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Edinburgh Reporter
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Reporter
Aurora is making its Edinburgh debut this August
Aurora Orchestra will be appearing at a bean bag concert in Edinburgh this August. This orchestra founded in 2005 by Principal Conductor, Nicholas Collon, memorise whole symphonies – sometimes an hour long and present music with theatrical elements to allow their audiences to get a better understanding of it. This summer Aurora marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Dmitri Shostakovich, one of the most influential and performed composers of the 20th century, with a deep-dive into his Fifth Symphony – a work born in the shadow of Stalin's regime that reveals music on the edge of life and death by a composer treading a dangerous line between political obedience and artistic defiance. Aurora will make their long-awaited debut at the Edinburgh International Festival, with two performances, including one in the Festival's Beanbag Concert Series. Shostakovich Inside Out (Monday 18 August, 2pm) invites audiences to learn more about the Fifth Symphony in a fresh and immersive way, through a conversational presentation led by Nicholas Collon as the orchestra play the symphony by memory, pausing to share insights and delve into its emotional depth and historical context. Later the same day, Aurora performs the full symphony by memory, as part of a concert that also includes Abel Selacoe's cello concerto Four Spirits, with the composer himself and percussionist Bernhard Schimpelsberger as soloists (Monday 18 August, 7:30pm). Made up of a roster of fearless musicians who have developed and grown with the orchestra, Aurora is the pioneer for memorised orchestral performance and has performed entire symphonies from memory at the BBC Proms and beyond for the last 11 years. They will play at BBC Proms on 16 and 17 August ahead of appearing in Edinburgh. The Artistic Director and Co-Director, Concept and Script for Shostakovich's Fifth by Heart, Jane Mitchell, said: 'Shostakovich's 5th symphony was written under extraordinary circumstances and has been put under a magnifying glass since the moment it was first presented. The stories surrounding the symphony provide a fascinating lens through which to look at the role of artists in a totalitarian state. Our presentation of the 5th symphony will look at these stories alongside an exploration of the score itself, and will take a look at the endless ways in which we can interpret abstract music, throwing light on both the terrifying and farcical nature of a state attempting to control a composer's voice.' Aurora Orchestra at Kings Place credit Nick Rutter Like this: Like Related
IOL News
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Experience the magic of the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival 2025
From 4 to 13 July, the festival will take place at the renowned Endler Hall, culminating in a grand finale on Sunday, 13 July, at 16:30. Image: Carmen Reynolds This year, the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (SICMF) celebrates its 20th anniversary with an extraordinary blend of classical masterpieces and contemporary works, promising an unforgettable experience for music lovers. From 4 to 13 July, the festival will take place at the renowned Endler Hall, culminating in a grand finale on Sunday, 13 July, at 16:30. The festivities will kick off with a special pre-concert by the SICMF Alumni Symphony Orchestra on Thursday, 3 July, featuring past participants who have graced the festival since its inception. The SICMF Alumni Symphony Orchestra will perform Mahler's monumental Fifth Symphony, alongside a new composition by Matthijs van Dijk and Gershwin's Concerto in F. Conducted by the acclaimed young South African conductor, Jacobus de Jager, this concert promises to set the tone for a week filled with musical brilliance. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ Kevin Harris Image: Robert Torres The faculty concerts will commence on Friday, 4 July, showcasing a reimagined Baroque experience. Max Richter's innovative reworking of Vivaldi's Four Seasons will feature the extraordinary violinist, Daniel Rowland, as soloist. This enchanting evening will culminate in a dazzling display of fashion and artistry, choreographed to the evocative music of Ravel's Bolero, with dancers from the Figure of 8 Dance Theatre enhancing the performance. For those who appreciate the classics, the festival will also feature works by Beethoven, Strauss, Shostakovich, Brahms, and Saint-Saëns. This year's featured composer is the internationally acclaimed Boston-based jazz pianist, Kevin Harris, whose specially commissioned piece, 'Light and Resonance A contemporary symphonic reflection through the courageous lens of Steve Biko,' will receive its world premiere on Tuesday, 8 July. This innovative composition draws inspiration from the writings of anti-Apartheid activist Steven Biko, reflecting on societal progress through his powerful words. Throughout the festival, the SICMF faculty will engage with over 300 student participants, offering public masterclasses and rehearsals. Daily student concerts will take place at 13:00 and 17:00, providing a platform for emerging talent to shine alongside their mentors. Artistic director Nina Schumann Image: Vincent Rowley
Boston Globe
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Per Norgard, daring symphonic composer, dies at 92
Mr. Norgard's musical evolution encompassed the mid-20th century's leading styles, including neoclassicism, expressionism ,and his own brand of serialism, and it incorporated a wide range of influences, including Javanese gamelan music, Indian philosophy, astrology, and the works of schizophrenic Swiss artist Adolf Wölfli. Advertisement But he considered himself a distinctively Nordic composer, influenced by Finnish symphonist Jean Sibelius, and that was how newcomers to his music often approached him. The infinite, brooding landscapes of Sibelius -- along with the intensifying repetitions in the work of Mr. Norgard's Danish compatriot Carl Nielsen and the obsessive, short-phrase focus of Norwegian Edvard Grieg -- have echoes in Mr. Norgard's fragmented sound world. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The delirious percussive expressions of his composition 'Terrains Vagues' (2000), the plinking raindrops of the two-piano, four-metronome 'Unendlicher Empfang' (1997), and the vast, discontinuous fresco of the Eighth Symphony (2011) all evoke the black-and-white northern vistas of Sibelius, with their intense play of light and shadow. As a young student at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen in the early 1950s, he was immersed in the music of Sibelius, writing to the older composer and receiving encouragement in return. 'When I discovered there was a kind of unity in his music, I was obsessed with the idea of meeting him,' he said in an interview. 'And to let him know that I didn't consider him out of date.' Advertisement The two never did manage to meet. But Sibelius, who died in 1957, was a lifelong inspiration and mentor from afar. 'From the moment I discovered the music of Sibelius, I felt in much more of a relationship with his music' than with that of fellow Danish composers, Mr. Norgard said in a 2012 interview. 'There are the long horizons. And a feeling, maybe, of a kind of nostalgia,' he added. Mr. Norgard developed a unique compositional technique he called the 'infinity series,' a slightly repeated, but constantly shifting, sequence of notes, which the British critic Richard Whitehouse described as 'a way of creating layers of melodies that move simultaneously at different speeds across the texture.' That technique recalls what Mr. Norgard called the 'symmetric turning around' of Sibelius. Mr. Norgard himself aspired to a music in which 'everything came out of a single note,' he said, 'like the big bang.' Both composers are credited with renewing, and prolonging the life of, the imperiled symphony. Whitehouse called Mr. Norgard's Fifth Symphony (1990) 'arguably the most significant reappraisal of symphonic form in the past half-century.' Sibelius' own Fifth Symphony, composed in 1919, had been characterized the same way in its day; Mr. Norgard was inspired by what he called its 'growth, where different motifs are more and more connected, to a great vision of unity.' Advertisement Mr. Norgard had a brief brush with popular consciousness with his hauntingly simple music for the film 'Babette's Feast' (1987), an adaptation of the 1958 story by Karen Blixen, writing under the pen name Isak Dinesen. Despite his stature in Europe -- there were frequent recordings, some with major orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic -- Mr. Norgard found a muted reception in the United States. In 2014, he was awarded the Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music by the New York Philharmonic, although the orchestra had 'never played a note of his music,' New York Times critic Alan Kozinn observed at the time. A 2016 concert series, 'Norgard in New York,' went some ways toward remedying the neglect. David Allen wrote in The New York Times that 'at its strongest, Mr. Norgard's music has an unbridled organic power, bursting with overlapping lines inspired by mathematical patterns like the golden ratio or natural forces like the rush of an ocean or the dwindling bounce of a ball.' Mr. Norgard, for his part, described his award from the New York orchestra, two years earlier, as 'quite mysterious.' Per Norgard was born July 13, 1932, in Gentofte, Denmark, north of Copenhagen, the younger son of Erhardt Norgard, a tailor who owned a wedding-dress shop, and Emmely Johanne Nicoline (Christensen) Norgard. He was composing piano sonatas by the age of 10. At 17, he began studying with the leading Danish composer Vagn Holmboe, and in 1952, he entered the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where he continued his composition studies. From 1956 to 1957, he studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, who taught many of the 20th century's leading composers, a period that led him to write at least one Neo-Classical work in the Stravinsky mold. Advertisement Under the tutelage of Boulanger, he rebelled somewhat against her hyper-French, Neo-Classical universe, advocating, in an article, engagement with 'the universe of the Nordic mind.' Teaching at Danish conservatories in Odense, Copenhagen, and Aarhus followed, along with music criticism for the daily Politiken newspaper. By the early 1960s, Mr. Norgard had developed the 'infinity series' concept, which began with experiments with simple piano pieces. A steady stream of large-scale choral, symphonic, and chamber works resulted, culminating in his last major composition, the Eighth Symphony, which Mellor likened to the works of Mahler, the 'idea that the symphony strives absolutely to contain the world -- that the composer is offering us a glimpse of the universe.' Mr. Norgard's wife, Helle Rahbek, died in 2022. He leaves a daughter, Ditte, and a son, Jeppe, from an earlier marriage, to Anelise Brix Thomsen, that ended in divorce. In an interview with the New York Philharmonic in 2014, after being awarded the Kravis prize, Mr. Norgard described his compositional technique, and discussed the 'infinity series.' It was 'a kind of homage to the mystery of life,' he said, 'which has always been a guiding line for my music.' This article originally appeared in
Perth Now
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Beethoven's ‘intimidating' face revealed for the first time in 200 years
Ludwig van Beethoven's face has been revealed in stunning detail almost 200 years after his death. The legendary German composer, famed for masterpieces like the 'Fifth Symphony' and 'Moonlight Sonata', has had his face brought back to life in jaw-dropping detail and the results are striking. Thanks to cutting-edge 3D and a historic skull scan, Beethoven's moody mug has been recreated and it's as fiery as his reputation suggests. Cicero Moraes, the Brazilian graphics expert behind the project, said: "I found the face somewhat intimidating." He used rare photographs of Beethoven's skull taken in 1863 and measurement data from 1888, both provided by the Beethoven House in Bonn, Germany. Despite his musical genius, Beethoven wasn't exactly known for his charm. British composer Mark Wigglesworth once summed him up as: "Irritable, untidy, clumsy, rude, and misanthropic." Moraes said: "The facial approximation was guided solely by the skull. First I created 2D outlines – frontal and lateral – from the skull photographs. Then I modelled the skull in 3D using a virtual donor's tomography, adjusted to match the photos' proportions. I then added soft tissue thickness markers based on data from living Europeans, projected the nose, and traced the facial profile. I interpolated all these projections to form the basic face." He later added clothes and hair based on a famous 1820 portrait, before using AI to polish the final image. The result was "highly compatible" with a life mask made of Beethoven's face during his lifetime. Moraes explained: "I analysed his revolutionary creativity, resilience in composing despite deafness, intense focus, problem-solving ability, and tireless productivity, despite a challenging personality. Reading about his life in detail was moving, as I noticed behavioural similarities in myself. I was fortunate to have psychological support that helped me manage my own irritability. Beethoven, however, faced a chaotic world with his own resources, finding refuge in his work, which seemed to bring him existential fulfilment."
Epoch Times
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
Great Music May Surpass Our Understanding
Many things we thought we knew have been found to be false. Things like 'the world is flat,' or 'the sun revolves around the world,' make us a bit more cautious when arriving at a conclusion or passing judgment. Regarding aesthetic matters, one sees that works of art are great mysteries whose qualities and laws are far beyond our knowing. Whether they are good or bad is a more confounding issue still. Beethoven's great mystery, the Ninth Symphony, has been perceived in many ways, as many, in fact, as there have been listeners. It seems sublime to some, monstrous to others. The music historian and novelist Romain Rolland said it was 'an unsurpassed triumph of the human spirit.' Yet, Ludwig Spohr, the German composer and Beethoven's contemporary, called it grotesque, tasteless and trivial. Beethoven in 1804, the year he began work on the Fifth Symphony; detail of a portrait by W.J. Mähler. Public Domain Robert Schumann thought that Richard Wagner 'to put it concisely, is not a good musician,' and that his music was 'often quite amateurish, meaningless and repugnant.' The childlike composer Anton Bruckner, however, upon meeting Wagner, fell on his knees and kissed his hand. The elder composer had to rein in Bruckner during a performance of 'Parsifal,' asking that he not clap so loudly. Bruckner in his turn was called 'a fool and a half' by the rich and powerful Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick, but Jean Sibelius, a deeper mind and more generous heart, called him 'the greatest living composer.' A photograph of Johannes Brahms in 1866 by Lucien Mazenod. Public Domain Johannes Brahms was adored by Clara Schumann, who wrote that he was: ' one of those who comes as if straight from God,' while Benjamin Britten had other ideas: 'I play through all Brahms every so often to see if he's as bad as I thought—and usually find him worse.' Tchaikovsky wrote in a letter to a friend that he would like to say 'Mr. Brahms! I think you are a talentless, pretentious, and completely uninspired person.' But the Russian composer himself suffered the assorted slings and arrows of people supposedly 'in the know": His great B flat minor concerto was not well received at its premiere. Nikolai Soloviev, composer, critic and professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, remarked 'Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto, like the first pancake, is a flop.' Related Stories 3/13/2025 4/11/2025 The mighty Tsar Alexander III also had negative views. In his diary, Tchaikovsky wrote 'The Tsar was haughty to me 'Very nice,'!!!!! [sic] he said to me after the rehearsal [of 'Sleeping Beauty']. God bless him.' Igor Stravinsky, however, revered the composer to his last days, and dedicated 'Le Baiser de la fée' to his memory.' Let Each Judge These witnesses for the prosecution and for the defense lead to only one possible verdict: All criticism is precarious, personalized, and subject to change. There is and can be no explanation of why one piece of music pleases one man and displeases another; it is, and will remain, a mystery. A phrase from a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier says, 'We older children grope our way, from dark behind to dark before.' But in our groping, we now and then come upon something more or less solid, something that we might use as a touchstone for what lies beyond pleasing or not pleasing: What is good or bad, truthful or counterfeit. The homestead of John Greenleaf Whittier; this poet create a hospitable home in which to write and think. We have time itself, for example, the judge that decides what will be remembered, and what forgotten; we have what Virginia Woolf described as 'the feeling of being added to.' Most solid of all might be philosopher Immanuel Kant's idea in 'Critique of Judgment,' that 'if the fine arts are not imbued with moral ideals that are common to the whole of mankind, then they can serve only as frivolous entertainments to which people resort to deaden their discontent with themselves.' Let each of us question and judge. Einstein tells us we should never lose a 'holy curiosity.' What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to
