February 2016

Simpson Pleasure on tour Image: © Opera North 2016 sees the premiere of Mark Simpson’s first opera, a new CD on NMC and his ongoing residency with the BBC Philharmonic

The double career of young composer and personal tragedy. The work has grown through a clarinettist Mark Simpson continues on an upward ten-year gestation, from Simpson’s first ideas as trajectory, with the world premiere of his opera, a teenager experiencing Liverpool’s club scene, Pleasure, promising to be a season highlight. through discussions with Melanie Challenger, to Scored for four singers and 10 instrumentalists, commissioning and composition of the opera, the stagework is unveiled by Opera North in whose premiere will mark a personal milestone for Leeds on 28 April, travelling on to Simpson’s the 27-year-old composer. native city of Liverpool, then south to Aldeburgh Due for release in May is the first all-Simpson and the Lyric Hammersmith in London presented recording, collecting together ensemble and by The Royal Opera. The eight performances are chamber works on the NMC label. Perfomers staged by Tim Albery with the Psappha Ensemble include Nicholas Daniel, Leonard Elschenbroich, conducted by Nicholas Kok. Guy Johnston, Richard Uttley, Ensemble 10:10 For this first opera Mark Simpson has worked under Clark Rundell, the Mercury Quartet and with writer Melanie Challenger, following the Simpson himself on clarinet. Last year saw close collaboration on their ‘afterlife’ oratorio, Simpson perform Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto at The Immortal, premiered to great acclaim at the BBC Proms and join solo artists Pierre-Laurent the Manchester International Festival last year. Aimard, Isabelle Faust and Jean-Guihen Queyras The central character of Pleasure is Val, a toilet for Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time at the attendant at a gay nightclub – played by soprano Aldeburgh Festival. He will form a trio with Aimard Lesley Garrett – who is trapped in a hedonistic and Antoine Tamestit for his new Hommage à Mark Simpson’s new chamber opera Pleasure tours England in April and May underworld by her memories. In true mythic Kurtág commissioned by the Salzburg Festival for fashion the net closes, as the drama is propelled premiere this summer. Clarinet Concerto under the baton of HK Gruber. Andrew Litton. Commission plans within Simpson’s to a dark conclusion. Simpson’s Composer in Association role with Orchestral works to date by the young composer BBC Philharmonic residency include a new Cello The music for Pleasure sits between opera and the BBC Philharmonic continues this month also include A mirror-fragment…, Threads and the Concerto for Leonard Elschenbroich scheduled for musical theatre, moving from the pleasure-seeking with the orchestral fanfare sparks conducted dramatic concert-opener Israfel, premiered last year premiere in 2017. For further information on the exuberance of the club, via outrageous cabaret to by Nicholas Collon and a solo role in Lindberg’s by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and composer visit www.boosey.com/simpson.

sung episodes on ABC TV. This new comedic opera Shop relaunch Holloway Kats-Chernin with text by Joanna Murray-Smith was presented by Fleming Snow White in Berlin by Opera Australia specifically for TV with a cast mixing actors and singers. This season includes two concerto premieres for Kats-Chernin, with her Celebrated soprano Few composers can outdo the sheer versatility flute concerto Night and Now performed in Darwin Renée Fleming of Elena Kats-Chernin. Recent premieres have and Melbourne, and the saxophone concerto performs Robin encompassed a children’s opera offering a new Macquarie’s Castle scheduled for premiere at the Holloway’s orchestrated take on Snow White in Berlin, a ‘soap opera’ for Sydney Conservatorium in April. collection of Debussy Australian TV, two new ballet scores in the UK The Shop at Boosey.com, the world’s leading songs in London and a flute concerto premiered in Darwin. Her Boosey & Hawkes is soon to release a new online destination specializing in classical sheet and Stockholm this energy is matched by her cosmopolitan outlook: Kats-Chernin Piano Album, with a selection of her music, is relaunched with a major upgrade to its month and records born in Uzbekistan in 1957, she trained at the keyboard music, from waltzes to tangos and rags. website. With over 300,000 products on sale from them for Decca. The Gnesin Musical College in Moscow and the all international publishers, the redesigned shop Barbican performance Sydney Conservatorium of Music, studied with offers the widest choice of classical music Elena Kats-Chernin’s Snow White and the 77 Dwarves on 5 February features Lachenmann in Hanover, worked for 13 years in publications, educational music, books, CDs, at the Komische Oper in Berlin

Photo: Decca/Andrew Eccles Photo: Decca/Andrew the BBC Symphony Germany’s theatre and dance worlds, and in 1994 DVDs, accessories and gifts. Orchestra and Fleming joins the Royal Stockholm returned to Sydney as her composing base. www.boosey.com/shop Philharmonic at the Konserthus on 10 February, Following her realisations of the three Monteverdi with both concerts conducted by Sakari Oramo. The enhanced search engine allows shoppers to operas for the Komische Oper in Barrie Kosky’s quickly refine and sort their selection of music and The ten Debussy songs orchestrated by Holloway stagings, Kats-Chernin returned to Berlin in basket and checkout have both been improved. under the title C’est l’extase are all settings November with a new children’s opera Snow White A VIP Club offers 5% discount to loyal customers, of poetry by Paul Verlaine, commissioned for and the 77 Dwarves. Created with playwright registered educators receive a discount if spending Fleming by the San Francisco Symphony and Susanne Felicitas Wolf, this fast-paced new version over £25, while purchasers of multiple copies of Michael Tilson Thomas. The San Francisco of the Brothers Grimm classic was enthusiastically choral music benefit from a new range of offers Chronicle described how “a beautiful and often received by adults and children alike. Combining launched this month. imaginative treatment of familiar material offered adult singers in the lead roles with the Komische a revelatory exploration of Debussy’s musical Oper’s children’s chorus as the 77 dwarves, the Boosey & Hawkes built its reputation for expertise in style”. C’est l’extase and Holloway’s acclaimed production’s fantasy-filled imagery was mirrored music retailing across more than 200 years, based orchestration of Debussy’s piano duet En blanc et in the pit as noted by the Berliner Morgenpost: around its shop in London’s West End. Retail noir are both available for performance in honour “Kats-Chernin’s music sounds just as magical. The activities moved online in 2004 with the creation of of the composer’s centenary of death in 2018. composer succeeds in creating an entertaining, The Shop at Boosey.com, expanding the operation enchanting mixture of classical, musicals and pop, to reach 60,000 customers worldwide. Holloway’s Europa and the Bull, for tuba and animated cartoon music and hit numbers.” orchestra, was premiered in October by the The Shop at Boosey.com provides online retail Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under services to third party organisations and operates Andrew Manze, with its North American premiere “ ...a dwarf-world with successful retail partnerships with ABRSM, Trinity planned next season in San Francisco. The College London and London College of Music. concertante work takes the form of a mythological Swing and ding-a-ling...” To discuss possible retail collaborations please scena, based upon Ovid’s description in his Neue Musikzeitung

Photo: Komische Oper/Monika Rittershaus contact [email protected]. Metamorphoses of Jupiter, in the guise of a bull, lustfully pursuing the nymph Europa and the Shobana Jeyasingh’s new ballet Material Men, creation of a new continent from their coupling. employing a commissioned score by Kats-Chernin for the Smith Quartet, is a dynamic duet between “…though Holloway’s writing is fairly rampant in parts, dancers performing in the Indian classical tradition Inside this issue… he makes expansive room for exploration of the lyrical, and in hip-hop. Following its premiere at the even seductive qualities that give the instrument a certain Southbank Centre in September, where the music nobility. The RLPO’s heroic principal tuba Robin Haggart was described by The Guardian as “vibrant and fully conveyed the profound, singing quality achievable seductive”, the ballet toured England and Wales. from this very large yet surprisingly expressive horn.” The autumn also introduced Rambert’s The 3 The Guardian Dancers with a Kats-Chernin score for seven instruments, choreographed by Didy Veldman, A further Holloway work for solo instrument and Andriessen Lindberg Birtwistle Ginastera with 19 performances around the UK. orchestra, a new organ concerto entitled For Ever Interview on his new New concerto toured Arditti Quartet tours Centenary discs Singing as they Shine, is premiered in April in In Australia, Kats-Chernin was in the news with her stagework in LA and by Frank Peter The Silk House and performance Gelsenkirchen with soloist Bernhard Buttmann. ‘soap opera’ The Divorce, airing in four half-hour Amsterdam Zimmermann Sequences highlights

Andriessen Theatre of the World Beckett and we staged many plays by Brecht so I mystical solace to Kircher. Her song cuts across Louis Andriessen’s stagework, exploring the arcane knowledge of a learnt a lot about poly-interpretability – that is drama the drama, as if his gazing at her portrait in his 17th century polymath, is unveiled in Los Angeles and Amsterdam. left open for the audience without the imposition of room in Rome opened a window to New Spain. a simple narrative arc. Straight story-telling is the domain of the film-maker who only wants to be rich Does your musical style reference history or is it was both a Jesuit and a scientist – a good enough and famous – it has nothing to do with art. modern in sensibility? contradiction to stimulate my own interest. There are some specific historical references, such Why did you decide on a multilingual text? as needing to create a fixed moment in time when What triggered the idea that Kircher’s world could This may seem an odd approach for audiences Kircher plays an organ in the Vatican, but my music be the centre of a musical work? in the UK, America or even Germany where generally travels freely through history suggesting The more I learnt about him the more questions dubbed translations are common, but the Dutch allusions to drive the drama. Many references are came up. He was a pioneering microbiologist and are used to a polyglot world. I love moving away ironic and serve a particular point, but generally a respected authority on Egyptian hieroglyphs for from surface engagement to a drama where the the overall sweep of the music – like the film being two hundred years until the French research in the sound of language becomes more important – a created by the Quay Brothers – is intended to 19th century, yet some of his scholarly techniques certain phrase in a particular tongue can have a provide a jostling, surreal, Bosch-like world summed were highly suspect. My real trigger came with distinct flavour which throws up a whole series of up in the work’s description as “a Grotesque”. Joscelyn Godwin’s book Athanasius Kircher’s allusions – I’ve used it to add to the nightmarish Theatre of the World. When I contacted the author atmosphere of the work. Andriessen highlights he turned out to be a composer as well as an M is for Man, Music expert on ancient music and the occult, and he How do you view the relationship between the & Mystery encouraged me to write the Kircher stagework. elderly Kircher and the boy? 9/12/13 February 2016 The boy starts as representing the quest for including BBC Symphony How did you work with Helmut Krausser on the knowledge that drove Kircher throughout his life, Orchestra in UK premieres of development of the libretto? but increasingly takes on a diabolic purpose. He La Commedia, Mysterïen and I greatly admired Helmut Krausser’s book Melodien, claims there is a contract on Kircher’s soul and Rosa’s Horses and Britten Sinfonia a novel about 15th century composers, myth and we find ourselves travelling into Faustian territory. in La Passione. magic, and when we first met in Berlin it was clear I realised the boy was too major a role to be sung

De Materie Photo: Francesca Patella he had a profound engagement with music and by a kid with a small fragile voice, so we’re using 22/24-26/28-30 March 2016 the skills necessary to assemble a libretto. Beyond a soprano which throws up many interesting (US stage premiere) information on Kircher and his world, I supplied gender issues. Park Avenue Armory, New York Helmut with a few clear images, such as that of

Image: Dutch National Opera Heiner Goebbels, dir/ICE/Peter Rundel a little boy knocking on the doors of the Vatican How did you first ‘hear’ music to set against When did you first discover the last ‘Renaissance saying “I want to know everything”. We came the drama? Theatre of the World man’ Athanasius Kircher? to a deal that Helmut would create the libretto Certain characters or scenes suggested a 6/8 May 2016 (world premiere) A very long time ago, because my father had independently and that I should cut his supplied particular type of music, for instance the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles an original Dutch edition of Kircher’s book on text down to a length that could be set to music. aggression of the witches, the sinister humour Pierre Audi, dir/Quay Brothers, film/ China with wonderful illustrations – in amazing of the hangman, or the journeys along the River Los Angeles Philharmonic /Reinbert de Leeuw condition considering it was from 1667. I loved Why is it you’ve always favoured an assembly of Lethe to Egypt, the Tower of Babel and China. 11/13/14/16/17/19 June 2016 this book and made sure when my father died it tableaux rather than a straight narrative? As a complete contrast we have the music for (European premiere) travelled with me to Amsterdam. My father was This goes back to my work composing for the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the Mexican nun, Theater Carré, Amsterdam / Holland Festival particularly fascinated that this German scholar theatre in the 1970s. I was interested in writers like poetess and savante who provided a profound, Dutch National Opera/Reinbert de Leeuw

Little JFK opera in Texas Lindberg

“Drawing on real details of the Kennedys’ final violin concertos night, the opera uses dreams to create an Magnus Lindberg’s two imaginary time and space, allowing the couple to violin concertos feature revisit those who helped to shape their personal prominently this season, and political lives. Jack travels to the moon with with ten performances his sister Rosemary, where he spars with political of the new second rivals, and relives his courtship of the demure concerto for Frank Peter Jacqueline. Jackie sings a duet with her future Zimmermann and eleven of self, Jacqueline Onassis, who dresses her in her the first concerto played by iconic pink Chanel suit, assuring her that she has soloists including Christian a part to play in the day’s proceedings. Tetzlaff and a growing collection of Finnish “Time is flexible in this drama; fate is not. JFK is Photo: Hanya Chlala/ArenaPAL violinists. Violin Concerto a portrait of a precipice. The fleeting moments No.2, commissioned by the London Philharmonic of hope before a cosmic page turned, optimism Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Swedish faltered, and America was forced into a new and Photos: Merri Cyr, ALT/Richard Avedon ALT/Richard Photos: Merri Cyr, Radio Symphony Orchestra, Radio France and uncertain era. The opera is a portrayal of the man New York Philharmonic, was premiered by JFK explores the Kennedys’ last night in Fort Worth before the president’s assassination as we project our hopes, dreams and fears upon Zimmermann in London in December, travelling him. It explores the sense of profound loss we still on to New York, Berlin, Stockholm and Paris in David T. Little’s new opera JFK is unveiled at in Little’s Soldier Songs at Atlanta Opera, and feel. It presents the innermost struggles of a fragile the New Year. the Fort Worth Opera Festival on 23 April, the Thaddeus Strassberger’s production is conducted human, fated to an early demise, as time presses largest-scale work in the career of a composer by Steven Osgood. ever forward.” “…it proved to be a bigger-boned, more expansive increasingly defined by his stage output. utterance than his first… it reminded us why Lindberg JFK offers an operatic yet intimate portrait In addition to JFK in Fort Worth and Soldier Songs is the go-to composer for many orchestras in search Co-commissioned by Fort Worth Opera, Opéra of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady in Atlanta, this season has brought the New York of a user-friendly premiere. It gave an agreeable de Montréal, and American Lyric Theater, JFK Jacqueline Kennedy on the eve of the president’s premiere of Dog Days at the NYU Skirball Center sense that modernist abstraction doesn’t have to sees Little collaborating again with Royce Vavrek, fateful trip to Dallas. Set in downtown Fort Worth’s and its first European stagings in Bielefeld and be penitentially austere, in fact it can be made to following the international success of their historic Hotel Texas, the opera recounts moments Schwerin. Eighth Blackbird performs Little’s new sound positively gorgeous. The very opening made chamber opera Dog Days. The title role is taken from the couple’s personal and political lives, as ritualistic ensemble work Ghostlight in Washington the point. Zimmerman launched things by flinging out by baritone Matthew Worth, who recently starred described by Little and Vavrek: and Chicago in March. three chords which opened outwards like a fan. The orchestra continued this idea, a dense chord radiating outwards from the centre. It was a pure abstract gesture, of the kind Bartók would have appreciated. But in terms of sound it was closer to the ripe romanticism van der Aa 3D film meets music in Blank Out of Berg’s famous violin concerto…” Daily Telegraph

Michel van der Aa’s chamber opera Blank Out is “In the second part of the piece we see a man on premiered in Amsterdam on 20 March, presented screen who is closely linked to the drama. The “…a new spin on this by Dutch National Opera as part of the Opera perspective shifts towards him and we realise he Forward festival. The new stagework sees van inhabits the same house. Interaction between man old form.” Daily Telegraph der Aa combining the intimacy of One and Up and woman gathers momentum until their singing Close with the cutting-edge 3D and interactive film and movements become fused. As we move closer “…there is no lack of technical discipline. The techniques seen in Sunken Garden and Book of to the truth we are left with questions about who atmosphere, though, is brooding… a panoramic vista Sand. Blank Out calls for compact forces making to believe. In musical terms I have woven three opens up of dark clouds over forests and lakes, of it ideal for practical staging and touring: soprano strands into the score: abstract moments centred repressed passions and baleful desires.” Financial Times Miah Persson is the solo live performer on stage, on the electronic backcloth, more direct dramatic while baritone Roderick Williams appears on film, writing closer to operatic style, and pulsing material This season also brought the premiere of with accompaniment provided by a soundtrack which provides rhythmic emphasis. Lindberg’s Vivo, a six-minute concert opener

combining voices of the Netherlands Chamber Photo: Joost Rietdijk commissioned for Carnegie Hall’s 125th season “More than half of the text of Blank Out sets poetry Choir with electronics. gala by the New York Philharmonic. The New by the remarkable South African writer Ingrid Roderick Williams on film within Blank Out York Times described how “as an overture Vivo The composer describes how the inner drama is Jonker, who I first read over 20 years ago and the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome in May 2016 is an exhilarating tease” beginning “with a brassy revealed as the opera progresses: “At the start of have long wanted to feature in a stagework. The and the Lucerne Festival in Summer 2017. Van yet quizzical flourish of riffs” that “then takes off in Blank Out we see a woman alone on the stage, more I researched about her life and poetry, the der Aa’s theatrical exploration of the poetry of swirling stretches that swell, crest and overlap”. her disjointed utterances accumulating as she more I realised she offered deep insights into many Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet, receives struggles to remember the traumatic turning point of my main creative themes such as psychological its UK premiere on 24 February at the Coronet Spring highlights include the Clarinet Concerto in her life. We are drawn into her grief and the trauma, memory, mirrors, alter-egos.” Theatre with the London Sinfonietta. This new with Martin Fröst at the Philharmonie in Berlin on abstract setting takes on physical form, as she English version starring actor Samuel West was 24 April, and the French premiere of GRAFFITI moves the audience through the rooms of a house Following its Amsterdam run at the also staged last month by Peak Performances at with Radio France forces conducted by Mikko near the sea. Muziekgebouw, Blank Out’s touring plans include Montclair State University in the USA. Franck at the Paris Philharmonie on 17 June.

Offenbach King Carrot returns in Lyon Birtwistle Hoffmann into a grand satirical spectacle around third quartet the time of the Franco-Prussian war. Following France’s defeat King Carrot succeeded in bringing laughter back to Paris to lift spirits: this tale of a vegetable usurper overthrowing the crown prince enjoyed an extraordinary run of 195 performances. The expense of staging the original blockbuster led Offenbach to create a shorter ‘opéra-bouffe-féerie’ version, which forms the basis of the Lyon revival with text adapted by Agathe Mélinand.

The readily performable new OEK edition of Roi Carotte, like those of the Romantic operas Les Fées du Rhin and Fantasio, helps widen appreciation of Offenbach as a 19th century master. As the Deutsche Bühne commented, “Roi Carotte is a clear step in the direction of Tales of Hoffmann… a valuable Offenbach work has been

reclaimed for the theatre in Lyon. It was greeted by Photo: Hanya Chlala/ArenaPAL thunderous applause and huge enthusiasm.” Harrison Birtwistle’s third work for the Arditti “A masterpiece – the word is no exaggeration – as Quartet, The Silk House Sequences, was Offenbach’s imagination here reaches for the summit, premiered at the Wigmore Hall in London in constantly renewing itself through eleven tableaux to suit November, travelling on to Milano Musica and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. The Photo: © Stofleth the numerous choruses and ensembles swept up in the epic spirit, from the apocalyptic eruption of Vesuvius, a French premiere at the Paris Philharmonie followed King Carrot seizes power in Laurent Pelly’s Lyon production employing the Offenbach Edition Keck hilarious ode to the railway, or a shiny parade of ants, to in January and the German premiere is at the The latest major revival thanks to the Offenbach Offenbach’s three act version of 1872 in which he the scene at the barricades that may recall the horrors of Witten Days for New Chamber Music in April. Edition Keck is an uproarious staging of Le Roi reduced the original extravagant six hour spectacle the Commune… The production is a celebration always Immersing themselves in Birtwistle, the Ardittis last Carotte (King Carrot) at Lyon Opera in December. to three and a half hours. supported by humour, perfectly timed, leading up to the autumn performed the 9 Pieces for String Quartet The production by Laurent Pelly uses the new appearance of a giant food mill. You can imagine how and The Tree of Strings on a tour of Colombia and critical edition by Jean-Christophe Keck including Offenbach and his librettist Victorie Sardou (the King Carrot ends up – as purée – what a triumph.” on an all-Birtwistle programme in Cardiff. the first-ever full score of the work, recreating author of Tosca) transformed a story by ETA Diapason “…a perpetual motion of reinvented patterns…” Glanert Vivier Enlightened Child in Germany The Observer Megaris siren The new quartet is named after Birtwistle’s Wiltshire home, The Silk House, which was a silk Detlev Glanert launched factory in an earlier incarnation. As The Times his composer focus in noted, “if the title suggests smooth elegance, Stuttgart with the world opulence and languor, forget it. At 81, Birtwistle is premiere in December writing music that’s as bristling, rhythmically of Megaris for orchestra abrasive, dissonant, tightly knit and mysteriously and wordless chorus. dramatic as ever.” Commissioned by SWR to celebrate the “Birtwistle’s 25-minute single movement returns to one of 70th anniversary of his long-established principles, that of meshing and Photo: Bettina Stoess the Stuttgart Radio layered musical clockworks (the sequences of the title) Symphony Orchestra, the new score was that generate a large-scale form of tremendous energy.” conducted by Stephane Denève with the SWR The Guardian Vokalensemble joining the orchestra. “…a tessellation of mechanised, ostinato-based small The 20-minute work bears the subtitle Seascape sections, spikily gestural but with nudgings of polyphony, with Siren’s Last Lament and Glanert’s writing for and a stark challenge to performers in the matter of the chorus follows a tradition from Debussy and rhythm and unorthodox ensemble. Thanks to the Ardittis’ Ravel, reaching beyond words to summon an calm aptitude for the most savage modernist idioms, it other-worldly song. Myths relate how Odysseus emerged rather wonderfully as a unified span, the betrayed Parthenope so she cast herself into sequences flowing confidently together, right down to the the sea and drowned. Currents carried her body Photo: Jann Wilken final, unexpected unison A.” Sunday Times away from the siren’s rock Anthemoessa to be Natalia Horecna’s Vivier ballet Enlightened Child in Hamburg with the German National Youth Ballet washed ashore on the island of Megaris, off The Holland Festival has announced the Dutch the coast of what we know today as Naples, premiere of Birtwistle’s The Cure in a music theatre German interest in the music of Claude Vivier Vivier, the Hamburg series included the composer’s previously named Parthenope in her honour. double bill with The Corridor in June, featuring (1948-83) gathered momentum in November rarely heard Siddhartha for eight orchestral groups, Mark Padmore and Elizabeth Atherton and the “The colourful seascape was received by the audience with a major composer focus in Hamburg’s with the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra London Sinfonietta conducted by Geoffrey with enthusiasm. Once again, Glanert revealed his Greatest Hits festival, curated in collaboration conducted by Matthias Pintscher: Paterson. The composer has recently completed skills as a composer in deathly-subtle sounds which by Kampnagel, the Elbphilharmonie and NDR. Five Lessons in a Frame, to be premiered by the congenially portray the fate of the sirens, who are Taking centre-stage was Natalia Horecna’s new “Inspiration, as experienced by the Brahmin’s son London Sinfonietta on 9 June, and is embarking outwitted by Odysseus and must therefore perish… ballet Enlightened Child, choreographing Vivier’s Siddhartha on the verge of suicide in Hermann Hesse’s on a new orchestral work. with yearningly descriptive shades of nuance the Wo bist du Licht!, Bouchara and Zipangu. The tale, is what Vivier longed for. And this led to the performers demonstrated with audible virtuosity how dance theatre work explores the Canadian-born magnificent symphonic poem Siddhartha in 1976… dying can be beautifully illustrated in music.” composer’s foundling roots and search for spiritual Harsh blocks contrast with romantically-sparked melody. Stuttgarter Nachrichten growth amidst dark shadows. Towards the end Goethe’s last request seems to be fulfilled: “Mehr Licht!” – “More Light!”.Die Welt Deutsch Okeanos Further Glanert performances in Stuttgart “Dance isn’t often as intimate, intense and finely conducted by Denève this season include chiselled, yet also as powerful… the eight dancers of the A further German spotlight on Vivier is provided Bernd Richard Deutsch’s new Shoreless River last month, Four Preludes and German National Youth Ballet slip into the composer’s by Peter Sellars with his new staging in Berlin organ concerto, Okeanos, Serious Songs in April and Frenesia in June, shoes – they embody him, they become his alter ego, in April of the chamber opera Kopernikus, as was premiered in Vienna which also receives its UK premiere this month each in his or her own way… Ensemble Resonanz plays part of his artistic residency at the Philharmonie. in November with soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the three challenging works by Vivier with tremendous Members of the Berlin Philharmonic are joined by Wolfgang Kogert and the RSO Markus Stenz. transparency and delicacy… what is created, increasingly the Neue Vocalsoloisten Stuttgart under the baton Wien conducted by Stefan interwoven piece by piece, is a complete work of art Following his intriguing extrapolation of Brahms of Reinbert de Leeuw for two performances of this Asbury. Die Presse ranked it which does justice to Claude Vivier the person as well as in the Serious Songs, Glanert has demonstrated dreamlike ‘opéra-rituel de mort’. Sellars has also as a totally characteristic work to the artist.” Tanznet his fascination with the composer further in his programmed the US premiere of Kopernikus at of the composer, in which “an Brahms-Fantasie, which has been travelling In addition to chamber performances of the Ojai Festival in June, featuring ICE and almost inexhaustible wealth Photo: Boosey & Hawkes widely with performances conducted by Paramirabo and Shiraz, and a series of talks about Roomful of Teeth. of vivid musical characters, Semyon Bychkov, Donald Runnicles and situations and gestures hurriedly intermingle, this Edward Gardner. time converging the four movements with the four elements of classical antiquity”. “Subtitled “heliogravure for orchestra”, the fantasy “When the waves build up, an airy repartee of high notes is a tightly packed 12-minute tribute, which is Borowski orchestral Sérac between organ and orchestra grows into shimmering fuelled more by allusions to Brahms than by direct The dangerous instability Borowski adopts a similarly daring approach to shapes and humorous registration effects… Everything quotations… the integration of what is borrowed from of mountain ice inspired composing in which, like Richard Strauss, he imposingly is of course woven into a gripping dramaturgy, in Brahms with what is Glanert’s own creative property Sérac, the new orchestral engineers large formats and orchestral grandeur, setting which melodic particles and complex rhythms, virtuoso seems natural and seamless.” work by Johannes Boris powerful structures of sound in motion. This is all passages, thundering chords and chamber music-like The Guardian Borowski, premiered at the organised impressively and effectively, surprise following transparent dialogues grasp each other – logically, despite Donaueschingen Music surprise, offering scherzando motor-rhythms to alleviate all the individual surprises – as in a well-oiled machine.” Glanert continues his ten-year residency with the Days in October under the the monumental.” Neue Musikzeitung Die Presse Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and is currently baton of Peter Eötvös. The composing a Bosch Requiem for soloists, choir Borowski’s new work for the Zafraan Ensemble Other recent scores by the prize-winning Austrian 25-minute score was the and orchestra. The commission celebrates the was premiered last month at the Ultraschall Festival composer include a Triple Concerto with trumpet,

Photo: Priska Ketterer latest in a series of prestigious 500th anniversary of Hieronymus Bosch and the in Berlin, and his new string quartet for the Quatuor trombone and tuba soloists and ictus II, a ‘twin’ for commissions for the Berlin-based composer who premiere is appropriately in the artist’s native city Diotima is unveiled in Witten in April. Commissions Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. signed with Boosey & Hawkes in 2013. of ’s-Hertogenbosch on All Souls’ Day, for 2017 include two works celebrating the 75th A new disc on the Kairos label includes Deutsch’s 4 November, with the RCO, Netherlands Radio “Séracs are tremendous columns of ice which can birthday of Daniel Barenboim with the maestro on ensemble works Mad Dog and Dr Futurity Choir and Markus Stenz. unpredictably collapse, bringing death in their wake. the rostrum and at the keyboard. performed by Klangforum Wien. James MacMillan New publications Four Little Tributes for piano quintet/quartet Benjamin Britten Score and parts Symphonic Suite from Gloriana 979-0-060-12980-3 £26.99 Study score 979-0-060-12973-5 £29.99 Will Todd Jazz Missa Brevis Aaron Copland Choral score Duo 979-0-060-13111-0 £7.99 Flute part and Piano score (revised edition) Mark-Anthony Turnage 979-0-051-59019-3 £10.99 Four Pieces Clarinet part and Piano score Brett Dean 979-0-060-13101-1 £14.99 Three Caprichos after Goya Guitar score English Song Downloads 979-0-2025-3191-4 £10.50 The Boosey & Hawkes Digital Store has expanded David Del Tredici to include over 150 English Songs, with many Belgian Bliss treasures from the archive returned to availability. for wind quintet Boosey & Hawkes enjoyed a close publishing Score and parts relationship with the leading 979-0-051-10762-9 £30.00 English Song composers during the golden half-century between Gerald Finzi

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Photo: Jim Caldwell Tallinn Chamber Orchestra/ bridging the gap between college and resistance and religious fundamentalism of Maxwell Davies are now available again professional life, with alumni including have assured Susannah’s ongoing Tõnu Kaljuste ECM 4811800 as Treasure Island Music downloads. mezzos Denyce Graves and Joyce DiDonato. topicality, as witnessed by the 2014 San Francisco Repertoire includes Eight Songs for A Mad King, 40 years on, the cast of Prince of Players is led Opera production with Patricia Racette in the Henryk Mikołaj Górecki Vesalii Icones, The Martyrdom of St Magnus by Studio artists Ben Edquist and Mane Galoyan. title role. Symphony No.4: and Ave Maris Stella with The Fires of London Though Floyd’s operas have often explored After Susannah, Floyd’s most familiar opera is Tansman Episodes and Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted American themes, Prince of Players is set in Of Mice and Men, with current stagings by Austin London Philharmonic Orchestra/ by the composer. Restoration England, dealing with a leading actor’s Opera and Manitoba Opera in Winnipeg. This Andrey Boreyko Nonesuch 549570 Christopher Rouse crisis of personal and professional identity. The powerful adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novella, Seeing/Kabir Padavali androgynous Edward Kynaston (c.1640–1712), following a pair of itinerant agricultural workers, York Höller Orion Weiss/Talise Trevigne/ one of the last men to perform women’s roles, was has attracted leading dramatic tenors to the role Piano Works including Piano Sonatas Nos.1-3 Albany Symphony Orchestra/ described by Samuel Pepys as “the loveliest lady of gentle giant Lennie, including Anthony Dean Kristi Becker/Pi-hsien Chen/Tamara Stefanovich/ David Alan Miller that ever I saw in my life”. His successful career Griffey in Bruce Beresford’s production for Opera Fabio Martino/Florian Müller Naxos 8.559799 as an idolised celebrity was abruptly ended with Australia in 2011. Edition Abseits EDA 41 (2 CDs) 2016 Grammy nominee

as soloist, the familiar Nos.1 and 2 and the Karl Jenkins Ginastera rediscovered Concierto Argentino. This early score New books Still with the Music: was composed when Ginastera was a 19-year- My Autobiography old student and was revived by pianist Barbara Centenary discs Harrison Birtwistle by Karl Jenkins Nissman in 2011. The work shares some of its Harrison Birtwistle Studies with Sam Jackson folk melodies with the contemporary ballet Edited by David Beard, Kenneth Elliott & Thompson Panambí, with which the young composer burst Gloag and Nicholas Jones 978-1-78396-137-5 onto the Buenos Aires music scene in the mid- Cambridge University Press Hardback 256pp £20.00 1930s, and which is also to appear in the BBC 978-1-107-09374-4 “...an entertaining insight into the life Philharmonic’s recording series. Hardback 334pp £65.00 of the world’s most performed composer...” A recent Ginastera release by the Deutsches sinfinimusic.com Benjamin Britten Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz under Karl- Beyond Britten: Igor Stravinsky Heinz Steffens includes the first recording of Music The Composer and the Community Critical Lives: Igor Stravinsky from Bomarzo. This vivid 25-minute score from Edited by Peter Wiegold and Ghislane Kenyon by Jonathan Cross his modernist middle years combines lyricism with Boydell & Brewer Reaktion Books expressionist drama, drawing upon the composer’s 978-1-84383-965-1 978-1-78023-494-6 operatic tale of lust and revenge set in 16th-century Hardback 312pp £45.00 Paperback 208 pp £11.99 Italy (Capriccio C5224). Plans are underway for the first release of Ginastera’s powerful oratorio Turbae ad passionem gregorianam, recorded by Trinity Wall Street in New York. Bartók Definitive Edition The Ginastera centenary year was launched Centenary Highlights with the release of the first disc in a new series • Argentina celebrates with a new production of Carols and Fourteen Bagatelles and are packaged of recordings on the Chandos label. This major Ginastera’s opera Beatrix Cenci at the Teatro Colón in with audio CDs containing demonstration survey of Ginastera’s ballets, piano concertos and March and a ten concert series by the Buenos Aires performances by Iain Farrington. orchestral music features the BBC Philharmonic Philharmonic conducted by Enrique Diemecke. conducted by its Spanish-born Chief Conductor • New York highlights include the return of Christopher The nine initial volumes in the new Boosey & Juanjo Mena. Wheeldon’s Estancia to New York City Ballet in Hawkes Bartók Edition showcase stylish and idiomatic arrangements of Bartók classics by Hywel The first CD features a complete recording of February and April and a Trinity Wall Street series with Davies, opening the composer’s musical world to Estancia, the ballet in which the young Argentinian 15 Ginastera works. • a wider range of instrumental students. Collections composer portrayed the life of the gauchos at work Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel tour for clarinet, flute, alto saxophone, trumpet and violin on the vast grassland plains, familiar from the suite Piano Concerto No.1 with Sergio Tiempo to New York, with piano accompaniments, are joined by three of orchestral dances which can be heard in concert London, Paris and Luxembourg in March. • volumes of duo and trio arrangements for flute, halls around the globe this year. He also explored Performances of concertos, orchestral works and violin and saxophone, and a volume of Romanian his native Argentinian landscape in Pampeana chamber music in Berlin, London, Madrid, Basel, A range of new Bartók publications are available Karlsruhe, Stavanger, Gothenburg, Katowice, Folk Dances. Future releases are planned for an No.3, a three-movement pastorale built on this month, catering for a wide range of extended range of instruments. symphonic principles. The disc is completed with Melbourne and Seoul. performing abilities. The Definitive Bartók Edition the symphonic triptych Ollantay, in which Ginastera • Brazilian centenary feature across São Paulo Symphony offers two progressive piano collections, bringing The original and definitive edition of Mikrokosmos looks back to Incan mythology. Orchestra’s season with five Ginastera works. together over 50 selected highlights from the • 2016/17 season at Teatro Real in Madrid includes composer’s extensive pedagogical catalogue. remains available in six volumes, with a range of Future discs in the Chandos series will feature new staging of Bomarzo by Pierre Audi, travelling on The two albums draw upon Mikrokosmos, For language options. For further information visit the three piano concertos with Xiayin Wang to Dutch National Opera. Children, Ten Easy Pieces, Romanian Christmas www.boosey.com/bartokedition

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