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Ten winners of the Bavarian Young Composers’ Competition, in interaction with the BRSO, have developed miniature solo pieces, each for a single instrument. Together with the orchestra members, the young composers explore the rich technical and timbral possibilities of their respective instrument. The miniatures will be played by members of the BRSO in the orchestra’s colourful concert format “Watch This Space”.
The Academy has chosen compositions that demand quite special ways of approaching their instruments. Stephen Montague, in Thule Ultima, has the wind quintet play mainly on their mouthpieces, like a concert of exotic birds. George Crumb likewise calls for special timbres in his string quartet Black Angels: written to commemorate the victims of the Vietnam War, this pacifist composer asks the strings to play a quotation from Schubert’s Death and the Maiden using the wood of their bows (col legno), producing a bleak, oppressive tone. Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles, written shortly after his emigration from Hungary, reflect his immersion in Western culture. Ravel wrote Le Tombeau de Couperin as funeral music for the great French claveciniste. The movements originated during the First World War, and Ravel soon dedicated each one to a fallen French soldier from his circle of friends – a musical memorial spanning the centuries. His Sonata for Violin and Violoncello is likewise a funeral piece for a deceased composer, Claude Debussy.
Unusual duo formats resound in the Werksviertel Complex: a work by Ravi Shankar for flute and harp, Beethoven’s tongue-in-cheek Duet for Two Obligato Eyeglasses (i.e. viola and cello), Scelsi’s microtonal Ko-Lho for flute and clarinet (1966) and Lauro’s Venezuelan waltz Natalia for marimba. Then the instruments from the duos join forces in a small multi-hued ensemble to accompany the mezzo-soprano Stefanie Iranyi. They will perform Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs, a gathering of songs from Armenia, France, Azerbaijan, Italy (Sardinia and Sicily) and the USA that this Italian composer, much like Bartók, united into a cycle in a plea for international understanding.
The BRSO is continuing its chamber music series “Watch This Space” at various venues in Munich’s Werksviertel-Mitte district, striking ever-deeper roots into its future home and giving audiences keen on small formats a chance to explore and enliven the location with the musicians. This time flautist Natalie Schwaabe will focus on trios, a format which, though not exactly unusual, is seldom heard in recitals. She and her colleagues Bettina Faiss (clarinet) and Lukas Maria Kuen (piano) will devote themselves mainly to sprightly dance pieces, from tarantella, tango and csárdás to bebop, blues and techno. Kuen will supply the dance backdrop for “Dancing With Winds”, creating a dialogue for flute and clarinet, and round off the series with three piano waltzes by Tchaikovsky.