February 2018

Adams Girls of the Golden West The latest collaboration between and opened at San Francisco in November and travels onwards to Dallas Opera and Dutch National Opera.

“Girls of the Golden West is our state and our Sellars’s favoured approach of assembling a libretto country two centuries ago and now”. So wrote the from documentary and existing materials gives an Los Angeles Times, summing up the fusion of authenticity to the voices in the opera, whether locality and topicality in the new Californian opera Dame Shirley, the fugitive slave Ned, the Latina by John Adams, recently unveiled in San Josefa or the Chinese prostitute Ah Sing, though Francisco. With a title that echoes Puccini’s Gold the conscious distancing of action and interaction Rush opera, the new work plays out scenes only proved controversial for some reviewers. Positive a few hundred miles from modern Silicon Valley. responses included Limelight magazine which Featuring libretto and staging by Peter Sellars, the praised Sellars for his “dramatically cohesive and production saw a cast of emerging star vocalists searingly effective libretto… providing a poetic and including Julia Bullock, Davóne Tines and spicy text for Adams”. J’Nai Bridges. “Much of the opera, especially the first act, suggests that Adams is moving in a different direction in his “…a sweeping tale of the theatre writing. The orchestration seems lighter, the mad quest for fortune…” harmonies more transparent. The use of percussion and folk instruments lends a unique quality… Adams is New York Times second to none in his word-setting. As in earlier works, Adams’s choral writing finds the composer at his best.” Adams and Sellars researched the female and Financial Times racial perspectives missing from the usual Gold Rush narrative and, as noted by the Financial “Act II of Golden West is a juggernaut of cumulative Photo: San Francisco Opera/Cory Weaver Times, discovered parallels with our “era that menace – a structure similar to the transfixing countdown condones the soul-corroding search for wealth. in … choruses of restless miners, already John Adams’s Girls of the Golden West at San Francisco Opera, staged by Peter Sellars Sellars turned to documents of the period, ominous in Act I, become fully demonic… When this principally The Shirley Letters” written by Louise braying mob fixes its attention on Josefa, Ned, “…exciting stretches, conducted with crackling energy music for this haunting [final] scene – misty, restrained, Clappe in 1852 that “provide a detailed description and other people of color, it recalls the vengeful crowd and colour by Grant Gershon, certainly convey the yet swirling with inner intensity. Poignant and of the miners’ life in rural California, which yielded in The Gospel According to the Other Mary, Adams’s teeming wildness, racial animosity and lawless violence captivating... a bold attempt to write the great California wealth and despair in unequal measure”. Crucifixion oratorio.” The New Yorker that roiled the West… Adams has written extraordinary opera.” New York Times

Rautavaara Gruber “A brand new concerto was the main event at the Borowski opening concert, written for the celebrated American In the Beginning 75th celebrations pianist Emanuel Ax. According to HK Gruber, the and Barenboim classic ‘Brahmspianist’ is something that does not When Finnish composer seem to particularly inspire him. Rather, it would be Einojuhani Rautavaara a barpianist from distant nightclubs vibrating with died in 2016, his final mesmerizing saxophones and strange rhythms. completed orchestral The concerto is charming and compassionate, work was awaiting its relaxing to stillness then building again to a joyous premiere. The seven- and sparkling finale… minute concert-opener “HK Gruber is the complete musician, from his start in In the Beginning was The Vienna Boys Choir and his years as a double bassist written at the request of to his successful transformation into composer, Photo: Priska Ketterer Pietari Inkinen and the conductor and cabaret singer.” Dagens Nyheter conductor is travelling celebrated his 75th birthday with this season for first Further performances of the Piano Concerto are a new piano concerto by Johannes Boris Borowski. performances by scheduled next month in Paris with the Orchestre The maestro was at the keyboard for the first the international Philharmonique de Radio France under Joshua performance of the 20-minute score entitled Stretta, co-commissioners. Weilerstein and in Gruber’s home city with the with the Berlin Staatskapelle conducted by Zubin Vienna Symphony and Louis Langrée, both with Mehta. The new Borowski commission follows that of The world premiere took Ax at the keyboard. Encore, premiered under Barenboim’s baton in May place in Kaiserslautern Photo: Maarit Kytöharju/FIMIC Photo: Jon Super within opening events at the Boulez Concert Hall of in September with the Viennese celebrations of the composer’s 75th last the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin. German Radio Philharmonic Saarbrücken, month included a special concert with Gruber at Austrian composer HK Gruber, who celebrated the helm of the ORF Radio Symphony revealing a luxuriantly orchestrated miniature with Reviewing Stretta, the Berliner Morgenpost observed his 75th last month, has been enjoying a full diary at the Konzerthaus. The programme crossed a clear trajectory from veiled opening to blazing that “there’s no doubting the composer has used all of performances this season. The most extensive generations of composers most closely sunlight. The Asian and Finnish premieres followed the shades of colour this orchestra is capable of, as birthday feature has been the Composer Festival associated with Gruber – his teacher Gottfried von in November with the Japan Philharmonic well as each instrumental group’s potential for sonic at Stockholm’s Konserthuset in November, with Einem to launch his centenary year, colleagues Orchestra and Kymi Sinfonietta, next month sees and gestural attack.” nine of his works programmed including three Kurt Schwertsik and Friedrich Cerha and the the German premiere with the Gürzenich Swedish premieres. Reviewing the concerts, younger Bernd Richard Deutsch – plus Gruber’s “His compositional understanding is what distinguishes Orchestra in Cologne, and the Prague Symphony Expressen summed Gruber up wittily as “a own Aerial with star trumpeter Håkan Stretta, as demonstrated by the rich percussion writing gives the Czech premiere in June. chameleon whose stylistically fractured music Hardenberger as soloist. right up to a wind machine. Playfulness, tradition and the ranges from entertaining cabaret to explosive “From mysteriously dark string surfaces bright rays rise grotesque lead to a meditative soliloquy for the piano”. symphonic sound, often with a political Next month sees Gruber collaborating with up as if at the dawn of a sunny day. It is irresistible in its Der Tagesspiegel growth like Ravel’s Bolero and similarly abrupt in its final underbelly and ears pricked up.” Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt in a programme bar. The orchestral strings are so dense, so intricately featuring the , Zeitfluren and the “Borowski’s 20-minute piece sometimes sounds filigree, interwoven by Inkinen, that In the Beginning could last German premiere of Deutsch’s Mad Dog. Back sometimes violent … The calm central point is the piano forever.” Saarbrücker Zeitung “…a colourful composer at home Gruber leads the Vienna Chamber from which, with runs, trills and powerfully concentrated Orchestra in two performances of Frankenstein!! single notes, Barenboim intervenes in the action, sometimes “A mystical piece that makes one think of the who writes colourful in April at the Konzerthaus. jumping up like a jazz pianist from his stool.” Der Neue Merker Representation of Chaos in Joseph Haydn’s Creation, music.” Aftonbladet but which also seems to shine light upon the Finnish natural world.” Opus Kulturmagazin The composer was joined on the rostrum by Inside this issue… The premiere recording of Rautavaara’s Sakari Oramo and Thomas Dausgaard, with Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra has been soloists Emanuel Ax, Colin Currie and Matthew released on the Avie label by its dedicatee Anne Barley and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Akiko Meyers and the Philharmonia Orchestra Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra and the Swedish conducted by Kristjan Järvi. Another late work, Chamber Orchestra. Repertoire ranged from his Into the Heart of Light for strings, has been classic Pandemonium for chansonnier and rapidly taken up by chamber with orchestra, Frankenstein!! to recent works including over 20 performances in seven countries to the percussion concerto into the open…, the Turnage Lindberg Willems Dean date and has been released on an Ondine orchestral suite Northwind Pictures drawn from his Interview explores Orchestral work Performances of Hamlet tours UK recording featuring the Helsinki Philharmonic 2005 opera Der Herr Nordwind and his Piano his new opera TEMPUS FUGIT ballet scores for and travels to and John Storgårds. Concerto, premiered last year in New York. Coraline in Helsinki William Forsythe Adelaide Festival

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Turnage Coraline opera takes the stage Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new operatic adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Kids will see it as an exciting adventure that can anyone better to grab together all of these themes trigger their imaginations whereas adults may also and build what I am certain will be a compelling Coraline is premiered by The Royal Opera at the Barbican Theatre in respond to the darker, complex threads and some and exciting production. of the ironic humour in the text. March, before travelling to Lille, Freiburg, Stockholm and Melbourne. What is the overriding message of Coraline and her How did you reduce and adapt the book into journey to self-discovery? How did you first come across Coraline? a two act opera. The message for me is that Coraline is determined I was having a lot of back and forth with The Royal My librettist Rory Mullarkey took on this to do what she thinks is right, even if she has to Opera on ideas for a new stagework but it was challenging task. Inevitably a lot had to be confront her fears. This is captured by Gaiman in proving difficult to find something suitable from all trimmed back and I regret losing some of the plot his Introduction to the book: “being brave doesn’t perspectives. Then someone suggested Neil details and the character of the cat who is a mean you aren’t scared. Being brave means you Gaiman’s Coraline which I’d never read. I was guardian for Coraline across both worlds. On the are scared, really scared, badly scared, and you do immediately impressed by the mystery and other hand, some things needed to be expanded the right thing anyway.” There is a prelude to the darkness expressed so imaginatively in the story. to flesh out character and make full use of the story which perhaps I should have included in the Gaiman is a real craftsman and the novel was cast of eight, such as the trio of Ghost Children opera. It’s a quote from G.K. Chesterton and is a instantly appealing to me. which provided me with the opportunity for vital message that we could encourage our children What made you think it would be ideal to ensemble singing and for an inner voice warning to engage with: “Fairy tales are more than true; not transform into an opera? Coraline of the dangers beyond the locked door. because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” Once the choice of book was approved by Were there particular scenes that gave you early everyone I just wanted to get going. A key factor ideas for setting to music? was that the characters in the story are all very My approach is usually to start at the beginning Turnage Coraline different, which is a crucial starting point when and work through in order, so I didn’t sketch out (2015-17) 90’ adapting something for music. The idea of a any specific scenes in advance. However Opera in two acts seductive alternative reality that is increasingly Coraline’s neighbours did leap off the page onto (for family audience) scary is very interesting psychologically, allowing the stage: I knew that I wanted to exaggerate the for 8 singers and me to explore situations, ideas and emotions theatricality of Miss Spink and Miss Forcible and chamber orchestra through my music. Also, crucially, this is an really broaden their characters through the music. Libretto by Rory Mullarkey, important story in having a female lead – for me I also jumped on the nationality of Bobo and made based on the novella Coraline is a fantastic role model.

an attempt to emulate his Lithuanian roots as well by Neil Gaiman Photo: Philip Gatward as find a soundworld for his mouse orchestra. Did you have an idea early on about the age Commissioned by The Royal Opera (London), of your audience? In musical terms how did you create the parallel Opéra de Lille, Theater Freiburg, Folkoperan (Stockholm) The book was written for children aged 9+, so world for the Other Mother on the other side of and Victorian Opera (Melbourne)

Image: © Chris Riddell/Bloomsbury Publishing plc initial ideas were that the opera should be aimed the door? at the same group. Once into the piece I realised Broadly speaking, the Other universe is a variation 29 March – 7 April 2018 The Other Mother from Coraline. Illustration by the opera needed to be entertaining, interesting on reality. It’s distorted and extreme, and hopefully Barbican Theatre, London Chris Riddell for the latest Bloomsbury edition and hopefully enjoyable for a wider range. It’s very creepy, but we’ll have to wait and see what The Royal Opera/Britten Sinfonia of Neil Gaiman’s book. important to remember that youngsters and their comes across on stage. I am thrilled that Aletta Director: Aletta Collins parents will experience the story differently. Collins is directing this piece and can’t think of Conductor: Sian Edwards

Lindberg Tempus fugit in Helsinki Chin festival in Melbourne

The most extensive Australian focus on Unsuk Chin’s music to date is presented at the Metropolis New Music Festival in Melbourne from 18 to 21 April. The festival is a collaboration between the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Monash University and the Melbourne Recital Centre, with nine Chin works including four Australian premieres. This follows earlier Melbourne Symphony performances of Chin’s music introducing Melbourne audiences to Graffiti in 2016 and Mannequin last September. Orchestral performances at Metropolis include Chin’s Grawemeyer Award-winning with soloist Jennifer Koh and the sheng Photo: Priska Ketterer concerto Šu with its dedicatee Wu Wei, together Étoiles by the Philharmonia Orchestra under with her study of refracted light and colour, Esa-Pekka Salonen on 15 April. This major Rocana, all conducted by Clark Rundell. The 40-minute work for choirs, organ and orchestra, Elision Ensemble performs Fantaisie mécanique, setting poetry exploring man’s relationship to the Australian Quartet gives the Australian the cosmos, was written for the inauguration premiere of ParaMetaString and there is a of the new LOTTE Concert Hall in Seoul and selection of her chamber music at the Melbourne was co-commissioned by the Philharmonia. Recital Centre. Photo: Philip Gatward On 16 May the London Sinfonietta gives the UK In addition to the Melbourne feature, coming premiere of cosmigimmicks at the Southbank Magnus Lindberg’s new orchestral work, TEMPUS Lindberg explains that “a chord should not be an months see major Chin events in Copenhagen, Centre and Chin travels to Tokyo Opera City for FUGIT, was commissioned by the Finnish Radio isolated object but should be aurally related to London and Tokyo. The composer has a March the Japanese premieres of the Cello Concerto, Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the centenary of what has come before and what follows. I see an residency at the Royal Danish Academy of Music’s Concerto and Mannequin on 24 May, Finnish independence on 6 December. The analogy with language – with subject and object PULSAR festival, and travels to London for the coupled with being the judge for the 2018 27-minute score was premiered under the baton in a meaningful relationship, with questions and European premiere of Le Chant des Enfants des Takemitsu Composition Award. of Hannu Lintu at a gala concert, broadcast on answers, with tension and relaxation, with radio and streamed live on TV, with the Estonian foreshadowing and recurrences across time. premiere following three days later in Tallinn. This is my dream, which I’ve been able to pursue further in TEMPUS FUGIT.” Rather than translating his title TEMPUS FUGIT as Rouse Berceuse Infinie premiere ‘Time Flies’, the composer prefers ‘Time in Flight’, which offers the idea that the passage of time, such “…a positive, energetic, Christopher Rouse’s someone once gave to the Adagietto from Mahler’s as the 100 year arc of Finland’s existence, escapes festive atmosphere latest orchestral work, Symphony No. 5 – “a for the living” – but its from us but bequeaths a tangible legacy. As Berceuse Infinie, was most radiant moments vibrate with hope. Helsingin Sanomat Lindberg comments, “this relates to my fascination throughout…” premiered in his native “The composer’s sophisticated harmonic language adds with Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s concept of city by the Baltimore colour and texture. His familiar mastery of orchestration “…in the mighty orchestral work TEMPUS FUGIT… spherical time – that the past, the present and the Symphony in is everywhere in evidence, as much in the subtlest Lindberg can gather the full power of the orchestra. He future are continuously linked and within reach. You November. This percussion touches as in the lushest string chords. is a master who mixes strings, winds and percussion and can also examine the inter-connection of musical 13-minute lullaby, The score has a sublime close, when a few questioning gives every player interesting personal assignments… time in the earlier works of Stockhausen such as reflecting on the sounds give way to a kind of serenity.” Baltimore Sun Kontakte and Gruppen which had a big impact on His track through the score was well-ordered and sure, perpetual breath of life me as a young composer.” but there were also some arousing surprises, the best and death, was “Rather than a barnstorming concert opener, this being a cool poetic piano solo cutting across the dedicated to Marin meditative piece explores several oscillating motifs put TEMPUS FUGIT sees Lindberg extending his resounding clamour.” Helsingin Samomat through an array of orchestral colours… In what becomes

Alsop and, as the Herman Photo: Jeffrey exploration of harmonic continuity and chordal Baltimore Sun noted, a repeated thematic element, the orchestra collectively tension, seeking an elusive modern equivalent for “…brilliantly orchestrated and clear to follow, with exhaled audibly over this backdrop, a sound evoking a surprisingly luminous and sunny moods… Inside the “she returned the compliment by ensuring that the the rhetorical power of classical functional score received a terrific first performance”. maternal sigh, uttered perhaps by the universe… harmony. In the 1980s Lindberg had been using score can be heard aspects of Messiaen but also Berceuse Infinie provides further evidence of Rouse’s suggestions of Impressionism. Lindberg’s in-depth the LISP programming language to compute the “Rouse grabs the ear with at once dark and beautiful inventive melodic gift, namely to create tunes that sound dialogue with the shining masters of orchestral music relationships between harmonies and he had long melodic ideas that emerge from a kind of mist. They are like the work of no other composer.” is here confirmed.” Sirp, Tallinn been wanting to return to these researches. After given a gently rocking rhythmic pulse that holds the Washington Classical Review building a kit to run the old software, he defined The composer’s next project is a short orchestral roughly 15-minute score together… Punctuated by the Rouse’s concertos continue to travel widely with rules for the algorithms to create hierarchical work commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker eerie sound of orchestra members exhaling, the music highlights over the past year including the Organ charts of related chords, and this harmonic pool for Simon Rattle’s final season, scheduled for suggests a reflection on how fragile and temporal our Concerto in Los Angeles and Washington, the provided him with a rich range of musical premiere on 14 June. 2018 brings musical existence is, but still, somehow, keeps renewing… Its Concerto in Auckland, and the Flute materials for the new composition. celebrations for Lindberg’s 60th birthday. most piercing passages bring to mind a description Concerto in Beijing.

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Turnage Coraline opera takes the stage Currier reflects on the Reformation Dean Hamlet travels to Adelaide Brett Dean’s opera Hamlet, premiered to acclaim at the Glyndebourne Festival last summer, receives its Australian premiere in March at the Adelaide Festival. The three performances at the Festival Theatre see the Glyndebourne Festival production by Neil Armfield travel with Allan Clayton repeating his assumption of the daunting title role, described by The Times as “physically vivid, emotionally affecting, psychologically astute”. and Kim Begley return as Claudius and Polonius, with Cheryl Berker as Gertrude, Lorina Gore as Ophelia, and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Carter. Hamlet was toured in the UK last autumn by a second Glyndebourne cast, attracting equal plaudits, and proving the potential of the opera to be taken up by new singers. David Butt Philip moved from Laertes to the title role, joined by Jennifer France and Louise Winter, and Duncan Photo: Richard Hubert Smith Photo: Richard Ward took over in the pit from Vladimir Jurowski. The Guardian described this second incarnation Barbara Hannigan and Allan Clayton as Ophelia as “a ferociously powerful trip to Elsinore… and Hamlet at Glyndebourne Dean’s unsettling score seethes and rears… extraordinary sustained energy of the fight scene… it generates considerable tension throughout… It is a remarkable achievement.” Opera outstandingly done.”

Photo: Minnesota Orchestra/Courtney Perry Photo: Minnesota Orchestra/Courtney The original Hamlet production was televised and is “Brett Dean and his collaborators have succeeded in due for DVD release on the Opus Arte label in July. Sebastian Currier with Osmo Vänskä and Sarah Manguso at the premiere of RE-FORMATION in Minneapolis creating an operatic Hamlet that remains true to Brett Dean’s new double viola concerto, Approach, Shakespeare’s plot, themes and characters, yet at the is premiered this month by the Swedish Chamber Among the new works celebrating the 500th standing up to those who despoil the Earth and create same time encourages audiences to think about it Orchestra with Tabea Zimmermann and the anniversary of the Reformation – dated by Martin climate change for the sake of greed.” afresh… The most striking moments in the first act are composer as soloists. This is part of a project Luther’s 1517 rebellion in Wittenberg against the Twin Cities Pioneer Press those of quiet contemplation and stillness; the second pairing new commissions with Bach’s Brandenburg established Catholic Church – Sebastian Currier’s act is perfectly paced, from the dramatic opening, Concertos, also including Steven Mackey’s Triceros RE-FORMATION has attracted much attention, “…a fascinating and via the beautifully mournful funeral of Ophelia, to the and Mark Anthony-Turnage’s Maya. being selected as a highlight of the year by the New York Times. Commissioned by the Minnesota ultimately moving Orchestra and premiered in November with the work…” Twin Cities Pioneer Press Minnesota Chorale under Osmo Vänskä, the 30-minute work offers a multi-layered reflection “The work begins by celebrating Martin Luther, through MacMillan The Sun Danced in Fátima on the Lutheran tradition and what could be a his use of Psalm 46 for his hymn A Mighty Fortress is our parallel rebellion in our own time. God, and Mendelssohn, through his use of that hymn in The past year has Sun” – predicting that a spiritual spectacle would “The American composer Sebastian Currier has risen to his Reformation Symphony. Then it turns to the dire state demonstrated the take place on 13 October 1917. Over 50,000 the challenge… In five movements, and using a rich and of the planet, with a text by Sarah Manguso (Black sky, international reach of people travelled to the small town of Fátima, many full instrumental palette and voices, Currier’s work links …/Black sea, …/Black earth). RE-FORMATION turns the James MacMillan’s music, the sun dancing across the heavens, as with the broad cultural themes of the Reformation while tables on the psalm’s notion of God protecting his with the Chinese and depicted in the central section of MacMillan’s score. also acknowledging subsequent commemorations of it, creatures amid threatening elements to suggest that Russian premieres of the MacMillan performances in the USA over the past in particular Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony… God’s subjects now have to protect his creation. Violin Concerto, the year have included a special feature in Pittsburgh, In re-using, or ‘re-forming’ these elements, Currier has “The work is harrowingly effective… Currier’s colourful Mexican premiere of the Photo: Philip Gatward including the US premiere of Gloria, Seraph, produced a work of originality that also offers a warning… orchestration of the earlier movements gives way in the and the Symphony No.4, Veni, Veni Emmanuel and the In the final pages, the celesta briefly and gently tries to end to an a cappella chorus, singing, ‘Have mercy’ … composer touring in New Zealand with first performance of Larghetto for Orchestra. The assert Luther’s great hymn, now in simple harmony; it is salutary in pointing up the need for our time to Percussion Concerto No.2. Prestigious new 10-minute score was commissioned in of course it’s interrupted, but it offers a spark of hope.” summon the Lutherian grit and imagination to change, commissions have included The Sun Danced, honour of the tenth anniversary of Manfred Choir and Organ to re-form, the world yet again.” New York Times composed for the Portuguese celebrations of the centenary of the divine visitations in Honeck at the helm of the Pittsburgh Symphony “Luther’s chief gripe was about greed – the church’s This season has brought further instalments in Fátima. Premiere performances at the shrine and and is an orchestral version of one of MacMillan’s habit of collecting ‘indulgences’ and funnelling the funds Currier’s Etudes and Lullabies project, with new in Lisbon in October featured the Gulbenkian most admired choral works, his Miserere. into expensive architecture and artwork – Currier movements premiered in New York by the Choir and Orchestra under Joana Carneiro. concluded that the closest thing today would be Borromeo Quartet and Orion String Quartet. “MacMillan added a range of volume and feeling that no The 30-minute cantata for soprano, chorus and choir in the world can replicate… The composer treated orchestra draws the listener back to events a the orchestra as multiple choirs, with strings, winds and hundred years ago in the small town of Fátima. brass each contributing chorale-like sections as well as Three shepherd children reported appearances by blending to create new shades of sound.” Photo: Priska Ketterer Willems Forsythe’s The Second Detail the Virgin Mary – “the lady more brilliant than the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Schiphorst Lacan’s Imaginary

The premiere of Iris ter writings on otherness. The imaginary – the Schiphorst’s commission relationship between the ego and the ideal ego – for Wien Modern proved to is a place of self-identification, or self-discovery, be a highlight at the festival but also of misconception and illusion, making it in November. Written for particularly relevant to our age of migration and the singer and actress cultural collision. In Schiphorst’s work, the soloist Salome Kammer, Das embodies twin roles of an Arab and a European, Imaginäre nach Lachan switching costumes including veils. (The Imaginary of Lacan) “From oriental-inspired cantilenas to extrovert patterns combines vocalist,

Photo: Susanne Müller approaching American popular music, the stylistic range orchestra, sampler and live was wide. So vivid and malleable was the musical electronics. The 23-minute score was premiered material, so effective the word-setting that the resulting by the combined forces of the Webern Symphony images will resonate long in the mind for many.” Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Paris Der Standard Conservatoire under the baton of Ilan Volkov. “Both the scenic realisation and the music itself Helga Utz’s text draws on poetry by female Arab generated great dramatic tension, while the electronically writers of the pre- and early-Islamic periods in order extended orchestra produced a sonic landscape of to explore the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s unusual force.” Wiener Zeitung Photo: Jean-Pierre Maurin Photo: Jean-Pierre

Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon in William Forsythe’s The Second Detail with music by Thom Willems

Thom Willems’s music for ballets by William contrast to the driving, hard-edged music for the Forsythe continues to be heard around the world, earlier ballet. Forsythe noted how “it sounds like with their collaborations regarded as classics in tuned percussion and has some funk influence the repertoire of leading dance companies. The and swing and is just really dancey”. Second Detail has been programmed widely in triple bills over recent years, with performances by The New York Times commented on how “those the National Ballet of Canada – who premiered the influences are immediately apparent in the piece in 1991 – the Stuttgart Ballet, the Moscow movement, which infuses a classical vocabulary Music Theatre and the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon with quirky, jazzy disruptions of form as 13 dancers on a 15-performance tour in France and Belgium. keep remaking broad geometric patterns, then splintering into contrapuntal groups, duos and solos.” William Forsythe has described in a New York

Times interview how he invited Dutch composer “The Second Detail is a précis of William Forsythe’s Photo: Wiener Staatsoper/Michael Poehn Thom Willems to create the score for The Second neoclassical style… the cast dived into it with real Prokofieff’s The Gambler received its first production at the Vienna State Opera in October in a new staging energy and attack… What makes Forsythe so thrilling Detail following their success at the Paris Opéra by Karoline Wagner highlighting a merry-go-round of avarice and futile love. “…this work is a turbulent Ballet with In the Middle Somewhat Elevated. The to watch is the way he pushes classical rigour masterpiece… Simone Young captured the dynamism of a score that never stands still… In all, an intense new electronic score was joyous and light-filled in to breaking point...” Financial Times but enjoyable evening.” Opera Now

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New publications John Adams Simon Laks Ballade ‘Hommage à Chopin’ for string quartet and Piano score orchestra 979-0-2025-2311-7 £12.99 979-0-051-09770-8 £56.99 Magnus Lindberg Dominick Argento Étude I/Étude II/Cantus firmus/ The Masque of Angels Suite Éloge/Fratello/Promenade for SATB chorus and chamber Piano album orchestra 979-0-060-13084-7 £17.99 Vocal score David T. Little 979-0-051-48491-1 £7.95 Dog Days Anna Clyne Vocal score Masquerade 979-0-051-09804-0 £45.00 for orchestra James MacMillan Full score Little Mass 979-0-051-09780-7 £26.99 Vocal score Sebastian Currier 979-0-060-13401-2 £6.99 Deep-Sky Objects for soprano, ensemble and Quartet Bernstein centennial CD releases electronics Study score 979-0-051-09800-2 £48.99 Leonard Bernstein’s recorded legacy has been Works box, containing all the published works by 979-0-051-09810-1 £14.99 explored afresh by the two recording companies Bernstein collected for the first time, across 26 CDs Michael Daugherty Dmitri Shostakovich most closely associated with the conductor and and 3 DVDs. Jackie O Motherland/National Anthem composer. Universal Classics is releasing this Opera in 2 acts Sony Classical has released a 100-CD box New Collected Works month a numbered limited edition bumper box, Vocal score celebrating Bernstein the conductor, drawing upon Vols.75/76 combining acclaimed recordings from its Deutsche 979-0-051-09695-4 £37.99 its archive of his American Columbia recordings. Full score Grammophon and Decca labels in celebration of The digital remastering from the original analogue Karl Jenkins 979-0-060-13455-5 £85.99 the centennial. Comprising 121 CDs, 36 DVDs and tapes brings these 50-year-old recordings up to Symphonic Adiemus a Blu-Ray audio, the collection features highlights Piano arrangements of music modern audiophile standards. Bernstein the for SATB choir and orchestra from the composer’s own pen including his three by Stravinsky, Honneger and composer is represented by all his ballets, 979-0-060-13432-6 £14.99 symphonies, Candide, West Side Mahler symphonies and concertos plus Story and A Quiet Place. Other Aram Khachaturian New Collected Works West Side Story with its original repertoire ranges from Beethoven, Spartacus: Suite No.4 Vols.114/115 Broadway cast (89854 17142). Brahms and Mahler symphonies, Study score Full score Last year saw Sony’s release of through Stravinsky, Ives and 979-0-060-13393-0 £30.99 979-0-060-13456-2 £54.99 Leonard Bernstein: the Composer, Copland, to works by Del Tredici a 25-CD collection of his and Rorem (0289 4798418). recordings of his own works whose Other special releases from historic importance has been David Del Tredici Universal include a limited edition recognized with a Grammy New recordings Child Alice DG set of Candide containing the nomination (89853 45312). Courtenay Budd/ definitive 1989 CD recording Recordings of stageworks with John Adams Boston Modern Orchestra made at Abbey Road and a DVD original cast members include On Piano works including Project/Gil Rose of the live performance filmed at the Town with Betty Comden and American Berserk/ BMOP/sound 1056 (2 SACDs) the Barbican, boxed with a 170-page hardback Adolph Green, Wonderful Town with Rosalind book. A deluxe limited edition release of West Side Russell, Candide and Mass. Jeroen van Veen/ Grand Trio/String Quartet No.1/ Story contains the classic if controversial CD set Sandra van Veen Bullycide/Dynamic Duo/ with and José Carreras. This is This month brings Naxos’s release of a Bernstein Brilliant Classics 95388BR The Felix Variations boxed together with the film documentary about box conducted by Marin Alsop in honour of the Mark Peskanov/Michael Nicolas/ making the recording on DVD and a 104-page centennial. It combines her existing recordings Aaron Copland Steven Beck/Felix Del Tredici/ hardback book (0289 4798681). March sees a new including the three symphonies and Mass together Orchestral works vol.3 Voxare Quartet etc Bernstein on Broadway compilation and April will with two new discs featuring the São Paulo An Outdoor Overture/ Albany TROY1685-86 (2 CDs) bring the release of a new Bernstein Complete Symphony Orchestra. Symphony No.1/ Dance Symphony/ Karl Jenkins Statements Symphonic Adiemus BBC Philharmonic/ London Philharmonic Choir/ John Wilson Adiemus Symphony Orchestra Vivier Music of the End on stage Chandos CHSA5195 of Europe/Karl Jenkins Decca 5793828 Michael Daugherty Once Upon a Castle Einojuhani Rautavaara Paul Jacobs/ Fantasia Nashville Symphony/ Anne Akiko Meyers/ Giancarlo Guerrero Philharmonia Orchestra/ Naxos 8.559798 Kristjan Järvi Debussy orch.Brett Dean Avie AV2385

Ariettes Oubliées Steve Reich Magdalena Kožená/Deutsches Pulse/Quartet Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/ International Contemporary Robin Ticciati Ensemble/Colin Currie Group Linn CKD 550 Nonesuch 793243

Stravinsky Funeral Song on Decca The first recording of Stravinsky’s rediscovered and Esa-Pekka Salonen. The 100 performances

Photo: Blake Hannahson Funeral Song has been released by Decca Classics span four continents and more than 25 countries, on an album performed by the Lucerne Festival with the rapid take-up of the score indicating First stage production of Claude Vivier’s Musik für das Ende in the Toronto Soundstreams series Orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Chailly Stravinsky’s continuing fascination as the 20th Claude Vivier’s Musik für das Ende received a to the composer’s biography woven across all (0289 4832562). The 12-minute orchestral score, century’s most iconic composer. belated stage premiere in Toronto’s Soundstreams three parts. composed in 1908 by the Responses to the newly series in October. The 45-minute work dates from 26-year-old composer, was a “So shimmering are Vivier’s drones, so sweetly childlike resurfaced score have been 1971, early in the Quebecois composer’s career memorial tribute to his beloved his invented languages and mystical geographies, so positive from audiences and press but already exploring his later preoccupations with teacher Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. energetic his need to communicate his cravings and alike. After its UK premiere last death, eternity and a spiritual release into the It can be heard as the missing link insecurities, that the effect is one of warmth… a shadowy, February, performed by Esa-Pekka cosmos. Vivier described how, “as if in a dream, between his early Fireworks and otherworldly rite, almost medieval in its soberly Salonen and the Philharmonia I experienced the increasingly strange ceremony Scherzo Fantastique (both overlapping incantations…” New York Times Orchestra, The Times called the of beings fainting into forever and becoming ‘an featured on the new disc) and work “darkly beautiful”, and The infinite moment’ in eternal silence… The Music “…almost an ambient work, relying on one repeated and his ballet The Firebird, written Guardian remarked on its of the End is where all is forever erased, where gradually morphing motif, a few chanted words that for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, “extraordinary emotional power”. all becomes infinite silence.” sound very much like Sanskrit mantras, with individual which launched Stravinsky’s The Sunday Times proclaimed voices emerging and disappearing like fishes darting international career. Scored for a choir of solo singers doubling on that Funeral Song was “bound to about in a dark tank. The singers are also actors, percussion, the work had to wait 40 years for its Funeral Song has reached the become a classic”. After the babbling to themselves in private monologues of anxiety first concert performance by the RIAS Chamber milestone of 100 performances work’s US premiere by the or conversations in foreign tongues as they group, Choir in Berlin in 2012. The production in Toronto, given since its first modern performance in Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by staged by Chris Abraham and conducted by John dressed in black, and separate and then regroup…” St Petersburg in December 2016 and planned for Charles Dutoit the Chicago Tribune described how Hess, saw Musik für das Ende combined with a Globe and Mail the coming season. Conductors who have taken “the importance of Funeral Song lies in what it monologue drawn from Vivier’s writings and a 2018 will see special events marking the 70th the rostrum for first national performances are a reveals of the artistic development of one of the last performance of his final work Glaubst du an die anniversary of Vivier’s birth and a creative life cut host of Stravinsky specialists including Riccardo century’s great musical geniuses, and its portents Unsterblichkeit der Seele, with theatrical references short by his murder in Paris at the age of 34. Chailly, Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, Simon Rattle of greater Stravinsky works to come…”

Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited Promotion email: [email protected] Editor: David Allenby Aldwych House, 71-91 Aldwych, Hire email: [email protected] Designer: London WC2B 4HN Facebook: www.facebook.com/BooseyandHawkes Printer: Halstan & Co Ltd, England Telephone: +44 (0)20 7054 7200 Twitter: www.twitter.com/Boosey_London www.boosey.com/composers

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