infotext:
musica viva Munich Ever since it was founded by the composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann in 1945, the Bavarian Radio concert series ›musica viva‹ has been one of the world's most important forums for contemporary music. Premieres and historical milestones of modernity are the concept of these monthly concerts. In January and February 2008, a three-week festival took place in Munich for the first time in the history of ›musica viva‹. Not only the always committed Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, but also other top orchestras of the ARD helped this festival (and thus outstanding composers and interpreters of new music) to a great success. The filmmaker and composer Peider A. Defilla (owner of BOA Videofilmkunst) has been documenting the ›musica viva‹ concerts for BR-alpha, the educational channel of Bavarian television, since 2001. In each 15-minute film essay, he depicts the broad musical spectrum of ›musica viva‹. The existing cooperation between Bayerischer Rundfunk, NEOS and BOA also made the DVD presented here with representative excerpts from the most important concerts and interviews of the festival possible. In addition, NEOS released a six-CD festival box set in September 2009: five Hybrid SACDs with the unabridged works by Czernowin, Dillon, Furrer, Hartmann, Hölszky, Lim, Pintscher, Reimann, Saariaho, Saunders, Scelsi, Widmann, Xenakis and one Stereo CD with traditional music from Egypt and Persia, one of the main focuses of the festival [NEOS 10926]. Adriana Holszky The composition Countdown for countertenor and 20 instrumentalists fragmentarily uses the text Odyssey through Homeless Shelters by the homeless writer with the pseudonym Ver du Bois (Woodworm). The instrumentalists create several sound spaces with the countertenor in the middle. However, his sound space is a separate, central, inner space that does not communicate with the circle of instrumentalists. This symbolizes loneliness, not being included, standing apart. Conlon Nancarrow study no. 41 is one of four works for two player pianos. It consists of two different pieces and three parts. In 41a one of the two piano roles is played on one of the two pianos, in 41b another role on the same or a second piano, and in 41c both roles are played simultaneously on two pianos. study no. 41 is one of Nancarrow's most complex works. The voices are based on complicated, irrational tempo relations, ie each voice runs at a different speed. Michael Lentz and Uli Winters The rhythm of the steps and punches, the audible breath, shouts from the audience - the musical essence of a boxing match is further developed with the composition boxing song. A real boxer as meter and soloist enters the ring with an ensemble from piccolo to subwoofer. Music as a product of physical exertion, voice in the form of rocking voice comments and in the form of a human beat box. Reaction and counter-reaction, offensive and cover, concentration and distraction: boxing as a way of life, a cycle of exertion and relaxation. Hans Zender The fragments were created or are created in free sequence. So far, six have been completed and about the same number are sketched. The texts used are fragments from Gnostic writings, from apocryphal sources and from the Gospel of John. Rhythm and harmony are based on techniques that restrict the composer's arbitrariness through the strictest of laws, giving them something ›ritual‹ that wants to bring the listener to concentrated concentration. Oliver Messiaen Messiaen's music was inspired by Gregorian chant, Indian rhythm and the songs of birds. Un sourire is a homage to Mozart, whom Messiaen greatly admired: »... If I love Mozart, it is because there is a rhythm in his music with very different accents. This is because he composed German and Italian libretti. So there is a constant alternation of stressed and unstressed tenses in his music, and that gives great rhythmic power. Mozart is cheerful, enchanting, playful, but in fact rhythmically very powerful.« Enno Poppe Everything looks the same from afar. The idea of a piece that always consists of the same five notes, always in the same order. Color and expression arise from the rigid adherence to the form. But still no minimalism, maybe even the opposite. Up close everything is very different. Younghi Pagh Paan In her work In luce ambulemus (Let us walk in the light), wandering is the symbol of an inner search that finds its goal in attaining humility before God. The music is characterized by a tense balance between solidity of form and constant change of sound. Iannis Xenakis Antikhthon was conceived as a ballet in 1971, commissioned by choreographer George Balanchine. Xenakis chose an abstract approach from classical Greek philosophy. He himself remarked: »I have chosen a Pythagorean term (antikhthon = anti-earth) of the 5th and 6th centuries BC. The Pythagoreans were the first to claim that the earth is not the center of the universe.« Antikhthon could also be heard in this way: as a sound image of the universe that has lost its Ptolemaic center and has instead gained in infinite breadth. Beat Furrer "I'm always interested in the transitional situations," says the composer of himself. "Where does one order change into another. Where are the edges of the individual phenomenon?” In this work, too, individual gestures emerge from monochromatic, seemingly still surfaces, which are focused or lose themselves as scurrying gestures chasing shadows. Furrer places a shadowy body alongside the solo piano in the orchestra, with which the soloist moves into distant proximity. Gerard Pesson Speed as a stylistic device plays an essential role in this work. Brief echoes of archetypal sound phenomena - marches, waltzes, ritornellos - do not appear as quotations, but rather as fleeting thoughts on the edge of a compositional process. |
program:
Adriana Holszky (* 1953) countertenor Daniel Gloger Music excerpts Interview with Adriana Hölszky Conlon Nancarrow (* 1912) phonola Wolfgang Heisig, Rex Lawson Music excerpts Interview with Wolfgang Heisig and Rex Lawson Michael Lentz (*1964) / Ulli Winters (* 1965) bass clarinet, piccolo Axel Kühn, Florian Riedl Music excerpts Interview with Michael Lentz and Uli Winters Hans Zender (* 1936) Fragment I (John I, 1–17) SWR Vocal Ensemble Stuttgart Music excerpts Interview with Hans Zender Oliver Messiaen (1908-1992) SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg Music excerpts Interview with Sylvain Cambrelig Enno Poppe (* 1969) SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg Music excerpts Interview with Enno Poppe Younghi Pagh Paan (1945) tenor Hubert Mayer Music excerpts Interview with Youghi Pagh-Paan Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne Music excerpts Interview with Brad Lubman Beat Furrer (* 1954) piano Nicholas Hodges Music excerpts · Interview with Nicolas Hodges Gerard Pesson (1958) WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne Music excerpts Interview with Brad Lubman |
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