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

Part two of Georg Friedrich Haas’ SCHWEIGEN – II. Lampedusa for soprano and mezzo-soprano – is given its world première this Sunday at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.

Soloists from the Neue Vocalsolisten perform as part of the Escalier du Chant project by the artist Olaf Nicolai.

The US premiere of Georg Friedrich Haas’ chants oubliés for chamber orchestra takes place tonight in Los Angeles.

Otto Tausk conducts the LA Phil New Music Group at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The title refers to late works by Franz Liszt (Valses oubliés, Romance oubliée) – Liszt’s technique of presenting one-part melodies in a different sound environment (often that of the piano) is applied here to the possibilities of the chamber orchestra.

Here’s Tom Service on the recent performance of Georg Friedrich Haas’ in vain at the Lucerne Festival.

“... an hour-long ensemble work that made a shattering nocturnal impression … a monumental work”

Read the full article.

Listen to an excerpt on this page.

Georg Friedrich Haas’ 70 minute work for 24 instruments, in vain, is one of the most celebrated works in the composer’s catalogue.

It has been a highly praised in the New York Times (Vivienne Schweitzer wrote of “waves of opulently strange, beautiful sounds”); it was the central part of an 8-hour ‘symposium’ concert by Klangforum Wien; and has already been performed 31 times since its world première in 2000.

Now, in a kind of pan-Alpine derby, the work is being performed twice in the same evening at two different major festivals (Saturday 13 Aug).

Emilio Pomàrico conducts Klangforum Wien at the Salzburg Festival, while at the Lucerne Festival Jürg Henneberger conducts Ensemble Phoenix Basel.

Listen to an excerpt of in vain on this page.

The Lucerne concert is part of a special focus on Haas this year, as part of which his opera Nacht (night is the central theme of the festival this year) can be heard (17 Sept) as well as his string quartets, including the world première of the String Quartet No 7 by the Arditti Quartet (10 Sept), and various ensemble works.

See all forthcoming performances of works by Georg Friedrich Haas in our online calendar.

Our week of world premières continues, following yesterday’s new work by Vykintas Baltakas.

On Saturday, Georg Friedrich Haas’ new work for chamber orchestra, chants oubliés, is part of a portrait concert given by the Munich Chamber Orchestra, which is joined by Teodoro Anzelotti and Kelvin Hawthorne.

Johannes Maria Staud’s new monodrama for narrator and ensemble, Der Riß durch den Tag, is given its world première in Dresden by Bruno Ganz and the Staatskapelle Dresden.

In other news, the Dutch Radio’s famous ZaterdagMatinee series presents the Dutch première of Wolfgang Rihm’s QUID EST DEUS? The concert is broadcast live on Dutch Radio (14:15, Sat 4 June CEST).

Communication in the dark

The Ensemble Sentiere Selvaggi performs Georg Friedrich Haas’ 3rd String Quartet, In iij. Noct., tonight at the Teatro Elfo Puccini in Milan.

The work is performed in complete darkness, preferably with all doors and even the emergency lighting covered up. It is at first a very disconcerting thing, simply because we very rarely experience total darkness.

What might seem like a gimmick though has a dramatic effect on the musician’s performance – playing as they are required to do from memory and communicating purely through the music itself – as well as on our perception of the music.

In the New York Times, Vivien Schweitzer looks forward to the next performance of Georg Friedrich Haas’ in vain, performed by the Argento Chamber Ensemble.

Vivien Schweitzer’s 2009 review of their first New York performance is here: Growls and Harps, in the Dark

Georg Friedrich Haas’ 3rd String Quartet, In iij. Noct., receives its British première this Saturday at Leeds University’s 2011 Contemporary Music Festival (link opens a PDF file).

The performance is given by the Kairos Quartett, long time champions of Haas’ string quartets and veterans of this unique work – performed as it is in absolute darkness.

Georg Friedrich Haas’ new work for six microtonally-tuned pianos, limited approximations, can be heard on SWR2 Radio tonight (02.02.2011, 23:03 CET). The work was given its world première at the Donaueschingen Festival last autumn, where the SWR Symphony Orchestra awarded it the Composition Prize 2010. 

See more radio broadcasts here.