Ensemble Musikfabrik in Berlin

By Stephen Crowe, 22 September 2016

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“fiendishly precise brass, an intergalactic pair of ondes Martenots... a battery of percussion”

Reviewed at Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Berlin on 18 September 2016

Zappa, Revised Music for Low Budget Orchestra

Zappa, Lemme take you to the beach

Zappa, RDNZL

Varèse, Ecuatorial, for bass voice and ensemble

Varèse, Poème électronique

Varèse, Ionisation, for percussion

Zappa, The Black Page

Zappa, The Black Page no. 1

Zappa, The Black Page no. 2

Zappa, Echidna's Arf (Of You)

Zappa, Don't You Ever Wash That Thing?

Michael Leibundgut, Baritone

Dirk Rothbrust, Percussion, Conductor

Frank Wingold, Electric guitar

Ulrich Löffler, Keyboard

Christopher Brandt, Electric bass

Paul Jeukendrup, Sound Design

Carl Rosman, Conductor

Ensemble Musikfabrik

Upload questions the meaning of life... and of opera

Kurt Gottschalk, 22nd March

Does opera have room for film? And live video? Multiple screens and advertorials? And allusions to onscreen identity and cyber-immortality?

*****

Musikfabrik parades new Partch instruments in slapstick tragedy

Jacob Slattery, 23rd July

Under the direction of Heiner Goebbels, Ensemble Musikfabrik’s twenty-two multifaceted percussionist-vocalist-actor musicians executed an industrious performance of Partch’s magnum opus, The Delusion of the Fury.

****1

Partch UK Premiere creates a Surreal Sunday Experience

Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, 23rd February

In the world of concert music, it is a rare privilege to witness the first ever performance of an instrument in Britain, let alone a whole host that have been specifically created for a piece of music. A stage full of weird and wonderful creations took over the Colston Hall for one of the most surreal concerts I have ever attended.

****1

The terror of games: RIAS Chamber Choir and Ensemble musikFabrik at Musikfest Berlin

Dan Wang, 14th September

If there were a gold medal for programming at Musikfest Berlin, it would go to last night’s concert with the RIAS Chamber Choir, Ensemble musikFabrik, and a host of other musicians, gathered under the baton of James Wood.

****1

Edinburgh International Festival: Ensemble musikFabrik's tribute to Frank Zappa

Alan Coady, 28th August

What drew John Cage and Frank Zappa into the same programme was their mutual admiration of Edgard Varèse, at its most striking in their use of percussion. Somehow I feel Cage would have been delighted to be the one out of step with an otherwise perfectly symmetrical programme. Flanking the interval were performances of Varèse’s Ionisation (1929–31).

****1

A piece of infinity with Michaels Reise um die Erde at Lincoln Center Festival

Rebecca Lentjes, 18th July

My preparations for a Thursday evening trip to Lincoln Center: studying the super-formula of Stockhausen’s 29-hour opera project, entitled Licht; choosing an outfit in the perfect shade of cerulean; girding myself for a panic attack similar to the one I experienced the last time I witnessed a section from Licht (Oktophonie).

*****

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Stephen Crowe

Stephen Crowe is an English composer of operas and experimental music. He was born in Bolton, but grew up in Nottingham. Crowe studied Fine Art at John Moores University, Liverpool, and Composition at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is a guitarist, and performs free improvisation on a regular basis in Berlin. He sings in 'StreisBAND', a hardcore Barbra Streisand covers band, which received warm praise from Henry Rollins.

Zappa in the context of Varèse: Ensemble Musikfabrik in Berlin