Wiener Symphoniker / Hanna / Hodges / Morlot

Passion and Commitment

Modern music must be performed with absolute passion and commitment, with complete conviction and a very clear idea of phrasing, structure and interpretation, insists percussionist Martin Grubinger, who is convinced that contemporary music can be as vitalising as a Beethoven symphony. »If you live it, then it can create that freshness in the concert.« With works of comtemporary music from Austria, from the classical modern and a world premiere, a cooperation concert between the Wien Modern Festival and the Wiener Konzerthaus - which will also be one of the concerts in the »Percussive Planet« subscription series - will highlight sensuous aural experiences from the past 100 years. Olga Neuwirth, who trained as a percussionist, is predestined to compose a piece for this line-uip: a 30-minute piece, whose title, »Trurliade«, alludes to Stanisław Lem’s story »Trurls Machine« and which only recently received its world premiere at the Lucerne Festival in August 2016. Neuwirth took her inspiration for the piece from Jerry Lewis' musical gag using the ratttling and ringing of an analogue typewriter, which she said „opened up avenues of thought about the role of art in the era of digital reproducibility«. The motto of the kinetic arttist Jean Tinguely »Everything is moving, nothing stands still « was the inspiration for the mixture of virtuosity and playful design. To mark the 100th birthday of composer Karl Schiske, many of whose works received their world premiere in the Wiener Konzerthaus, there will be a performance of the Fifth Symphony of this pioneer of New Music in Austria. Under the baton of French conductor Ludovic Morlot, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra will show that it is equally at home in all kinds of contemporary music as well as the traditional repertoire. And for young listeners, too, the concert promises to be an exciting evening. A concert like this needs, says Morlot, »beautiful melodies, as well as a fireworks of colours and it must also be driven by rhythm«. At the forefront of contemporary music is also the pianist Nicolas Hodges, a new music specialist: Described by South West German Radio as »an outstanding pianist« who plays contemporary piano music »just like he would play Franz Liszt.« He will perform »Untitled No. 8« – a new piano concerto with vibratoless strings and a dazzling spectrum of colours in the piano. And it will offer a chance to reunite with the music of the English composer James Clarke, whose piece »Untitled No. 1« received its world premiere in Vienna 10 years ago. Modern classics by Charles Ives and Maurice Ravel will form the backdrop to this extraordinary concert experience.