kritik
Gold fever and infernal machines
Simon Løffler’s personality shines through in Ensemble Adapter’s portrait concert while Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard’s conceptual gold piece rings hollow at Gong Tomorrow.
reportage
Try competing with history, then
A contemporary music festival, especially one with a remarkable history, might be judged by its ability to free itself from the pressures of tradition. In that respect, Warsaw Autumn is becoming a victim of its own success.
reportage
Maybe we fight, maybe we defend
The 2018 edition of the annual UNM festival for young composers displayed a somewhat defensive group of artists. Are commercial demands finally beginning to influence contemporary music in the Nordic countries? James Black writes from Bergen, Norway.
essay
Memorials of grief: Music after 9/11
The most incomprehensible aspect of September 11 may well have been the aftermath, a time when suddenly nothing made sense. Tim Rutherford-Johnson on the musical responses to the 2001 terrorist attacks.
kritik
»An opera you need to see twice«: Review of Louise Alenius’s ‘Silent Zone’
A generational cycle of sexual abuse paired with a clear and lucid score. Last year’s operatic talk of the town was back for one day, presenting both limitations and intense dramatic focus.
essay
Lullabies and memory loss
It’s the opening concert of Klang Festival 2018. Everyone is paying close attention, preparing to discuss the music afterwards. But listening is no simple task – what’s it all about? Professor Holger Schulze, author of ‘The Sonic Persona – An Anthropology of Sound’, takes us through his listening experience.
kritik
Nothing can be comfortable
Four performances of Salvatore Sciarrino’s mysterious ‘Aspern Suite’ wrapped up this year’s Klang Festival. Andrew Mellor reviews Scenatet’s solemn setting of the piece.
reportage
Heterotopias
Amid what has been labelled a ‘culture war’ in Israel, with politicians demanding loyalty from cultural institutions, Maya Shenfeld returns to her native country to investigate the local contemporary music scene. Is art even possible under such conditions?
interview
New optimism in a universe of beautiful decay
Although Bent Sørensen finds beauty in decay, he admits his music may be pointing in a new, less fatalistic direction. In April he will receive the 2018 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.
interview
Shouting, naked. James Black, the composer
Five years ago the British-born composition student James Black moved to Copenhagen, mainly to get out of Oxford. Unlike most of his fellow young composers, he ‘tends to write loud music’, Black tells Andrew Mellor ahead of his debut concert.
kritik
The gradual growth of ice crystals
Thinking big suits Anna Thorvaldsdottir. Celebrated for her orchestral endeavours, the second edition of Njord Biennale let the Copenhagen audience encounter the Icelandic composer’s works for smaller ensembles. Andrew Mellor on Saturday’s double concert.
kritik
Gong Tomorrow
Andrew Mellor reports from this years edition of Gong Tomorrow Festival, where he on the opening night in Koncertkirken encountered Neue Vocalsolisten performing music written by the mostly Middle Eastern composers and later the same week Copenhagen Piano Trio, Frode Haltli, Garth Knox and Håkon Thelin perform music by and also music curated by Bent Sørensen.