On 9 Feb this year the series continues with Johannes Maria Staud’s new work Maniai (ancient Greek goddesses of revenge), which is performed in a concert together with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1.

Regarding the title, Staud writes:

“I was looking for a title to match the character of my composition. It was already certain that it would last about 10 minutes. I had already written several works for orchestra, but I’d never held the tempo pedal down for so long – almost seven minutes, about 2/3 of the piece. The music never allows you any calm – it pursues you relentlessly, like the Erinnyes.” 

Johannes Maria Staud: Maniai
for orchestra
World première: 9/02/2012, Munich
2nd performance on 10/02/2012 broadcast live on Radio BR-KLASSIK
RSO Munich, c. Mariss Jansons

Weiss Silvius Leopold
Overture and Capriccio
UE 34487

already available:

Robert de Visée
Suite en ré mineur
UE 34480

Santiago de Murcia
Suite en ré mineur
UE 34481

Mauro Giuliani
Sonata in C Major op. 15
UE 34482

Mauro Giuliani
La Gloire et l'Amour op. 105
UE 34483

John Dowland
A Dream – Melancholy Galliard – Sir John Smith His Almaine
– A Fancy
UE 34484

Silvius Leopold Weiss
Tombeau and Fantasie
UE 34485

Gaspar Sanz
Preludio – Fuga – Jácaras – Pavanas – Canarios
UE 34486

Santiago de Murcia
Villanos – Fandango – Gallardas – Cumbees
– Marizapálos – La Jotta
UE 34488

"Although very elementary, the pieces are substantial enough to be presented as ensemble performance material for music festivals or examinations.  Having successfully mastered these pieces, players can then progress to the Centre Stage series which offers slightly more
challenging material in the same instrumental format with the added
bonus of featuring a soloist!"  James Rae

All Together – Easy Ensemble!
(James Rae)
UE 21580

Pärt wrote Lamentate in 2002 as a reflection on the huge enigmatic sculpture “Marsyas” by Anish Kapoor, which he created in the turbine hall of the Tate Modern in London.

Dennis Russell Davies conducts the American Composers Orchestra with Maki Namekawa on piano.

Arvo Pärt: Lamentate
for piano and orchestra
NYC première: 31.01.2012, Carnegie Hall New York
Maki Namekawa, piano
American Composers Orchestra, cond. Dennis Russell Davies

Beaumont based his analysis on various sources, including the orchestral score in Zemlinsky’s own handwriting, the orchestral material prepared by the composer himself, the composer’s own piano reduction, various copyists’ reproductions with Zemlinsky’s corrections etc. The first performance using the new critical edition took place in April 2010 in Rome.

The Opéra de Lyon is now performing the opera in a new production by Georges Lavaudant. Bernhard Kontarsky conducts. The première was on 29 Jan.

Alexander Zemlinsky: A Florentine Tragedy
Opera in one act
Première: 29.01.2012, Opéra de Lyon (Festival Puccini plus)
Further performances: 29 and 30 Jan, 6 and 8 Feb
Stage director: Georges Lavaudant
Martin Winkler, Simone; Gun-Brit Barkmin, Bianca; Thomas Piffka, Guido Bardi
Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon, cond. Bernhard Kontarsky

Hans Sommer’s Lieder

Hans Sommer/Clytus Gottwald: Drei Lieder
for choir, arranged by Clytus Gottwald
World première: 29/01/2012, Saarbrücken
KammerChor Saarbrücken, cond. Georg Grün

Friedrich Cerha

Most recently, the complete performances of his Spiegel cycle - one of the milestones of postwar music history - were powerful reminders of the freshness of his music and its almost physical, aural and emotional attraction. The creative force and inventive curiosity of this master of impressive sonic landscapes are unbridled, as the many world premières of recent years strongly show. 

The Ernst von Siemens Music Prize will be awarded to Cerha by the president of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts at a ceremony at Munich’s Cuvilliés Theatre on 22 June 2012. 

We are especially delighted that a Composer’s Prize will be awarded to fellow UE-composer Luke Bedford.

UE congratulates its two composers!

Wolfgang Rihm’s

The Biennale presents all of Rihm’s works for string quartet with performances by the world’s leading quartets (Kronos, Zemlinsky, Hagen, Modigliani, Tokyo, Casals, Arditti etc. etc.).

The highlight of the Biennale is the world première of Rihm’s String Quartet No. 13 by the Arditti Quartet.

See the full programme at the Cité de la Musique website.

To celebrate this extraordinary presentation of Rihm’s music, we are publishing the scores of all the string quartets (where available) online. Follow the UE blog during the coming week for details.

Read our article on Rihm’s interpreters from the latest issue of the Musikblätter.

Although one of the most important operas of the 20th century, it has curiously had to wait until now to be performed at the Vienna State Opera (première: 24 Jan). Before then, a new production by Omri Nitzan opens at the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv (première: 12 Jan).

Kurt Weill: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
Israel Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, cond. David Stern
Tara Venditti, Leokadja Begbick; Alan Woodrow, Fatty;
Julien Tovey, Dreieinigkeitsmoses; Noemi Nadelmann,
Jenny Hill; John Uhlenhopp, Jimmy Mahoney
Stage direction: Omri Nitzan, Stage design: Michael Kremenko
12–29.01.2012 Tel Aviv, Israeli Opera

Vienna State Opera Orchestra, cond. Ingo Metzmacher
Elisabeth Kulman, Leokadja Begbick; Tomasz Konieczny,
Dreieinigkeitsmoses; Angelika Kirchschlager, Jenny Hill;
Christopher Ventris, Jim Mahoney
Stage direction: Jérôme Deschamps, Stage design: Olivia Fersioni
24.01–05.02.2012 Vienna State Opera

Franz Liszt

The Deutsche Radio Philharmonie and Martin Haselböck will record Ad nos, ad salutarem undam for a forthcoming cpo CD. In addition, a film of the concert is being made for the German/French culture TV station ARTE.

Franz Liszt/Marcel Dupré:
Ad nos, ad salutarem undam
fantasia and fugue on the Anabaptist’s chorale from Giacomo Meyerbeers opera Le Prophète
for organ and orchestra
Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, cond.
Martin Haselböck, Christian Schmitt, org
09/01/2012 Luxemburg, Philharmonie
13/01/2012 Saarbrücken, Philharmonie

No matter which genre of music Aleksey draws us into, he always manages to capture the essence of the musical language and does so in his uniquely clever and joyful way ... ‘Asia & More’ will surely hold a regular spot on my music stand.
Joshua Bell

Asia & More
Violin Duets
UE 33654

Here's a full list of editions by Aleksey Igudesman

The pieces will suit middle-grade players and all three parts are well balanced. The original compositions and the arrangements of popular melodies bring a whole variety of new tonal and rhythmic elements into play, improving technique and the necessary skills for ensemble playing. Above all else however, this lively and stylistically varied music will be enjoyed by all.

Florian Bramböck
Saxophone Trios from around the world
for three saxophones AAT(A)
UE 35030

Mlake / Laaken

Olaf Nicolai’s conception has turned the main steps of the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich into a stage, on which the visitors find themselves transformed into part of the display.

Vocal compositions by internationally renowned composers, all written in 2011, reflect on the current political and cultural climate, creating together a kind of “review” of the year.

The a cappella works have been performed on the main steps over 12 Sundays during the year.

SCHWEIGEN

I. Fukushima
for soprano and lyric soprano
world première: 31/07/2011

II. Lampedusa
for soprano and mezzo-soprano
world première: 30/10/2011

III. Mlake / Laaken
for lyric soprano and countertenor
world première: 18/12/2011

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
Neue Vocalsolisten

Jay Schwartz'

Jay Schwartz: Music for Three Stringed Instruments
for violin, viola and violoncello
World première: 14/12/2011
University of Cologne
e-mex ensemble (Christine Rox, vln; Konrad von Coelln, vla; Burkhart Zeller, vc)

This is how the Vienna State Opera announces the contents of Janáček’s opera From the House of the Dead, which premières on 11 December 2011.

The State Opera is showing the controversial production by Peter Konwitschny from the Zurich Opera house. Franz Welser-Möst conducts.

UE is currently working on a new edition of the score of the opera under the careful eye of John Tyrell. His work is based on the provisional edition he created together with Sir Charles Mackerras in 1990. The new version attempts to get closer to Janacek’s artistic vision than the existing editions, including various radical elements that have never before been heard.

Leos Janácek: From the House of the Dead
Première: 11.12.2011
Vienna State Opera
Director: Peter Konwitschny
Vienna State Opera Orchestra, cond. Franz Welser-Möst

Rihm creates a finely woven atmosphere rich in desire with outbursts of intense energy. This “Nocturnal scene for soprano and orchestra” was premièred in 2006 in Munich and can now be heard for the first time in the Netherlands – as part of the Rihm series at the ZaterdagMatinee.

Listen live at 1pm (Amsterdam time) on Dutch Radio4

Wolfgang Rihm: Das Gehege
Dutch première: 10.12.2011
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
Part of the Rihm series at the ZaterdagMatinee
Radio Filharmonisch Orkest
Conductor: Edo de Waart
Hellen Kwon, soprano

We were very happy about the positive reaction to the first edition of Musikblätter (read it here); we saw it as a sign that there is a great need for thorough and more substantial information, and in the future we will be following this newfound path by providing you with material to help you plan the events you wish to attend. As usual, the service section contains comprehensive summaries of our publishing activities: new editions, scheduled première performances, discoveries, new additions to our catalogue, CDs and DVDs, as well as a selection of important concerts.

The editorial section includes interviews in which no fewer than four of our composers speak their minds:

Arvo Pärt candidly recounts the difficulties and harassment he had to put up with in his homeland Estonia at the outset of his career before he became a success in the West. He also explains why he developed the Tintinnabuli style and the artistic crises he had to overcome: “The truth is that I matured very late.”

Wolfgang Rihm (who turns 60 on 13 March) provides information on the conditions affecting the composing process: “Art is a radically individual affair which always harbours human freedom as its starting point and its objective.” Celebrated Rihm interpreters have supplied us with very personal birthday wishes.

As for the countries topic, Spain is the focus in this issue. Cristóbal Halffter, doyen of Spanish composers, recalls the times when he suffered under the Franco dictatorship in his homeland and muses on the regime’s effects on the artistic scene. He also speaks about his newest opera project Schachnovelle, based on the novel by Stefan Zweig.

Mauricio Sotelo, who celebrated his 50th birthday on 2 October, allows us a look into his workshop. It is utterly fascinating to learn how he discovered a new aesthetic through his friendship with great flamenco performers. His latest opera project is devoted to the novel El público by Federico García Lorca.

We also include a closer look at Zemlinsky, featuring contributions from James Conlon and Antony Beaumont, who regard Zemlinsky as a confidante they never knew. A work analysis is devoted to Luciano Berio’s Sequenze; we present the new critical edition of Kurt Weill’s cantata Der neue Orpheus, while Eberhard Kloke reports on his reduced version of Wagner’s Das Rheingold, and with David Fennessy we present the newest UE arrival from Ireland.

Enjoy this issue of Musikblätter!

The UE Promotion Team

Download a PDF file

Mapas Celestes… I

Luz sobre lienzo (Light on Canvas) was commissioned by Acción Cultural Española for the 200th anniversary of the 1812 Spanish Constitution. Lasting 40 minutes, the piece is based on an allegorical painting by Francisco de Goya, La Verdad, el Tiempo y la Historia (oil on canvas). These three figures are represented by violin (la Verdad), dance (la Historia) and percussion (el Tiempo), and projected via a live electronic system as vibrant light in a new, spatial-temporal dimension.

Mauricio Sotelo: Luz sobre lienzo
for violin, flamenco dancer, percussion and live-electronics
World première: 3/12/2011, Madrid
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, vln; Fuensanta “La Moneta”, flamenco dance;
Agustín Diassera, flamenco percussion;
Fernando Villanueva, live-electronics; cond. Mauricio Sotelo

Following a first contract with UE for his orchestral work This is How it Feels (Another Bolero), David Fennessy has now signed a major agreement for a list of works going back to 2004, covering the broad variety of his works.

Included are works for mixed ensembles such as PPP for seven instruments and electronics (2004), The sound inside a sea-shell is not really the sea for six instruments and electronics (2007) as well as solo works like The first thing, the last thing and everything in-between for piano (2009) and rosewood for guitar (2010).

A fruitful collaboration with Ensemble Modern led to his composing 13 Factories for large ensemble as part of the into ... project, and continued in 2011 with the world premiere of La Rejouissance. La Paix, conducted by Frank Ollu. His music-theatre work Pass the Spoon, a collaboration with the visual artist David Shrigley, has just been premiered in Glasgow.

On his own music, he says:

“I think each piece has its own individual technique but what people hear is something much deeper and profound and long lasting. It’s the thing they recognise as a composer’s voice. Of course it does manifest itself in technical things like intervals, but there’s some kind of bedrock on which your voice is built.”

David Fennessy was born in Ireland in 1976. He studied music in Dublin and then composition with James MacMillan at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, where he lives today.

"For me music has a unique ability to follow a kind of emotional narrative that finds a tiny crack; a split second in time; an instant, and sinks further and further into itself – where time seems to seep out from the centre in all directions.

In this way, the shape of the music acts as a kind of ‘freeze frame’, looking continuously at the same moment but always zooming in to higher degrees of magnification so that what can appear to be, for instance, a smooth edge can also be revealed to have the most intricate topography."

See this page for a list of works, audio excerpts and programme notes.

We are excited and proud to have David Fennessy's works in the UE catalogue.

Welcome David!

The 18-minute work is dedicated to Anne-Sophie Mutter, who gave the world première in New York in 2010.

“In a certain sense you could say that Lichtes Spiel is a continued development of Gesungene Zeit, as he obviously sounds out the violin with regard to the colours it can produce and what other advanced techniques can be expanded upon, like trills, harmonics, double stops.” (Anne-Sophie Mutter)

Wolfgang Rihm: Lichtes Spiel
for violin and orchestra (commissioned by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation)
French première: 29.11.2011
Salle Pleyel, Paris
Anne-Sophie Mutter, vln
London Symphony Orchestra, c. Valery Gergiev

Borisova-Ollas is receiving the prize for her clarinet concerto Golden Dances of the Pharaohs, which was premièred in 2010 by Martin Fröst and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The judges recognised a “richly varied, rhythmically vital work with an exquisite timbre”.

Borisova-Ollas is the first woman to receive the award, which was founded in 1948 and carries a prize sum of 180 000 Swedish kroner.

Francis Burt: Mohn und Gedächtnis
for ensemble
World première: 23/11/2011
Wien Modern Festival
Klangforum Wien, c. Emilio Pomàrico

The term “tragicomedy” in the title refers to the way in which all our conflicts, all our contradictions, all the drama and meaning in our lives become almost comic when observed from a distance. As Thomas Berhard put it, “when one thinks of death, everything becomes absurd”.

I was inspired to the use of the [German] word “Wie” [“as/like”] in the title by the work of my friend, the painter Max Weiler, who often gives his pictures titles beginning with "Wie ...", as for example in his work “Wie eine Landschaft" [Like a Landscape]. It is an indication that the work is symbolic and not programmatic.

Friedrich Cerha: Like a Tragicomedy
for large orchestra
Austrian première: 20.11.2011
Wien Modern Festival, Konzerthaus Vienna
RSO Vienna, c. James MacMillan

Leos Janácek: Jenufa (Brno version)
Premiere: 19/11/2011
Further performances: 23 and 27/11; 1, 4, 6, 9, 14 and 27/12
Production: Orpha Phelan
Stage design: Leslie Travers
Malmö Operakör, Malmö Operaorkester, c. Marko Ivanovic/Stefan Solyom
Erika Sunnegardh, Jenufa

Each piece is presented in three versions: two full recordings at differing tempi for playing-along and a version providing the accompaniment only for playing-along with full confidence.

Notes and explanations are provided on swing rhythm, off-beat articulation and other conventions encountered in the playing of jazz. 

Tilmann Dehnhard
Easy Jazz Studies
for flute with CD
UE 35028

already available:

Tilmann Dehnhard
Jazz Studies
for flute with CD
UE 33703

Johannes Maria Staud

It has already become strikingly apparent that Staud’s complex structures are not an end in themselves, but also contain a great amount of movement impulses in their rhythmic variety. One result of this was the combination of single works which, once choreographed, were then joined together as a sort of spatial assembly. The dancer and choreographer Anne Juren and the artist Roland Rauschmeier have now created an evening’s work which transgresses all genres: Tableaux Vivants – living images.

Tableaux Vivants includes music from Staud’s Berenice. Suite I, Berenice. Suite II, Lagrein, Studie für Tonband solo and recorded material from the opera Berenice.

World première: 9 November 2011
further performances: 11 + 12 November
Festival Wien Modern, Tanzquartier Vienna
PHACE | contemporary music, cond. Simeon Pironkoff
concept: Roland Rauschmeier and Anne Juren

Kurt Weill
Songs
for trumpet with CD and piano accompaniment
UE 34682

Already available:

Songs
for violoncello with CD and piano accompaniment
UE 34682

Songs
for violin with CD and piano accompaniment
UE 34324

Songs
for clarinet with CD and piano accompaniment
UE 34326

Songs
for alto or tenor saxophone with CD and piano accompaniment
UE 34328

Many of the characteristics that make Janácek’s music so unique are already recognisable; the composer seems to be literally in the process of development towards his own unmistakable style. On 4 November Opéra de Rennes shows this version in a new production by Pierre Constant. Ondrej Olos conducts the Orchestre de Bretagne.

Premiere: 4/11/2011
further performances: 6, 8 and 10/11
Original version of 1904, reconstructed by Mark Audus
Production: Pierre Constant
Pavla Vykopalová, Jenufa
Choeur de l’Opéra de Rennes
Orchestre de Bretagne, c. Ondrej Olos
Coproduction Opéra de Limoges, Opéra de Reims
En collaboration avec le Théâtre National de Brno

Pärt was in Paris for the “Estonie tonique” festival. On the same day, Paul Hillier conducted a concert given by the Tallinn Philharmonic Chamber Choir, including Veni creator, Anthem of St John the Baptist, The Deer’s Cry, Annum per annum, Magnificat, Trivium, Morning Star, Nunc dimittis and Salve Regina.

On 4 November, the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris was joined by conductor Olari Elts for a concert in the impressive surroundings of the Centquatre complex. The programme includes Ein Wallfahrtslied, Summa, the French première of Adam's Lament and Da Pacem Domine, as well as works by Thierry Escaich.

“I definitely feel an extremely close kinship to him in his artistic type,” says Rihm, adding, “that includes his position in time, his attitude, that he never deviated from the figurative – his strongly rooted, yet powerfully extending tendencies – I feel at home there, as an artistic figure; there, I sense a strong identification.”

world première: 29/10/2011
ZaterdagMatinee
Concertgebouw Amsterdam
Christian Miedl, baritone
Asko|Schönberg, c. Reinbert de Leeuw

The world it depicts – introverted, sensitive and focused on itself alone – is disrupted again and again by hectic, brutal events; this reflects the need I have to avoid absolutising that world and to refrain from celebrating mere submersion.”
(Friedrich Cerha)

World première For Marino: 29.10.2011
Konzerthaus Vienna
Marino Formenti, piano

Austria and Britain are the focus of this year’s festival, which will explore not only the differences, but also the similarities in the musical developments of both countries and their composers.

Austria's grand seigneur Friedrich Cerha and his magnum opus Spiegel I–VII open the festival on 28 October in a performance by the RSO Vienna under Cornelius Meister.

UE highlights at Wien Modern:

• Luke Bedford: Man Shoots Strangers from Skyscraper (31/10), Slow Music (18/11)

• Harrison Birtwistle: Cortege (4/11), An Imaginary Landscape (20/11), Silbury Air (31/10), The Triumph of Time (3/11)

• Francis Burt: Mohn und Gedächtnis (23/11 world première), Morgana (3/11)

• Friedrich Cerha: Les Adieux (23/11), Bruchstück geträumt (23/11), Curriculum (21/11), Divertimento (21/11), Für Marino (29/10, 31/10, 14/11 world première), Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra (25/11), Like a Tragicomedy (20/11), Momente (3/11), Spiegel I–VII (28/10)

• Johannes Maria Staud: Tableaux Vivants (09/11–12/11 world première), Eine Ecke aus dem Polygon (3/11 world première)

• Georg Friedrich Haas: Monodie (23/11), Poème (23/11)

See the full programme at the Wien Modern Website

World première: 25/10/2011
Casa da Música, Porto
Remix Ensemble, c. Emilio Pomàrico

“We live in an age of a new historism, also in a musical sense. Contemporary composers often refer to old masters, who they quickly huddle up to and then just as quickly distance themselves from. In this context, the composer Wolfgang Rihm is writing four orchestral works parallel to the four symphonies by Johannes Brahms. By 2012 they will themselves have grown into a four-part symphony.”

World première Nähe fern 2: 19.10.2011
KKL Lucerne
Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, cond. James Gaffigan

Bedford studied with Lennox Berkeley in London and later with Luigi Nono in Venice. For over 40 years he was one of the most prominent figures in the British music scene, and was also active as a composer of music for TV and film. His name became even more popular in connection with his arrangement of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells for orchestra in 1975. Bedford also composed educational works and was participated in creative workshops at home and abroad.

Read the obituaries by the Guardian and the Telegraph:

Keith Potter, 4 October 2011

6 October 2011

“I did not want to write music about someone else’s music. Against my will, however, the opening movement of the symphony haunted me in the days following the request and I was unable to banish it from my mind. Ever since I first heard the piece as a child, it has held a particular fascination for me – with its mysterious fifths and descending fourths, the tremolo and the powerful resolution of the final cadence. The material began reshaping itself and blossoming rapidly in my mind.”

In the end, Cerha did accept the commission, and the results, Paraphrase über den Anfang der 9. Symphonie von Beethoven [Paraphrase on the beginning of Beethoven’s 9th] will be given its world première on 6 Oct. Riccardo Chailly conducts the Gewandhausorchester.

Walter Kobéra conducts the Amadeus Ensemble in a production directed by Leo Krischke. Further performances are on 2, 7 and 8 October.

This multilayered work will receive its Austrian première on 21 Sept at the Klangspuren Festival in Tirol. Ensemble Residencias is joined by the Arbos piano trio and soloists. The composer conducts.

Mauricio Sotelo celebrates his 50th birthday on 2 October.

Jürg Henneberger conducts the chamber opera on 16 Sep with the Ensemble DIAGONAL at the Lucerne Festival. Stage direction is by Desirée Meiser.

Haas has now expanded his technique even further and uses electronics for the first time in a string quartet. His String Quartet No. 7 will be given its world première at the Lucerne Festival by the Arditti Quartet (10 Sept).

The new version of Salve Regina for choir and orchestra moves the original organ part to the string orchestra. The only additional instrument is the celesta, which brings a bell-like tone.

All three new orchestral versions will be given their world première on 9 and 10 Sept at the MITO SettembreMusica Festival (in Turin and Milan respectively). The Torino Vocalensemble and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nacionale della RAI are conducted by Tito Ceccherini.

On 11 Sept the same three works are on the programme of the Nargen Festival in Tallinn, as well as Pärt’s Adam’s Lament. Tõnu Kaljuste conducts the Latvian Radio Choir, Vox Clamantis and the Sinfonietta Riga.

“The rhythmic structure is very complex,” says Sotelo. “It is based on a Spanish dance-rhythm – the bulera, an ostinato. I composed this voice part as if I were writing for an Indian tabla.”

The world première is on 8 Sept during the Klangspuren Festival in Schwaz, performed by the Tyrol Symphony Orchestra Innsbruck, conducted by Franck Ollu, with soloist Patricia Kopatchinskaya.

In Pelleas Schönberg still used an orchestra so enormous (e.g. 8 horns, 4 trumpets, 5 trombones) that further expansion for the future became impossible. Thus it was only a small step forward along his path when he scored the individually shaped motivic voices in his Chamber Symphony for 15 solo instruments instead of using large-scale doublings, etc.

Apart from Schönberg’s original orchestration, Universal Edition also publishes a somewhat reduced version by Erwin Stein. We have also recently published a version for chamber orchestra by Cliff Colnot (2008), which will receive its world première on 8 Sept by the Pori Sinfonietta under Jukka Iisakkila in Finland.

4 4 5 4 –  8 4 5 1 –  timp(2), perc(3), hp(2 od. 4), str(16 16 12 12 8)
(original instrumentation)
3 3 3 3 –  4 3 3 1 –  timp(2), perc(3), hp(2 od. 4), str
(Erwin Stein)
2 2 3 2 –  3 2 2 1 –  perc(2), hp, str
(Cliff Colnot)

Lichtes Spiel, Rihm’s new work for violin and small orchestra, was given its world première in 2010 in New York. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is joined by soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter and conductor Manfred Honeck for two further performances at the festivals in Grafenegg (1 Sept) and Lucerne (3 Sept).

The title of Lichtes Spiel might be translated as “Light Game“ or “Light Play“, and may be taken as a pun on the German expression “leichtes Spiel“, meaning “an easy job“; or what we might call “Child’s Play“. The work was commissioned by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation.

On 25 August the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra will give the work première of Yu’s new work Symphonic Suite for Our Natural World. Kazuki Yamada conducts. Also on the programme is Yu’s Wu-Yu for orchestra, which will receive its Japanese première.

The ancient Chinese word Wu-Yu refers to rain-making ceremonies performed in times of drought. This composition is conceptual rather than programmatic: it does not seek to describe the outer details of such a ceremony, but rather to capture its essence.

Further works by Yu will be performed on 30 August, as part of the Summer Festival 2011, including Scintillation 2 for piano, 2 vibraphones and glockenspiel, and Philopentatonia for chamber orchestra. Yasuaki Itakura conducts the Tokyo Sinfonietta.

MIXED ENSEMBLE OPTION
Whilst written specifically for the instrument and addressing the challenges beginner flautists would encounter, a special section is included of four pieces which are "key friendly" for beginners on most instruments and are therefore ideal pieces for mixed instrumental groups. These same four pieces will appear in subsequent books for other instruments in the Debut series.

For the Pupil …
- Instrumental parts with fun cartoons for inspiration
- A CD providing stimulating demonstration performances for listening as well as "minus-one" accompaniments for playing along at home
- Cartoons can be DOWNLOADED FOR FREE for colouring in

For the Teacher …
- Sheet music for selected piano accompaniments can be DOWNLOADED FOR FREE - just follow the web link provided in the pupil's book!
- If preferred, the accompaniments of all of the 12 pieces can be purchased in one printed and bound volume

James Rae
Saxophone Debut Pupil's book with CD
UE 21530

Order here

Saxophone Debut - Piano Accompaniments
UE 21531

Order here

already available:

James Rae
Clarinet Debut Pupil's book with CD
UE 21526

Clarinet Debut - Piano Accompaniments
UE 21527

James Rae
Flute Debut Pupil's book with CD
UE 21528

Flute Debut - Piano Accompaniments
UE 21529

The result is a feast of beautiful music and the continued guidance from Mike Cornick will help the player develop the technical skills and confidence to interact with the rewarding musical experiences provided by the CDs. Again, at each stage, more pieces may be downloaded FOR FREE from this page.

• Step-by-step learning in playing and reading, starting from absolute scratch, presented in clearly structured stages
• Also suitable for the 'returning beginner'
• Performance pieces in a range of styles from classical and folk through to jazz
• Helpful and stimulating CDs with aural development exercises and recordings of the pieces, many with 'play-along' tracks
• Warm-up exercises
• Even more performance pieces which, together with more supporting material for each stage, are available as FREE DOWNLOADS from this page

Play the Piano
Level 2
UE 21652

Order here

already available:

Play the Piano
Level 1
UE 21561

Order here

Mike Cornick is an established composer, arranger and teacher with over fifty publications available from Universal Edition: recreational pieces, tutors, examination pieces, piano material for all ages and levels, solos, duets and even six hands at one piano. In his thoughtful attention to the educational aspects of his composing, Mike always provides material that appeals and inspires. Mike is best known for his jazz piano publications from which many selections have been made for graded piano examinations.

Other highlights include:

Harrison Birtwistle’s Narration: A Description of the Passing of a Year
Wolfgang Rihm’s Gesungene Zeit
Alban Berg’s Der Wein
Richard Rodney Bennett’s Jazz Calendar with the London Sinfonietta

Don’t miss also the Steve Reich concert on 10 August, featuring his Clapping Music.

All concerts are broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. See the BBC Proms website for the full programme.

The main point of reference remains of course Alban Berg; the Mahler-Scenes begin with his cantata Der Wein and end with his Violin Concerto.

Other UE highlights at this year’s Salzburg Festival include:

10/08–30/08: Leoš Janácek’s The Makropulos Affair
11/08: Morton Feldman’s Neither
13/08: Georg Friedrich Haas’ in vain for 24 instruments
23/08: Friedrich Cerha’s Concerto for percussion and orchestra

On 24 July Krenek’s one act opera will receive its Italian première at the Festival della Valle d’Itria. Roman Brogli-Sacher conducts the Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia in a production by Franco Ripa di Meana.

An optional second flute part has been composed for each étude providing opportunities for the teacher or another player to support and reinforce phrasing, rhythm, tone quality, intonation and style. These parts are available to download free from our website. The second flute parts have been recorded on the CD to provide supportive accompaniments for playing along - an invaluable aid in daily practice.

Classic Études for Flute
from Mary Karen Clardy
UE 70363

Also available from Mary Karen Clardy for intermediate players and beyond:

Classic Solos for Flute
Volume 1   UE 70079
Volume 2   UE 70322

Classic Duets for Flute
Volume 1   UE 70005
Volume 2   UE 70078

Silvius Leopold Weiss
Tombeau und Fantasie
UE 34485

already available:

Robert de Visée
Suite en ré mineur
UE 34480

Santiago de Murcia
Suiteen ré mineur
UE 34481

Mauro Giuliani
Sonate C Major op. 15
UE 34482

Mauro Giuliani
La Gloire et l'Amour op. 105
UE 34483

John Dowland
A Dream – Melancholy Galliard – Sir John Smith His Almaine
– A Fancy
UE 34484

Gaspar Sanz
Preludio – Fuga – Jácaras – Pavanas – Canarios
UE 34486

Santiago de Murcia
Villanos – Fandango – Gallardas – Cumbees
– Marizapálos – La Jotta
UE 34488

On 9 July the reduced version will be given its French première as part of the Festival D’aujourd’hui à demain in Cluny. Ensemble 18 performs, conducted by Michel Pozmanter. The soloist is Noëmi Schindler.

In 1939, at the age of 21, Gottfried von Einem came across the first play written by Georg Büchner (the work of a 22-year-old) – and was overwhelmed. The result of this encounter, Dantons Tod, was the first opera by a living composer to be premiered at the Salzburg Festival (1947). Unlike in Büchner’s play, the people – the revolution – play one of the leading roles and the chorus scenes are among the most effective that were composed by von Einem in his basically tonal score. The work has maintained its important role in the opera repertoire to this day.

Jochen Hochstenbach conducts the Badische Staatskapelle at the Opera House in Rihm’s home town, Karlsruhe.

On 4 July Arvo Pärt performed his Vater unser (Our Father) for Pope Benedict XVI at a ceremony in the Vatican celebrating the 60th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. Pärt also presented the Pope with a copy of the manuscript, which is dedicated to him.

To honour the anniversary, over 60 artists from around the world have been invited to contribute to a new exhibition of artworks. Amongst the artists are the composers Arvo Pärt, Ennio Morricone and James MacMillan.

To commemorate this historical occasion, Universal Edition has released a new edition of Pärt’s Vater unser including a CD recording of the composer performing the work together with the boy soprano Heldur Harry Põlda, who performed with Pärt at the Vatican.

Update: Our new edition is now available. Order here

For more information about Pärt’s previous audiences in the Vatican, visit the Arvo Pärt website.

First page of the manuscript

Mauricio Sotelo’s latest composition, Muerte sin fin for narrator, flamenco-dancer, cantaor, instrumental ensemble and electronics, will receive its world première in Spain on 29 June as part of the renowned Suma Flamenca Festival. The title of the work is inspired by the poem of the same name by the Mexican writer José Gorostiza, which talks of time without an end.

In Muerte sin fin, Sotelo combines extracts from the poem with flamenco elements. The work is dedicated to the great flamenco singer Enrique Morente, who died in 2010 following an operation.

One of her most powerful first impressions was encountering the sound of the bells announcing the Angelus service at the Frauenkirche. This service has also given its name to her orchestral work, which was premièred on 8 June 2008 under Sylvain Cambreling.

On 24 June Angelus will recieve its UK première in Glasgow with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Manze.

The four-part Brahms/Rihm cycle in Lucerne is an initiative of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and was developed in close cooperation with the Lucerne Festival. Rihm is writing a new orchestral work to accompany each of Brahms' four symphonies.

Brahms' 1st Symphony, the world première of which took place in Rihm's home town of Karlsruhe, starts the series.

James Gaffigan conducts the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra.

Have a look at photos from the world première in Salzburg last year, listen to excerpts, and read the vocal score online.

The first performance of the whole opera took place in Paris in 1979. That version, created by Friedrich Cerha, offers performers the choice of two or three acts.

Another version joined the repertoire in Copenhagen in October 2010. Eberhard Kloke has developed a type of ‘modular system’ for Act 3, allowing performers to structure the scenes and dramatic flow more freely, with the aim of streamlining the act.

The German première of Kloke's version will be given at the Erfurt Theatre on 13 June in a production by Saskia Kuhlmann.

Cerha on his new work:

“When I have previously used quotes in my work, they have often created allusions that only I can understand. In my Four Paraphrases for oboe, cello and piano, written to a request by Heinz Holliger for a specific programme, I have made my quotes clearly audible for everyone. It was appealing to me, by combining the originals with new elements, to show another side – in my opinion an unexpected side – of the original material.

In the first Paraphrase it is the B-minor Scherzo by Chopin, in the second the Rigoletto-arias by Verdi, in the third the well-known Humoresque by Dvorak, and in the fourth a mix of Johann Strauß, Offenbach, the Marseillaise, the Internationale and Lohengrin. Perhaps the recognition of something distorted within the banal can be a source of pleasure, although it is very clear to me that by their technically proximity to my chansons from the 1980s they amount to a borderline case within my oeuvre.”

Johannes Maria Staud

Secondly, I was also inspired by a poem by Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, which speaks of the “endless expansion of celluloid”. Ultimately, the solo pieces in my career to date have always been focused pieces in which I could examine and realign things. That’s why I am particularly grateful to the Staatskapelle for this commission.” (Staud)

Read Tobias Niederschlag's interview with Johannes Maria Staud in the first edition of our new Musikblätter.

On 4 June Georg Friedrich Haas’ new work for chamber orchestra will be given its world première by the Munich Chamber Orchestra conducted by Alexander Liebreich.

“Chants oubliés is written for a chamber orchestra separated into two groups. One group consists of 8 violins, 4 violas and 4 celli (i.e. 4 string quartets making up one ensemble); the other group consists of two of each of the following: clarinets, horns, trumpets, trombones and double basses.

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.” (Haas)

Baltakas writes the following about the new work:

“commentum: ‘comment, interpretation, invention, fabrication, fiction’, in classical Latin; neut. pp. of comminisci ‘to contrive, devise’, from com-, intensive prefix + base of meminisse (to remember).

Commentum is a free rendition of Chopin’s Introduction after listening to it again. Without any alterations, predilections or attempts at ‘modernisation’, but rather like a spontaneous expression of one’s personal opinion.

The piece was written for David Geringas and Ian Fountain as a commission from the Vilnius Festival.”(Vykintas Baltakas)

View the full score of the Commentum here:

The UNESCO writes in their press release:

“Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951), composer, painter, teacher, theoretician, and innovator is ranked amongst the prominent artistic figures in the history of western culture. His writings, apart from his compositions, are valuable documents for the musical, intellectual, and cultural history of the first half of the 20th century, as well as for exile studies, and thus for contemporary history. They are evidence of the multifaceted interests of an eminent artistic personality, and also address questions of aesthetics, Jewish affairs, politics, and religion.”

The Schönberg documentation is archived at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna.

It is a joy for UE to see such an important composer of the 20th century recognised in this prestigious manner.

Kurt Weill
Songs
for violoncello with CD and piano accompaniment
UE 34682

Already available:

Songs
for violin with CD and piano accompaniment
UE 34324

Songs
for clarinet with CD and piano accompaniment
UE 34326

Songs
for alto or tenor saxophone with CD and piano accompaniment
UE 34328

It contains works by Liszt which, starting from an easy to intermediate technical level, encourage performance rather by expressiveness than by virtuoso demands, and still allow progress in the performance technique which eventually is of benefit not only to playing Liszt.

The selection, ranging from easy pieces such as La cloche sonne or the Consolations Nos. 1 and 2 to more advanced works such as Au lac de Wallenstadt from Années de Pèlerinage, also takes the aspect of popularity within the framework of Liszt’s piano literature into account.

Pathways to Franz Liszt
A selection of easy to intermediate level piano pieces by Liszt
UT 50282

Further new publications:

The epoch-making works from the beginning of the Weimar years

Consolations and Liebesträume (Dreams of Love)

• Urtext – based on the original sources
• Clear engraving with convenient page turns
• With notes on interpretation to the
  Consolations by Liszt’s pupil Lina Ramann

Franz Liszt
Liebesträume (Dreams of Love)
UT 50164

Consolations
UT 50165

Here is the first edition of the Musikblätter, which is to be published bi-annually. With this, we hope to pursue an ambitious goal: to continue the tradition of the Musikblätter des Anbruch, founded by Universal Edition in the early 20th century.

The first edition turns the spotlight on Gustav Mahler – 18 May was the 100th anniversary of his death. The musicologist Renate Stark-Voit reports here on her work on the collected critical edition of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, while 25 renowned Mahler conductors talk about what the “contemporary composer of the future” means to them. We also present reduced versions of Mahler’s symphonies by Klaus Simon and let Mahler’s contemporaries have their say. Markus Hinterhäuser reports on the “Mahler scenes” at the Salzburg Festival.

Pierre Boulez offers an insight into his workshop in an interview in this edition, while Wolfgang Rihm analyses Arnold Schönberg’s Orchestral Variations op. 31. We provide details of the latest works by Friedrich Cerha. The focus is also on Franz Schreker, with articles by Christopher Hailey and Ingo Metzmacher. Mark Sattler writes about Georg Friedrich Haas, composer-in-residence at the Lucerne Festival, while Tobias Niederschlag interviews Johannes Maria Staud, the Capell- Compositeur (composer-in-residence) in Dresden. In an interview with rising star Pablo Heras-Casado, the conductor reveals his approach to Kurt Weill. And last but not least, we report on our discovery of Hans Sommer, who shared in the creation of the romantic orchestral song.

Download a PDF file

“Laser-sharp rhythms”

Gerard Mortier started off his tenure as director at Madrid’s Teatro Real in October 2010 with Kurt Weill’s opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahoganny (text: Bertolt Brecht). The work attracted great attention – not only because of the oppressively topical staging by La Fura dels Baus, but also because of the unanimously critically acclaimed conductorship of Pablo Heras-Casado.

First of all: The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is an opera with all the right ingredients.

Pablo Heras-Casado: It was the first time I had conducted a piece by Kurt Weill and I realised that his style of writing is really demanding for the singers. You need big voices and almost Wagnerian qualities in every singer. In this sense, we were very happy to have a cast that had this dramatic strength. Another remarkable aspect was the scenic and musical presence of the choir. And the dramatic role of the orchestra, which is psychologically very complex, was outstanding. All this made it very challenging to find the right balance between all the styles that Weill uses.

Weill’s music is very accessible. At the same time, it also plays with the genre ...

Pablo Heras-Casado: The dramatic scenes in Mahagonny refer to some key works in the history of opera, such as those by Verdi, Janáček, Monteverdi or Mozart. Verdi achieves great effects with very simple things. The use of lighter moments is also very well calculated in Mahoganny – for example, how to approach the Alabama Song. The key is not only to focus on the joyful character, but also to work on the bitterness of the music by offering the right space, tempo and colour.

It seemed you were not afraid to conduct this music with as much power and sharpness as possible.

Pablo Heras-Casado: Absolutely. This music needs a constant renewal of energy. In almost every big scene, you have an ostinato rhythm. Before Jimmy Mahoney is condemned, for example, it is very difficult to keep up the rhythms for a long period. It is really demanding. But if you can sustain this energy, the result is really stunning.

At the same time, you also showed the melancholic side of Mahagonny.

Pablo Heras-Casado: It is simply part of the opera. This music always wants to show a different perspective from the seemingly pleasant reality. Wherever there is a melody that is very easy to listen to, there are “wrong” notes in the harmony or the bass line is misplaced, provoking tension. It is never just nice, there is always some bitterness. The music speaks for itself.

What was the biggest challenge in performing Mahagonny?

Pablo Heras-Casado: There were many – even just the coordination. If you lose the shape and the angle, everything fails and becomes a shapeless movement. Sometimes you need to have a laser-sharp rhythm. Another challenge is to make the orchestra produce a variety of styles. Sometimes they even have to play roughly.

The day before the première, there was a general strike in Madrid. Mahagonny ends with a strike. How did you experience this?

Pablo Heras-Casado: After more than a month of rehearsing, that was really remarkable. It was as though a journalist had written the libretto the day before the première. The social atmosphere in Spain was very turbulent at the time – and still is. The workers in the theatre discussed going out on the streets too and demonstrating. We were very aware of the situation and everybody on stage felt that the situation was part of his own life.

Every single word of the libretto is relevant to our times. The problems are still the same. Our society is ruled by money. The more you have, the more you want. The less you have, the less you are.

Could the desert in Mahagonny be a metaphor for our emotional desert?

Pablo Heras-Casado: I think so. Mahagonny is a piece about our values.

When God appears, there is no redemption …

Pablo Heras-Casado: I think that is a very modern approach. Religion has been used to tell people that there is always someone to save you: a last hope. And I think perhaps it is difficult to speak about it: this is also wrong. First of all, you need your human and intimate values to be built not only on an intellectual education, but on human relations. It is a real coup de théâtre that even God cannot save you. You are alone. There is no hope in money or God.

Interview: Wolfgang Schaufler

Video language: German

Freedom, passion, sensuality

The conductor Ingo Metzmacher is regarded as a renowned authority on operas by Franz Schreker. Die Gezeichneten in Amsterdam and Der ferne Klang in Zurich were successful and highly respected productions. Metzmacher believes that the renewed interest in Schreker’s operas persists partially because his sound is vibrant and his spatial concept was far ahead of its time.

Mr. Metzmacher, When did you first discover Schreker?

Metzmacher: During my first position as kapellmeister in Gelsenkirchen, I was asked whether I would like to assist Christoph von Dohnányi in the production of Der ferne Klang by Schreker. In those days, as far as I can remember, I had never heard any of Schreker’s music, although I was familiar with his name. But when Dohnányi walked out two weeks before the première in Hamburg owing to disagreements with the director, I stepped in, and so the work is extremely important to me; it was really the beginning of my career.

You performed the opera almost 20 years later in Zurich.

Metzmacher: Sometimes when you return to a piece like that, you say to yourself: “You were so euphoric back then and that feeling cannot be recreated.” However, Der ferne Klang actually interested me even more the second time around than when I first conducted it.

Schreker’s operas have an almost multimedia approach. In the second act of Der ferne Klang, you experience the incredible feeling that you are in the middle of a film. There are four or five different sources of sound on stage, positioned all over the place, at the top, in the orchestra pit, at the back – you can put them wherever you choose. The listeners should feel as though they are in the midst of the action.

Somebody told me later that Schreker’s father was one of the very first photographers. This means that Schreker had always come into contact with visual concepts; for example, zoom, wide angle, various perspectives and wandering camera. And the longer I think about Schreker, the more I believe that this is the essential element of his modernity: as an opera composer he widened the horizon to such an extent that there is no longer the situation in which everything comes from the front; it comes from different sides – listeners are drawn into the performance, as if they are in a cinema.

Schreker’s reception is unfortunately typical of many composers of his day. On the one hand, his music was conceived from a modern perspective, but he was the most frequently performed opera composer of his generation. So he was caught between two stools.

Metzmacher: Schreker represents a development that was cut short after the war. I would even say that this kind of music went directly to Hollywood – which in the case of Korngold is clearly recognisable. However, it also has to do with the fact that this kind of opera, together with the relevant music, increasingly moved in the direction of film. But of course, film was more suited to this territory than opera. Many of the functions that had been the responsibility of opera for many centuries were taken over by film: dealing with current issues, listening and seeing concurrently, the all-embracing effect on observer and listener.

Schreker was undoubtedly one of the last composers of this generation. A new aesthetic developed after the war. His personal fate as a “degenerate” artist in Berlin, who was driven out of office in 1933, attempted to emigrate and then died in 1934, is an additional factor. Like many others, he was simply forgotten – passed over. The Nazis did a good job on him.

Schreker was very frequently defined via his sound – what is so special about his sound?

Metzmacher: Schreker composes distant, siren-like sounds which can be heard in almost every one of his works. They are sounds that are still new and unknown. Der ferne Klang is so special because we are confronted with an opera about music. Somebody is looking for a “new sound”, although I think that this sound is symbolic of many things. It can be interpreted in various ways: it was once said that “der Ferne” – the distance – can be read in the genitive; in other words, it is the sound of the distance, and not the sound that is distant. And so, a sound that is far away, hardly audible and very quiet – I think that always really fascinated him. Even though Schreker’s music is of an entirely tonal conception, the base note no longer provides as much stability as before. You could compare Schreker with Richard Strauss, for example with his Elektra, which is wildly atonal in some places. But during the opera, the bass always remains rock solid and provides stability. It is different in Schreker’s harmonic language: the bass provides little stability. Furthermore, Schreker’s work is not necessarily bitonal, but he does place two functional chords on top of each other within one key. He therefore creates a harmonic situation in which it is extremely difficult to recognise what exactly is intended. Everything is in limbo – there are signs of disintegration. Although Schreker does not go quite as far as other composers, he heads in a similar direction.

Schreker is comparable to Gustav Mahler in that he also used “lower” and “higher” music in one work. Although there is a certain amount of nostalgia which constantly accompanies Mahler and plays no part in Schreker’s music.

Metzmacher: With Schreker, the focus is on longing and not nostalgia. In Der ferne Klang we also encounter an elegant Venetian brothel. In Die Gezeichneten it is the “isle of passion” off the coast of Genoa. Schreker describes this place of longing, a place that has nothing dirty about it, but is fascinating because things are permitted there that are usually not permitted. It is all about freedom, passion, sensuality, but not in connection with anything disreputable. Schreker describes places of longing that are visited by people because they wish to experience pleasure, in the best sense. In the second act of Christophorus, one of his last compositions, there is a similar scene. Here, the different sources of sound are not only distributed around the room, but the music adopts several layers – not only two, but up to five. If it were not performed in a place such as an opera house that is so static – I am referring to the stalls and fixed seating – then from a musical perspective, in the second act of Der ferne Klang the listeners should be at the centre, with the music played around them. That is the actual idea behind Schreker’s music. It is the very modern idea of spatial music, similar to today’s Dolby Surround.

Could it be said that Schreker approached the highest form of radicalism in his language, in the limits which he set himself?

Metzmacher: I’m not sure whether Schreker set himself limits.

For instance, the limit of tonality.

Metzmacher: That is true; he didn’t really go beyond that. It would have been interesting to see which path he would have pursued. But perhaps you are right, perhaps he entirely consciously only went as far as a certain limit, and no further. But which composer ever went beyond his limits? There are only very few.

Could it be said that Schreker paved the way for works such as Wozzeck and Lulu, purely thematically, by previously performing works on stage such as Die Gezeichneten, those who are branded by life?

Metzmacher: That is certainly one way of looking at it. I believe that there is greater similarity between Schreker and Lulu than between Schreker and Wozzeck. It is definitely true that Schreker was one of the first to put completely ordinary people in everyday life on stage.

And also deformed people …

Metzmacher: Yes, them as well. Although Zemlinsky did the same thing in Der Zwerg.

What are the pitfalls, hurdles and dangers when you conduct Schreker’s music?

Metzmacher: Well, you must definitely keep a clear head – although that isn’t a danger, it is an absolute necessity. I believe there is music that is disappointing if it is only played clearly.

It is different with Schreker. Apart from the fact that the complex layers must be held together, precision is a precondition of performing his music. The composition already has its own inherent freedom; it has been included by Schreker in the compositional process, in the same way as the rubato. And if you don’t achieve precision, then the music could almost seem arbitrary.

The vagueness, this indistinguishable quality of the composition, must be communicated as clearly as possible. This can create a floating sensation that is very important both for the harmony and the rhythm of the music. The sounds must be balanced. For example, in the morning after the Nachtstück in Der ferne Klang, when the birds begin to sing – he went even further than Messiaen there. The orchestral sounds are incredible.

Something that greatly fascinated Alban Berg …

Metzmacher: … who – unsurprisingly – prepared the piano reduction of Der ferne Klang. It is, however, not always possible to use words and explanations to define things that we find important in music. Many qualities simply lie much deeper. And that in turn would explain why this kind of music, with its unconscious nature, was treated with the utmost care after the war, as it was clearly suspicious. The composers did not want anything to escape them; they wanted to know exactly what they were writing. And that undoubtedly provoked the desire for a series of numbers which could be referred to. Everything had a proper order – and Schreker’s music is naturally completely incompatible with that concept.

Interview: Wolfgang Schaufler

Wolfgang Rihm presented an introduction to Arnold Schönberg’s Variations op. 31 at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden.

Listen to a recording of the talk here (in German). The music was performed by the Ensemble Modern Orchestra under Peter Eötvös.

Translated excerpts from the talk

 “Schönberg wrote these variations for orchestra in 1928. At that time, the art world was permeated by classicistic ideals. Some music represents historical models – ‘rehashes’ them, according to its opponents. Schönberg was not unaffected by this. He responded to the trends that were typical of the era in his characteristic, highly individual way.

Variations for orchestra do not actually have a long tradition. The prototype was probably Brahms’ Haydn Variations or perhaps the finale of Symphony No. 4, a chaconne. In Schönberg’s circle, there were very strong links to this late work by Brahms. Anton Webern’s opus 1, Passacaglia, reflects these styles of composition very precisely. But that came before these orchestral variations. Max Reger wrote great cycles of variations for orchestra, always with a fugue. And there is a very popular piece in the English-speaking world, which is a true masterpiece – namely Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations – which Schönberg also studied in depth. I recently discovered a notebook in which Schönberg had played around with Elgar’s theme. That must have been during his American period.

So he definitely had the piece in mind. But opus 31 is about variations – not on a theme supplied by someone else but, as in Elgar’s case, on a theme written by the composer himself.

It is a twelve-tone piece, something that can still make people shiver today. They envisage something that explodes immediately when it comes into contact with air or water …

What does ‘twelve-tone’ actually mean? To Schönberg, it never meant a list of tones that had to be counted off and added to the score. Instead, he saw them as themes, as structures, as musical forms.

Looking at this row now, with its transformations – retrograde, inversion, retrograde inversion – it sounds complicated, but it’s child’s play really. One simply keeps on rearranging elements on a flat surface. For Schönberg, however, it was never merely a game of abstract symbols – it always involved flesh and blood and nerves. Just the way in which he invented a row was true composition. I haven’t changed anything. I have only added fermatas. The structure is basically that of a song:

The second part answers the first. This makes it a little musical form. It is not just an idea; it is actually already like a little invention. These were thematic forms. When played from the end to the beginning – in other words in retrograde – the row sounds as follows:

It is almost Bach-like in style. And the inversion:

And from this inversion comes the retrograde inversion:

Something can be done with this. But, as always in art, it doesn’t mean anything yet. In the right hands, it can become art. It is the same with scales. Mozart made something of them. But Dittersdorf? In other words, a row can be transformed into music or into something dull. (…)

The theme is a structure with manifold substructures, a lovely piece of music which offers many options. It has a drive for change in it. It soon begins varying itself as the articulation becomes eloquent, then ever more eloquent and ever more expressive. This now serves as the basis for a sequence of nine variations.

Taking the work as a whole, with its introduction, theme, variations and finale, it also has twelve parts. It is therefore clearly a musical form based on numbers.

Any music can be expressed in numbers – even Mozart. It doesn’t mean that working with numbers automatically results in music. But Schönberg always proved the contrary, with everything he produced in such a seemingly intellectual way. In the 1920s and ’30s, discussions revolved around whether Schönberg was merely an ‘intellectual musician’ who only continued something that his emotional and artistic energy had set free in the first place.

Of course, inventing a system is ultimately a conservative act, psychologically speaking. One is trying to preserve something. By inventing a system, Schönberg firstly wanted to counter all the animosity that had accused him of caprice – wanted to reassure people that everything was being done correctly. It was the law that prevailed.

On the other hand, he wanted to further codify the state of freedom which he had achieved around 1909 or 1910 – in other words, working totally chromatically and freely without being bound by keys. He wanted to make it subject to a law, as a language, and thereby to save or preserve it. The fact that this can lead to problems is not our concern at present – but is something we should remember.

I am someone who doesn’t really think much of introductions to art, because I believe that art cannot ultimately be understood in the sense of a puzzle where the solution can suddenly be found. Art is not a crossword puzzle. Art is not suddenly revealed by adding or explaining something. The best approach is to play a piece twice and then it generally explains itself. (…)

Elegant waltz tone

Today, there is a lot of talk about networking. People say they can get from A to B at the speed of light. One only has to press a button and whole realms of opportunities open up. But what is the point of that? It is only relevant in any kind of way to someone who has an overview, who is able to organise things, who has an aesthetic overview with respect to art.”

Rihm then played the opening bars of the variations. He sees them as character variations, as shown by his comments. The start of the first variation demonstrates “nervous counterpoint”. The second variation has a canon form with a “very chamber music-like tone”, while the third variation, which responds, is “definitely to be understood as a derivation from a baroque suite, a variation with a dotted rhythm.”

The fourth variation, on the other hand, expresses the elegant tone of a waltz – “albeit with a broken tone, very Viennese, very ‘Schrammel’-like … with great elegance.”

The fifth variation has “a symphonic tone in a varying sense: the developed variation is an element that conveys something. Schönberg is thus familiar with these forms of development from tiny parts and the development of large structures.”

The sixth variation is classic chamber music: “The chamber music parts always stand in contrast to the orchestral developments. The seventh variation is dominated by a very elegant bassoon part, which plays around with the theme. The whole thing is playful, light and bright.”

In contrast to this lightness, the eighth variation consists of “rhythmic, hard, powerful music. Instrumented almost clashingly, as though armed.”

“Then comes the greatest possible contrast – the ninth variation consists of solos, and is very transparent. There is almost a shadow of a Mahler-style march. This variation builds up at the end and makes way for the finale. Why didn’t Schönberg write a fugue in the tradition of Reger? He didn’t write one because polyphony is in evidence from the beginning. An atmosphere of methodical polyphony pervades the entire piece. The polyphonic sound does not need to be highlighted again by a fugue. The whole piece is polyphonic and the finale references the ‘master of polyphony’ at the very beginning: Bach.

The Bach monogram originates in the row, but not directly. It is constantly present in the row through semitones – somehow it is always there, but never mentioned directly. And then suddenly it is mentioned directly. Just as the introduction gradually presents parts of the theme, the whole cycle of variations gradually moves towards this B-A-C-H (B flat-A-C-B in English notation) as though it has already been heard the whole time. But it is not heard before. There seem to be hints of it, but it first appears high up and flickering and then on all different levels.

Stretto-like finale

B-A-C-H (B flat-A-C-B) therefore appears in several places and is no longer contained within a cycle of variations. Instead, it introduces a symphonic movement which is structured with varying parts like a type of sequence. The principle, however, is that the fast element becomes ever faster and the slow chamber music element ever slower and ever rich. Throughout the whole of the finale, the fast element becomes stretto-like and the slow element increasingly polyphonic. Building up, releasing. Building up, releasing. A rippling motion, which pervades the whole movement.

After the motion, there is a sudden pause that builds up like a wall of sound. And, after this wall, comes the greatest contrast of all – the gentlest part of the whole piece: an adagio, which introduces the final stretto, in which the theme is present on many different levels, and which shows the whole piece in a different light, as though looking back.

There you find the twelve tones of the theme in inverse order. It is simply there, but is answered or rather accompanied: by the cor anglais, among other instruments, which plays with the theme in ever new forms. A wonderful creation.

In the harp part, we can hear the B-A-C-H theme again, but transposed. It is a moment of tranquillity before the final storm, a stretto, which seems to summarise everything. The final recapitulation is a chord, a closing chord formation, during which one has the feeling that all the energy that came before and the whole development of the theme seem to be bundled into the one chord, creating a symbolic moment.”

“Sometimes you discover yourself”

Mr. Boulez, for just a brief moment, at the beginning of the 1950s, it seemed that serial methods were asking to be extended across every element of composition. This represented the thrilling possibility that a new musical system might be found, but there was also the anxiety that music’s creation would become as automated as heavy industry – allowing masterpieces to be made without a master, merely by the hammer of technology. But this sort of total organisation proved to be impossible – luckily so, one might say. It was shortly after this discussion that you composed Le Marteau sans maître, which was premièred exactly 55 years ago here in Baden-Baden. Thinking back to when you began working on this composition: did you want to use Le Marteau to demonstrate that spontaneity and system can indeed coexist?

Boulez: The fact is that when I composed the structures beforehand, I was totally responsible for that – because I wanted the composer to be anonymous. The composer was just a transmitter and nothing else. But very early on, I became aware of the fact that this was entirely impossible. It is possible in some cases, only some extreme cases, but not always; you cannot base a composition on that idea. But I did not want to go back to the twelve-tone system, because I found the twelve-tone system impossible as a way of constraining the available possibilities. So therefore, I began to develop a system in which freedom was possible, and I conquered my own freedom not only regarding the twelve-tone system, but also with regard to the general possibility of composing purely with a system. And therefore, Le marteau – even from the vantage point of 50 years later – was for me a beginning of sorts … the beginning of a conquest, of freedom.

Le Marteau appeared to be a link between two seemingly incompatible experiences: the strictly constructivist musical thinking of the German and Viennese school as mediated by Webern, and what one might call the more ornamental elements of French music, especially of Debussy and Messiaen. Would you agree with this?

Boulez: Yes, I agree with the view that I attempted to unite two parts of the musical world which had previously been incompatible – and had even regarded each other with a sort of distance. I don’t think that Schönberg was very … not friendly to, but I mean: in agreement with Debussy’s point of view, which he certainly found to be too free. Nor do I think that Webern or even Berg were particular admirers of Debussy. They thought: too free, not constructive enough. And I suppose that for me, on the contrary, the constructivism of the three Viennese was occasionally a bit of a burden, and I thought that the inventiveness and ingenuity, the spontaneity of a Debussy were very necessary sometimes. You really cannot just be constructive all the time; you have to be descriptive, as well. And I suppose that’s the sort of combination between constructivism and spontaneity which I found to be very important.

Was this your approach from the beginning, attempting to strike a balance between these two?

Boulez: Well, I suppose if you look at my second piano sonata, certainly it was constructed, totally, but there was also this element of rapture …

Was it originally your intention to find a balance between these two schools?

Boulez: Yes, between the spontaneity of the one and the constructivity of the other. I really think that there was a balance to be established. And I was attracted to both sides. I must admit that sometimes, of course, the music of Debussy is very light. I won’t deny that. Sometimes, I say. In his major works, however, certainly not – these are as deep as can possibly be. And the constructivism of the Viennese School, on the other hand, can also sometimes be viewed as burdensome. Therefore, you have to work with this constructivism in such a way that you are also free from it – and I suppose that’s the liaison between constructivism on the one hand and spontaneity on the other. For me, these are the two elements of a musician.

Le Marteau was praised highly for a new sound appearing in new music. What sound did you have in mind when you started?

Boulez: Well, at the time I was very interested in other cultures and I listened to quite a lot of non-European music: Balinese music, African music, Japanese traditional music, Chinese opera and so on. I was similarly interested in the sounds contained in such music, and I do think that each civilization has its own sound. Bali, for instance, has a kind of metallic sonority. This sonority goes with their music, which is expressed not only by the pitches, but by the way the pitches are produced – and that’s via metal. And if you go to Africa, for instance, wood is one of the main sound-producing materials, and in that case the sound consists not only of the pitch but also of the sound of the wood. And so on and so forth. Therefore, yes: for me, remaining in the tradition of the Viennese School and the European school was too much, and I wanted to have another world. And I am generally very sensitive to sound. I think that sound should be a very important element of music, and not just something you “add” superficially afterwards. You therefore hear a different sound in my work – in the Improvisations sur Mallarmé, for instance. And in the works that followed, up to the most recent ones like sur Incises (which is unlike any other sound), you have forefathers. Let’s take Stravinsky’s Les noces, for instance: this is a forefather of the sound of sur Incises, but when I add the percussion, which is very important, and the harps, then the sound is totally different. And this sound harkens back to Bali and to the African sphere. And it is not at all of the European sphere. And that, for me, is very important, that we absorb other cultures: not only in terms of musical content, but also in terms of the way they are transmitted – and hence, in terms of sound.

This brings to mind Debussy, who was immensely influenced by the World Exhibition in Paris and the music which he discovered there.

Boulez: Certainly. But in his case, some of his work was influenced quite generally by the musical content, and some of these works were more superficial, with the pentatonic scale and so on. I like the world of Debussy when it’s his own world – influenced by the outside, but still his own world.

You mentioned sur Incises: you use steel drums there, but not for exotic reasons if I understand you correctly.

Boulez: No, I like the sound of steel drums because of their innate possibilities: first in terms of the sound itself, but also because when you do a crescendo, or a very strong sforzato, you have a resonance which is very interesting in and of itself, because the sound is so modified that it ends up being practically another sound. And I like this transformation. If you play a sforzato on a grand piano, there’s not that much change to the actual sound. But with the steel drums you have a modification of the sound which sometimes even approaches electronic sounds – putting it closer to an electronic sound than to the sound of a normal acoustic instrument.

Speaking of the use of the voice in Mallarmé, Salvatore Sciarrino has remarked that you’re one of the few composers to possess the key to music theatre – namely, a vocal style that is entirely your own. If you agree: is this style related to your understanding of how lyrics function in contemporary music?

Boulez: Well, that depends. Of course, with the voice, you have two possibilities. You express the text directly, or you take the text as it is but extract from it the possibilities you want to extract. And you can destroy the text, too – in a positive sense, if I may say so. And in Mallarmé, especially, more so than in Le marteau, I worked with what I’ll call the subtext. So, how many syllables? Eight. The number eight becomes very important, because the verse is composed of eight syllables. Rhyming is important, as well – whether you can transmit the rhymes via the structure. In the Second Improvisation on Mallarmé I do that very quickly. The first strophe is styled as a melodic line with a lot of ornaments. The second set of four verses I find to be syllabic, entirely syllabic. And then, when I come to the third set with its alternating rhymes, I constantly alternate the syllabic method of setting the text with the more melodic method. So in my musical structure I reflect the structure of Mallarmé’s verses. What’s interesting to me is not only the poetic aspect, but also the structural aspect of the poetry. And when some poet like Mallarmé is so interested in the structure of the verse and of the sonnet, which are quite strict, then it’s interesting to take that and to bring it into the musical content.

You are no longer interested in composing or orchestrating lyrics, this being merely “lyrics and music”?

Boulez: Well, if you take simply the meaning of the poem, you miss quite a lot of the relationship which you can establish with the text. For me, it’s important to establish not only a poetic relationship and a relationship of meaning, as I put it, but also a structural relationship.

Coming back to Le Marteau: apart from revising the instrumentation immediately after having composed it, you have left it alone – which is absolutely unusual for you. It is as if you recognize the special status of Le Marteau. Would you agree?

Boulez: Yes, certainly, it was a period where a long-held doubt had passed. Without doubt, you finish – and with doubt, you have a tendency never to finish. And that’s what moved me to refrain from touching certain works again. But there are some works which are unfinished not because I gave up, but because the reflection on the content of the work, on the structure of the work, was not very clear to me. Therefore I do return to works, but there are also some works which I don’t touch again – Derive II, for instance, I will not touch again. It’s finished because I worked on it for quite a few years, and then I discovered of way of structuring, of composing the work which was totally different than what I had done up to that point, a sort of narrative aspect of the work. It was then that I saw that this narration was finished, and that I could not add anything – the addition would have been totally artificial. There other works which I want to finish, and some other works which I don’t want to finish. You know, I have a relationship with my work which is very sentimental … yes, certainly.

Which work would you love to finish?

Boulez: Oh, I would especially like to finish Éclat/Multiples. That’s one of the works which is almost finished, and, you know, I have practically twice the length of the work as I play it now, and therefore I would like to finish because the concept of the end is already there. Similarly, the concept of the end of Derive II was also already there fifty years ago, but it was too soon: so I composed it, and knowing that I would compose a long development in between, well, I jumped to the end – certainly, because the end was already there. And sometimes you think of the end long before the rest of the piece. And therefore I keep it in reserve. 

Speaking of Derive II, it was preceded by Derive. And there, as in many works, you used the Sacher hexachord. Can you say something about how you found this chord and why it became so important for you?

Boulez: Well, I did not discover the chord myself – the series of six pitches. That was given to me for a homage to Paul Sacher for his 70^th birthday. For this I wrote Messagesquisse, which was very short, because it was meant to be played in a concert for which a great many composers had written very short works. So it was a short occasional piece. And it was while working on this piece that I finally discovered all of this chord’s possibilities. In my composing, process is an important aspect. So I look and have some quite spontaneous reactions. After that, I look at what I’ve done, and I say: but with this material, I could do far more. And so it went with the Sacher material. I noticed progressively, while I was working on it, that there were possibilities I’d never used before. And those are in sketches. Because when I have such ideas or make such deductions, I write them down immediately, or as immediately as I can. Doing so is difficult sometimes, so one often ends up doing so after a delay. But I mean, that's spontaneity, I would like to say. And that remains – hence the name Derive, because it remains there, unused, and it’s derived from things I have already written. And so Derive I, now – we’re still speaking of Derive I – is derived from the material I used for Répons, and I still have a lot of material I wrote for Répons which is unused. And if you go to the Sacher Foundation, you can see this material. It’s not kilos’ worth, but there are many pages containing material which was used quite a lot after having been determined and found. So that’s my way of composing.

So can we  say that you found out only coincidentally that the potential of the Sacher chord is that immense?

Boulez: That was not completely by chance, but I used this material like I would use any other material. I mean by this that the point was not to make reference to Paul Sacher each time – certainly not, although sur Incises is dedicated to him. But I did not really write sur Incises just to dedicate it to him – I wrote it because the material was there, and because I asked myself what I would do with this material. I am very practical, so I don’t like to invent something which gets lost. It’s simply that.

When we look at the characters of Derive I and Derive II: although they come from the same material, they are totally different…

Boulez: They do come from the same material, but they are totally different because the first – Derive I – was improvised, practically speaking. Sir William Glock, who was head of music at the BBC, engaged me for that broadcaster, and he was also head of a festival. And since he was about to leave this festival, the musicians – who knew that I was very close to him – requested an homage. It was just a short, last-minute piece. I remember being in Los Angeles, performing a series of concerts and working between the rehearsals so that I could send the score at the last minute. And I think that in another Derive, I will certainly use the scheme of Derive I, but in a more complex manner; I already have Derive III in my head, and I hope I will have the time to finish it.

There is a quotation of Gustav Mahler according to which he said: “the material composed him.” Would you agree with that regarding Derive II?

Boulez: Yes, definitely. I think that if you have an interesting and productive relationship with the material, the material certainly will compose for you. But you must know how it is composed. And I find it wonderful to think of it such that the material in fact composes with you, and you compose with the material. It’s an exchange. Because to me, this is just another way of expressing the idea of deduction. You have material. What do you do with it? It’s not just spontaneity that is important, but the question of what you do with this spontaneity! And you invent in a sort of hyper-spontaneity – that’s the real difficulty of composing. So if you look, for instance, at pieces which are in some way “derived” – such as Number Two of my Notations – and compare the length of the original piece and the final score then the work is ten times longer and the material is exposed much more forcefully than it was in the small piano piece. And thus you are confronted: I particularly like the experience of being confronted with material you invented sixty years ago, and you say: yes, I recognize this material, I composed it, that’s my material. But I did nothing with it at the time … so what can I do with it now? And I suppose that’s the question that Wagner also asked himself when he was composing Gotterdämmerung. He must’ve thought: what can I do with material I invented for Rheingold? Twenty years passed in between. So you’ll understand how I found that very striking when I conducted the Ring in Bayreuth. To see, to conduct the Ring from beginning to end – you finish with Götterdämmerung, and two days later you begin again with Rheingold. And you see the immense difference between two pieces – especially between Rheingold and Götterdämmerung … he could not possibly have composed that 20 years sooner! And the way he reflected on himself – it was something that really struck me when I conducted the Ring.

But the interesting thing about the Notations is that you had forgotten that these pieces existed.

Boulez: I had not really forgotten – it all comes back spontaneously, after all. So I remembered them, and the fact that I’d composed them, that’s for sure … you never completely forget things like that. But I didn’t really remember the text. And when I saw the text, I said: oh, that's interesting. And I generally didn’t want to have the earlier works I’d composed viewed as “my” works. But these I did. I thought to myself: they’re very simple, they’re naïve, but they involved a process which I do not find uninteresting. On the contrary, I do find such ideas interesting, and I desire to magnify them.

But is it true that they were somehow lost, and that someone found them?

Boulez: They were. The manuscript got lost, and then it got lost again. I studied together with a composer named Serge Nigg, and I had not seen him for quite a while. It was around the time when I returned from my six years in New York that I received a letter from him to the effect that the radio wanted to organise a broadcast on the early students of Messiaen. They wanted to use the pieces those students had composed while studying, and Nigg asked me if I would allow it. I said yes in principle, but I didn’t have a manuscript and wanted to see one – I told him that if he would send me a manuscript or a photocopy thereof, I would say yes or no. So he sent me a photocopy of the manuscript, and I said: yes, you can. I was a student of Messiaen when I wrote that, and it was perfectly justified to use it as an example. And later on he told me – or I learned, I don’t know through what source – that the manuscript got lost again after he sent it. I myself didn’t have to send it back, of course, because I didn’t see the manuscript, only the photocopy. And when they went to put it back in the library at the radio, they couldn’t find it. So it was lost and then lost again.

You once told me that with these Notations you wanted to make “fun” of twelve-tone composition.

Boulez: Yes, because with Leibowitz, the academism of his analysis and so on was unbearable to me, and in a funny way particularly unbearable after having experienced Messiaen. While I did not agree with all that Messiaen was doing, at least he was inventive. And he had his own world. But Leibowitz, that was just kind of salt on nothing; it was so dry and so unimaginative, only one-to-twelve, twelve-to-one, six-to-one, one-to-seven and so on … it was dreadful. And so I said to myself, well, I can do this too. So I did twelve pieces of twelve bars each, and each piece begins with one, with two, with three, with four and so on. I called that my system, but it doesn’t sound like it. It just didn’t. But the pieces were not fun. They were just spontaneous pieces, because I composed them within two or three days – I don't remember exactly. It was just before Christmas of ’45.

Do you remember where you composed them?

Boulez: Where? In Paris, yes … where I was living at the time.

And you never thought that their potential was so strong?

Boulez: No. No, because once I came upon some sketch or other, and I put it in the Improvisation sur Mallarmé, as a kind of remembrance. And that was it. And I didn’t have such luck with another piece which was likewise interesting to me. After my second piano sonata, I wrote a symphony concertante for piano and orchestra. I didn’t orchestrate it right away. And then I went to Cologne to see Stockhausen at the studio there, and there was this Putzfrau who cleaned the room … and the piece disappeared – totally. I hadn’t even sketched it, nothing, and I remember only one bar. That’s not enough, not even for Derive.

But to me, it seems that Notations demonstrates your distance from any kind of dogmatism. Would you agree?

Boulez: Yes. Yes, because it’s strongly organized, but it’s free. In none of the works that I compose do I actually look for it, but … if there is an accident – I mean, something which makes me take another route which I did not foresee – then I like it, and I just continue along this “byway”. There’s the Mahler quotation again, “the material composes for you.” And you have to react to what the material proposes to you, which you have not seen before. And therefore, as I said, this kind of exchange between the material and you is very important. And it’s in this sense that the Notations were important.

Could we say that Notations for orchestra is a kind of  sur Notations? 

Boulez: Yes, it’s exactly that. Exactly that, and I like these superior opportunities; it’s like you’re an archaeologist discovering a civilization – down, down and down. And then sometimes you discover yourself, progressively, just like archaeologists discover an old civilization.

Even if it’s not so common for a composer to speak about his own emotions while composing: are there moments of great refreshment when you discover a new dimension in your own work?

Boulez: Yes, certainly. I like this, because sometimes you are confronted with material, and you discover the solution very quickly. That can happen because you are oriented and have been working in that direction. But sometimes you are confronted with material where you just say “what can I do?” – and you sit there with it in front of you, finding absolutely no solutions that are interesting or worth it. And when you do discover a solution, you’re happy and you run with it, certainly. And there are some Notations where I have precise ideas about what I want to do, but have not yet found a way in which to do so, to work with the material in a way that is satisfying to me. But it remains in my head. And sometimes you’re not thinking about it, but rather about something else – perhaps you’re even studying another score, not your own – and suddenly you say “ah!” Now that’s the direction in which you have to go. You know, every moment in your life, if you are creative or in the creative process, can be fruitful. But you have to take the opportunity. And composing is also a matter of seeing the opportunity where other people see nothing. It’s exactly that.

How will you proceed with the Notations?

Boulez:  Well, I am finishing Number Eight for the moment – I have an order in mind. I have finished Number Five in short score, I have to finish Number Eight, I have Number Seven, which I want to modify (there are some questions of balance), and then I will do Six and then the next four pieces – which are longer than the other ones. Number Eight is quite long. And maybe after the last four, it will once again be shorter. I suppose so. That’s my idea for the time being, at least.

I’d like to come back to Derive II. Daniel Barenboim introduced the piece when he conducted it in Berlin, and in his introduction he used sonata-form terms such as “coda”, “reprise” and so on. What advice would you give a listener on how to approach this complex music?

Boulez: They have to make their own analysis, and that’s complex. I know I indicated the form which I had in mind. But, you know, I’m not fervent about the form I discovered or used there, because I think the form is stronger than you are – certainly in terms of what you can do until about halfway through the work. You have strict forms, strict rhythmical forms and canonic forms and so on – whatever you want to call them. They are strict forms, or obbligato forms, which are then interrupted more and more by free forms. And you feel that: “A-B-A-B-A-B-A” … it’s always the same alternation, with the interruptions at the beginning being extremely short. They’re barely to be noticed, and then the interruptions grow progressively longer and longer until they become more important than the text itself. After that, things get more complex. I can’t really explain it … again you have the rhythmical structures of the first half, which are very strict. But despite this strictness, they are freer than in the first half. So you have a kind of balance between both halves, and then there’s a long coda. That was how I operated there.

On Incises and sur Incises. You once said that you learned from Gustav Mahler how to construct long forms.

Boulez: Yes.

And especially in sur Incises. Could you explain it?

Boulez: Well, I was always struck by the fact that musicians in general, even including the twelve-tone composers, were tending to compose in smaller forms – even if they were writing things like a symphony, with four movements. The form was already there. But even with Debussy, with La mer, one could say that he only used three patterns – with the scherzo in the middle, and a finale, a rondeau more or less, at the end. And that I didn’t like. What I do like is narration: you tell a story – an abstract story, of course, I don’t use sur Incises to describe the sea or anything like that. But it’s still narration. And continuity means not consisting of small bits, but having the elements always there – albeit with variations, making them very differentiated. You cannot compose a long work if you don’t have material that is richer than the material you would use for a small piece. And therefore, in sur Incises, there is material – the first page provides half of the piece, as a matter of fact, because the material is very simple. You have resonant material and quick material. And the process is to mix both of them or not to mix them: at the beginning they are not mixed, and throughout the second half of the piece they are. And then the object is always finding a way to have the dialogue between quick and resonant, that being the material – it plays its novelty each time, and you recognise it, more or less. And that’s a way of composing for me, and I actually do that now – maybe with the orchestration, or notation. I mean, the next Notations. Therefore they are longer, because the story to be told is longer. It’s simply that.

How did you choose the instrumentation for sur Incises? Is it because Bartók had already written something for two pianos and percussion, and Stravinsky something for four pianos?

Boulez: So three pianos puts it in the middle, yes ... but seriously, I must say that I was always quite struck by both works. The Bartók was rarely performed back when I first heard it – I think that was in ’45 or so – very rarely performed. And I remember that it was two Hungarian pianists. The two percussionists were French; perhaps they couldn’t bring along their percussionists, I’m not sure exactly why. And then there was also a conductor for the piece. They had met something like one day before to rehearse, and it simply cannot be performed just like that. The world première, in Basel, was not conducted – that I know. So the performance that I heard was a rather haphazard one. But I also remember that the sonority was very, very surprising to me. Les Noces, on the other hand, I heard quite a lot and Messiaen was also very fond of it. He was also quite fond of Bartók’s music for two pianos, and thus I’ve known these two pieces for quite a long time. They were part of my culture, practically.

Therefore, when my desire arose to transform Incises into sur Incises – sur Incises was further the last minute. I did not begin with the title, believe me. There was a kind of foundation in Italy which was organising a competition, a piano competition. Pollini was in the jury, as was Berio. And I thought that I might compose a piece for Pollini, a concertante piece for piano and orchestra – or piano and group, I didn’t know exactly. And then when I began to really deal with the material – then I thought: no, that’s not really the way to do it. I would like a piano, a piano with a first shadow and a second shadow. With the piano in the middle, giving his material to both sides. Symmetrical, although this symmetry was more complex than I’m indicating now. At the beginning, however, it wasn’t complex at all. Now at the beginning I wanted to have a sonority to enrich the piano’s sonority, really also to treble the sonority of the piano or repeat the sonority of the piano. So I added the harps, three harps. And then I started on the marimba, because the marimba begins to introduce the quick thematic material. Finally I said to myself that if I have a marimba, I also need a vibraphone for the high register. And then the second vibraphone came at the last minute, because I could not find another instrument in the percussion section capable of matching the vibraphone and the marimba. So I had the vibraphone there, and then I went on to add steel drums, tympani, chimes … and that’s how the percussion is set up: one player on instruments which are totally chromatic, and one on instruments which are, let's say, specialized. So, it came progressively, while I was composing – that was necessary, that was necessary, that was necessary – and I ultimately ended up with three pianos, three harps and three percussionists.

But the pianos remained the principal instruments?

Boulez: The pianos remained the principal instruments, yes. But the other ones grow more and more important as the piece progresses – the sonority of the harp, especially. Not for the quicker movements, of course; there they simply underline the sorority. But in the resonant movements, the harps are certainly very important.

And the harps are extremely powerful, unexpectedly powerful in terms of sound, it seems to me.

Boulez: The harps are very powerful. I don’t like harps the way the French composers handle them – you know, always very gracefully. I remember being on tour with Jean-Louis Barrault and hearing music in the Andes – it was Quito, or somewhere in Colombia … I don’t remember, one of these. And we were listening to music played by peasants, on small Andean harps. And these peasants produced a kind of very strong sonority on their instruments; they were really eating into the strings. And this kind of sonority stuck with me, remaining in my ears, and I think it was then that I knew that that is the way I want harps to sound. Harps can be very delicate, but they can be also very strong. And we have a harpist in the Ensemble who is perfect for that, Frédérique Cambreling – she has a very strong approach to the harp. I like that.

Does the character of the instrument – such as the harp – influence your material, how you invent it?

Boulez: Yes, certainly, because I could not have the harps competing with the piano. They can do accents, they can do long tenuto, so they have their own possible material. But I know that they cannot, for instance, compete with the speed of the piano. So I use the various instruments to achieve specific goals, and I try to expand their raison d’être, but I know that it would be absurd to try hiding things where doing so would require constant damping of their sonorities – it’s just not possible to do that.

But the sound-world you created is absolutely unique. Did you have it exactly this way beforehand, in your ears?

Boulez: No … well, yes. I gradually knew more and more while I was composing, so even before I needed a performance, I knew better and better what I wanted. For sure. At the beginning it was simply a kind of echo of the piano, and by the end they were participating in the sonority. And at the very end they are every bit as important as the piano, because the chords they have are very strong in the middle, and then you hear that middle register more strongly than even the extreme power of the piano, for sure. So no, I became better and better informed by myself about the possibilities I had with this ensemble.

Incises is a very short piece, and sur Incises is one of your longest. Have you been surprised by yourself, by how long it became?

Boulez: Yes, I was surprised; although it really wasn’t surprising, since it was my tendency during that period to get rid of short forms and go for long forms. So I was ready to organise a long form, for sure. And it was the same for Derive II – I wanted to make a long statement.

Will you be proceeding in this direction in upcoming ensemble works?

Boulez: I suppose that now, for me, the ideal would be to compose a work with long moments and very short moments. And for a long time now, I have been thinking about trying to find contrast within a piece itself – to have strong moments, very long, and to have light, concentrated moments … I once said, when I was asked that question, that it was like marrying Bruckner with Webern.

How did your conducting of Bruckner influence your point of view on the long form?

Boulez: That was very important. I like his harmonic writing, which supports long development – at the end of the slow movement of the 9^th, for instance (when the melodic line repeats and it’s very large). But this is less important to me than the segments which are there, because for me, the segments are too visible. But that’s not only a point of view – it’s a difference of centuries, not a difference of personalities. And I find that if the segments are too visible, you miss the point. And that's what’s so interesting about the great moments in Mahler: I was very, very struck by the way he handles form – which is with movements, of course, but what I mean is how those movements are put together. I conducted the 7^th Symphony recently in Chicago, replacing Riccardo Muti. I had not performed it in five years, so while it was not new, it was once again striking to me. And the last movement is indicative for the cohesion of the whole. I find that if you take the right tempo and properly relate the tempi between the various movements, then it is indeed very coherent. You must really have a kind of coherency in the tempi, and then it goes right along. Otherwise it’s by bits and pieces, and that’s certainly not what you want – at least I wouldn’t imagine it is.

Mahler spoke about the flexibility of the tempi, and its importance in making a performance really vivid.

Boulez: Yes, the relations between the tempi really are important; that’s what I call narration. You tell the story. And to tell the story, you have to be very careful with moments of tension, as well as with moments where the tension is not that strong, and so on. That’s important. And even in the first movement, you have to be very careful with the relationships between tempi. But of course that’s my problem, at this point.

But Bruckner’s influence is surprising, since Bruckner wasn't part of French musical culture – at least not while you were growing up.

Boulez: Bruckner wasn’t even performed at all, and even as late as when Karajan brought along a symphony by Bruckner when he came on tour with the Berlin Philharmonic, the reaction in some of the papers was, “why did he bring this monster?” And even Messiaen – though you can imagine that there are some very strange ties between the universe of Messiaen and the universe of Bruckner – Messiaen said, “oh, Bruckner, that’s a lot of bridges.” Now in French, when you have a transition from one section to another one, you call that a bridge. And for Messiaen, Bruckner’s music was simply one of transition after transition after transition. And that’s very strange, and the French are indeed sometimes complete strangers to ways of musical thinking that are not native to their own practice. Even in the case of Mahler: now he’s very popular, but France was that last country to rediscover him. England and the States were much more open to the influence of Mahler that the French were.

Due to Barbirolli and to Bernstein, I would say …

Boulez: Yes, exactly … and Mitropolous before them. And Bruno Walter, because Walter was in exile beginning in 1936 or thereabouts. He didn’t perform everything – he especially preferred Nos. 1, 4, 9, although I really don’t remember this exactly. But he performed Mahler symphonies quite regularly. And they actually became popular with Bernstein. I was told by the manager of the New York Philharmonic that when Mitropolous played the Fifth or the Seventh, for example, the hall was half-empty by the end. And, Dimitri Mitropolous – that’s the 1950s … ’51, ’52.

Maybe that was the late Toscanini influence – because Toscanini was absolutely not a fan of Mahler’s success in New York, so he worked against him.

Boulez: Yes, well, yes, at the beginning, but you know, Toscanini was active until the ’60s … or the late ’50s, anyway. And he didn’t perform anything of this kind. But he also definitely had no relationship at all with the Austrian school. He played Brahms – I think that’s the latest Austrian music he played, the last step he took. Otherwise no, certainly not. But he did perform Debussy – who was born practically the same time, you know … he was always performing La mer. He didn’t perform the later works, such as Jeux. He performed La mer, and also the Nocturnes. And he performed Pelléas at first at La Scala – and at that time it was very new, especially compared with Puccini, or certainly with Leoncavallo … sure...

How would you describe how your approach to Mahler has changed over the years?

Boulez: Well, it didn’t really have to change because it didn’t even exist at first. And I remember, maybe the first – not only maybe! It was indeed the first symphony of Mahler I heard, the 4^th Symphony – performed by Paul Kletzki, because at that time French conductors never performed Mahler’s symphonies. And of course, the first time when I heard it, the sleigh bells – I said, "what’s that?” or something. And I remember still being … not in doubt, but not convinced, either, when I heard the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. I remember hearing that in Hamburg. I was there for a performance, for “Das neue Werk”, and there was a concert. I don’t remember exactly who conducted, but I was at first not at all impressed. I said to myself, oh, well that’s old ham or something. It’s quite strange because I simply didn’t know it, and my development really went backwards through time. I got to know Berg, I got to know Webern, I got to know Schönberg … and then I got to know Mahler. It was totally reversed – because there was no tradition whatsoever.

Since you have known Mahler, has his music influenced your understanding of the Second Viennese School?

Boulez: No, because I knew the Viennese School right from the very beginning; I really began to become acquainted with the Viennese School in ’45 – the spring of ’45, as I recall. And I certainly had my own reaction to it. But you also mustn’t forget that this music was performed horribly back then, horribly; I mean, it was either no tradition at all with people who knew how to conduct, or people who meant well but who were not good conductors, that’s how it was. I remember seeing performances by Leibowitz or by Max Deutsch which were absolutely terrible, where you were asking yourself “what were they doing?” I remember a performance of Opus 29 by Schönberg … a-di-ya-da-ta-ta, a-ya-ta-ta…. but it was: aaaa-daaa-daaaa-daaa-taaa-taaa – can you imagine? That sort of performance lasted three quarters of an hour … it was horrible. And I also remember a performance of the Symphony Op. 21; believe me, the beginning with the horns, it was … something! But you cannot blame them, because they were amateur conductors. But the problem was that they were saying, “we have the truth!”

And you saw the route they were taking, and you thought that the truth was something different?

Boulez: Yes! Well, because when you read a score, you know more or less how it should sound.

Interview: Wolfgang Schaufler
Transcript: Christopher Roth
Baden-Baden; December 2010
© Universal Edition

In 1961, the New York Times wrote “above all, it is the music that makes this opera memorable.  ... although the harmonies, rhythms and melodies are ‘conventional’, the way Martinu employs them is often imaginative and creative.”

The Teatro Massimo in Palermo is showing a new production of the London version (29 Apr–8 May. Asher Fisch conducts.

Tondo for orchestra (world première 1 May 2011, cond. Christoph Eschenbach), Celluloid for solo bassoon (7 June), and Der Riß durch den Tag, a monodrama for narrator and ensemble, written to a text by Durs Grünbein. Actor Bruno Ganz joins the Staatskapelle as the narrator for the world première on 4 June.

• More modern studies for clarinet complementing the established favourite: 40 Modern Studies
• Musical styles vary from modern Classical through to Jazz and Rock
• For elementary to more advanced levels (1–8)
• Ideal for developing musicianship and technique by way of accessible but challenging material
• These studies make attractive performance pieces and are suitable for examination purposes

38 More Modern Studies for clarinet solo
by James Rae
UE 21554

Already available:

40 Modern Studies for clarinet solo
by James Rae
This well-known volume familiarises developing clarinettists with the various rhythms and phrasings encountered in modern music. Many of these pieces may be found on examination syllabuses worldwide.
UE 19735

The Norwegian premières of Adam’s Lament and the Stabat Mater take place on 19 April in Oslo. Tönu Kaljuste conducts the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir. Also on the programme is Pärt’s Mein Weg for 14 strings and percussion.

The new edition is published in four volumes, the content of each volume being compatible with the volumes of the previous edition.

Volume 3 of the new edition comprises the 17 sonatas Hob. XVI:21–32 and Hob. XVI:35–39 contained in Vol. 2 of the previous Wiener Urtext edition, including popular works for music lessons such as Hob. XVI:27, 35 and 37. In the Notes on Interpretation, Robert D. Levin explains important aspects of Haydn’s performance practice and, with the help of numerous examples, shows possibilities to embellish the pauses frequently used
by Haydn.

Joseph Haydn
The Complete Piano Sonatas
Edition: Christa Landon / Ulrich Leisinger
Notes on Interpretation: Robert D. Levin
Fingerings: Oswald Jonas
Grade 3–4

Volume 1 UT 50256 (previously Vol. 1a UT 50026)
Volume 2 UT 50257 (previously Vol. 1b UT 50027)
Volume 3 UT 50258 (previously Vol. 2 UT 50028)
Volume 4 UT 50259 (previously Vol. 3 UT 50029)

Have you already seen our brochure about Haydn’s Piano Sonatas?

In an interview with Jörg Königsdorf, Rihm said:

“The original idea, however, goes back a long way: Das Lesen der Schrift refers to the process of decoding, gradually becoming aware of textual relationships encapsulated in symbols. It can also be a metaphor of decoding a musical text.”

Come and see us in Hall 3.1, Stand C42.

Read more on our live blog.

Dyade

Coupling the violin with the double bass (Roman Patkoló) might seem surprising, but it was these two instruments, with their extreme contrasts, that challenged Rihm to bring them together on the same, stormy level. At times, Rihm swaps their roles, where the violin plays deeper than the double bass. He becomes her and she becomes him. Anything is possible …

An intensive experience for performers and audience alike. The world première is on 3 April at the Avery Fisher Hall in New York, as part of the New York Philharmonic’s Chamber Music series.

Librettist Stephen Pruslin describes Harrison Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy (1967) as a kind of prototype of the opera form:

“What we were not trying to do was to write a children’s opera that would faithfully represent the traditional Punch and Judy puppet-play. Anyone who has witnessed that entertainment in its usual fairground or seaside setting will know what there is very little an operatic version could add to the cogent and forceful original. No, what we wanted was something quite different: a stylized and ritualistic drama for adults that used all of the imaginary, the trappings and paraphernalia of the original as a departure-point.” (Pruslin)

The Grand Théâtre de Genève is now showing the joint production by the English National Opera and the Young Vic (première 1 April). Wen-Pin Chien conducts the Ensemble Contrechamps.

After the world première at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1968 Andrew Porter wrote in the Financial Times:

“Punch and Judy succeeds because Pruslin commands an effective theatre language and because Birtwistle’s concise, delicate ear has imagined beautiful and eloquent sounds and set them in strong meaningful forms. It becomes not just an opera of ideas – though of course it is that – but also an individual dramatic-musical poem, intricate and intellectual, rewarding the closest attention one can bring, yet at the same time simple and direct, strong as a nursery rhyme in its essential statements.”

“The most exiting part of the programme was the world première of Hamlet – a ‘drama for trombone and orchestra’ by Victoria Borisova-Ollas and Elias Faingersh, conducted by Lars Rudolfsson.

The orchestral part was tight and full of feeling, but at the same time perfect for Hamlet, played by Elias Faingersh, to take a central role.

The solo trombone part made a very strong impression. With the help of live electronics (loop-mashines) Faingersh recorded layer after layer of polyphonic structure, to which he then performed.

In the ghost scene he created a fascinating atmosphere with winding melodies, old-fashioned church bells and sounds of waves, culminating in a powerful explosion.”

(Pressespiegel, Tobias Lund, on the world première)

Five of the six late-romantic songs were then re-arranged in the early 20s by Hanns Eisler, Erwin Stein and Arnold Schönberg himself for the instrumentation of the Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen.

The new version by Klaus Simon of the songs 3, 4 and 6 completes the cycle and expands the Schönbergian ensemble with the horn and bassoon.

The work can be heard in Zurich on 28 March with the Collegium Novum Zurich conducted by Daniel Klajner. The soloist is Olivia Stahn.

Neither is joined on the program by the world première of John Zorn’s La Machine de l’être and Schönberg’s Erwartung. Conducted by George Manahan, Monodramas debuts on 25 March with five additional performances until 8 April.

(Text courtesy of our US representative EAM)

Watch the New York City Opera's trailer here:

The New York City Opera has also published a fascinating Video Blog, with a psychoanalist's view of Erwartung, conductor George Manahan talking about Schönberg, Jim Jarmusch and Larry Pine reading Neither, and Christopher Rothko talking about his father and Feldman.

• Step-by-step learning in playing and reading, starting from absolute scratch, presented in clearly structured stages
• Also suitable for the 'returning beginner'
• Performance pieces in a range of styles from classical and folk through to jazz
• A helpful and stimulating CD with aural development exercises and recordings of the pieces, many with 'play-along' tracks
• Warm-up exercises
• Even more performance pieces for each stage which are available as FREE DOWNLOADS from the Universal Edition website together with further advice, information and music theory

Play the Piano
Level 1
UE 21561

Mike Cornick is an established composer, arranger and teacher with over fifty publications available from Universal Edition: recreational pieces, tutors, examination pieces, piano material for all ages and levels, solos, duets and even six hands at one piano. In his thoughtful attention to the educational aspects of his composing, Mike always provides material that appeals and inspires. Mike is best known for his jazz piano publications from which many selections have been made for graded piano examinations.

UNIVERSAL EDITION and WIENER URTEXT EDITION in Hall 3.1, Stand C42

April 6 to April 9, 2011
open from 9.00 am to 6.00 pm

Trade visitors: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Public day: Saturday

We look forward to welcoming you to our stand!

The story of the City of Mahagonny, in which a person with no money has no value and where only things that can be bought are seen as real, harks back to the tale of Sodom and Gomorrah from the Old Testament. However, in Mahagonny the all-destroying catastrophe and the fall of the city are not some kind of ‘punishment’ from outside, but rather an ‘error’ in the system itself. Mahagonny couldn’t be more topical in this day and age.

The new production by Katharina Thalbach at the City Opera in Cologne took to the stage on 23 March, conducted by Lothar Koenigs, for a run of 10 performances.

The Threepenny Opera in Paris

The Comédie-Française is without a doubt one of the most important theatre stages in the world. Theatre and opera director Laurent Pelly, who designs his productions as if they were themselves musical scores, mixing the tragic with the burlesque, has now turned his hand to one of the masterpieces of the 20th century. The Threepenny Opera runs from 2 April until 19 July 2011.

The musical realisation of Ovid's story is based on the mirroring between the two figures Narcissus and Echo. A sensitive play on very quite and delicate sounds as well as on the earthly organic timbres of the viola yields a chamber music setting of a very intimate kind.

One of the “most exciting and intelligent music theatre productions” of the last two years, is how the Salzburger Nachrichten described the performance, which “succeeds via an unorthodox instrumentation and spatial acoustic effects of magical forcefulness.”

The next performances are on 23 and 25 March at the Teatros del Canal in Madrid, as part of the Operadhoy 2011 festival.

Responding to a request by the violinist Elena Denisova, the composer Franz Hummel has now arranged the work for violin and orchestra: “Zemlinsky’s Serenade for violin and piano in five movements, a charming early work that may owe its existence to the recollection of an encounter with the bluntly critical Johannes Brahms, radiates so much youthful esprit that I had to agree with Elena Denisova when she told me it deserved to be orchestrated.”

The world première of Zemlinsky’s first “Violin Concerto” will take place on 20 March at the Musikverein in Vienna. Alexei Kornienko conducts the Vienna Concert-Verein with Elena Denisova as soloist.

The timbre of the violin is exceptionally well suited to evoking in sound the musical riches of Argentina's past, as well as to making the fascination and glamour of Gardel's tango music come alive again. Some of his most well-known pieces are featured in this volume and Diego Collatti's arrangements retain all the captivating, magnetic charms we associate with the Tango. Suitable for violinists of middle-grade standard and beyond.

Pieces include: Melodia de arraval, Mi Buenos Aires querido, Volver,
Por Una Cabeza and El dia que me quieras

Carlos Gardel
Tango - Violin & Piano
arranged by Diego Collatti
UE 35013

already available:

Carlos Gardel
Tango Violin Duets
arranged by Diego Collatti
UE 33651

Clytus Gottwald has now transcribed Alma Mahler’s 3 frühe Lieder for a cappella choir. The world première will be given on 26 Feb at Gaisburg church in Stuttgart at a special concert by the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart under Marcus Creed.

Our Mahler video interviews are now also going to be shown at various important concert halls. The Vienna Konzerthaus will be showing them from the 14th May until the 21st June as part of the International Musikfest, and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig as part of their international Mahler-Festival (17–29 May). The Munich Theatre Museum’s Mahler exhibition will also be showing the interviews.

Please contact us if you are interested in using the interviews at your institution.
promotion@universaledition.com

On 17 February 2011 Cerha celebrates his 85th birthday, and a number of events are paying tribute to a composer whose unfailing efforts have led to such a variety in the national music scene in Austria, not to mention his immeasurable influence as a teacher and a critical supporter of the arts.

The Vienna Konzerthaus is honouring the composer on the evening of his birthday with a concert of central works from his oeuvre. Those participating in the musical tribute include the ensemble co-founded by Friedrich Cerha, die reihe, and HK Gruber as chansonnier.

On the same evening, Austrian Radio OE1 is presenting a Long Night of Friedrich Cerha.

A video interview with Friedrich Cerha made by the Austrian broadcaster TW1 will be online soon.

The Salzburg Biennale in March also celebrates the life and music of Friedrich Cerha. As part of their Zoom series it presents concerts and a reading on 12 March at the Mozarteum University. The music is provided by Klangforum Wien together with the baritone Martin Winkler, performing Eine Art Chansons (A kind of Chansons). The composer will receive the Music Prize of the State of Salzburg on 13 March.

Finally, the Wien Modern Festival is also featuring the music of Friedrich Cerha this year. The opening concert of the festival on 28 October will present all seven parts of Cerha’s orchestral magnum opus Spiegel. This April, a new recording of the full work was released by Kairos. “A work that definitely needs to be staged”, wrote Gerhard R. Koch in the FAZ.

MIXED ENSEMBLE OPTION
Whilst written specifically for the instrument and addressing the challenges beginner flautists would encounter, a special section is included of four pieces which are "key friendly" for beginners on most instruments and are therefore ideal pieces for mixed instrumental groups. These same four pieces will appear in subsequent books for other instruments in the Debut series.

For the Pupil …
- Instrumental parts with fun cartoons for inspiration
- A CD providing stimulating demonstration performances for listening as well as  "minus-one" accompaniments for playing along at home
- Cartoons can be DOWNLOADED FOR FREE for
colouring in

For the Teacher …
- Sheet music for selected piano accompaniments can be DOWNLOADED FOR FREE - just follow the web link provided in the pupil's book!
- If preferred, the accompaniments of all of the 12 pieces can be purchased in one printed and bound volume

James Rae
Flute Debut mit CD
UE 21528

Flute Debut - Piano Accompaniments
UE 21529

Already available:

James Rae
Clarinet Debut mit CD
UE 21526

Clarinet Debut - Piano Accompaniments
UE 21527

Nicolai Podgornov's Romantic Piano Album Vol. 2
Includes: Night and Day & Comptine d’un autre été
UE 34983

Weitere Bestseller von Nicolai Podgornov:

Nicolai Podgornov's Romantic Piano Album Vol. 1
Includes: Can you feel the Love Tonight? & La Valse d'Amélie
UE 33937

Nicolai Podgornov's Piano Album
UE 33649

Nicolai Podgornov's Graded Pieces for Piano
Volume 1 - Easy
UE 34551

Volume 2 - Intermediate
UE 34552

Volume 3 - Advanced
UE 34553

Muerte sin fin was commissioned by the Dutch Flamenco Biennale 2011, Nieuw-Ensemble and Spain’s Ministry of Culture. The world première will be held in Amsterdam on 30 Jan. The approximately 30-minute piece was composed for flamenco singer, orchestra and electronics.

Alpha Centauri for ensemble and electronics can be heard for the first time in Madrid on 31 Jan, performed by the Ensemble Espai Sonor.

Instrumentation:
Parts 1 and 2 in C: Violin, Flute, Recorder, Oboe, etc.
Parts 1 and 2 in B: Clarinet, Trumpet, Saxophone
Guitar, Paino, Bass (Guitar, Electronic Bass, Cello, Keyboard)
Percussion ad lib.
Voice ad lib.

World Music Russia
Includes: Kalinka, Schwarze Augen, Der Mond scheint, Steppe rundherum, Valenky
(I. Malachovsky)
UE 31524

World Music Israel
Includes: Hava Nagila, Dror yikra, Ahavat Hadessa, Tchiribim Tchiribom, Shalosh bnot hapele
(T. Brauer & E. Meiri)
UE 31523

World Music Argentina
Includes: Tango, Vals Criollo, Milonga, Zamba, Chacarera
(D. Colatti)
UE 31528

World Music Ireland
Includes: The Foggy Dew, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, The Wild Rover, Dany Boy, The Connaughtman's Rambles
(R. Graf)
UE 31522

World Music Klezmer
Includes: The Silver Crown, Ma Yofes, Stoliner Nign, Dorohoi Khusidl, Romanian Hora
(Y. Strom)
UE 31529

World Music Brazil
Includes: Choro da Luz, Quebrasamba, Maracatu, Cantigas de Roda und Coco
(J. S. Neto)
UE 31526

World Music Cuba
Includes: Bolero, Son Montuno, Cha Cha, Mambo, Rumba
(R. Graf & R. Filz)
UE 31521

World Music Scotland
Includes: Scotland the Brave, My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose, The Skye Boat Song, Mhairi's Wedding, 100 Pipers
(J. Rae)
UE 31525

World Music Madagascar
Includes: Apondo, O'Drakalo, Zahorava, Rabirina, Fianinana
(HAJAmadagascar & A. Schmidhofer)
UE 31527

World Music Junior America
Includes: Turkey in the Straw, Backwater Blues, Pine Apple Rag, Way Down upon the Swanee River
(J. Diermayer)
UE 32710 score with CD
UE 32711 set of parts

World Music Junior Christmas
Includes: O Tannenbaum, We Wish you a Merry Christmas, Silent Night, Jingle Bells
(R. Graf)
UE 32712 score with CD
UE 32713 set of parts

To celebrate their 25th anniversary, the Hagen Quartet will also be performing the world première of String Quartet No. 6 in Salzburg on 23 Jan – a piece commissioned by Salzburg’s Mozarteum Foundation, KölnMusik and the Wigmore Hall.

Listen now to the full interview. Available until 22 Jan.

Arnold Schönberg
Paintings
UE 26292

Have you already seen our Schönberg Mousepads?

Arnold Schönberg
Mousepad "Picture"
UE 80311

Arnold Schönberg
Mousepad "In the Garden"
UE 80312

Our individual Urtext editions containing facsimiles of Frédéric Chopin’s piano music have proved to be very popular. We are now offering a limited edition of the Wiener Urtext editions of the complete Nocturnes, the Preludes and the Etudes together with a facsimile of one of the works included.

These facsimiles give you a unique insight into the development of some of the most fascinating works by Chopin, in this his 200th anniversary year.

The Complete Etudes
+ facsimile for free Etude E major Op. 10/3
UT 50205

Nocturnes
+ facsimile for free Nocturne f minor Op. 55/1
UT 50065

24 Preludes Op. 28
+ facsimile for free Prelude D flat major Op. 28/15
UT 50005

Once again it has been a full and busy year here at UE. Here are some of the highlights from a year which saw 57 new works premièred:

Wolfgang Rihm’s new opera Dionysos was premièred at the Salzburg Festival, to overwhelming acclaim.

A Long Night of Jay Schwartz took place in Salzburg this summer, including the world première of Music for Orchestra II.

Johannes Maria Staud was a featured composer at the Wien Modern festival, where his Über trügerische Stadtpläne and On Comparative Meteorology II were given their world premières.

Arvo Pärt’s new work for choir and string orchestra, Adam’s Lament, was performed at the International Istanbul Music Festival, where he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Limited Approximations, Georg Friedrich Haas’ new work for six microtonally-tuned pianos, was performed at the Donaueschingen festival, where it was awarded the SWR SO Composition Prize.

Cristóbal Halffter conducted the world première of his new work for orchestra, Ritual, in Grafenegg.

Martin Fröst gave the first performance of Victoria Borisova-Ollas’ new clarinet concerto, Golden Dances of the Pharaohs, in Stockholm.

Vykintas Baltakas’ new work for orchestra, Scoria, was given its world première in Munich by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Lucas Vis.

A new CD of music by Georges Lentz was recorded by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, conducted by Emilio Pomàrico.

As part of the Mahler in Manchester festival, Friedrich Cerha’s Like a Tragicomedy was performed alongside Mahler’s 3rd Symphony by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by HK Gruber.

In the same festival, the world première of Luke Bedford’s At Three and Two preceded Mahler’s 9th Symphony. Mark Elder conducted the Hallé Orchestra.

David Sawer’s highly acclaimed ballet Rumpelstiltskin continued its successful tour of the United Kingdom, finishing with two performances at the Spitalfields Festival in London by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

Mauricio Sotelo’s Cripta Colonia Güell for voices, choir, ensemble and electronics, was given its world première in Barcelona.

Alban Berg’s Lulu was performed in Copenhagen with the world première of the new third act by Eberhard Kloke.

Wolfgang Rihm: Verwandlungen
SWR Symphony Orchestra
Christian Arming, Matthias Pintscher
SCM Hänssler 093.263.000
Order online at Hänssler, Amazon

The Konzerthaus will officially commemorate the composer, whose music has always played a key role there, in concert on 16 Dec with an ‘Hommage à Luciano Berio’. The portrait concert will feature the soloists Alda Caiello, mezzo-soprano, Mario Caroli, fl, Garth Knox, vla, Krassimir Sterev, acc, Lukas Schiske, perc, Marino Formenti, pno and Studio Tempo Reale from Florence. The programme includes Quattro canzoni popolari, Sequenza I for flute, Momenti, Naturale su melodie siciliane, Sequenza XIII for accordion, Altra voce for alto flute, mezzo-soprano and live electronics, and Sonata.

The nominees for 2011 include:

In the category Best Opera Recording:

Alban Berg: Lulu
Antonio Pappano, conductor; Agneta Eichenholz, Jennifer Larmore, Klaus Florian Vogt & Michael Volle; David Groves, producer (Orchestra Of The Royal Opera House) – Opus Arte

In the category Best Choral Performance:

Frank Martin: Golgotha
Daniel Reuss, conductor (Judith Gauthier, Marianne Beate Kielland, Adrian Thompson, Mattijs Van De Woerd & Konstantin Wolff; Estonian National Symphony Orchestra; Cappella Amsterdam & Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir) – Harmonia Mundi

In the category Best Chamber Music Performance:

Arnold Schönberg: String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4
Fred Sherry String Quartet (Christopher Oldfather & Rolf Schulte) – Naxos

In the category Best Classical Contemporary Composition:

Arvo Pärt: Symphony No. 4
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Esa Pekka Salonen – ECM New Series

In the Newly Published Music Competition 2010 both a UE publication and a Wiener Urtext edition have been commended for making a considerable contribution to the flute repertoire.

Winner of the NFA Award 2010

Pedagogical Category
Tilmann Dehnhard
Jazz Studies
for flute, with CD
UE 33703

Flute and Keyboard Category
Carl Reinecke
Undine - Sonata for flute and piano
UT 50242

Winner of the NFA Award 2008

Flute Solo Category
Flute Project
for flute
UE 33661

Pedagogical Category
James Rae
Jazz Scale Studies
UE 21352

Winner of the NFA Award 2006

2 and more Flutes Category
Mary Karen Clardy
Classic Duets for Flute Vol. 2
UE 70078

Andris Nelsons	Josep Pons	Gustavo Dudamel
Riccardo Chailly	Manfred Honeck	Valery Gergiev

For a full list of all our Mahler video interviews, visit our Gustav Mahler Blog.

Jürg Henneberger conducts the piece's world première on 26 Nov.

The première of the Ballade No. 2, probably arranged for string orchestra towards the end of the 1930s, has now been scheduled: the Orchestra Nazionale Sinfonica della RAI Torino will perform on 19 Nov in Turin under Marco Angius, with Mario Caroli (flute) and Giuseppe La Licata (piano).

The award, with its prize money of SEK 25000, was presented to the composer on 12 November.

Three composers and five visual artists were selected to receive the £45,000 prize to support them at critical moments of their careers and enable their artistic development. This year's selected visual artists are Angela de la Cruz, Luke Fowler, Christina Mackie, Ben Rivers and Lindsay Seers. The composers are Anna Meredith, Jason Yarde and David Fennessy.

Since the first Awards for Artists in 1994, the scheme has supported over 90 individuals with total funding in excess of £3 million. Awards carry no obligations and are intended to allow recipients to work unhindered by financial constraint. They are made according to talent, promise and need.

David Fennessy's This is how it feels (Another Bolero) for orchestra is published by Universal Edition.

Listen to more music by David Fennessy

At the Donaueschingen Music Festival, Wolfgang Rihm spoke to the Dutch radio about the cuts:

“It is alarming to hear this news, as we all admire the musical culture of the Netherlands, and it is always astonishing to hear that of all people it is the conservative politicians who above all destroy cultural value. You would think that a Conservative would want to preserve something … When something is gone, it’s gone.

You can destroy an evolved structure, a mesh, a fabric, but it can never again be brought back to its former glory – that is, unless you have just as many years again. It is so short-sighted to scrap institutions and their performers in such a way for such a relatively modest amount of money.

I am appalled. Shocked.”

Listen to the full interview (in German).

Read more at the MCO website, where you can also take part in an online petition.

His work of many years on the reconstruction of Mahler’s 10^th Symphony was a valuable addition to UE’s Mahler catalogue. His reconstruction of the symphony, filling the gaps of the Cooke version with sensible insertions and intelligent suggestions in order to achieve the full Mahler sound, will remain an important item in a rich legacy. 

Sustained string tones are layered upon each other, and are then gradually replaced by rhythmically expanding piano parts including all imaginable beat tones. Woodwind and brass add strength and contrast with the string parts. The dynamics range from molto pianissimo to powerful forces of nature. “Melodies“ in the form of arias and intermezzi break with Haas’ usual layers of sound, glissandi and sequences of accelerandi/rallentandi, and lead to the concluding part of the piece. It is almost incredible to think that this kind of sound can be produced by acoustic instruments without electronic enhancement. 30 minutes of intense, intoxicating music, changing, gripping, fascinating. Haas shows us a fantastic example of his unique language and imagery.

With the prize, the orchestra also commits itself to performing the piece on future occasions.

Wien Modern, which is focusing extensively on Staud this year (29 Oct, RSO Wien, conductor: Peter Eötvös), will play host to the world première of Über trügerische Stadtpläne und die Versuchungen der Winternächte (Dichotomie II) – with its title inspired by Bruno Schulz – for string quartet and orchestra (5 Nov, RSO Wien, Arditti Quartet, conductor: Emilio Pomárico).

Lagrein, Sydenham Music and Vielleicht zunächst wirklich nur will be showcased in a portrait concert (10 Nov, Vienna Konzerthaus).

Pärt about his work:

The first impulse to write this work came from my spontaneous reaction to Paavo Järvi’s first-class interpretations of my work, which I had heard on one of his CDs. I called him immediately to tell him of my enthusiasm, and discovered that he was about to take on the new role as chief conductor of the Orchestre de Paris. I was filled with the irresistible urge to write something for this occasion, for his “new orchestra”. In the course of the telephone call it emerged that Paavo Järvi’s agreed. I immediately thought of Gustave Eiffel and his work, of an homage to a great architect. I was very happy to hear that the orchestra reacted positively to my idea.

A splendid book of illustrations of the plans and blueprints for the tower lay on my desk, captivating me. I was impressed and inspired in many different ways by Eiffel’s artistic vision, by his combination of sober rationality and elegance. From the perspective of a composer Eiffel’s tower has many features which are comparable to the structure of a piece of music – the connections between the structural elements, the transparency of the construction, and much more. Even stasis, such an important aspect of architecture, is also a key element of a piece of music.

As regards my work Silhouette, the piece came out short and light, like a dance, a waltz, something dizzying – perhaps like the winds which caress this pointed colossus.

Mauricio Sotelo:

One of the most important moments of my education was without a doubt the day when Luigi Nono showed me the details of the hanging model that Antonio Gaudi drafted for the construction of the church of Colonia Güell.

Luigi Nono spoke of overcoming the written word, revising oral traditions, a new way of approaching the material directly and cooperating with musicians (as the great architect worked with a small group of Catalan stonemasons). Finally, he also explained Gaudi’s anti-academic attitude to the creative process, similar to Nono’s own in the years before his death.

Last semester, I gave a series of seminars at the ESMUC as a visiting professor, and I started and ended the series with precisely this theme. Together with my students, I saw the mysterious church of Colonia Güell for the first time, with an intense rush of feelings. Even today, the church is a manifestation of a unique thought experiment and a universal example that Catalonia sets to the world.

Arthur F. Becker (od. Buhr?) was commissioned by the KlangForum Heidelberg. Hans Prinzhorn collected drawings by mentally ill patients at the Psychiatric University Clinic in Heidelberg up to the year 1921. Haas’ work refers to a sketch by the patient Arthur F. Becker; a sketch with an intricate, dense web of intertwined lines depicting a landscape. The threatening feeling, however, is created by the blank areas of the sketch. The world première will be held on 22 Oct with SCHOLA Heidelberg and ensemble aisthesis.

Cerha about his Viennese Kaleidoscope:
My familiarity with the music of the suburban Viennese establishment (also home in their day to Strauss and Lanner) dates back to the time when as a twelve-year-old I used to play second violin in a small ensemble at so-called “academies”, balls and other parties – waltzes, polkas, Viennese songs and numbers from operettas.  My Geschwandtner Tänze from 1938 were the first musical results of these experiences. When I began to be interested in folklore from outside Europe in the 1970s, and at the same time read with great pleasure the “Viennese proverbs” of my friend Ernst Kein, I was inspired to turn back to this folk music, which I had been carrying around with me since I was a small child, but had always ignored as a serious composer. So in 1980 – 1982 and 1983 – 85 I wrote my two song cycles for chansonnier and ensemble, which I called the 1st and 2nd Keintate. The title is a play on “cantata”, as in something to sing, and also the name of the lyricist Ernst Kein. The premiere of the 1st Keintate took place in 1983 at the “Metropol” – one of the aforementioned suburban establishments; the captivating chansonnier was HK Gruber, who has performed the pieces a number of times since then.

In 2006 my publisher suggested that I might put together the instrumental numbers to form a short cycle of their own, arranged for small orchestra. I liked the idea and did my best to keep some of the “typically Viennese” aural associations of the original in the concert suite, which I arranged for clarinets, horns, strings, button accordion and percussion. Because the suite seemed to need it, I also integrated two “Viennese songs”.

The musical models sometimes make reference to well-known melodies, but more often simply use the characteristic tone of Viennese folk music. All in all, I did not want to make fun of this music or use it as a “gag”; I took it as a model and then returned to it with a degree of alienation, exaggerating or specifically illustrating certain elements of the style.

Five pieces from the panopticum of this Viennese Kaleidoscope were performed on 25 October 2008 by HK Gruber and the Vienna Philharmonic at the Vienna Konzerthaus; the première of the whole cycle takes place in this concert in Manchester.

UE Music for Schools Catalogue includes:

• Music for ensembles – large or small, many with flexible instrumentation allowing for the ever-changing line up of instrumentalists
• Teaching material
• Operas and musicals
• Choral works from Richard Rodney Bennett to Arvo Pärt
• A selection of unusual solos and small ensemble works especially suitable for the school concert – a special selection for Christmas is also provided

Download PDF catalogue

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Tabula rasa – Special edition

In 1984, ECM brought a new sound into the musical world with the release of Arvo Pärt's "Tabula rasa", the first album on the label's New Series imprint. Now, on the occasion of Pärt's 75th birthday, this special edition with enclosed CD has been produced in collaboration with the composer's publisher, Universal Edition. It includes manuscript scores of "Tabula rasa" and "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten", published for the first time, and study scores of the album's four works. Rounding off the volume is a discography of Arvo Pärt's works on ECM with corresponding publishing details, as well as an essay by Paul Griffiths.

ECM New Series 1275
UE 35222
Euro 49.90 
Available from mid-September 2010

"I have been trying to create a non-linear work for a long time. It is not easy because we always perceive events in relation to time and space. It is like a pair of glasses that we look through to make sense of reality. I try to think of a SOUND, the “imaginary underlying sound of a piece”, which is rich, resonant, vibrant and displays different aspects of itself in turn. It is precisely this presentation that is typical of a linear form; this piece is a production which changes the perception of hearing and listening."

Vykintas Baltakas

The programme in Berlin will include the two long-time favourites Sinfonia and Folk Songs (London Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Daniel Harding), Coro (10–12 Sep, Berlin Philharmonic, conductor: Simon Rattle, who already presented the work in Birmingham), Voci (9 Sep, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conductor: Marek Janowski), Naturale, Kol od (13 Sep, musikFabrik, conductor: Peter Eötvös), Concerto (14 Sep, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, conductor: Kent Nagano) and Chemins I (16 Sep, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, conductor: Lothar Zagrosek). An impressive collection and a fantastic achievement!

The award to Wolfgang Rihm was suggested by director Luca Francesconi for music, and approved by the Board of Directors of the Biennale di Venezia chaired by Paolo Baratta. The award ceremony for the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement for Music will take place during the 54^th International Festival of Contemporary Music 30 September, 2010. In past years, the Music award has gone to Goffredo Petrassi (1994), Luciano Berio (1995), Friedrich Cerha (2006), Giacomo Manzoni (2007), Helmut Lachenmann (2008) and György Kurtág (2009).

“An extremely precocious talent”, states the motivation for the award, “Wolfgang Rihm has witnessed the great changes in almost 40 years of recent musical history, absorbing without ideological rigidity the most important developments of the era, themes that are as topical as ever. Rihm accepted the challenge of the most urgent expressive developments that exploded in the 1970s with the end of modernism, fighting with intellectual honesty and courage against the spectres of rational dogma and subsequently of post-modern cynicism; for instance, by reviving the lessons of Nono as of the early 1990s. Striving strongly towards a balance between expression and rigour, which is the most profound nucleus of the truest art. The music of Wolfgang Rihm is always rooted in the matter of sound, in rhythmic and harmonic force, with a lucid formal organisation often on a vast scale.”

Rihm’s first presence at the Biennale dates from 1981, for the significantly named “After the avant-garde” series. Another memorable occasion was the world premiere of In-Schrift for orchestra of 1995, performed in the basilica in Saint Mark’s square, for which the score was written, using orchestral instruments best able to exploit its acoustic possibilities.

Cerha responded to the award in his own inimitable and pithy way: 

"It's too late really. 50, 55 years ago, I was young and wasn't happy with the situation. I was confronted with animosity and icy rejection in Austria, as if all I wanted to do was destroy traditions. Now I am accepted and have already been awarded countless prizes and awards. The Salzburg Music Prize comes at a time in which I no longer need it. ... In defiance of all the decay of old age I have nevertheless kept my vanity, which now gives me satisfaction."

To celebrate the composer's 85th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the world première, the Paul Sacher Foundation and Universal Edition have now published the two original manuscripts of the score for the first time: the pencil draft and a fair copy in different coloured inks. These fine examples of high-quality reproductions are also the earliest evidence of Boulez's friendship with Paul Sacher. The composer presented the scores to Sacher in the early 1960s.

The facsimiles are prefaced by an introduction, which places the work in a historical and aesthetic context and takes a look at the compositional techniques used. It is illustrated by a selection of manuscripts from different stages of the creative process, as well as other related documents.

Pierre Boulez
Tombeau
Nr. 5 aus dem Zyklus "Pli selon pli"
for Soprano and Orchestra
UE 34972

This year celebrates Alban Berg’s 125th birthday and remembers the 75th anniversary of his death. His musical language and aesthetics are as relevant today as they have ever been.

Lulu is Berg’s second opera, but remained unfinished at his death, with only two of the three acts completed. The unfinished work was given its world première in Zurich in 1937. The Salzburg Festival is presenting the 3 act version of the opera including the third act as completed by Friedrich Cerha in 1978, in which the complete drama of Lulu’s rise and fall is told.

The première will be broadcast on Austrian Radio ORF1 on
Saturday 7 August at 19:30 (Vienna time).

Available in our online shop:

Lulu Piano Reduction Vol. I
Lulu Piano Reduction Vol. II
and others ...

One of her most powerful first impressions was encountering the sound of the Angelus bell of the Frauenkirche. This bell has also given its name to her orchestral work, which premièred in Munich on 8 Jun 2008 with the Münchner Philharmoniker under Sylvain Cambreling, and the structure of the composition traces the Angelus over the course of its daily cycle.

Valery Gergiev will conduct the Swedish première on 24 Aug. The Mariinsky Orchestra will perform at the Berwaldhallen in Stockholm.

The concert will be broadcast live on Swedish Radio SR P2.
Listen live

The première is complemented by a journey across the “continent of Rihm”, a series of concerts featuring 15 works by Rihm programmed by concert director Markus Hinterhäuser between 29 Jul and 22 Aug. The revival of the Poème dansé Tutuguri at the Felsenreitschule on the 29 Jul has already attracted considerable attention.

Other highlights: Quid est Deus (2 Aug, conducted by Sylvain Cambreling), ET LUX (7 Aug, the Hilliard Ensemble, Arditti Quartet), Gesungene Zeit (8 and 10 Aug, conductor Riccardo Chailly, Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin), Séraphin-Sphäre (9 Aug, Klangforum Wien), Jagden und Formen (10 and 11 Aug, choreographed by Sasha Waltz with Ensemble Modern), Musik für 3 Streicher (13 Aug, ensemble recherche) and Ernster Gesang (21 and 22 Aug, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach).

There is also a series of events entitled “the exegesis of Rihm”, providing further information and discussion.

The piano reduction of Rihm's Dionysos is now ready for you to browse: 

Over the past year we have asked the world’s most prominent conductors about their relationship to Mahler’s music. Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim, Daniele Gatti, Zubin Mehta, Lorina Maazel and many more have told us of their very personal Mahler experiences. The results can be seen in our Mahler Blog, which now contains 20 exclusive video interviews. They give a vibrant impression of what Mahler can still mean to us today.

The awards ceremony included the world première of Adam’s Lament, Pärt’s new work for choir and string orchestra. The work emerged from a co-commission by two European Capitals of Culture – Istanbul 2010 and Tallinn 2011. Gül: “He is a truly exciting composer. It makes us excited that he dedicated his Adam’s Lament to Istanbul.”

400 children on stage at the Concertgebouw

On 24 May star violinists Janine Jansen and Aleksey Igudesman were joined by 400 children at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw to perform two pieces from Aleksey's new book Celtic & More Violin Duets. A memorable experience, both for musicians and the audience!

Aleksey Igudesman

Aleksey Igudesman was born in St. Petersburg and joined the Yehudi Menuhin School at the age of 12, studying violin and composition. From 1989 until 1998 he continued his studies in Vienna. Today he is internationally active as a soloist, composer, conductor and actor. His own works have been performed by renowned performers all over the world.

Igudesman Bestseller

Celtic & More
Violin Duets
UE 33652

Latin & More
Violin Duets
UE 33653

Klezmer & More
Violin Duets
UE 33650

Pigs Can Fly
with CD
UE 33938

The Catscratchbook
UE 33094

Style Workout
UE 33338

This year we also look forward to the première of a new work for ensemble at the Transit Festival in Belgium, and to the first performance Vykintas Baltakas of Scoria at Musica Viva in Munich, with the Munich RSO (24 Sep).

Cerha's Like a Tragicomedy has been written to accompany Mahler's Symphony No. 3. Bedford’s At Three and Two for winds, percussion and double basses will be performed before Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 on 27 May by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Mark Elder. The concert will be broadcast on 31 May on BBC Radio 3.

The instrumentation is expanded by an eight-track soundtrack circling around the 19-piece ensemble, with sounds derived from a variety of metalworking machines (the Portuguese première is in Porto, 25 May, Remix Ensemble conducted by Emilio Pomàrico; electronics: Peter Böhm).

As Victoria Borisova-Ollas writes in the preface to her new clarinet concerto, Golden Dances of Pharaohs: “We know practically everything about daily habits of the Pharaohs, but there is an important part of this picture which is still missing: the sounds are not there. What were the timbres of their voices; the moods of their ritual songs? What was the music like when they danced?” Borisova-Ollas has now created her own personal answer to these questions which will be premièred on 6 May by Martin Fröst and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo.

Nana was written in 1932 and was to have been premièred in Mannheim the following year. Gurlitt was at this time at the zenith of his fame as an opera composer and conductor. It was not to be though, and shortly before the première the National Socialist censors banned the work as "culturally destructive" (as they did Gurlitt's other works). In 1939 he emigrated to Japan, where he enjoyed a productive opera and concert career.

Enrico Calesso conducts the new production by Michael Schulz. Stage design is by Dirk Becker. Opening night is 25 Apr.

See our Manfred Gurlitt page for more information about the composer, as well as his other operas Die Soldaten and Wozzeck.

Neun Bagatellen for string trio (world première: 24 Apr) was inspired by a suggestion by violinist Ernst Kovacic. In this piece, Cerha once again indulges in his love of the "gripping translation of the direct, spontaneous idea" - as in the orchestral works Momente and Instants. The programme in Witten also features Netzwerk-Fantasie (soloist: Marino Formenti, 24 Apr) and an excerpt from Eine Art Chansons (Klangforum Wien, 25 Apr).

On 14 Apr, Remix Ensemble will be performing Les Adieux for the first time in Porto/P.

During the Witten Festival a new work by Georg Friedrich Haas will also be given its world première. Ensemble Recherche performs AUS.WEG for eight instruments on 24 April.

We are pleased to announce the publication of our new Clarinet Bestsellers catalogue. Selected from our extensive and varied complete clarinet catalogue - here there is something for everyone - from the classics, music of the 20th century and contemporary music through to educational titles and music in lighter styles.

View the catalogue

UE Clarinet Bestsellers Catalogue includes:

• Classical Repertoire: Mozart, Haydn, Rossini, ...
• 20th Century Classics: Schönberg, Bartók, Weill, Satie, ...
• Contemporary Music: Boulez, Berio, Rihm, Stockhausen, ...
• Educational Music: Rae, Introducing the Clarinet, Jazz Zone, ...
• Lighter Styles: Celtic Clarinet Duets, Play it Cool, ...
• Jazz: William O. Smith
• Ensemble: Kodály, Mussorgsky, Weill
• World Music: Ireland, Klezmer, Brazil, ...

Download PDF catalogue

Download PDF price-list

Das Gehege also sees a staged performance in Hamburg (from 10 March, conducted by Simone Young). The one-act opera can also be seen in a concert performance in Cologne at the final concert of the MusikTriennale (16 May). The conductor is Markus Stenz, who also performs DEUS PASSUS (Cologne, 1 April).

Writing about Will Sound when the work premièred in 2006, the New York Times described the score as "kaleidoscopic, intensive, detailled". Wolfgang Rihm has now expanded the work. The revised version receives its first performance by Klangforum Wien in Witten on 23 April.

ET LUX (6 May) and Gegenstück (29 Apr) continue the series of national premières in Amsterdam. Schrift-Um-Schrift can be heard in Geneva (26 March).

Sir Roger Norrington conducts Verwandlung 3 (with a revised ending) in Stuttgart (20/21 April), Shanghai (1 May) and Beijing (8 May). The Czech Filharmonie under Hradec Králové take on Musik für Oboe und Orchester (11 March).

The Munich Biennale presents Sotto voce (Siegfried Mauser, pno) and Pol-Kolchis-Nucleus (2 May). The Wuppertal Opera perform Hans Neuenfels' staging of Proserpina (11 April). COLL'ARCO stretches the technical possibilities of the violin to their limits. Carolin Widmann performs the work in Baden-Baden, Mannheim and Freiburg (28 Feb-3 March).

10 minutes of Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel can be heard in Martin Scorsese's new thriller Shutter Island. The film, with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role, has already displaced Avatar as the highest box office success in the USA.

Visit www.universaledition.com/mahler

Explore sample pages of SOUND FOUNDATIONS at www.universaledition.com/soundfoundations

SOUND FOUNDATIONS

A source of reference and a guide for aspiring composers

James Rae & Mike Cornick have, together, produced a practical and informative resource to meet the needs of developing composers. Both are well-established music educationalists and composers with a combined wealth of teaching experience.

SOUND FOUNDATIONS includes:

• The fundamentals of music theory, including time- and key-signatures, scales and a section to get you started in understanding harmony
• Explanation of the basics as well as many of the finer points of musical notation and the applications of music software
• A CD with over 100 recorded examples directly related to the text as well as two play-along tracks for jazz improvisation
• Specific tips on writing for the voice and the piano as well as a thorough survey of virtually every other instrument, including ranges and characteristics
• The meaning of foreign musical terms
• Adding dynamics, articulation and other essentials to your score
• More than 150 suggestions for further listening in a wide range of genres
• An extensive glossary of technical terms
• A range of inspiring compositional assignments