The idea of using smells in art isn’t new, but its history isn’t particularly illustrious. Smell-o-Vision was voted one of the hundred worst ideas of all time; Scratch’n’Sniff didn’t fare much better. Osmodrama, a two-month festival in Berlin, was not deterred. Published on The Cusp.
Read MoreThe Musikfest Berlin presented their own ‘Hommage’ to Boulez with his complete works for piano performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich. Published on Bachtrack.
Read MoreBerlin’s Konzerthaus Orchestra began its new season with works by two composers set against the artistic orthodoxies of their day. Published on Bachtrack.
Read MoreIsabelle Faust’s performance of Luigi Nono’s La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura was an extraordinary time capsule back to the work’s première in 1988. Published on Bachtrack.
Read MoreNico and the Navigators are a Berlin-based theatrical ensemble describing themselves as ‘full body poets’, using music, dance and physical comedy in their evocative and often improvised avant-garde works. The hour that we knew too much of each other is the ensemble's bleakly humorous look at life and love in the time of over-communication and social media. Published on The Cusp.
Read MoreAlthough a British composer by birth, Rebecca Saunders is most respected in Germany, where she has spent much of her working life. Her latest project was an immersive choreographed programme with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie based around her violin concerto still. Published on Bachtrack.
Read MoreWhen Judith Weir was announced as Master of the Queen’s Music in 2014, it was not only in recognition of her delicately crafted narratives that have earned her a reputation as one of contemporary culture’s foremost musical storytellers, but also of her tireless commitment to making music engage with contemporary society.
Read MoreMichael Jarrell is a Swiss composer with a considerable reputation in mainland Europe – he was appointed Chevalier to the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2004. This week, he was the subject of a composer portrait given by the Ensemble United Berlin under their Artistic Advisor and long-time conductor Vladimir Jurowski. Published on Bachtrack.
Read MoreHidden in a small bunker under a quiet apartment block in Berlin, ausland has acted as an incubator for the city’s experimental and improvised music scene for over ten years. For this performance, local echzeitmusik (literally: real-time music) artists joined touring Portuguese musicians for a performance with their sonic installation project, the Phonopticon. Published on The Cusp.
Read MoreThe Berliner Philharmoniker’s Academy is the future of this city’s most famous orchestra. Established 40 years ago by Herbert von Karajan, a third of current Berliner Philharmoniker members are Academy graduates. Their final project this season was an “Akademie Modern” with Susanna Mälkki. Published on Bachtrack.
Read MoreOne of 20th century music’s most influential and popular artists, Terry Riley created the purest and most enduring expression of minimalist style in In C, which arguably changed the course of contemporary classical music.
Read MoreIt has been 14 years since John Eliot Gardiner last conducted the Berlin Philharmonic. He marked his return visit with a remarkable performance of one of Stravinsky’s most forbidding works.
Read MorePaul McGuire’s debut full-length album showcases the sonic possibilities of acoustic instruments. Released on experimental label Slip Discs, the record consists of three tracks offering a snapshot of McGuire’s experiments with strings and percussion.
Read MoreTo mark Keith Jarrett’s 70th Birthday, ECM have raided his extensive back catalogue for two historic releases. Whilst Creation explores the heart of Jarrett’s oeuvre with a compilation of his free improvisation, this disc shows the breadth of his repertoire with two recordings of classical concerti
Read MoreTchaikovsky’s penultimate opera spins out Pushkin’s short story on the dangers of gambling into a human tragedy centred on fate, a leitmotif permeating his dramatic work. At ENO it provided the backdrop to David Alden’s solipsistic psycho-drama focused on Hermann’s madness. It also provided Edward Gardner, the company’s Music Director since 2007, with his swansong.
Read MoreAlready a successful composer for film and TV, Emmy Award-winning Michael Price joins artists such as Nils Frahm on independent label Erased Tapes for the release of his debut album. Entanglement is an evocative and cinematic blend of acoustics and electronics, neatly displaying the intersection between neoclassical music and screen composition.
Read MoreDardust is the moniker of Italian composer Dario Faini. Trained as a classical pianist, Faini is also a pop songwriter – a true ‘crossover’ artist. 7 is Dardust’s debut album, full of tuneful and catchy piano melodies, and drawing heavily on the neoclassical style of artists such as Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds.
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