th century, some 200 years this score. So this is different to my usual approach of at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and La section of La Commedia, and the idea of a full- after the book’s completion around 1320, so the creating self-contained sections of music. I have Scala Milan, not only returning to Adam’s original evening stagework grew from there, with Racconto as religious aspect of Commedia is really only within an found myself examining earlier pieces dealing with lighter-textured orchestration true to the French the second of the five scenes. overall social, political and essentially humanist similar issues, but I haven’t created a grand summing Romantic ballet style, but also restoring options for up. Even in the final section which could have finished music cut for the first performance. High-quality new What in essence does opera mean to you? framework. This is why I view the text as being more with celestial choirs, I decided on an amusing surprise materials are available on hire, including a fully The nineteenth century opera tradition has never concerned with our life on earth than with any afterlife, and Dante’s comic vehicle for this observation was finale like in Don Giovanni or Gianni Schicchi. The kids compatible piano score in addition to the orchestral meant a lot to me – my favourite operas are the Bach run back onto stage to sing this message from Dante: score and parts. Passions. I’ve probably spent more of my time irony, which really appealed to me. Irony is what generates the drama in my opera – a satirical view of “These are my notes and if you don’t understand watching movies, whether Tom and Jerry or Fellini. them, you’ll never understand the Last Judgement”. But I have always been interested in theatre, and its heaven and hell in our everyday life. There are comic relations with other artforms including singing. I’ve and serious sides to this irony which play off each worked in theatres from the age of 14 and was other in a dialectic manner. The lightness is balanced Andriessen La Commedia (2004-08) particularly active in this area in the 1970s with the with melancholy – something I also hear in the music Film opera in five parts Baal group, which tried to recapture the spirit of of Stravinsky and Poulenc - and I’ve tried to offset Brecht and Weill. This led to all manner of mixed- serious with popular music, such as in the swinging Texts by Dante, Vondel and others, and from the Old media collaborations including film and dance as well jazz clarinet music that leads us into the Garden of Testament as music. Earthly Delights. Electronic inserts by Anke Brouwer You’ve titled La Commedia a ‘film opera’ and are How did you decide on the vocal forces for the Commissioned by the Opera working with director Hal Hartley. opera? I’ve always been more interested in working with Reinbert de Leeuw Conductor Yes, we were brought together for the first time in Hal Hartley Director 2000 on a short film with music called The New singing actors than acting singers. So the three Math(s), and then on a theatre project Inanna. My principal voices in the opera are not conventional Beatrice: Claron McFadden experience working with visual artists is that you can types. As well as being a contemporary music Dante: Cristina Zavalloni suggest a few images but largely you have to allow specialist, Claron McFadden who sings Beatrice is a Lucifer: Jeroen Willems Photo: Theater Hagen their mind’s eye to work – it was the same baroque singer with a background in soul and gospel. Giselle at the Theater Hagen, danced to the new performing Asko Ensemble/Schoenberg Ensemble/ edition of Adam’s ballet. collaborating with Robert Wilson for De Materie and Cristina Zavalloni worked first in jazz and experimental music and brings a unique timbre and Jeroen Willems Synergy Vocals with Peter Greenaway. With Hal Hartley I’ve spent Netherlands Opera most time discussing moods and my choices of texts, is foremost an actor but is also a great performer of and how ideas are linked to the paintings of heaven the songs of Jacques Brel. Rather than personifying 12 June 2008 (world premiere) and hell by Hieronimus Bosch. The film footage is the roles of Dante and Lucifer, those two singers 14/15/16/17/18 June 2008 totally contemporary, but I’ve seen a section where a function more as commentators. Then there is a small Holland Festival New opera hig gang of street musicians is a perfect modern chorus of eight solo voices, and a children’s choir that Koninklijk Theater Carré, Amsterdam equivalent to a Bosch painting. appears in the final scene. www.dno.nl Symphonic suites and operatic interludes provide concert audiences with a dramatic introduction to the latest operas.

Symphony Orchestra in the 2009/10 season. The John Adams German premiere takes place on 14 March 2009 with Doctor Atomic Symphony (2007) 25’ the Rundfunkchor and Sinfonierchester Berlin MacMillan Chin Highlights drawn by John Adams from Doctor Atomic have conducted by Simon Halsey. now reached their final form as a single-movement St John Passion The vocal forces for the St John Passion are skilfully - symphony. This version drew unanimous praise when layered: a small, plainsong-inflected ensemble Rocana performed by the Saint Louis Symphony in February. “James MacMillan has delivered a St John Passion narrates events as if from a timeless illuminated “As 25 minutes of gripping instrumental theater, the Doctor Atomic that stirred its premiere audience to a standing manuscript, while the full chorus switches between On 3 March the Orchestre ovation.” So wrote The Independent, witnessing the Symphony gives the opera a tremendous amount to live up to. The the mob outbursts of the turba and a series of Symphonique de Montréal opening doesn’t so much set a scene as pin listeners to their chairs spontaneous public response to this major new reflective motets. The dramatic core of the work is premiered Unsuk Chin’s with a high-impact wave of sound... What follows constitutes Adams’ choral-orchestral work, composed as an 80th focused on the baritone role of Christ, “sung with new orchestral piece most texturally arresting orchestral work yet.” The Star Ledger birthday present for Sir Colin Davis at the helm of the Rocana-, the Sanskrit title awesome authority by Christopher Maltman… A new production of Doctor Atomic by Penny Woolcock, who London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. The first describing a ‘room of light’ MacMillan gives Christ elaborate, declamatory directed the award-winning film of The Death of Klinghoffer, performance was clearly as significant for the religious here transformed into the passages full of anger and bitterness. This is not a opens at the Metropolitan Opera in in October and as for the musical community, as noted by The composer’s kaleidoscopic saviour going submissively to the cross, but a travels to English National Opera in London in February 2009. Observer: “It is not often you see the Archbishop of soundworld. Following the furious rebel” (The Observer). The original Peter Sellars production of the opera will be Canterbury lead a standing ovation… Clearly, the premiere Kent Nagano “Davis is a wily conductor, and never have his instincts released on DVD by Opus Arte in September. archbishop shared the ecstatic audience’s view that a toured with the orchestra to great new work had entered the repertoire”. been more accurate. For MacMillan has come up with a masterly work that has all the hallmarks of a 21st-century Carnegie Hall in New York Unsuk Chin classic… MacMillan is a master of ratcheting up the and conducted further snagS & Snarls (2003-04) 14’ tension, building the drama, his subtle use of syncopation performances in April with adding to the effect. But he can also turn his hand to the the Chicago Symphony Fantasy-filled scenes from Unsuk Chin’s opera Alice in most lyrical, vulnerable music. There is a tremendous Photo: Eric Richmond/ArenaPAL Orchestra. The work was Wonderland have proved popular in concert as snags & sense of wonder for Christ’s “This is my body” passage, co-commissioned by the Bayerische Staatsoper, Snarls. These five songs, premiered by the Los Angeles and again for the Crucifixus, a dream-like sequence that Seoul Philharmonic and the Beijing Festival, and Opera Orchestra, reveal an ideal match between the seems to exist in another dimension… There is another performances are scheduled for Beijing in October wordplay in Lewis Carroll’s text and the musical games in mesmerizing passage in “Jesus and his Mother” where the and Munich in February 2009. Chin’s music, whether the pointillist teardropping syllables of two choruses sing together, interweaving their lines with Who in the world am I, the violent assault and cries of Speak great beauty.” “…a continuous 20-minute score Chin has crafted as a field roughly to your little Boy, or the Mad Tea-Party setting of Musical America of unquiet aural dreams. She is fascinated by the volatility of Twinkle, twinkle, little Star. orchestral sounds and how they evolve into other, seemingly unrelated musical events, travelling in waves as light does. The Bavarian State Opera production of Alice in Wonderland “A riveting and remarkable Her huge orchestral palette is laced with all manner of is now available as a DVD from Unitel Classica, with a cast work; a new-minted classic” percussion, including Japanese temple bells and a including Sally Matthews, Dietrich Henschel and Gwyneth The Scotsman xylophone of stones. At times, she employs it as sparingly as Jones stealing the show as the Queen of Hearts. a neo-pointillist painter; at other times, violent chords Photo: Matt Stuart “A blazing blockbuster, a piece as fiercely communicative ricochet around the brasses, turning the ensemble into a Brett Dean James MacMillan with Sir Colin Davis at rehearsals. mechanistic juggernaut.” Chicago Tribune as anything that the 48-year-old MacMillan has written Moments of Bliss (2004) 25’ before…. The end of Part One was masterly: no “The piece is a knockout. It begins with a gnarly, clattering, In recent years Colin Davis has championed loudspeaker wailing as the Crucifixion loomed, but a Brett Dean’s virtuoso orchestration and subtle blending of MacMillan’s music, making the composer a natural explosion…Then comes a pattern of background resigned, pianissimo meditation, threaded with keening harmonies, always simmering, eerily quiet and pervasive. But electronic elements can be heard to full advantage in choice to create this special score. Following the instrumental solos.” The Times throughout the work, jolts of energy keep happening: leaping Moments of Bliss. The four studies towards his Peter Carey London premiere and recording for the LSO Live “The compelling performance transcended the score’s lines, ominous 12-tonish themes that pierce the tranquil opera encompass dark satire, cardiac catastrophe, a vision of label, Davis will conduct performances of the St John significant technical demands to underline the depth of background buzz, outbursts of wailing brasses and metallic hell as a game-show, and a moving elegy. The suite has been Passion with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in feeling and tremendous emotional impact that MacMillan strings that come at you like a musical flamethrower.” performed by Markus Stenz with the Symphony, Amsterdam on 8/9 April 2009, and with the has achieved in this powerful score.” Daily Telegraph New York Times Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne and the BBC Philharmonic. Cherubini New jazz composers original Médée Martin‡ Wynton Paquito First performances in Vienna and Brussels of Cherubini’s Médée in the new Critical Edition by Heiko Revisited 2009 Marsalis D’Rivera Cullmann have been attracting rave reviews for this Boosey & Hawkes Leading Latin American radical reappraisal of an operatic masterpiece. The 50th anniversary of the has expanded its composer, clarinetist and importance of the edition was recognised when the composer’s death roster of jazz saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera new performance materials won the 2008 Opera composers with the has signed a new exclusive award from the German Music Publishers’ Association. Worldwide celebrations of the music of Martin‡ are signing of a new agreement with Boosey & Musical America described how Médée has been planned for 2009, the 50th anniversary year of the exclusive contract Hawkes to publish all of his revealed afresh and successfully reclaimed: “The composer’s death. Events in the Czech Republic with Wynton compositions worldwide. orchestrations are heroically symphonic, the vocal include a major feature at the Spring Festival, Marsalis, including writing masterful whether in aria or ensemble, and, at Fluent in multiple musical operas staged by the National Theatre Opera representation of this just under two hours in Heiko Cullmann’s new critical languages, Paquito D’Rivera has companies in Prague and Brno, and concerts to leading musician's edition, the opera makes for taut, compelling theatre.” had an enormous impact on celebrate the opening of the Martin‡ Centre in the works for rental and

Photo: R Andrew Lepley composer’s home town of Poli÷ka in April 2009. The

Photo: © Jazz at Lincoln Center American music across Latin, grand rights. Wynton jazz, and classical genres. Having begun his career as symphonies feature prominently in the plans of the Marsalis spoke of the new agreement: “I am a performer with the National Symphony of Cuba as a Czech Philharmonic, and a new recorded cycle has delighted to be published by Boosey & Hawkes and teenager, he went on to establish the Orquesta just been released on by the Prague to be in the company of such distinguished classical Cubana de Música Moderna as well as Irakere, Symphony, who will turn their attention to concerts and jazz composers.” whose explosive mixture of jazz, rock, classical, and featuring the concertos in 2009. Wynton Marsalis has been hailed as the most traditional Cuban music proved a ground-breaking Another centre of focus will be Switzerland where the outstanding jazz musician and trumpeter of his addition to the Cuban musical scene. exiled composer spent his last years as a guest of generation, as well as one of the world’s top Paquito D’Rivera was recently awarded the Paul Sacher. Performing organisations in Basel are classical trumpeters. Artistic Director of Jazz at prestigious Frankfurt Music Prize 2008 and a joining together to present the Martin‡ Festival Days Lincoln Center, Marsalis is a big band leader in the GRAMMY for Best Latin Jazz Album: Funk Tango - in October 2009, co-ordinated by the Institute of tradition of Duke Ellington, a gifted composer, a Photo: Armin Bardel his ninth GRAMMY award. In addition to his work as Musicology. Czech performers will be much in devoted advocate for the arts, and a tireless and Médée in the new edition at the Theater an der Wien. a performer and recording artist, he has been equally evidence internationally, including Ji‰íB†lohlávek inspiring educator. celebrated as a composer, his Merengue for cellist Though Maria Callas did much to popularise Médée in conducting a concert staging of on 27 March Marsalis’s current projects include a new orchestral Yo-Yo Ma earning him the GRAMMY for Best the bel canto manner, the Süddeutsche Zeitung 2009 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. score co-commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony Instrumental Composition (2004). Other recent works criticised her adopted Italian version which “hardened Please let us know of your Martin‡ plans for 2009 by and Boston Symphony Orchestras, to be premiered include a flute concerto, Gran Danzón (The Bel Air this work, composed by a fundamentally Francophile emailing [email protected] in Atlanta on 19 July with further performances Concerto) (2002), co-commissioned by the National Italian, robbing it of smoothness, colours, nuances, scheduled in November. A new work commissioned Symphony Orchestra (Washington) and the charm. There were also a large number of cuts and For further information visit www.martinu.cz/english by Michigan State University and the Detroit Rotterdam Philharmonic, and a double concerto for alterations in the 16 large-scale numbers which are Symphony Orchestra will combine symphonic forces double bass and clarinet/saxophone, Conversations seldom plausible – including three within orchestral with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and is with Cachao, premiered in 2007. pieces brimming with excitement. Particularly performance present the Cullman version for the first time, scheduled for premiere on 21 September. disturbing were Lachner’s recitatives which, stylistically and already by the F minor overture, this results in a storm of As a clarinetist and saxophonist, Paquito D’Rivera has questionable, bring an untheatrical fussiness with them His new gospel Mass, Abyssinian 200, written in performed with organisations such as the London passion breaking the bounds and rules of convention.” and clearly hinder the effectiveness of the individual Süddeutsche Zeitung celebration of the bicentenary of the Abyssinian Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic numbers …” Baptist Church in Harlem, was premiered on 10 April, Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore As well as Médée, Cherubini’s Les Deux Journées as reported by the New York Times: “…an elaborate Symphony and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. He will tour “Cullmann’s rightly award-winning version removes all these (The Water Carriers) had a profound influence on concert piece that traverses jazz history, from Japan this September, performing and conducting alterations. Now, a sharp, budding piece of music theatre Beethoven, when its model treatment of the genre of spirituals to hard-bop... It uses modernist variants of Mozart clarinet and piano concertos in Nagoya, emerges to excite the audience, for which the generic rescue opera sparked ideas for Fidelio. This opera concept opéra-comique is intended – as much for Médée as has now been reconstructed for the Simrock New Orleans dirges and struts, the modal excursions Osaka and . for Carmen. However, above all, in the Callas recordings of of hard-bop and the Ellington big-band legacies of Medea the classical performance style seems bloodless and Cherubini Edition, was successfully staged in brassy, section-against-section byplay and For the latest information about Boosey & Hawkes’s empty. In Brussels, with Christoph Rousset and his Rheinsberg in March, and is now available for sumptuously harmonized ballads.” New York Times jazz composers visit www.boosey.com/jazz orchestra Les Talents Lyriques, experts in historical performance by other opera companies.

Glanert ghlights in concert Nijinsky’s Diary Songs of Joy, further music intended for Bliss setting texts by which threatens a new outbreak of violence unless librettist Amanda Holden, will be premiered on 2 October by salved by an act of supreme sacrifice. Peter Coleman-Wright and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Rattle. The complete opera Olga Neuwirth is scheduled for premiere performances in 2010 by Opera Lost Highway Suite (2004, rev.2008) 30’ under Richard Hickox. Music from Olga Neuwirth’s operatic version of David James MacMillan Lynch’s cult film Lost Highway can now be heard in a The Sacrifice: Three Interludes (2005-06) 15’ newly revised suite, for premiere at the Festival d’Automne in Paris on 25 November by MusikFabrik. James MacMillan’s opera The Sacrifice recently won the

The chamber orchestra is made up of six instrumental Photo: Wil van Iersel Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Opera and Music soloists and an ensemble plus electronics, Nijinsky's Diary at the Aachen Theater. Theatre – recognition of a score of immense power and representing the multiple layers and perspectives in Contemporary music highlights include: beauty. These qualities also abound in the three orchestral Neuwirth’s score. Following his full-scale opera Caligula for Frankfurt and interludes drawn from the opera, premiered by the BBC Cologne, Detlev Glanert has turned his attention to an 18 July 8.00 pm (First Night) Philharmonic in February and recorded for future release by Lost Highway was premiered in Graz, and has intimate music theatre work examining Vaslav Nijinsky’s Elliott Carter Chandos. The Parting describes the separation of two lovers travelled to Basel, Oberlin, New York and London, disintegrating mind. The famed choreographer and Caténaires (UK premiere) before a marriage of political convenience, sets where it was presented in April by English National dancer wrote his diary in the last six weeks before his Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano the scene for the ceremony with dance music representing Opera at the Young Vic Theatre in an acclaimed committal to an asylum at the age of 30. As well as 27 July 11.00 am (Dr Who Prom) the opposed clans, and The Investiture heralds the murder production by Diane Paulus. exploring memories of his childhood and collaborations Mark-Anthony Turnage with Diaghilev, the text reveals his mental state and his The Torino Scale (UK premiere) BBC Philharmonic/Stephen Bell Olga Neuwirth's Lost Highway staged by English National Opera. A new suite for chamber orchestra is premiered in November. bizarre visions for the future. “This premiere at the Aachen Theatre was an unqualified 28 July 7.30 pm

success, depicting the psychological crisis in its purest Elliott Carter Photo: Hanya Chlala/ArenaPAL form... The audience at the premiere followed the composer Oboe Concerto unanimously on this unfamiliar journey… Glanert carries the Nicholas Daniel/BBC Symphony Orchestra/ split personality to extremes, in that the character of Nijinsky David Robertson is split as if into six figures portrayed by two singers, two actors and two dancers, all of whom are required to exceed 18 August 7.30 pm their performing abilities. In this piece, Glanert’s music is Elliott Carter tougher and more abrupt than in previous works to date... Soundings Cool cluster blocks alternate with pleasant musical echoes, Nicolas Hodges piano/ grotesque dislocated sounds with tonal songs of fine BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Ilan Volkov poetry.” Gießener Allgemeine 27 August 10.00 pm “How does a composer write music to match such a journey Einojuhani Rautavaara into the inner psyche? Glanert’s solution is a highly Cantus Arcticus [published by Fennica Gehrman] differentiated, diversified soundworld…. Formally and London /David Atherton dramatically, everything is well-considered, written with a sure hand, the text structured with composed loops always 30 August 7.30 pm driving forward... Three instrumental interludes giving the Magnus Lindberg impression of the trauma, with embedded elements of Seht die Sonne (UK premiere) dance and jazz, introduce a naive-cheerful note almost as a Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra/ reminiscence motif… A well-crafted music theatre piece.” Jukka-Pekka Saraste Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

8 September 7.30 pm Photo: Hanya Chlala/ArenaPAL Glanert’s next project is an opera for Gelsenkirchen, Mark-Anthony Turnage The Wooden Ship, based on the novel by Hans Chicago Remains (European premiere) Henny Jahnn. Jest, Satire, Irony and Deeper Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Bernard Haitink Meaning received its Austrian premiere in February at the Neue Oper Wien, and his opera for young and All concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, London adult audiences, The Three Riddles, received its

Photo: Sarah Lee eighth production in Hagen last month. Rautavaara Tapestry of Life Rautavaara’s most recent symphonic work, variation on this solemn dance, which New New A Tapestry of Life, co-commissioned by the seems to have a special significance for me, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and as a symbol of finality.” Recordings Publications Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, was “Few contemporary composers are as skilled as Unsuk Chin Concerts for Choirs premiered in Auckland on 5 April Rautavaara in using tonality without compromise. conducted by Pietari Inkinen, in honour of Stars fell in the first of its four pieces, with the Alice in Wonderland Confetti & Cake the composer’s 80th birthday year. The plink of harp and glockenspiel, but the lush strings Sally Matthews/Piia Komsi/ Choral anthology impetus for the four-movement score came of Stars Swarming were replaced by testier Gwyneth Jones/Andrew Watts/ 979-0-060-11896-8 £9.99 from a poem by Edith Södergran (1892- shadings in the following movements. By the final Dietrich Henschel/ The latest in the series of choral 1923), whose imagery triggered memories Photo: Ondine Records Polonaise, few would have remained untouched Bayerische Staatsoper/ anthologies collects all you will need by the grandeur of this stirring work.” New Zealand Herald stretching back to Rautavaara’s childhood: Kent Nagano for wedding celebrations, both at Rival first recordings of Rautavaara’s Manhattan Unitel Classica DVD Video sacred or secular services and at the “As a young boy I was presented with a book of Trilogy have been recently released on Ondine and 2072418 reception. Styles range from Tallis, poetry by Södergran and later I set several poems Naxos. Gramophone reviewed the discs noting how Bach and Mozart, through Edward Elgar/Anthony Payne Rachmaninoff and Finzi, to new from it for chorus. Stars Swarming is a surrealistic “the composer deployed the full panoply of his late night vision, where stars keep falling in the garden Symphony No.3/Pomp & Circumstance March No.6 anthems by Will Todd, Swingle arrangements and popular orchestral manner in a hugely engaging triptych Sapporo Symphony Orchestra/Tadaaki Otaka music favourites. Guest editor is David Guest who heads the until the lawn is full of splinters. In Halcyon Days the describing his ‘hopeful Daydreams’, sudden impulse comes from a simple, monotonous repetition Signum SIG CD 118 Wedding Music Company, one of the leading experts in nightmares of doubt’ and ‘slowly breaking Dawn of arranging music for any type of wedding. of a triplet. From this background a melody is born, a the personality’.” Roberto Gerhard slowly ascending cantabile. Passionate, even violent Violin Concerto Harrison Birtwistle moments are met, but they also seem to belong to Yfrah Neaman/BBCSO/ The Minotaur those happy days. Colin Davis Libretto by David Harsent “Sighs and Tears have their share in the tapestry of Lyrita SRCD 274 978-0-85162-555-3 £8.99 life as well. Cor anglais and oboe lament, and violins Bernstein Karl Jenkins Frank Bridge join them in a wide, plaintive song – until woodwinds Viola Sonata with two harps build a colourful background for the abroad Belinda Sykes/Jurgita Adamonyte/ (transcription of Cello Sonata by growing cantilena. The Last Polonaise is like a One of the classic collections Veronica Leigh Jacobs) Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Choir/ of ’s theatre Viola part and piano score EMO Ensemble/Karl Jenkins songs has made a welcome 979-0-060-11918-7 £15.99 return to print (978-0-634- EMI 500 2832 Michael Daugherty 09573-3). Bernstein on Benjamin Lees Brooklyn Bridge Broadway contains the most Piano Music 1945-2005 for clarinet and symphonic band popular numbers from West Mirian Conti Full score 979-0-051-09652-7 Side Story, On The Town, Wonderful Town, Candide Toccata Classics TOCC 0069 and Peter Pan, amounting to 30 songs in total. The £19.99 album has been produced in close collaboration with James MacMillan Raise the Roof the Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing Company Britannia for timpani and symphonic band and includes a foreword by John Mauceri and Peter Maxwell Davies Full score 979-0-051-09632-9 information about each stage work. Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise £19.99 Bernstein’s Candide is travelling around Europe, with Scott Long/Atlanta Symphony/Donald Runnicles Telarc 80677 Gerald Finzi Robert Carsen’s controversial staging reaching Five Bagatelles arr. viola and piano English National Opera in June. Already seen at the Peter Maxwell Davies (transcription by Veronica Leigh Jacobs) Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris and at La Scala in Milan, Ave Maris Stella/Psalm 124 Viola part and piano score 979-0-060-11917-0 £8.99 Carsen’s vision recaptures the satirical bite of Gemini Voltaire’s original, with ‘West-Failure’ clearly situated Metier MSV28503 Henryk Mikolaj Górecki in the White House and a parade of contemporary Dla Jasiunia (For Jasiunia) political leaders. Einojuhani Rautavaara Violin part and piano score Manhattan Trilogy 979-0-060-11964-4 £5.99 Highlights in the coming months include ground- Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/ breaking all-Bernstein concerts in China presented Leif Segerstam Karl Jenkins by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the Ondine ODE 1090-5 Stabat Mater Beijing Music Festival. The Shanghai event on for contralto, chorus 4 July, centred around West Side Story, honours the Manhattan Trilogy and orchestra 90th anniversary of the composer’s birth, while the New Zealand Symphony Vocal score 979-0-060-11952-1 Orchestra/Pietari Inkinen

Photo: Erik Tomasson Beijing concert on 11 October with the China £12.99 Naxos 8.570069 Mark Morris’s new Joy Ride at San Francisco Ballet, the Philharmonic Orchestra follows on the festival’s success with The Bernstein Beat educational Magnus Lindberg first choreography set to John Adams’s Son of Chamber Steve Reich Partia Symphony. programme in 2000. New York also salutes the Daniel Variations/ 90th this autumn with a major city-wide celebration, Cello score 979-0-060-1167-80 “A helter-skelter of swerving cross rhythms, hot Variations for Vibes, Pianos £10.99 orchestration and propulsive momentum… Joy Ride grows, Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds, and Strings incrementally, into a mesmerizingly spacious work, the presented by Carnegie Hall and the New York Steve Reich Ensemble/ James MacMillan dance engaged in a poised, passionate dialogue with the Philharmonic (24 September – 13 December) with a Synergy Vocals/ Tenebrae Responsories music.” The Guardian host of leading orchestras and conductors. Bradley Lubman Vocal score 979-0-060-11954-5 Nonesuch 406780 £7.99 Mark-Anthony Turnage Give me justice Stravinsky Hidden Love Song Choral score 979-0-060-12017-6 Martin Robertson/London Philharmonic Orchestra/ £1.10 Marin Alsop iconic “Quote... 7 Strathclyde Motets LPO 0031 World premieres Choral scores composer Data est mihi omnis potestas With his mastery across a sequence of different Elliott Carter 979-0-060-11953-8 £2.50 styles, Stravinsky remains the iconic 20th century Clarinet Quintet and piling up on top of each other. And beyond all Dominus dabit benignitatem these individual sensations, the magic Spheres were composer of choice for festival features. In April the 29 April, New York 979-0-060-11931-6 £1.99 Charles Neidich/Juilliard String Quartet spreading radiance, enigma and debauchery.” Miller Theatre in New York presented over 50 of his Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger Factus est repente chamber and vocal works spread across five “The new work includes three movements Photo: Heuer 979-0-060-11932-3 £1.99 concerts. As the Wall Street Journal observed marked Scherzando, Scherzo and Finale in a continuous Robin Holloway In splendoribus sanctorum 15-minute span.… In earlier works Mr. Carter, 99, may have following the series: “having quickly arrived at the Five Temperaments for wind quintet 979-0-060-11933-0 £1.10 cutting edge of 20th-century music, Stravinsky never set all five players in motion along independent lines, but here Mitte manum tuam the strings usually act in concord, offering unified rejoinders 31 January – 7 February, UK tour left it. A true man of the theatre, he usually strove to to jaunty clarinet lines, or busily scrabbling while the clarinet Britten Sinfonia 979-0-060-11934-7 £1.99 keep his music emotionally vital rather than merely Sedebit dominus rex holds single notes for surprisingly long durations.” New York Times “Robin Holloway’s new piece is the epitome Photo: Patterson illustrative of academic theories. Even more than his of chamber music… The “five temperaments” of the title 979-0-060-11935-4 £1.99 dazzling instrumentation and often acerbic harmony, Detlev Glanert clearly refer not only to the five instrumentalists, but also to Videns dominus his revolutionary sense of rhythm altered the musical Double Concerto for two pianos and orchestra the five little movements that whisk us through a 979-0-060-11936-1 £2.50 landscape for other composers thereafter.” kaleidoscope of moods, mostly on the melancholic side, in 15 March, Glasgow Jacques Offenbach This spring the City of Birmingham Symphony Simon Crawford-Phillips & Philip Moore/ barely ten minutes… How good that, in this noisy new century, composers are still producing works of such subtle, Grand Concerto Orchestra continued its IgorFest - an epic four-year BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins understated content and impeccable craftsmanship.” The Times (Concerto Militaire) journey through Stravinsky’s complete output - with “Detlev Glanert’s Double Concerto offered a level of fantasy for cello and orchestra rarities including Perséphone and the orchestral and exhilaration hard to find in contemporary music… During Elena Kats-Chernin Cello part and piano score songs. The final instalment in 2009 will bring Orpheus, the 28-minute span, the old-world appurtenances fragment 979-0-2025-3168-6 £15.50 as Glanert whisks us on a journey through space - to Ornamental Air biblical works including The Flood and Threni, and an for basset clarinet and chamber orchestra IgorFest fireworks finale on 9 June 2009. The Royal Mars… The seed material is a little scale in thirds, running up and down. In itself it is nothing. But Glanert the magician 10 April, Chapel Hill, NC, USA Flemish Philharmonic and De Singel in turns it into a pulsing particle of matter, constantly mutating Michael Collins/North Carolina Symphony/ collaborate next season on a Symphonic Stravinsky and exploding.” The Times Grant Llewellyn season with highlights including Mass and Symphony of Psalms with Collegium Vocale Ghent and Philippe “Kats-Chernin draws inspiration from her homeland, York Höller Uzbekistan, and her adopted home, Australia, to flavour the Herreweghe. Sphären 25-minute work with strongly accented rhythms and rapidly Stravinsky is the latest composer in Naxos 4 April, Cologne moving melodies, sometimes evoking exotic dance, other Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited Educational’s series of portrait box sets devoted to WDR Symphony Orchestra/Semyon times wide-open spaces… Soloist Michael Collins easily Aldwych House, 71-91 Aldwych, leading 20th century composers. Together with two Bychkov Photo: Heidemann handled all challenges thrown his way, from long-winded arpeggios reaching the extremes of the instrument’s range, London WC2B 4HN discs of over 50 excerpts across the range of “A beautifully sounding 40-minute kaleidoscope… We to finger-tangling burbles and humorous outbursts … The Stravinsky’s output is an extended illustrated essay on heard (and saw) in the phrases and shapes of the Telephone: +44 (0)20 7054 7200 composer’s intricate but inviting vision elicited a roar of the composer by David Nice. Other sets in the series Wind Game the dust or the leaves creating a stir, and Promotion email: [email protected] approval at the performance’s conclusion.” News and Observer NC Hire email: [email protected] feature Bartók, Prokofieff, Shostakovich and Maxwell enjoyed in the pizzicato study of Rain Canon how the Davies. All are on sale from the Boosey & Hawkes water dropped, splashed or hit the metal. In Firework, Website: www.boosey.com/composers a catapult of embers raged, while in Earth Layers you online shop, which stocks the complete Naxos David Allenby Editor David J Plumb ARCA PPSTD Designer catalogue: visit www.boosey.com/shop could have sworn that blocks were forming, shifting …unquote” Printed in England