Voice Over

her:voice

This year's "her:voice" Composer Festival focuses on Alma Mahler, whose "Five Songs" will be performed in Jorma Panula's orchestral version. While Mahler's husband Gustav allegedly restricted her compositions, Charlotte Sohy published under the male pseudonym Charles. Sohy's late-Romantic symphony, begun during World War I, expresses a desire for peace. The program includes Kaija Saariaho's "Winter Sky" and Anna Clyne's "Color Field," inspired by a Rothko painting.

her:voice

This year's "her:voice" Composer Festival focuses on Alma Mahler, whose "Five Songs" will be performed in Jorma Panula's orchestral version. While Mahler's husband Gustav allegedly restricted her compositions, Charlotte Sohy published under the male pseudonym Charles. Sohy's late-Romantic symphony, begun during World War I, expresses a desire for peace. The program includes Kaija Saariaho's "Winter Sky" and Anna Clyne's "Color Field," inspired by a Rothko painting.

Oboe and the Human Voice

Women's Voice Türkei: Serenad Bagcan & Fazıl Say

Commissioned by the Istanbul Music Festival, pianist and composer Fazıl Say created "Dünya Anne" (Mother Earth), a song cycle based on Turkish women poets, to mark the Turkish Republic's centennial. The cycle reflects on Turkey's past and present and explores themes of inner struggles, peace, kindness, light, and enduring hope. Serenad Bağcan, whose voice Say had "searched for years," performs the songs.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Ingo Metzmacher

Ingo Metzmacher is one of the great explorers among conductors. He tirelessly explores new and little-known areas of the repertoire. His curiosity already characterised him during his time as General Music Director in Hamburg between 1997 and 2005. And this also characterises the vocal symphonic programme with which he returns to the podium of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in November. One day before his 67th birthday, Metzmacher conducts two rarely performed works by two jubilarians from the Romantic and modern eras with a round birthday in 2024 – and fills the stage in the Grand Hall with an opulent line-up that, alongside the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, includes the MDR-Rundfunkchor and nine vocal soloists.

Good Friday Concert: tenebrae

On Good Friday, the acclaimed British vocal ensemble Tenebrae and its founder Nigel Short are heading on a musical pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. In his full-length a-cappella work »Path of Miracles«, Joby Talbot – who was born in Wimbledon in 1971 – has captured the special atmosphere of four spiritual sites along the Camino de Santiago. Based on Bible quotations and medieval sources, 17 independent vocal parts in seven languages and great stylistic diversity depict the legends of saints and miracles associated with this pilgrimage route. The English composer found his inspiration for the 2005 work – a commissioned piece written specially for Tenebrae – »on location«: »Over the course of ten days I watched little clouds of Pyrenean mist wafting through the medieval streets of Roncesvalles, marvelled at the gruesome reliquaries in austere Burgos, saw storks on church spires in León as the evening sun poured through acres of stained glass, and witnessed traditionally clad Galician villagers harvesting their fields with hand scythes in a manner unchanged for a millennium.« Having reached Santiago and touched the hollow in the pillar at the cathedral, he felt a special closeness to the many generations of pilgrims who had followed the same tradition. »The connection to the past seemed palpable, and it was the feeling I experienced at that moment that I resolved to try to express in the music.«

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / NDR Vokalensemble / Matthias Brandt / Jonathan Stockhammer

Luigi Nono always saw himself as a political person and composer. But rather than composing musical manifestos against social injustice, he believed in the power of music to educate and enlighten. As in 1956, when he – in his large-scale cantata »Il canto sospeso« – translated farewell letters by members of the resistance that had been sentenced to death into a stirring and highly poetic tonal language. The German-American conductor and Nono specialist Jonathan Stockhammer now presents this »suspended song« in the Grand Hall. Luigi Nono’s musical credo was to »awaken the ear, the eyes, human thought« with his works. This aspiration is reflected in the »Canto sospeso«, which was premiered in Cologne in 1956 and which – with its orchestra parts, a-cappella chorales and arias – also underlines Nono’s affinity for Italian madrigal and operatic art. Yet in its musical recollection, this »song« exudes a blazing presence.

Honegger’s “Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher” with Alan Gilbert and Marion Cotillard

The accused is a national heroine, the trial a farce. In Arthur Honegger’s oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, Joan of Arc looks back on her life, her visions, and her successes during a show trial in which she is sentenced to be burned at the stake. The work is a powerful drama and at the same time a revealing parable of corruption and the abuse of power. Honegger combines different musical styles here, from chorale to jazz-inflected music-hall sounds, to create a captivating sound painting. The conductor of the evening is Alan Gilbert. Actress and Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard will perform as the narrator.

Honegger’s “Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher” with Alan Gilbert and Marion Cotillard

The accused is a national heroine, the trial a farce. In Arthur Honegger’s oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, Joan of Arc looks back on her life, her visions, and her successes during a show trial in which she is sentenced to be burned at the stake. The work is a powerful drama and at the same time a revealing parable of corruption and the abuse of power. Honegger combines different musical styles here, from chorale to jazz-inflected music-hall sounds, to create a captivating sound painting. The conductor of the evening is Alan Gilbert. Actress and Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard will perform as the narrator.