Three masterpieces of "absolute music" that tell no "programme" and yet appear highly exciting and emotional: in them pain, conflict, grief as well as the longing for reconciliation are expressed. Each work represents a cosmos of its own, particularly evident in the case of Friedrich Cerha, who spreads out a soundscape on over 300 percussion instruments. The energetic young exceptional virtuoso Vivi Vassileva [...]
Three masterpieces of "absolute music" that tell no "programme" and yet appear highly exciting and emotional: in them pain, conflict, grief as well as the longing for reconciliation are expressed. Each work represents its own cosmos, especially evident in Cerha's case, who spreads out a soundscape on over 300 percussion instruments. The energetic young exceptional virtuoso Vivi Vassileva is [...]
The MDR Symphony Orchestra has a new principal conductor: American Dennis Russell Davies, who enjoys an excellent reputation as a Haydn and Bruckner conductor. In addition, as an advocate of contemporary music, he has worked with major composers such as John Cage, Philip Glass and Hans Werner Henze. Modernism is also a focus at his Leipzig venue. Ergo, the joint [...]
Dennis Russell Davies is considered a leading conductor of American music. In this concert, together with the MDR Symphony Orchestra and a total of nearly 200 performers, he presents three very personal works by composers who have left their mark on 20th-century U.S. music. Decoration Day marks the day in the U.S. when the fallen are remembered and their graves decorated [...]
Although Henri Dutilleux was a contemporary and colleague of the avant-garde composer Pierre Boulez, he always found the latter's musical language too dogmatic. Instead, Dutilleux loved the musical "fragrance" and richness of sound that connected him with his great compatriot Debussy. With his Second Symphony, Dutilleux wrote a work in 1959 that is a distant link to the music of the 18th century. [...]
"I am delighted as often as I hear a new work of yours and take a greater interest in it than in my own. In short, I honor and love you," Ludwig van Beethoven once wrote to Luigi Cherubini. His admiration of his fellow composer went so far that he even wished Cherubini's Requiem to be played at his own funeral [...].
photo credit @ICKHEO Master craftsmanship on stage? It sounds strange and fascinating at the same time: While a ceramist and a knot artist perform their work on stage, in the background [...]
The theatre of Imagination moves the performance into the minds of the audience: the description of the events is projected onto a screen. The imagined stage action - famous, real productions [...]
Tatiana Chizhikova uses solid and condensed choreographic forms for her works, while their emotional content is rather complex and highly charged. In her new solo performance she works with a simple found object, a stick. With it she unfolds a detailed movement research on the theme of rootedness, grounding or staggering and displacement. Tatiana Chizhikova: "I have a dry stick [...].
A broad spectrum of musical deconstructions of classical formal models is heard in this duo recital: Stravinsky's Divertissement (1934) is based on the music for his ballet Le Baiser de la fée, which in turn was inspired by Tchaikovsky's great ballet music. Kharkiv-born, Israel-based composer Leonid Desyatnikov dissects the last song in Like the Old Lyreman... (1997) [...].
