The first reviews of the Scottish Ensemble’s world première of Luke Bedford’s Wonderful Two-Headed Nightingale are in.

Kate Molleson in The Guardian calls it a “bold, dense and arresting blast of a composition – a work that forcefully reiterates Bedford’s voice and brilliantly showcased its fine set of players.” ****

Juliet Williams at Classical Iconoclast writes, “The soloists seem at times to be ‘joined at the hip’ but at other times to be locked in a power struggle.”

Kelly Apter in The Scotsman explains, that “offering no comfort, it made me sit up in my chair and listen, as Morton and guest violist Lawrence Power battled with each other, then came together in harmony, just as the conjoined twins who inspired the piece must have done.” ****

Alan Coady of Bachtrack.com writes “The dramatic tension in this piece derives from two solo lines which follow equal mindsets: striving to break free from the other; reunited and more happily resigned to the status of being a twin.” ****

And some goosebumps:

Loved the @ScotEnsemble concert @queens_hall last night. The Alwyn was superb and Bedford gave me goosebumps. :)

— Grainne M Rooney (@GrainneMRooney) February 20, 2012

Tomorrow’s performance at the City Halls in Glasgow
is broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

From the UE archives:

This looks like a fine concert programme from 1930, conducted by Paul von Klenau with works by Paumgartner, Wellesz, Toch, Hauer, Schmidt and Kienzl.

But what struck our eye was the notice on the right hand border of the programme:

“By official decree ladies are ordered to remove their hats!”

(Über behördliche Anordnung sind die Damen verhalten, die Hüte abzunehmen!)

Rules are rules!

Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain’s Journey is performed by the RSO Munich tonight, conducted by Stefan Asbury. The concert also includes a new work by Enno Poppe and Charles Ives’ Robert Browning Overture.

Gerald Larner wrote in The Guardian that Gawain’s Journey is “a dramatic concert piece and a bruising but exhilarating experience for the audience.”

Happy Birthday Friedrich Cerha!

(Another anniversary for the 17th February is the world première of Mahler’s Das klagende Lied, which took place in 1901)

We’re off to the Konzerthaus in Vienna tonight for the latest concert in Klangforum Wien’s IKONEN series.

Under the title Vexations, Klangforum presents a rich programme of UE works:

Pierre Boulez: Mémoriale | ( ... explosante-fixe ... Originel)
Morton Feldman: Instruments 2
Beat Furrer: Time out 1 and 2
Friedrich Cerha: Bruchstück, geträumt

as well as Olga Neuwirth’s ... miramondo multiplo ...

Jean Deroyer conducts, Eva Furrer and Anders Nyqvist are the soloists.

Watch on YouTube

Buy the CD of this beautiful arrangement here.

Buy the sheet music here.

Visit the Dublin Guitar Quartet website.

Listen live to Johannes Maria Staud’s new work for orchestra tonight on Radio BR Klassik (8pm Berlin time).

Mariss Jansons conducts Maniai with the RSO Munich at the Herkulessaal in Munich, where the world première was given yesterday.

Happy Birthday Alban Berg! He was born on 9 February 1885, 127 years ago today.

On this day in 1945, Frank Martin’s Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke was premièred in Basel by the Basel Chamber Orchestra and Paul Sacher.

In 1949, the orchestral suite of Gottfried von Einem’s Dantons Tod was premièred in Baden Baden by the Radio Orchestra.

20 years ago today, on 9 February 1992, Wolfgang Rihm’s opera Die Eroberung von Mexiko was first heard at the Hamburg State Opera – Ingo Metzmacher conducted. Here’s a German introduction on the Deutschlandfunk radio website.

And on the same day in 1992, Arvo Pärt’s And One of the Pharisees ... was given its world première by Paul Hillier and the Theatre of Voices.

If you are in Boston tonight, go and see Sound Icon perform Georg Friedrich Haas’ ethereal 70-minute in vain at the Institute of Contemporary Art (audio sample on this page).

If you are not in Boston tonight, listen live on BBC Radio 3 (7:30pm London time) to the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra performing Friedrich Cerha’s Wiener Kaleidoskop – a romp around Vienna’s musical traditions (audio sample on this page).

For those looking for something else for a Friday evening, there’s Rihm in Saarbrücken (COLL’ARCO), Weill in Graz (Threepenny Opera), Janacek in Munich (Glagolitic Mass) and Reims (Jenufa), Schreker in Cologne (Chamber Symphony), Borisova-Ollas in Gothenburg (The Kingdom of Silence), Mahler in Bangkok (Symphony No. 9), Birtwistle in London (Linoi), Zemlinsky in Valencia (Lyric Symphony), Kodály in Arnhem (Dances of Galanta), Oldfield in Neuenkirchen (Tubular Bells), Bartók in Athens (Miraculous Mandarin), Berio in Düsseldorf (Rendering) …

See the full list of today’s performances here

Gustavo Dudamel’s remarkable Mahler series is fully underway in Los Angeles.

Tonight he conducts Symphony No. 9, and this Saturday Symphony No. 8 is on the programme, complete with the LA Phil, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and 16 LA based choirs.

Read more on the LA Phil website and watch our video interview with Gustavo Dudamel below, where he talks about the music of Gustav Mahler.

Watch on YouTube

It’s a historic day in Vienna, with the first ever performance of a Kurt Weill work at the Vienna State Opera.

Ingo Metzmacher conducts the Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in a production by Jérôme Deschamps. Elisabeth Kulman, Angelika Kirchschlager and Christopher Ventris sing the lead roles.

See more at the Vienna State Opera website.

It’s the final day of the 5e Biennale de quatuors à cordes here in Paris, with two more concerts of Rihm’s string quartets.

14.30 QUATUOR CAPUÇON
including Rihm’s Fetzen 1

17:30 HAGEN QUARTET
including Rihm’s Tristesse d’une étoile and Fetzen 2

Full score of Tristesse d’une étoile

View on ISSUU.com

We move into the final weekend of the 5e Biennale de quatuors à cordes at the Cité de la musique in Paris, with three Rihm string quartets on the programme today.

11:00 Quatuor Ysaÿe
including Wolfgang Rihm’s Quartettstudie

Full score

View on ISSUU.com

14:30 Arditti Quartett
including Rihm’s String Quartet No. 5

Full score

View on ISSUU.com

20:30 Prazák Quartet
including Rihm’s String Quartet No. 4

Full score

View on ISSUU.com

It’s day 6 of the 5e Biennale de quatuors à cordes at the Cité de la musique in Paris.

19:00 ARDITTI QUARTET / JERUSALEM QUARTET
including Wolfgang Rihm’s String Quartet No. 3

Full score

View on ISSUU.com

20:30 BORODIN QUARTET
including Wolfgang Rihm’s Grave – In memoriam Thomas Kakuska

Full score

View on ISSUU.com

It’s day 5 of the 5e Biennale de quatuors à cordes at the Cité de la musique in Paris.

19:00 QUATUOR DIOTIMA
including Wolfgang Rihm’s String Quartet No. 1 and String Quartet No. 8

Full score of String Quartet No. 1

View on ISSUU.com

Full score of String Quartet No. 8

View on ISSUU.com

20:30 ARDITTI QUARTET / QUATUOR ÉBÈNE
including the world première of Wolfgang Rihm’s String Quartet No. 13 (commissioned by the Cité de la musique)

Full score

View on ISSUU.com