Several composers published by Edition Peters will be featured at Klangspuren Schwaz, a festival for new music in Tyrol, Austria.
On September 6, the Austrian premiere of Skull (Triptych III) by Rebecca Saunders takes place, performed by conductor Enno Poppe and Ensemble Modern, who premiered the work last year.
After Scar and Skin, Skull forms the last piece of a triptych. The music journeys from outside the acoustic body to the inside, ‘to the edge of the innermost, of consciousness – as it were, to the skeletal essence within’, describes the composer.
The work is inspired by words of Haruki Murakami.
The skull is enveloped in a profound silence that seems nothingness itself.
The silence does not reside on the surface, but is held like smoke within.
It is unfathomable, eternal, a disembodied vision cast upon a point in the void.
The next day, on September 7, follows the world premiere of Take Five for Nine by Bernhard Gander, performed by Ensemble PHACE under the baton of Lars Mlekusch. The work was commissioned by PHACE and Klangspuren Schwaz.
The name of the double concerto for double bass, percussion, and ensemble is derived from the 5-note rhythm, written for 9 players. Both solo instruments will take turns in showing off individual lines and rhythms as well as musical solo cadenzas.
The same concert also features They left us grief-trees wailing at the wall. for nine amplified instruments by Clara Iannotta. The work takes its title from the Irish poet Dorothy Molloy.
Iannotta uses mundane objects such as cardboards boxes, wine glasses or paperclips to alter the sound of the instruments or to make their own sounds. The music ‘is dominated by seemingly static bands of sound that on closer attention appear full of life and variety.’
The work was commissioned by Ars Nova, Riot Ensemble and Wien Modern, and was first performed in 2020 at Wien Modern by Riot Ensemble.
For more information, please see the website of Klangspuren Schwaz.
