ORQUESTA TITULAR DEL TEATRO REAL

Teatro Real / Naves Matadero, Madrid
05.March.2020

THREE TALES
BY STEVE REICH AND BERYL KOROT
05 MAR, 20 – 07 MAR, 20

The Teatro Real embarks on a new production of Three Tales, by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot. The “Naves Matadero – Centro Internacional de Artes Vivas” will bear witness to a reflection of scientific impact on humanity.

Three independent works travel through the consequences of three scientific events of great relevance: aeronautical ambition, destructive nuclear energy, and the cloning game. Soloists of the Symphonic Orchestra of Madrid will play under the direction of Nacho de Paz.

Documentary Opera in three acts.

Music by Steve Reich (1936) for an instrumental and vocal ensemble (amplified and electronic). Video by Beryl Korot.

Premiered in the Vienna Festival the 12th of May 2002.

Premiere of the Teatro Real season.

Production of the Teatro Real in co-production with the “Naves del Matadero – Centro Internacional de Artes Vivas”.

___

ARTISTIC TEAM

Synergy Vocals

Orquesta Titular del Teatro Real

Conductor
Nacho de Paz

Sound Operator
Norbert Ommer

Video Operator
Johannes Bernstein (Big Cinema GMBH)

___

ORQUESTA TITULAR DEL TEATRO REAL

Teatro Real / Naves Matadero, Madrid
06.March.2020

THREE TALES
BY STEVE REICH AND BERYL KOROT
05 MAR, 20 – 07 MAR, 20

The Teatro Real embarks on a new production of Three Tales, by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot. The “Naves Matadero – Centro Internacional de Artes Vivas” will bear witness to a reflection of scientific impact on humanity.

Three independent works travel through the consequences of three scientific events of great relevance: aeronautical ambition, destructive nuclear energy, and the cloning game. Soloists of the Symphonic Orchestra of Madrid will play under the direction of Nacho de Paz.

Documentary Opera in three acts.

Music by Steve Reich (1936) for an instrumental and vocal ensemble (amplified and electronic). Video by Beryl Korot.

Premiered in the Vienna Festival the 12th of May 2002.

Premiere of the Teatro Real season.

Production of the Teatro Real in co-production with the “Naves del Matadero – Centro Internacional de Artes Vivas”.

___

ARTISTIC TEAM

Synergy Vocals

Orquesta Titular del Teatro Real

Conductor
Nacho de Paz

Sound Operator
Norbert Ommer

Video Operator
Johannes Bernstein (Big Cinema GMBH)

___

ORQUESTA TITULAR DEL TEATRO REAL

Teatro Real / Naves Matadero, Madrid
06.March.2020

THREE TALES
BY STEVE REICH AND BERYL KOROT
05 MAR, 20 – 07 MAR, 20

The Teatro Real embarks on a new production of Three Tales, by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot. The “Naves Matadero – Centro Internacional de Artes Vivas” will bear witness to a reflection of scientific impact on humanity.

Three independent works travel through the consequences of three scientific events of great relevance: aeronautical ambition, destructive nuclear energy, and the cloning game. Soloists of the Symphonic Orchestra of Madrid will play under the direction of Nacho de Paz.

Documentary Opera in three acts.

Music by Steve Reich (1936) for an instrumental and vocal ensemble (amplified and electronic). Video by Beryl Korot.

Premiered in the Vienna Festival the 12th of May 2002.

Premiere of the Teatro Real season.

Production of the Teatro Real in co-production with the “Naves del Matadero – Centro Internacional de Artes Vivas”.

___

ARTISTIC TEAM

Synergy Vocals

Orquesta Titular del Teatro Real

Conductor
Nacho de Paz

Sound Operator
Norbert Ommer

Video Operator
Johannes Bernstein (Big Cinema GMBH)

___

ORQUESTA TITULAR DEL TEATRO REAL

Teatro Real / Naves Matadero, Madrid
07.March.2020

THREE TALES
BY STEVE REICH AND BERYL KOROT
05 MAR, 20 – 07 MAR, 20

The Teatro Real embarks on a new production of Three Tales, by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot. The “Naves Matadero – Centro Internacional de Artes Vivas” will bear witness to a reflection of scientific impact on humanity.

Three independent works travel through the consequences of three scientific events of great relevance: aeronautical ambition, destructive nuclear energy, and the cloning game. Soloists of the Symphonic Orchestra of Madrid will play under the direction of Nacho de Paz.

Documentary Opera in three acts.

Music by Steve Reich (1936) for an instrumental and vocal ensemble (amplified and electronic). Video by Beryl Korot.

Premiered in the Vienna Festival the 12th of May 2002.

Premiere of the Teatro Real season.

Production of the Teatro Real in co-production with the “Naves del Matadero – Centro Internacional de Artes Vivas”.

___

ARTISTIC TEAM

Synergy Vocals

Orquesta Titular del Teatro Real

Conductor
Nacho de Paz

Sound Operator
Norbert Ommer

Video Operator
Johannes Bernstein (Big Cinema GMBH)

___

LOS NIBELUNGOS I
PARTE I: LA MUERTE DE SIGFRIDO
21 MAR, 20
Orquesta Titular del Teatro Real

Dirección musical: Nacho de Paz

El nacimiento del cine vino acompañado de música. Su unión es tan indisoluble que es difícil entender el primero sin el segundo. El Teatro Real abre una nueva puerta al arte global uniendo por primera vez en su escenario a su Orquesta Titular con el genio de Fritz Lang.

LOS NIBELUNGOS (Alemania, 1924)
Dirección
Fritz Lang

Música
Gottfried Huppertz

Guión
Fritz Lang
Thea Von Harbou

Dirección de Fotografía
Carl Hoffmann
Günther Rittau

Parte I: La Muerte de Sigfrido

21 de marzo de 2020. 20.00 h

Director Musical: Nacho de Paz
Orquesta Titular del Teatro Real

Salida a la venta 9 de diciembre de 2019

LOS NIBELUNGOS II
PARTE I: LA VENGANZA DE KRIMILDA
28 MAR, 20
Orquesta Titular del Teatro Real

Dirección musical: Nacho de Paz

El nacimiento del cine vino acompañado de música. Su unión es tan indisoluble que es difícil entender el primero sin el segundo. El Teatro Real abre una nueva puerta al arte global uniendo por primera vez en su escenario a su Orquesta Titular con el genio de Fritz Lang.

LOS NIBELUNGOS (Alemania, 1924)
Dirección
Fritz Lang

Música
Gottfried Huppertz

Guión
Fritz Lang
Thea Von Harbou

Dirección de Fotografía
Carl Hoffmann
Günther Rittau

Parte II: La Venganza de Krimilda

28 de marzo de 2020. 20.00 h

Director Musical: Nacho de Paz
Orquesta Titular del Teatro Real

Salida a la venta 9 de diciembre de 2019

PHACE »LIGHTNESS«
04.April.2020 // 19:30
Krems, Imago Dei

PROGRAM

François Sarhan

Talea 3 für 5 Instrumente im Raum mit Elektronik, 2017 10′

Juliana Hodkinson

Ligntness, 2017 23′

Lorenzo Troiani

La fine è senza fine für 5 Instrumente, 2017 10′

Johannes Maria Staud

Neues Werk für Ensemble (2019/20) (UA) 14′
Auftragswerk von PHACE, Osterfestival Tirol, mit Unterstützung durch das Wiener Konzerthaus

P A U S E

Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin

Neues Werk, 2019/20
für Ensemble 13′

Kaija Saariaho

Lichtbogen für Ensemble and electronics, 1986 18′

PHACE
Nacho de Paz, conductor

WEB

PHACE »LICHTBOGEN«
07.April.2020 // 20:15
Hall i.T., Osterfestival

PROGRAM

Alexandra Karastoyanova-Hermentin

Neues Werk, 2019/20
für Ensemble 13′

Lorenzo Troiani

La fine è senza fine für 5 Instrumente, 2017 10′

Johannes Maria Staud

Neues Werk für Ensemble (2019/20) (UA) 14′
Auftragswerk von PHACE, Osterfestival Tirol, mit Unterstützung durch das Wiener Konzerthaus

P A U S E

Toro Takemitsu

Between tides für Klaviertrio, 1993 15′

Kaija Saariaho

Lichtbogen für Ensemble and electronics, 1986 18′

PHACE
Nacho de Paz, conductor

WEB

PHACE
Muziekcentrum
De Bijloke
Gent
23.May.2020

https://www.bijloke.be/programma/1061/Phace/Die_Stadt_ohne_Juden/

Silent Movie
Die Stadt ohne Juden (Österreich, 1924)
The City without Jews (Austria, 1924)

directed by: Hans Karl Breslauer
music: Olga Neuwirth (2017)

A production by Wiener Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Barbican Centre, Sinfonieorchester Basel and ZDF/ARTE in cooperation with Wien Modern and Filmarchiv Austria.

Today, the silent film DIE STADT OHNE JUDEN (“The City Without Jews”) is regarded as one of the most important Austrian productions of the interwar period. Based on the eponymous novel by the Jewish writer and journalist Hugo Bettauer, the film was shot in Vienna in 1924. Disturbingly prophetic, it shows the cultural and economic impoverishment of a city following the expulsion of its Jewish population. The film was only preserved in a fragmentary and, in terms of its content, downplayed version, until the Filmarchiv Austria succeeded in finding the missing parts in France.

For this extraordinary silent film project the Wiener Konzerthaus and other partners commissioned the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth to write an accompanying music.

PHACE will perform the world premiere of the newly restored version and the new score in November 2018 in Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna. Performances in the concert houses of the commission partners all over Europe will follow. Television in Germany and France (ZDF / ARTE) is also in preparation.

PHACE
LE STUDIO Film und Bühne
c/o Studio Molière
Liechtensteinstraße 37
1090 Wien

https://lestudio.at

Silent Movie
Die Stadt ohne Juden (Österreich, 1924)
The City without Jews (Austria, 1924)

directed by: Hans Karl Breslauer
music: Olga Neuwirth (2017)

A production by Wiener Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Barbican Centre, Sinfonieorchester Basel and ZDF/ARTE in cooperation with Wien Modern and Filmarchiv Austria.

Today, the silent film DIE STADT OHNE JUDEN (“The City Without Jews”) is regarded as one of the most important Austrian productions of the interwar period. Based on the eponymous novel by the Jewish writer and journalist Hugo Bettauer, the film was shot in Vienna in 1924. Disturbingly prophetic, it shows the cultural and economic impoverishment of a city following the expulsion of its Jewish population. The film was only preserved in a fragmentary and, in terms of its content, downplayed version, until the Filmarchiv Austria succeeded in finding the missing parts in France.

For this extraordinary silent film project the Wiener Konzerthaus and other partners commissioned the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth to write an accompanying music.

PHACE will perform the world premiere of the newly restored version and the new score in November 2018 in Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna. Performances in the concert houses of the commission partners all over Europe will follow. Television in Germany and France (ZDF / ARTE) is also in preparation.

PHACE
LE STUDIO Film und Bühne
c/o Studio Molière
Liechtensteinstraße 37
1090 Wien

https://lestudio.at

Silent Movie
Die Stadt ohne Juden (Österreich, 1924)
The City without Jews (Austria, 1924)

directed by: Hans Karl Breslauer
music: Olga Neuwirth (2017)

A production by Wiener Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Barbican Centre, Sinfonieorchester Basel and ZDF/ARTE in cooperation with Wien Modern and Filmarchiv Austria.

Today, the silent film DIE STADT OHNE JUDEN (“The City Without Jews”) is regarded as one of the most important Austrian productions of the interwar period. Based on the eponymous novel by the Jewish writer and journalist Hugo Bettauer, the film was shot in Vienna in 1924. Disturbingly prophetic, it shows the cultural and economic impoverishment of a city following the expulsion of its Jewish population. The film was only preserved in a fragmentary and, in terms of its content, downplayed version, until the Filmarchiv Austria succeeded in finding the missing parts in France.

For this extraordinary silent film project the Wiener Konzerthaus and other partners commissioned the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth to write an accompanying music.

PHACE will perform the world premiere of the newly restored version and the new score in November 2018 in Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna. Performances in the concert houses of the commission partners all over Europe will follow. Television in Germany and France (ZDF / ARTE) is also in preparation.

PHACE
Oper Graz
Gent
09.June.2020

https://www.oper-graz.com/production-details/die-stadt-ohne-juden

Silent Movie
Die Stadt ohne Juden (Österreich, 1924)
The City without Jews (Austria, 1924)

directed by: Hans Karl Breslauer
music: Olga Neuwirth (2017)

A production by Wiener Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Barbican Centre, Sinfonieorchester Basel and ZDF/ARTE in cooperation with Wien Modern and Filmarchiv Austria.

Today, the silent film DIE STADT OHNE JUDEN (“The City Without Jews”) is regarded as one of the most important Austrian productions of the interwar period. Based on the eponymous novel by the Jewish writer and journalist Hugo Bettauer, the film was shot in Vienna in 1924. Disturbingly prophetic, it shows the cultural and economic impoverishment of a city following the expulsion of its Jewish population. The film was only preserved in a fragmentary and, in terms of its content, downplayed version, until the Filmarchiv Austria succeeded in finding the missing parts in France.

For this extraordinary silent film project the Wiener Konzerthaus and other partners commissioned the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth to write an accompanying music.

PHACE will perform the world premiere of the newly restored version and the new score in November 2018 in Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna. Performances in the concert houses of the commission partners all over Europe will follow. Television in Germany and France (ZDF / ARTE) is also in preparation.

PHACE »LICHTBOGEN«
07.April.2020 // 20:15
Innsbruck, Haus der Musik, Musik+ / Osterfestival

La fine è senza fine Ensemble Phace

u.a. Saariaho, Troiani, Staud (UA)

Seit Jahren begleitet uns eines der bemerkenswertesten Ensembles für Neue Musik: das österreichische Ensemble Phace mit Ur- und Erstaufführungen. In der 32. Edition freuen wir uns besonders über das gemeinsame Auftragswerk an Johannes Maria Staud. Tōru Takemitsus Komposition Between Tides ist ein Spiel von Erwachen und Vergehen. Kaija Saariaho verfällt in Lichtbogen der Faszination von Lichtbewegungen – die Musik mutet traumhaft an. Troianis Werk zeichnet mit kleinen Gesten Figuren in die Luft. Ein Abend voller Klangerlebnisse.

PROGRAMM

Lorenzo Troiani

La fine è senza fine für 5 Instrumente, 2017 10′

Johannes Maria Staud

Neues Werk für Ensemble (2019/20) (UA) 14′
Auftragswerk von PHACE, Osterfestival Tirol, mit Unterstützung durch das Wiener Konzerthaus

P A U S E

Toru Takemitsu

Between tides für Klaviertrio, 1993 15′

Kaija Saariaho

Lichtbogen für Ensemble and electronics, 1986 18′

PHACE
Nacho de Paz, conductor

WEB

Ciné-concert «Das alte Gesetz»

Philharmonie Luxembourg
Rainy Days Festival 2020

20.11.2020 20:00,

Grand Auditorium

add to calendar

ensemble recherche
Nacho de Paz direction

Film: Das alte Gesetz

The story of a rabbi’s son who leaves his shtetl in Galicia to become a celebrated star actor at Vienna’s Burgtheater lies at the core of Ewald André Dupont’s Das alte Gesetz of 1923, a highlight of Jewish film-making in Germany. In this newly restored version with music by Philippe Schoeller, the film was celebrated as a sensational rediscovery at the 2018 Berlinale.

Dans le cadre de «come together − rainy days 2020»

WEB

27.Nov.2020 // 19:30
Wiener Konzerthaus, Berio Saal

Morton Feldman: “The Straits of Magellan” (1961)

Beat Furrer: “Linea dell’orizzonte” (2012)

Dai Fujikura: “Abandoned Time” (for electric guitar and ensemble) (2004 / 2007)

Rebecca Saunders: “A Visible Trace” (2006)

Academia para la Nueva Música (CSMA)

Nacho de Paz, dirección

PHACE
MaerzMusik
Berlin
29.March.2019

Silent Movie
Die Stadt ohne Juden (Österreich, 1924)
The City without Jews (Austria, 1924)

directed by: Hans Karl Breslauer
music: Olga Neuwirth (2017)

A production by Wiener Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Barbican Centre, Sinfonieorchester Basel and ZDF/ARTE in cooperation with Wien Modern and Filmarchiv Austria.

Today, the silent film DIE STADT OHNE JUDEN (“The City Without Jews”) is regarded as one of the most important Austrian productions of the interwar period. Based on the eponymous novel by the Jewish writer and journalist Hugo Bettauer, the film was shot in Vienna in 1924. Disturbingly prophetic, it shows the cultural and economic impoverishment of a city following the expulsion of its Jewish population. The film was only preserved in a fragmentary and, in terms of its content, downplayed version, until the Filmarchiv Austria succeeded in finding the missing parts in France.

For this extraordinary silent film project the Wiener Konzerthaus and other partners commissioned the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth to write an accompanying music.

PHACE will perform the world premiere of the newly restored version and the new score in November 2018 in Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna. Performances in the concert houses of the commission partners all over Europe will follow. Television in Germany and France (ZDF / ARTE) is also in preparation.

OTEIZA. ÓPERA EN UN ACTO DE JUAN JOSÉ ESLAVA
MUSEO UNIVERSIDAD DE NAVARRA
JUEVES, 09 DE MAYO DE 2019, A LAS 19:30

Con formato de monodrama, esta ópera recrea el pensamiento del artista guipuzcoano. La energía inicial del ser (deseo, miedo existencial, búsqueda…) se desarrolla a través del juego, que desemboca en experiencias estéticas vinculadas con varias de las obras más significativas de Oteiza.

Entrada general: 14 y 12€

Oteiza interroga la noción de individualidad a través de un recorrido en el que la identidad de un ser encuentra en el vacío su vínculo con los valores primigenios (cielo, tierra, naturaleza). La figura catalizadora de este encuentro es el crómlech neolítico, figura que Oteiza en su reflexión identifica con la toma deconsciencia del vacío. La ópera explora nuevos vínculos entre la dimensión corporal, actoral, lumínica, escenográfica y sonora en un trabajo de escritura en el que no hay fronteras entre estos elementos, sino nuevas cristalizaciones en sus formas de interactuar, que se concretan en torno a las materias sobre las que Oteiza articuló su trabajo escultórico: hierro, piedra y madera.

Con un formato de monodrama, de una hora aproximada de duración, la obra se desarrolla en torno a un actor-cantante, que interactúa con los elementos escénicos para recrear el pensamiento de Oteiza. El actor-cantante se busca, y esa búsqueda del ser encierra un drama, una contradicción fundamental: no se encuentra. La energía inicial del ser (deseo, miedo existencial, búsqueda…) se desarrolla a través del juego, que desemboca en experiencias estéticas vinculadas con varias de las obras más signifi cativas de Oteiza, que están a su vez unidas a recuerdos de la infancia y a su bagaje experiencial.

La ópera Oteiza pretende recuperar el legado del artista y hacerlo trascender en el espacio escénico del teatro.

FICHA ARTÍSTICA
Música: Juan José Eslava
Texto: Juan José Eslava
Director musical: Nacho de Paz
Director de escena: Pablo Ramos
Vídeo: Juanjo Eslava, Acrónica Producciones
Diseño de iluminación: Koldo Tainta
Espacio escénico: Ópera de Cámara de Navarra
Vestuario: Edurne Ibáñez
Desarrollo software: Ángel Farando

INTÉRPRETES
Dirección musical: Nacho de Paz
Bajo barítono: Nicholas Isherwood
Instrumentistas y electrónica Ensemble E7.2
Alessandra Rombolà (flautas)
Antonio Jiménez (trombón)
Ander Tellería (acordeón)
Salva Tarazona (percusión)
Yorrick Troman (violín)
Rosa San Martín (viola)
Francisco Fernández (contrabajo)
Juanjo Eslava, Ángel Farando (electrónica)

Una producción de Ópera de Cámara de Navarra, Museo Universidad de Navarra, Colectivo Artístico E7.2, Fundación Museo Jorge Oteiza, con el apoyo de Gobierno de Navarra.

+ INFO / WEB

PHACE
WIENER KONZERTHAUS – MOZART-SAAL
PHACE SERIES 2018/19
21.05.2019

– Fausto Romitelli: An index of metals (video opera)

Daisy Press, soprano

A video-opera by Fausto Romitelli (music) and Paulo Pachini (video)
for soprano, ensemble, multiprojection (3 screens) and electronics

An Index of Metals bears vigorous witness to this determination to go beyond: sizzling orchestration, electric and psychedelic; a voice which plays on effects, murmurs with reverb, cackles into a megaphone, screams like a pop star; and an electric guitar score of a kind that no ‘serious’ composer has ever written, sliding across an infinite range of tones with a lightness of touch and blurring of contours. But that’s not all. Something more funereal, more strongly dissolving is given off: a fierce melancholy, and the echo, as it were, of a long Gnostic lament over the fall of souls.

Shortly before his death, Romitelli together with his friend Paolo Pachini and the poetess Kenka Lèkovich, resurrected the dream of a total scenic art in the manner of the Futurists: rhythms and gleams of light striking metals (for the video part), poems in iron and chrome singing of fusion with matter, acoustic/electric music highly amplified, filtered, spatialised, in as artificial a manner as possible…
An Index of Metals, a paradoxical masterpiece, torn between heroism and exhaustion.

PHACE
Alte Oper
Frankfurt am Main
24.March.2019

https://www.alteoper.de/de/programm/veranstaltung.php?id=520744077

Silent Movie
Die Stadt ohne Juden (Österreich, 1924)
The City without Jews (Austria, 1924)

directed by: Hans Karl Breslauer
music: Olga Neuwirth (2017)

A production by Wiener Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Barbican Centre, Sinfonieorchester Basel and ZDF/ARTE in cooperation with Wien Modern and Filmarchiv Austria.

Today, the silent film DIE STADT OHNE JUDEN (“The City Without Jews”) is regarded as one of the most important Austrian productions of the interwar period. Based on the eponymous novel by the Jewish writer and journalist Hugo Bettauer, the film was shot in Vienna in 1924. Disturbingly prophetic, it shows the cultural and economic impoverishment of a city following the expulsion of its Jewish population. The film was only preserved in a fragmentary and, in terms of its content, downplayed version, until the Filmarchiv Austria succeeded in finding the missing parts in France.

For this extraordinary silent film project the Wiener Konzerthaus and other partners commissioned the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth to write an accompanying music.

PHACE will perform the world premiere of the newly restored version and the new score in November 2018 in Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna. Performances in the concert houses of the commission partners all over Europe will follow. Television in Germany and France (ZDF / ARTE) is also in preparation.

PHACE
SLOVAK RADIO – LARGE CONCERT STUDIO
Melos-Ethos International Festival of Contemporary Music
11.11.2019

– Fausto Romitelli: An index of metals (video opera)

Daisy Press, soprano

A video-opera by Fausto Romitelli (music) and Paulo Pachini (video)
for soprano, ensemble, multiprojection (3 screens) and electronics

An Index of Metals bears vigorous witness to this determination to go beyond: sizzling orchestration, electric and psychedelic; a voice which plays on effects, murmurs with reverb, cackles into a megaphone, screams like a pop star; and an electric guitar score of a kind that no ‘serious’ composer has ever written, sliding across an infinite range of tones with a lightness of touch and blurring of contours. But that’s not all. Something more funereal, more strongly dissolving is given off: a fierce melancholy, and the echo, as it were, of a long Gnostic lament over the fall of souls.

Shortly before his death, Romitelli together with his friend Paolo Pachini and the poetess Kenka Lèkovich, resurrected the dream of a total scenic art in the manner of the Futurists: rhythms and gleams of light striking metals (for the video part), poems in iron and chrome singing of fusion with matter, acoustic/electric music highly amplified, filtered, spatialised, in as artificial a manner as possible…
An Index of Metals, a paradoxical masterpiece, torn between heroism and exhaustion.

Anton Webern: 5 Pieces, op. 10 (1913)

Raphaël Cendo: Graphein (2014)

Anton Webern: Symphonie, op. 21 (1928)

Franck Bedrossian: Vayehi erev vayehi boker (2017)

Academia para la Nueva Música (CSMA)

Nacho de Paz, dirección

PHACE
Wiener Konzerthaus, Wien / January 10, 2018

Hans Abrahamsen:
“Schnee” (Austrian Premiere)

_
“Es ist Schnee, es ist Schnee!” (“It is snow, it is snow!”) – The scenery in Hans Abrahamsen’s Schnee is set by these introductory words. Schnee, Abrahamsen’s largest project yet and one of the most remarkable compositions of this century, grew out of his transcribing of Bach canons and is inspired by the inexhaustible variety and the formal rigour of snow. The result is a sequence of canons unfolding in five complementary pairs that mirror each other in their counterpoint and texture, the qualities of one canon reflected and crystallized in the other. The rarefied landscape, cool transparency and chiseled musical texture present an extraordinary sound portrait of the white, crystalline rainfall of almost tangible presence.
_
ABOUT HANS ABRAHAMSEN
In a creative life of almost half a century, Hans Abrahamsen has more than once had the courage to stop, and the equal courage to start again – freshly, out of a clear reconsideration of where he was before. His allegiances are shown by the roll of composers whose works he has, as a master orchestrator, reconceived: Bach and Ligeti, Nielsen and Schumann, Schoenberg and Debussy. But he has long discovered his own terrain – quite often a snowscape, as in his early masterpiece Winternacht or the work in which he found his fully mature style, Schnee (2006-8), generally acknowledged one of the rare classics of the twenty-first century.
Besides these two pieces for instrumental ensemble, his output includes four string quartets, a collection of ten piano studies (some of which he has recomposed in other forms), concertos for piano, for piano and violin, and for piano left hand, and a monodrama for soprano and orchestra, let me tell you. He is currently at work on his first opera, after Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen.
© Paul Griffiths
_
PRESS REVIEWS
“In manipulating the listener’s sense of proximity to the sound, Abrahamsen creates a spacial interplay that is far more powerful live than on a recording.”
Drew Baker, drewbakermusic.com, 08/01/2013
“Schnee explores the idea that our perception of nearly identical patterns causes the imagination to project new forms by itself… The listener’s awareness fluctuates between following all the intricate processes and letting them go – and slipping into a pleasurable trance.”
Guy Dammann, The Guardian, 25/11/2010
“Schnee is intense, simple and captivating.”
Jakob Weigand Goetz, Seismograf, 26/07/2010
“Hans Abrahamsen’s Schnee is a wonder. How to say how? It is a sequence of aural images of snow, in some cases onomatopoeic (the swish of brushing off a wooden deck, the soft ease-crunch of steps through a fresh snowfall) but more often poetic.”
Paul Griffiths, 22/07/2010
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