RFO with Karina Canellakis - Photo: Eduardus Lee

Tales in Miniature: The Roots of Webern

Programme

Heinrich Isaac Optime divino date munere pastor ovili
Heinrich Isaac Virgo prudentissima
Anton Webern Variationen für Klavier opus 27
Anton Webern Zwei Lieder opus 8
Anton Webern Fünf Stücke für Orchester opus 10
Anton Webern Four Lieder opus 13
Anton Webern Sechs Bagatellen für Streichquartett opus 9
Anton Webern Drei Orchesterlieder opus posth.
Brain Ferneyhough Lawdes Deo
Matty Niel Capriccio for violin and piano
Brain Ferneyhough In nomine a 3
Milica Djordjević Transfixed
Brain Ferneyhough In nomine a 5
Enno Poppe Blut

Ensemble Modern and composer/conductor Enno Poppe pay an intriguing tribute to Anton Webern, who died 75 years ago. With, not coincidentally, an accompanying 'introduction' by Vox Luminis, which sings works by the fifteenth-century southern Dutch composer Heinrich Isaac.

The renaissance of Webern
Anton Webern (1883-1945) discovered that large structures were almost impossible if he left the tonal structure of the symphony and sonata for what they were. His Fünf Stücke collectively last only five minutes. At the same time, early music from the Low Countries was a source of inspiration for him. At the University of Vienna, he studied the music of his renaissance colleague Heinrich Isaac. It was there that he discovered his ideal of absolute beauty and polyphony.

Enno Poppe recreates miniature worlds

Vox Luminis and Ensemble Modern dive into the miniature worlds created by Webern and Isaac. And into the work of Webern's only Dutch (Limburg) pupil Matty Niël and the Brit Brian Ferneyhough - who refers back to his sixteenth-century compatriot Christopher Tye. Conductor Enno Poppe brings along new work of his own. A series of exciting instrumental dramas in which everything is condensed into one or at most a few minutes.