Back and Forth

reading music – the season: Ensemble KNM Berlin

History and the present meet in a large-scale evening concert by Ensemble KNM Berlin and the vocal ensemble Cantando Admont from Vienna. The programme is part of the Ensemble’s three-part project “reading music – the season”, which explores the reciprocal relationships between music and (written) language. For “Back and Forth” at Radialsystem, works from both the distant past and the most recent present, as well as from multiple cultures, will be in dialogue with each other – with four world premieres among them.

For the first concert of the evening, composers Cao Thanh Lan, Juliana Hodkinson, Lin Fang-Yi and Ana María Rodríguez were inspired by Nina Simone’s song “Four Women”, which they encounter in different ways through their biographies and experiences. Additionally, the musicians of KNM interpret the book “Folkloric Dances of Mexico” not just as a traditional alphabet of (dance) steps but as a hypnotic performance: “LA OFRENDA” by Tania Candiani and Rogelio Sosa turns a choreographic score of traditional Mexican Huichol dance into an improvisational structure for string quartet, ukulele and maracas.

The second part of the evening mediates between the ars subtilior – a 14th-century art form which countered war, plague and religious conflicts with highly elaborate sound manuscripts – and the music of today: Beat Furrer, master of expressive contemplation and dramatic moments, transforms succinct aphorisms into a captivating sound cosmos.

The series “reading music – the season” dedicates itself to the relationship between music and (written) language in three parts. “Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.” This sentence by Henry David Thoreau is not just a radical demand on readers and a call for a new relationship between author and audience. It also brings the element of time into the reception of a work. Here is where music comes into play: Isn’t the slow, interpretative reading of texts, signs and symbols an intrinsic power of music and its protagonists? Can’t the notation of music be understood as compressed time and condensed space? Following the opening at Berghain in June 2024, this double concert at Radialsystem is the second station of “reading music – the season”.

Artists/Collaborators: Cordula Bürgi (Dirigat), (Ensemble KNM Berlin & Gäste), Rebecca Lenton (Flöte), Theo Nabicht (Klarinette, Bass- und Kontrabassklarinette), Juan Felipe Waller (Maracas), Michael Weilacher (Schlagzeug), Joseph Craig Houston (Klavier), Ruben Mattia Santorsa (Ukulele), Christine Paté (Akkordeon), Theodore Flindell , Michael Yokas (Violine), Kirstin Maria Pientka (Viola), Cosima Gerhardt (Violoncello), Adam Goodwin (Kontrabass), (Cantando Admont), Friederike Kühl, Elīna Viļuma-Helling (Sopran), Heidemaria Oberthür, Helena Sorokina (Alt), Hugo Paulsson Stove, Aleksander Rewinski (Tenor), Benjamin Harasko (Bariton / Bass), Ulfried Staber (Bass), Stephen Menotti (Posaune)

“reading music - the season” is a project by Ensemble KNM Berlin. Supported by the Capital Cultural Fund. Cantando Admont and the composer Cao Thanh Lan are supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport as part of “reading music”. The composer Cao Thanh Lan also receives support from the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna and AKM / austro mechana. In cooperation with Radialsystem and FAHRBEREITSCHAFT.

Programme Part I: 4 READING19.30 - 20.30

Lin Fang-Yi“GUA” (world premiere)for percussion solo after two poems by Ô Tiông-siông

Cao Thanh Lan“Bekommen” (world premiere)for voice, flute, double bass clarinet, electronics and movement

Ana María Rodríguez“in nature alone are forms” (world premiere)Version for instrumental duo, video and electronics

Juliana Hodkinson“The skin is long” (world premiere)for flute, double bass clarinet, violoncello and electronics

Tania Candiani and Rogelio Sosa“LA OFRENDA” (2022)for string quartet, ukulele and maracas

Programme Part II21.00 - 22.15

Beat Furrer“Prophecies”for alto, contrabass clarinet and accordion

Solage“Fumeux fume par fumée”for 3 voices

Beat Furrer“Spazio Immergente”for soprano and trombone

Philippus de Caserta“De ma douleur”for 3 voices

Beat Furrer“Akusmata”for eight voices, flute (also bass flute), clarinet (also bass clarinet), violin, viola, violoncello, double bass, piano and percussionText: Fragments of Pythagoras

Next date: reading music – the season: Ensemble KNM Berlin

• Date Saturday, 14/September/2024 19:30
• Venue Radialsystem V
• Address Holzmarktstraße 33, 10243 Berlin-Friedrichshain
• Price from €18.00

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