Embracing the new at Prague Spring

By Frank Kuznik, 23 May 2018

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“groans and musical squiggles that grow into a multi-layered dash through an array of sounds”

Reviewed at Studio Hrdinů Hall (Trade Fair Palace), Prague on 21 May 2018

Poppe, Speicher I, for large ensemble

Mrkvička, Other (World première)

Lang, Bernhard, Monadologie XII "Soletude for Re"

Klangforum Wien

Bas Wiegers, Conductor

Olivier Vivarès, Clarinet

Gerald Preinfalk, Saxophone

Anders Nyqvist, Trumpet

Haas’ 11,000 Strings at Park Avenue Armory

Kurt Gottschalk, 30th September

Like Ligeti before him, Georg Friedrich Haas makes the avant garde approachable as this performance of 11,000 Strings reveals.

***11

Miroslav Srnka’s Voice Killer premieres at MusikTheater an der Wien

Chanda VanderHart, 16th June

At MusikTheater an der Wien, Miroslav Srnka’s new opera provess a deeply compelling, meticulously crafted work. It may not uplift, but it sears itself into the memory.

****1

Smart, stylish Klangforum Wien residency wraps at Prague Spring

Frank Kuznik, 1st June

Klangforum Wien finishes a far-reaching excursion into the boldest realms of modern music with a flourish.

****1

Freitag, der Dreizehnte celebrates Schoenberg at the Reaktor

Chanda VanderHart, 28th April

What do you get for the composer who made – and also kind of broke – everything? Arnold Schoenberg’s well-documented phobia of the number 13 aside, he could not have asked for a superior tribute in his 150th anniversary year.

****1

“To infinity and beyond! ”Cosmic Mondparsifal

Sam Johnstone, 15th October

After Jonathan Meese's Parsifal staging was rejected by Bayreuth, he channelled his frustrations into an "arch-Parsifal" which shoots the titular hero into space, with a musical re-imagining of Wagner’s score by Austrian composer Bernhard Lang.

*****

A shark with shiny teeth

Chanda VanderHart, 18th January

Requiring trained opera singers to focus primarily on acting and asking actors to sing in a renowned opera house puts everyone out of their comfort zone, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

***11

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Frank Kuznik

Frank Kuznik is the former Editor-in-Chief and Culture Editor of The Prague Post, Central Europe’s premier English-language weekly newspaper. He currently divides his time between Prague and his hometown in the US, Cleveland, where he covers northeast Ohio's dynamic classical music scene. In Prague he is an habitué of the Rudolfinum, National Theater, State Opera and other storied classical music venues, and an unabashed fan of Czech music.