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Festival |
There was a concert of the Freiburg-based contemporary music ensemble "Aventure", presenting highly advanced, analytically-sounding type of music, frequently encountered in the Western part of Germany. "Abendamsel" for soprano and eleven instruments was a highly innovative composition with strong cerebral and constructivistic qualities, manifesting themselves in the textural layout of the composition, though not without some dramatic touches. Heinz Holliger’s "Cardiophonie" for Oboe and Live Electronics was a very extreme example of the composer’s work in regards to its analytical and deconstructivistic quality, since the most advanced and extended sounds for the oboe as well as the electronics were called for. At the end the oboist started to make sounds with his voice, gradually evolving into a hysterical screaming, after which he fell down, as if tortured to death. This bit of theatrical action was of very poor taste and extremely unworthy of this composer.
Five Structures from "Die Schachtel" by Italian composer Franco Evangelisti (1926-1980) was the most adequate piece on the program, since the rational, cerebral sounds, which permeated the piece, were used in a meaningful, constructive and, in its own way, expressive means, to achieve a well-structured, harmonious and descriptive piece. Arie Shapira’s "Ear Drum" for percussion and electronics was another study of harsh, cerebral sounds, the electronics matching the percussion instruments in their analytic qualities, often achieving quite loud effects. Jani Christou’s "Anaprarastasis III: The Pianist" for actor, small chamber ensemble and tape, involved some theatrical action on stage, with the actor representing the pianist, coming out on stage, walking as if he was paralyzed and attempting unsuccessfully to emit sounds from the piano, which were demonstrated by the recordings on the tape. The deconstructive type of humor behind this theatrical action was not of the best quality, though much of the musical material of the piece was quite interesting.
A concert of choral music, titled as "Vocal Global", was sung by the Sächsisches Vocal Ensemble, conducted by Matthias Jung, presenting an imaginative program. Manfred Weiss’ choral cycle "...wie im Tode das Leben beginnt" for a cappella chorus in six movements was a very expressive and inspiring composition with an assortment of innovative choral effects, well directed at creating a very expressive composition. Reiko Füting’s "Silently wanders" set to the poetry of E.E.Cummings was a shorter work, though very much in the vein of the previous work in terms of innovative usage of choral textures. This was followed by a solo piano piece "Nacht-Klänge" ("Night Sounds") by Japanese composer Toshio Hokosawa, a short, formally concise and expressively vibrant piece with novel piano textures of an Impressionist types, was performed by Steffen Schleiermacher. Peter Michael Hamel’s choral cycle "RASA—Five Pieces for Chorus, Piano, Tabla and Tampura" was a lengthy and elaborate work, much more tonal in harmony, with repetitive harmonies, suggesting a minimalist approach and with a strong gear on ethnic musical features, incorporating elements of Indian music, ther latter enhanced by the usage of Indian instruments, the tabla (performed by Sankha Chatterjee) and the tampura (performed by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay).
A concert of orchestral music by two venerable masters, Giya Kancheli and Philip Glass, was performed by the Neue Elbland Philharmonic, conducted by Peter Fanger.
Giya Kancheli’s "Lament Music" in memory of Luigi Nono for violin, soprano and orchestra, featuring the orchestra with soprano Maacha Deubner and violinist Thomas Meining, was a substantial, lengthy composition, with static tonal minor harmonies, a plaintive, lamenting mood and an extensive type of development, erupting into a loud and dramatic climax with plenty of percussion effects in the middle, before residing back into the initial mood towards the end of the piece. The piece featured very imaginative instrumental textures and a pungent emotional mood, enhanced by the soprano’s melodies and violinist’s solo lines, which helped created an epic quality in the music.
Philip Glass’ "Heroes" Symphony was an extensive work in six contrasting movements, written with his usual stylistic features—static tonal harmonies and steady rhythmic pulsations. The orchestration had a decisively Romantic textural quality, slightly resembling Wagner and Bruckner, with strong theatrical and descriptive qualities and an assortment of more subtle and intricate timbral effects. However the rational and even slightly humorous quality of the music prevented the mood from becoming strictly Wagnerian, keeping it along the lines of modernity.
A concert of Dresden’s contemporary music ensemble, the "Musica Viva", marking their 25th anniversary, presented three pieces for chamber ensemble. "Umkreisgebunden, Ein Kreuzspiel" by Berlin-based composer, Helge Jung was a very colorful, well-built and intricately expressive piece, which presented adequate, elaborate work with instrumental color. Alfred Schnittke’s "Five Madrigals" for soprano and five instruments on the texts of Franzisco Tanzer, the soprano part sung by Sylvia Weiss, was a bright and colorful piece, combining tonal and atonal harmonies, and imaginative, eclectic textures, merging the Neo-Classical and the Modernist aesthetics. Helmut Zapf’s "Albedo VI" for chamber ensemble and the Chinese musical instrument, the sheng (performed by Wu Wei) a colorful work with elaborate textures and a broad, almost symphonic type of development, seemed at first to be eclectic and disunited, however, upon closer examination, one could perceive that the eclecticism was not a flaw, but a necessary ingredient for enhancing the dramatic and innovative aspects of the piece.
The final concert of the festival, titled as "Klangwanderung" (Sound Wandering), featured the "Art Point Ensemble", a contemporary music group with an eclectic combination of Eastern (Indian and Chinese) instruments, such as the Zarb, the Zheng, the Sheng, the Tambura, the Zang and Zangule together with soprano and standard Western instruments, the flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, viola, cello, harp and percussion. They performed three pieces for chamber ensemble by three composers from different countries, each of which utilized elements of the musical language of their respective country in conjunction with standard Western musical thinking. Jocy de Oliveira from France, who studied with Xenakis, Berio, Cage, Ligeti and Messiaen, utilized a text written in a French dialect, spoken in Languedoc, and incorporated musical elements of Brazilian, Indian and Greek music. "Ri-râ" by Iranian composer Iradj Sahbaï, a text setting of contemporary Iranian poetry, incorporated scales and musical textural elements of Iranian music. "Yang Shen You" by Chinese composer, Xiaoyong Chen, a five movement piece for soprano, Chinese and Western instruments, presenting text settings of Confucius, Lieh-tzu and Lao-Tze, freely combined elements of Chinese and Western musical thinking.