Official release on Sunday, January 29th, Barbican Center, London, "Total Immersion : Jonathan Harvey"
Excerpt from Scene 8, published by Ictus Ensemble :
>Listen to five excerpts from the complete double CD (streaming | mid-resolution)
>Wagner Dream at Barbican Center (new production : BBC Symphony Orchestra)
Wagner Dream podcast, published by Barbican Music :
VENICE BIENNALE _ FINAL CONCERT
Saturday 1 October 2011
Teatro alle Tese, Venice
> THE FULL CONCERT now online !
“Perhaps we are witnessing a sort of genetic mutation of western culture, of our tradition. We live in a world that makes not only thought, exploration and effort, but pencil and paper, practice and crafting as well, seem anachronistic. Now that everything is available at the click of a mouse, the temptation of erasing our memory is becoming increasingly evident, as we dream of becoming lighter. The 2011 Music Biennale talks about mutants, about something that is ending, at least in the form familiar to us now, to become something else”.
(Luca Francersconi, curator).
LA METAMORPHOSE
(Levinas, Novarina, Kafka _ Lille Opera)
"Violent but refined, anxiogenic and psychedelic"
Bernard Schreuder, forumopera
RAIN
(Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Opera Garnier)
"Puissance et accomplissement d’une œuvre fascinante."
Nicole Duault, Le Journal du Dimanche
contemporary music, brussels
Our first online only release : MATRA by Oscar Bianchi, with Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart
Harvey's sublime music does not shy away from the disturbing when necessary, yet the overwhelming impression is of beauty and integrity. His seamless integration of instruments and live electronics is masterful, the latter a natural, organic part of often shimmering textures. (...) The conducting by Martyns Brabbins is superb.
Chirstopher Dingle, BBC Music Magazine
May 16th, Opéra de Lille, 18:00 : Souffles by Philippe Leroux, 1996. A concert with comments.
Filmmaker Diane Perelsztejn took advantage of the latest developments in sound technology to isolate the voice of Kathleen Ferrier in her illustrious recording of Mahler's 'The Song of the Earth', conducted by Bruno Walter. The extracted voice of Kathleen Ferrier has been transferred to Georges-Elie Octors, who analyzed and dissected the phrases sung this legendary singer. Then Ictus came into play, conducted by Octors, performing the chamber music version for twelve musicians realized by Arnold Schoenberg to merge again with the voice of Ferrier.
.... and much more : unpublished testimonies introduced by Ferrier herself
"A truly admiring movie, completely different then the usual music documentary, where music remains often a mere pretext" Rémy Stricker, Magazine Opéra
PREMIERE
March 27th, Brussels, at two venues simultaneously :
Galeries 19:45
Actor's Studio 20:00
Reservations : +32 2 514 74 98
NOW ON LINE ! LINKS : iStore, Amazon (4.99 Euros)
Listen to this album in full, streamed exclusively on ictus.be.
Inspired by the last moments of Richard Wagner’s life and his interrupted opera project Die Sieger, which in turn is inspired by the buddhist legend of Prakriti and Ananda, Wagner Dream, an opera composed by Jonathan Harvey, seems to multiply and illuminate the veils of illusion. Harvey created this revelation that has been given to Wagner "in the blink of an eye" with the help of librettist Jean-Claude Carrière, an artist sharing his passion for Buddhism. The drama, composed of nine scenes situated alternately in Venice at dying Wagner's deathbed and in India, the spot where the opera takes place in his mind, is sustained by a real time electronic contraption that is perfectly synchronised and that, placed at the intersection of the implicit and the explicit, creates a link between dream and reality. In opposition to Wagner's music's expressive violence, the British composer focuses on translating the inherent humanity of the opera's characters through a delicate style that appeals to the soul rather than to the senses and rejuvenates the operatic genre by proposing a new buddhist view of the representation of feelings and emotions on stage. Harvey's originality hereby serves a profound spirituality and - most importantly - a universal thought reconciling Wagner, Buddhism, technology, operatic tradition and the musical researches of the first half of the 20th century.