In the vocal spotlight: Holger Falk to appear at the Ludwigsburg Festival and the Wiener Konzerthaus

After recitals at Heidelberger Frühling festival and the Rathauskonzerte Regensburg, Holger Falk will be appearing at the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele twice this summer: First in the Liederoper Himmelerde at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart on 4th/5th June 2019, where, together with Musicbanda Franui, Familie Flöz and soprano Maria Bengtsson, he will be performing Lieder by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Gustav Mahler, Anton Webern and other composers. Himmelerde is a co-production with the Staatsoper Berlin and the Theaterhaus Stuttgart. Then he will be singing a Hanns Eisler Lieder recital with his pianist Steffen Schleiermacher in the Musikhalle Ludwigsburg on 10th July 2019.

On 15th June 2019, he will make his début at the Wiener Konzerthaus as part of the Nouvelles Aventures series with Sofia Gubaidulina’s Perception together with soprano Yeree Suh, conductor Christian Eggen, the Minguet Quartet and members of Ensemble Musikfabrik.

(published on 16 May 2019)

Tora Augestad to sing new oratorio by Philippe Manoury in Cologne, Paris and Hamburg

It will be her début with the Gürzenich-Orchestra of Cologne and her first collaboration with conductor François-Xavier Roth and director Nicolas Stemann: on 19th May 2019, the mezzo-soprano Tora Augestad will interpret the première of Lab.oratorium by French composer Philippe Manoury in the Kölner Philharmonie. After additional concerts there on 20th and 21st May, the partially-staged piece will be performed on 27th May 2019 in the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and on 3rd June 2019 in the Philharmonie de Paris. Other contributors include IRCAM Paris, the SWR Vokalensemble, Thomas Goepfer (electronics), Rinnat Moriah (soprano), Sebastian Rudolph (actor) and Patrycia Ziolkowska (actress).

In Lab.Oratorium– an experimental blend of drama and oratorio, electro-acoustic audio theatre and orchestral spatial music – Philippe Manoury and Nicolas Stemann open a door to the tragedy of refugees. Poems by Ingeborg Bachmann, texts by Elfriede Jelinek and documentary material are used as a point of departure for an exploration of a civilisation that has reached a crossroads. “There is war at the southern and eastern borders of our prosperity ghetto,” states Navid Kermani. “Every individual refugee is an intrusion of reality into our consciousness.” Charges are being brought against sea rescue workers because of their humanitarian mission, and lifeboats are being denied permission to dock. And although fewer and fewer people are arriving, populist parties continue to feed off the fear of foreign infiltration and continue to promote internal conflicts in Europe by doing so. (Source Elbphilharmonie).

(published on 2 May 2019)