There are composers and composers. One sort tries to blaze a new trail with each new work, the other sort writes more or less the same piece every time. Members of the latter category are Sofia Gubaidulina, Galina Ustvolskaya and György Kurtág – all three familiar friends of the ensemble as well as the ‘heroes’ of Astrid Kruisselbrink, whose Die Klage um Linos will premiere tonight.

Gubaidulina and Ustvolskaya are both deeply religious, but have very different ways of practising their belief. The mysterious, almost fairytale-like world of sound created by Gubaidulina creates an atmosphere of amazement, whereas Ustvolskaya hews out her notes like a sculptor tackling a block of granite. We know Kurtág from his miniatures: as intense as they are poetic. Rilke’s collection of poems, Duino Elegies, is the starting point for Kruisselbrink’s new work. There are several stories and references in Greek mythology to Linos of the first elegy: son of Apollo, inventor of melody and rhythm, killed by Heracles … Above all, Linos is the personification of the lamentation, so powerfully set to verse by Rilke.

Artists

SOFIA GOEBAIDOELINA
Concordanza
GALINA OESTVOLSKAJA
Sonate nr. 5
GYÖRGY KURTÁG
Brefs Messages
ASTRID KRUISSELBRINK
Die Klage um Linos (World première) *)
 
ASKO|SCHÖNBERG
conductor Reinbert de Leeuw
counter tenor Kaspar Kröner
piano Reinbert de Leeuw

*) With financial support of Fonds Podiumkunsten.