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2024-03-24
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2023-09-16 08:41:00
Musikfest Berlin (5) - Slaatto/Reinecke/Qadianie/Mohseni: Schweinitz and Persian musical improvisation, 16 September 2023
Kammermusiksaal Wolfgang von Schweinitz: Plainsound Duo, ‘My Persia’, op.66 (world premiere) Improvisations on selected dastgāhs of the radif of traditional Persian music Helge Slaatto (violin)Frank Reinecke (double bass)Majeed Qadianie (tār, setār)Niloufar Mohseni (tombak) Image: ©Fabian Schellhorn / Berliner FestspieleMy attendance at Musikfest Berlin concerts this year proved more curtailed than I had hoped or expected. Whilst, however, I deeply regretted having to withdraw from no fewer than three Mahler performances, an Alpine Symphony, and so on (I hasten to add, as an audience member!) perhaps it was ultimately more valuable for me to step out, as they say, of my comfort zone, and to stretch my ears, as Charles Ives’s father instructed his son, in order to hear the fascinating music-making of Majeed Qadianie on tār and setār and Niloufar Mohseni on tombak. This was the second half of what I suppose we should call a chamber music concert. It […]
2023-09-04 14:02:00
Musikfest Berlin (3) - Prohaska/Ensemble Modern/Benjamin - Chin, Ogonek, Filidei, Benjamin, and Ammann, 3 September 2023
Philharmonie Unsuk Chin: SPIRA Elizabeth Ogonek: Cloudline Francesco Filidei: Cantico delle Creature (world premiere)Benjamin: A Mind of Winter Dieter Ammann: glut Anna Prohaska (soprano)Ensemble ModernGeorge Benjamin (conductor)© Fabian Schellhorn / Berliner FestspieleThe second of George Benjamin’s Ensemble Modern concerts, again with Anna Prohaska, offered four pieces from the last decade, one a world premiere, together with an early work of Benjamin’s own. Unsuk Chin’s SPIRA (2019) was the first of three works from composers born within a couple of years of each other, the other two being Dieter Ammann and Benjamin himself. Having just noticed SPIRA is officially described as a concerto for orchestra, I am patting myself on the back just a little, though it should probably be the composer (and performers) I am acknowledging, for it came across in that vein, albeit, as one might expect, reinvented, different instruments seemingly presenting their own standpoint on the orchestra. Indeed, the […]
2023-09-03 08:06:00
Musikfest Berlin (2) - Varèse, Haddad, Ravel, Bach-Benjamin, and Schoenberg, 2 September 2023
Kammermusiksaal, PhilharmonieVarèse: Octandre Saed Haddad: Mirage, Mémoire, Mystère, for string quartet Ravel: Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé Bach, arr. Benjamin: Canon & Fugue Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony no.1, op.9 Anna Prohaska (soprano)Ensemble ModernGeorge Benjamin (conductor) Image: © Fabian Schellhorn / Berliner FestspieleThe first of two Musikfest Berlin Proms from Anna Prohaska, Ensemble Modern, and George Benjamin offered music on a small ensemble scale that proved anything but ‘small’ in terms of ambition and intensity, nor of course achievement. A hallmark of all we heard was concentration, for this was highly concentrated, often richly textured music, which also called for – and seemed to receive – a high level of concentration from the audience in Berlin’s Kammermusiksaal, the smaller of the two halls in its Philharmonie. In Varèse’s Octandre, Christian Hommel’s oboe initially appeared to be searching—but searching for what? Ultimately for something piercing, impervious, something that gave the impression of […]
2023-08-30 10:08:00
Musikfest Berlin (1) - Nagy/Concertgebouw/Fischer - Widmann and Mahler, 26 August 2023
PhilharmonieJörg Widmann: Das heiße HerzMahler: Symphony no.7Michael Nagy (baritone)Royal Concertgebouw OrchestraIván Fischer (conductor)Image: © Fabian Schellhorn / Berliner FestspieleMusical life in Berlin has been reignited before the summer festival season elsewhere has ended: first the season opening concert of the Berlin Philharmonic, after which the orchestra tours to a number of venues, Salzburg included, and the following night the opening concert of the 2023 Musikfest Berlin, which takes in ‘home’ and visiting ensembles. That concert fell this year to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Iván Fischer, in music by Jörg Widmann and Mahler, joined in the former by baritone Michael Nagy.Widmann's short song-cycle, Das heiße Herz, originally written in 2013, was orchestrated in 2018, the new version's premiere being given by Christian Gerhaher, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, and Jakub Hrůša. Widmann sets five poems, two from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, providing an obvious connection already with Mahler, and one each by Klabund […]
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