News John Tavener

[…] also the feeling that in each movement Lang was emulating a different school of contemporary minimalism so that for the fourth one, we seemed if not in the world of Arvo Pärt, then highly adjacent.  Like the Brumel, this was ultimately a highly contemplative work where the differences came from the subtle interplay of complex rhythmic layering. This required precision and naturalism from the singers, something they do well in the music of Arvo Pärt and John Tavener, and did equally well here. I will be quite frank, I am not sure what effect Lang's work would have had on me if it was heard on its own in toto, but as a counterpart to the Brumel, interleaving movement by movement, it worked well.

Tenebrae (Photo Sim Canetty-Clarke) Queen of Heaven - Plainchant, Parsons, Sulpitia Cestis, Verdi, Bruckner, Grieg, Stravinsky, Bax, Poulenc, Britten, Margaret Rizza, Górecki, Tavener, Giles Swayne, Owain Park; Tenebrae, Nigel Short; Wigmore Hall Many choral favourites in a finely conceived and beautifully performed programme with Bax's ecstatic Mater Ora Filium as the central climax Last night (3 May 2022), Nigel Short directed Tenebrae at the Wigmore Hall in a programme of sacred music exploring the enduring fascination of the Virgin Mary in Western sacred music with works by Parsons, Sulpitia Cestis, Verdi, Bruckner, Grieg, Stravinsky, Bax, Poulenc, Britten, Margaret Rizza, Górecki, Tavener, Giles Swayne, Owain Park, alongside plainchant. The programme was organised to allow the music to flow, varying style and era with Bax's Mater Ora Filium as the centre piece and Rizza's ecstatic setting of Hildegard of Bingen as the final closure. We began with Górecki's Totus Tuus, written for the Pope's visit […]

Dessoff Choirs premieres cantatas by civil rights composer Margaret Bonds April 28 at 7:30 PM, Church of the Heavenly Rest, 1085 Fifth Avenue, New York City, NY 

[…] 8 with Lorin Maazel in his final performances as Music Director with the New York Philharmonic. Over the course of its nearly 100-year history, Dessoff has presented many world premieres, including works by Virgil Thomson, George Perle, Paul Moravec, and Ricky Ian Gordon; the first American performance in nearly 100 years of Montemezzi’s opera La Nave with Teatro Grattacielo; and the American premieres of Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 5 and Sir John Tavener’s all-night vigil, The Veil of the Temple. Dessoff’s recent discography includes REFLECTIONS, featuring music by Convery, Corigliano, Moravec, and Rorem; GLORIES ON GLORIES, a collection of American song featuring composers from Billings to Ives; and MARGARET BONDS: THE BALLAD OFTHE BROWN KING AND SELECTED SONGS, a debut recording of Margaret Bonds’s crowning achievement, which was cited as a “Best Classical Recording of 2019” by WQXR-FM Radio.  The Dessoff […]

ClassicalConnect

2022-01-24 15:41:44

Mozart, more, 2022 

[…] in 2017 by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under the direction of Bernard Haitink. Several very interesting composers were also born this week: Witold Lutoslawski, one of the greatest Polish composers of the 20th century, on January 25th of 1913.  Luigi Nono, the Italian, was born 11 years later, on January 29th of 1924; Nono was one of the most influential modernist composers of the century.  20 years after Nono the British religious minimalist John Tavener was born on January 28th of 1944.  Here’s Lutoslawski’s Symphony no. 3, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of the composer. Lutoslawski, even though he regularly conducted his own music, was much better known as a composer.  Wilhelm Fürtwangler, on the other hand, even though he composed several symphonies, chamber music and several choral works, is famous as a conductor, one of the greatest ever, and practically unknown as composer.  Fürtwangler was […]