Detlev Glanert: Shoreless River in Cologne and London
(May 2009)
Detlev Glanert: Shoreless River in Cologne and LondonDetlev Glanert’s new orchestral work, Shoreless River (Fluß ohne Ufer), receives its first performances this summer at the Cologne Philharmonie (19 June) and the BBC Proms (19 August).
The new 25-minute score is a prestigious four-way commission between WDR Cologne, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, National Symphony Orchestra Washington and the BBC Proms, illustrating Glanert’s growing international reputation as an orchestral composer, as well as a leading creator of new operas.
Semyon Bychkov conducts both performances of Shoreless River, with the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. As he revealed recently on BBC Radio 3’s CD Review, his interest in Glanert’s music was sparked by a performance of Theatrum Bestiarum in Cologne. That work’s blending of contemporary idioms with subtle references to the musical past fascinated orchestra and conductor so much that they swiftly added it to recording sessions for Shostakovich’s tenth symphony for Avie (AV 2137). Bychkov couples Glanert again with Shostakovich at the first performances of Shoreless River, this time the eleventh symphony.
The title of the new orchestral work is linked to Glanert’s forthcoming opera The Wooden Ship (Das Holzschiff), based on the first novel in the Shoreless River trilogy by the radical German playwright and novelist Hans Henny Jahnn. The composer often views orchestral works as ‘musical laboratories’ for his operas, where he can develop techniques and explore dramatic moods while employing different music: just as Glanert’s Shoreless River is related to The Wooden Ship, so Theatrum Bestiarum was his development ground for his opera Caligula.
The Wooden Ship, which charts a disturbing voyage into the inner psyche, receives its premiere at the Nuremberg State Opera in October 2010, directed by Johann Kresnik.
> Further information on Work: Fluß ohne Ufer
Photo: Iko Freese / DRAMA
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