Eva Resch: Schönberg at the Traunsee

On 1 September 2024 the soprano Eva Resch will perform The Book of Hanging Gardens op. 15 with the pianist Michael Schöch celebrating Arnold Schönberg’s anniversary at the Klostersaal Traunkirchen at the invitation of the Kirchklang Festivals Salzkammergut. The concert Idyl for the modern age is a cooperation between the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl - Salzkammergut 2024 and the Arnold Schönberg Center Vienna and will be presented in the context of the opening of the Arnold Schönberg exhibition at the Villa Toscana. The actor Michael Maertens will read texts by Schönberg and about his productive period at the Traunsee between 1905 - 1923. At the Traunsee, Schönberg wrote chamber music, Lieder, piano pieces and created paintings and drawings. In Traunkirchen the first twelf-note-composition in music history was written in July 1921. The exhibition also focuses on the summer retreat antisemitism in the early 1920s in the Salzkammergut.

Eva Resch is a very experienced interpreter of Schönberg‘s vocal compositions. Her latest recording Eden (Genuin) of The Book of Hanging Gardens and other songs by Viktor Ullmann, Anton Webern and Franz Schreker was released in May 2019.  The recording has already been nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award and has resulted in her nomination as Singer of the Year for the Opus Klassik Award 2020.

(published on 22 July 2024)

Sarah Maria Sun: Grafenegg Festival 2024

On 28 August 2024 the soprano Sarah Maria Sun will perform Luigi Nono’s La fabbrica illuminata at the Auditorium Grafenegg during the Grafenegg Festival. Germán Toro-Pérez will be responsible for the sound. Further works on the programme will be Georg Friedrich Haas‘ Natures mortes and Enno Poppe’s Strom. Composer-in-Residence Enno Poppe will lead the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich. Sarah Maria Sun is familiar with Nono‘s oeuvre, in 2021 she made her successful debut at the Salzburg Festival in the new production of Nono’s Intolleranza 1960 with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Ingo Metzmacher (staging: Jan Lauwers) at the Felsenreitschule.

On 30/31 August 2024 she will star as Anna 1 & 2 in the performances of Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins in combination with György Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre at Grange aux Concerts Cernier on the festival Les Jardins Musicaux‘s invitation.The conductor and the festival’s artistic director Valentin Reymond will lead the Orchestre des Jardins Musicaux, Christian Rätz will direct this production. Further soloists on stage will be Charles Johnston (Father), Paul Kirby (Son 1), Stuart Patterson (Son 2) i.a..

(published on 15 July 2024)

Tora Augestad: Debut at Musikfest Berlin

On 25 August 2024 the mezzo-soprano Tora Augestad will sing a chamber recital at the Philharmonie Berlin celebrating the opening of the Musikfest Berlin and the 150th anniversaries of Arnold Schönberg and Charles Ives. Lieder/songs and works by both composers will be performed by her, Holger Falk (baritone), Michael Rotschopf (conférencier), Stefan Litwin (piano, concept) and the Eliot Quartett and will be intertwined with writings, letters and diaries excerpts from the composers.

In 2018, Tora Augestad already featured songs and works by Charles Ives on her solo-CD Portraying Passion (LAWO Classics) together with Oslo Philharmonic. The album has been nominated by the German Record Critics’ Award as best recording 2019 and been chosen as star/recording of the month by Fono Forum and Opernwelt magazine. It also has been awarded the Spellemannprisen 2019, the Norwegian Grammy. For her outstanding interpretation of Ives-songs in the Charles Ives-Hommage Universe, Incomplete in the staging of Christoph Marthaler at the RuhrTriennale she has been nominated Singer of the Year 2019 by Opernwelt magazine.

(published on 8 July 2024)

Holger Falk: Summer festival concerts

In August the baritone Holger Falk will demonstrate the wide spectrum of his artistry at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Musikfest Berlin as well as at the festival Urkuyö ja Aaria in Espoo:

He will kick-off this concert series with performances of the programme Gondoliere Veneziano on 13 August 2024 at the Atlantic Hotel Travemünde Lübeck and on 14 August 2024 in the Nikolaikirche Plön at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival’s invitation. Musical partners will be the ensemble nuovo aspetto and the soundscapes artist Eva Pöpplein (Merzouga).

On 25 August 2024 a chamber recital will follow at the Philharmonie Berlin celebrating the opening of the Musikfest Berlin and the 150th anniversaries of Arnold Schönberg and Charles Ives. Lieder/songs and works by both composers will be performed by Holger Falk, Tora Augestad (mezzo-soprano), Michael Rotschopf (conférencier), Stefan Litwin (piano, concept) and the Eliot Quartett and will be intertwined with writings, letters and diaries excerpts from the composers.

On 29 August 2024 Holger Falk will then sing one of his showpieces Eight Songs for a Mad King by Peter Maxwell Davies at the Espoo Cathedral at the Urkuyö ja Aaria festivaali’s invitation. The Eight Songs will be presented in the semi-staged concert version THE KING IS DEAD! in the direction of Aleksi Barrière and will be combined with Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps. The musicians are Jukka Untamala (direction, violine), Xavi Castelló (percussion), Markus Hohti (cello), Kirill Kozlovski (piano), Olli Leppäniemi (clarinet) and Jenny Villanen (flute).

(published on 1 July 2024)