Porträt Ruth Crawford Seeger I

Porträt Ruth Crawford Seeger: Lieder David Niemann, conductor; León / Balch / Crawford Seeger / Beyer

Eine Axt für das gefrorene Meer in uns: Ruth Crawford Seeger, Holzstamm und Freund Carl Sandburg, ca. 1930 – Ein Mann deutet auf eine Frau, die am Strand mit Beil über einem Baumstamm steht.

The composer Ruth Crawford Seeger was not only part of the ultramodernist movement that sought to investigate the possibilities of music beyond European traditions, she was also a researcher into the folkloric music of the USA and influenced by the Theosophists. A woman of her time, the fast-moving inter-war years, and yet so far ahead of them – Musikfest Berlin and Ensemble Modern dedicates a three-part concert portrait to her that enables her musical world to enter a dialogue with contemporaries and present-day composers.

Johanna Magdalena Beyer (1888 – 1944)

Music of the Spheres (1938)

for three electronical instruments

Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901 – 1953)

Five Songs (1929)

to poems by Carl Sandberg

for contralto and piano

Tania León (*1943)

Indígena (1991)

for chamber ensemble

Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901 – 1953)

Three Songs (1930 – 32)

to poems by Carl Sandberg

for voice, oboe, piano, percussion, and optional orchestral ostinato

The Adventures of Tom Thumb (1925)

for three electronical instruments

Katherine Balch (*1991)

waste knot (2021/22)

for soprano, four amplified dictaphones, and ensemble

Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901 – 1953)

Two Ricercare (1932)

to poems by H. T. Tsiang

for voice and piano

Tania León (*1943)

Singin’ Sepia (1996)

Five Songs by texts from Rita Dove

for voice and three instruments

Artists/Collaborators: David Niemann, Nina Guo, Amanda Becker, Keren Motseri, Paul Jeukendrup

19:10, Exhibition Foyer

Work introduction

Next date:

• Date Friday, 13/September/2024 20:00
• Venue Philharmonie Berlin
• Address Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1, 10785 Berlin-Tiergarten