February 22, 2020 • 12:27 am Comments Off on Guy Braunstein and Martha Argerich
Tonight at Pierre Boulez Saal, Guy Braunstein and Martha Argerich perform a sold-out program of Schumann, Prokofiev, and Franck. My program essay is available here. (It’s their first time collaborating as a duo, so the clip above is of Argerich with Gidon Kremer — not exactly a bad compromise — in Schumann’s A minor Violin Sonata.)
Filed under: César Franck, Martha Argerich, Pierre Boulez Saal, Prokofiev, Schumann
January 21, 2020 • 2:27 am Comments Off on Eötvös and Joyce
The Cuarteto Quiroga and Jörg Widmann recently performed this fascinating program centered around music by Peter Eötvös inspired by James Joyce at the Boulez Boulez-Saal. My essay for the program is here.
The video above is from the recording of Eötvös’ Sirens Cycle by the Calder Quartet and soprano Audrey Luna, which is the origin piece for the new Joyce-inspired works for string quartet and clarinet.
Filed under: chamber music, Pierre Boulez Saal
November 29, 2019 • 12:31 am Comments Off on Melody, Metamorphosis, and Memory: Music for Oboe and Friends
For this evening’s recital at the Boulez Saal by Cristina Gómez Godoy, principal oboist of the Staatskapelle Berlin, has chosen a fascinating program of Saint-Saëns, Britten, Skalkottas, Carter, Kalliwoda, and Loeffler. Michail Lifits accompanies from the keyboard, and violist Joost Keizer joins the lineup. My program essay is here (starting p. 13).
Filed under: concert programming, oboe, Pierre Boulez Saal, program notes
June 19, 2019 • 1:58 am Comments Off on Europa: Mythos und Vision
Here’s the program book for the celebration this evening at Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin of the 50th anniversary of the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (my contribution starts on p. 42).
Filed under: Europe, Pierre Boulez Saal
January 19, 2019 • 1:38 pm Comments Off on Matthias Pintscher Premiere
Tomorrow’s program at the Boulez Saal in Berlin brings the world premiere of the new commission Nur by Matthias Pintscher, along with his early work Verzeichnete Spur and Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp. Here’s my essay for the program:
The complex phenomena associated with a dialogue—musical, social, intellectual, emotional—inform the core of Matthias Pintscher’s musical thinking, whether in his guise as composer, conductor, or teacher. In an interview with the immunologist Jacques Banchereau on the topic of creative inspiration, Pintscher remarked that “these musical objects start talking and erasing each other or clashing and transforming, and then you start developing the drama, the narrative, the story.”
Filed under: Matthias Pintscher, Pierre Boulez Saal
December 23, 2018 • 5:14 am Comments Off on Kinan Azmeh and His CityBand
My piece for Boulez Saal on Kinan Azmeh as he completes an incredibly creative year with stops with his CityBand and friends in Berlin and Amsterdam:
Filed under: Kinan Azmeh, Pierre Boulez Saal
September 22, 2018 • 10:34 am Comments Off on Arabic Music Days at Boulez Saal in Berlin
Friday’s opening night concert to the Arabic Music Days weekend currently under way at Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin was spirited and delightful from first to last. The vocalist, oud player, and composer Moneim Adwan introduced and led a fantastic set with fellow musicians Zied Zouari (violin), Leïla Soldevila (double bass), Yassir Bousselam (cello), and Yousef Zayed (percussion).
From the Boulez Saal description: “Moneim Adwan, born in the Palestinian city of Rafah in Gaza, is a singer, oud player, and composer whose music mixes influences from his native country and from France, where he has lived for a number of years. Questions of freedom, justice, and identity play an important role in his work, which includes collaborations with artists from the worlds of classical and traditional music. His second opera, Orfeo & Majnun, premiered this past summer at the Aix-en-Provence Festival; it brings together the Greek myth of Orpheus with the Persian-Arabic story of Layla and Majnun. At the Pierre Boulez Saal, Adwan will present a selection of Arabic songs and settings of poems by Jalal Ad-din Rumi and Mahmoud Darwish: ‘Rumi is immersed in philosophy, and Darwish writes in a musical language. Both of them paint images that touch everyone who encounters them and enter hearts without asking permission.'”
There’s also an exhibition of works by Nasser Hussein (open all weekend), as well as film screenings. Admission to these events is free. Full line-up here.
Filed under: Arabic Music, Moneim Adwan, Pierre Boulez Saal
Arts & Culture Stories from NPR
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 