Ensemble Phœnix Basel

“fantasies and fugues”

four hands piano music
with
Jürg Henneberger and Kirill Zvegintsov, piano

Thursday, 4th of January 2018, 21.30 h
OFF Bar Basel

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791):
“Fantasy” in f minor for mechanical organ “Ein Orgelstück für eine Uhr” (an organ piece for a clock), arrangement for piano four hands (1791)

–        Allegro
–        Andante
–        Tempo primo

Franz Schubert (1797–1828):
“Fantasy” in f minor for piano four hands op. 103 / D 940 (1828)

–        Allegro molto moderato
–        Largo
–        Allegro vivace
–        Tempo I

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827):
“Grande Fugue” (tantôt libre, tantôt recherchée) / “Grosse Fuge” (grand fugue) B flat major for piano four hands op. 134 after the fugue for string quartet from op. 133 (1826)

–        Overtura: Allegro – meno mosso e moderato
–        Fuga: Allegro – meno mosso e moderato – Allegro molto e con brio

Ludwig van Beethoven

Chamber music for violin, cello and piavno

Tuesday, 7th of May 2019, 21.00 h

in der OFF Bar Basel

Friedemann Treiber – violin
Martin Jaggi – cello
Jürg Henneberger – piano

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827):
“Sonata” op. 12 Nr. 3 for piano and violin in E flat major (1797/98)
Dedicated to Antonio Salieri
–        Allegro con spirito
–        Adagio con molta espressione
–        Rondo: Allegro molto

Ludwig van Beethoven:
“Sonata” op. 102 Nr. 1 for piano and cello in C major (1815)
Dedicated to countess Marie von Erdődy
–        Andante – vivace
–        Adagio – Allegro vivace

Ludwig van Beethoven:
“Trio” op. 70 Nr. 2 for piano, violin and cello in E flat major (1809)
Dedicated to countess Marie von Erdődy
–        Poco sostenuto – Allegro ma non troppo
–        Allegretto
–        Allegretto ma non troppo
–        Finale: Allegro

OFF Bar, Offenburgerstrasse 59, 4057 Basel

PAUL ABRAHAM (1892–1960): «DIE BLUME VON HAWAII» (the flower of Hawaii) operetta in three acts (Libretto: Alfred Grünwald, Fritz Löhner-Beda and Emmerich Földes)

Production of Theater Basel, Schauspiel

Premiere (cancelled!): 28th of September 2017, Grosse Bühne, 19.30 h

Further performances: 1. / 7. / 15. / 20. / 23. / 27. / 29. / 31. October, 4. / 18. / 26. November, 8. / 14. December 2017, 7. / 13. /19. January 2018

“Ein Paradies am Meeresstrand” (A paradise on the seashore) and “Will dir die Welt zu Füssen legen” (Will lay the world at your feet) are just two unforgettable evergreens that Paul Abraham composed for his revue operetta “Die Blume von Hawaii”. He and his librettists were inspired by the fate of the last queen of Hawaii, who was disempowered by the Americans and went down in music history as the composer of “Aloha Oe”, to relocate a large part of the plot to an unreachable fantasy location.

Hawaiian nationalists plan to liberate the island from the American occupiers and bring Princess Laya from exile in Paris incognito to marry her off to Prince Lilo-Taro. The American governor, on the other hand, dreams of marrying him to his niece. A champagne-fuelled love merry-go-round begins to spin, with an officer, the governor’s secretary, an entertainer and a young Hawaiian woman also jumping on board. The colourful company ends up in Europe, in sophisticated Monte Carlo, where four couples will get together.

Although the starting point is a political conflict, the creators were primarily concerned with entertainment. They catered to the need for exoticism and romance with aplomb, for the eyes and ears. On the one hand, people indulged in the dream of an idealised South Seas world, but at the same time hoped for a great future, for modernity from America.

Abraham, the “operetta king of Berlin”, a contemporary of Brecht and Weill, whose “Threepenny Opera” is also on the programme this season, had to flee the National Socialist regime two years after the premiere. In his composition he masterfully combines operetta melodies with elements of jazz, which made Berlin pulsate at the time.

Jürg Henneberger and the Ensemble Phoenix Basel, proven specialists in new music, set out together with the singing theatre ensemble in search of a “sound” that on the one hand purifies the lavishly orchestrated score and on the other resurrects the jazzy, playful spirit of the Weimar Republic. Experienced in uncovering the ironic facets of the operetta, director Frank Hilbrich is interested in showing how the unfulfilled longings for the past and future become a failure in the present.

 

Conductor, Fender Rhodes Piano: Jürg Henneberger
Staging: Frank Hilbrich
Musical sssistence, choir direction & assistant conductor (23./27.10./18.11.): Oliver Rudin
Stage: Volker Thiele
Costumes: Gabriele Rupprecht
Choreography: Kinsun Chan
Light: Roland Edrich
Dramaturgy: Almut Wagner

Laya, princess of Hawaii: Pia Händler
Prince Lilo-Taro: Florian Jahr
Kaluna, an old Hawaiian: Andrea Bettini
Captain Reginald Harald Stone: Elias Eilinghoff
Lloyd Harrison, american governor of Hawaii: Mario Fuchs
John Buffy, his secretary: Thomas Reisinger
Bessie Worthington, his niece: Katja Jung
Raka, a joung Hawaiian: Leonie Merlin Young
Jim Boy, a famous american jazz singer: Vincent Glander
Susanne Provence, his partner: Pia Händler
Perroquet, head waitor and bar pianist: Jürg Henneberger / Oliver Rudin

Choir:

Diana Chavarro (soprano)
Alexandra Mira Puertas (soprano)
Julia Schild (soprano)
Aya Tsujimoto (soprano)
Sylvia «Sylphe» Heckendorn (alto)
Francisca Näf (alto)
Anne Maria Schmid (alto)
Angelika Wied (alto)
Alejandro Benavides Urena (tenor)
Tarik Benchekmoumou (tenor)
Adrian Borter (tenor)
Donovan Elliot Smith (tenor)
Thomas Hardegger (bass)
Sebastian Knüsli (bass)
Daniel Raaflaub (bass)
Tianyou Wang (bass)

Ensemble Phoenix Basel:

Christoph Bösch, Anja Clift: flute / piccolo
Toshiko Sakakibara, Dana Barack: clarinet / bass clarinet
Sascha Armbruster, Pablo González: saxophone 1 (alto / baritone)
Kevin Juillerat, Jonas Tschanz: saxophone 2 (tenor)
Jens Bracher, Simon Lilly: trumpet 1
Michael Ferner: trumpet 2
Michael Büttler, Stephen Menotti: trombone
João Pacheco, Daniel Stalder: percussion
Maurizio Grandinetti: guitar / banjo / Hawaii-guitar
Ludovic Van Hellemont, Dominic Chamot: piano / celesta
Mirka Šćepanović, Friedemann Treiber: violin 1
Marzena Toczko, Filip Saffray: violin 2
Susanne Mathe, Daniel Hauptmann: violin 3
Lisa Rieder, Susanne Mathe: violin 4
Jan-Filip Ťupa, Joonas Pitkänen: cello
Aleksander Gabryś, Daniel Sailer: double bass

Two concerts in United Kingdom with Ensemble Phoenix Basel:

24.03.2013: at London Ear Festival at the Southbank Centre, London

25.03.2013: at St. Johns College (promoted by Kettles Yard), Cambridge

Concert at the festival «Imago Dei» with Ensemble Phoenix Basel:

29.03.2013: at Minoritenkirche, Krems an der Donau

Concert by the Ensemble Phoenix Basel

Friday, September 13, 2013, 7 p.m.

Traces of sound & language salt

New music and romantic heritage

Music and poetry / readings and concerts

Parkhotel and Kurhaus, Hall i. T.

Daniel Glaus (*1957): «STEINhimmel» (2016/17, WP)

– STEINhimmel I – 42’
– STEINhimmel II “in memoriam” – 37’

1517 and 2017

The Reformation thoughts, taking up the old heretical voices of the mystics and developing them further, led to a political and inner-church upheaval of unimagined dimensions and later influenced the Enlightenment and secularization.

Today, global economic interests are confronted with tendencies of national isolation and radicalizing religious fundamentalism. In between are people. They are lynched, tortured, incapacitated, expelled or, misled by false hopes for a better life, seduced and forced to flee.

Imagine: an overcrowded boat on the stormy Mediterranean Sea at night. Hundreds of people cry out desperately and perhaps silently for help.

Or listen in on the flames of the burning Grenfell Tower in London.

Woe betide if the voices were to become loud and reach our ears unhindered!

Statements of the reformers Oekolampad Basel | Zwingli Zurich | Haller Bern | Farel Lausanne and Luther | the threat of banishment from Rome | Mallarmé “Un Coup de dés” | Freud “Why War” | victims of genocide from Myanmar, 2016 | the holy figures of the “Heavenly Court” in the choir vault of the Bern Cathedral | names of Jewish, Christian and Islamic mystics and the first names of a Swiss school were brought together in the composition process and mixed to form the libretto of the space symphony “STEINhimmel” (STONE heaven).

The church space as an instrument becomes a resonating space, an echoing space, which all those listening, singing, playing make resound through their presence and their devotion and steer, as it were, like Noah’s Ark through the times of the present.

Daniel Glaus

“ad hoc: zeitgenössisch schwärmen” (ad hoc: contemporary swarming)

 

György Kurtág (*1926): from “Bagatellen” op. 14/d for flute, double bass and piano (1981)
– Zorniger Choral (angry choral)

Witold Lutosławski (1913–1994): “Dance Preludes” for clarinet and piano (1954)

György Kurtág: from “Bagatellen”
– Hommage à J. S. B.

Edgard Varèse (1883–1965): “Density 21,5” for flute solo (1936, rev. 1946)

György Kurtág: from “Bagatellen”
– Wie die Blumen der Wiese (Like the flowers in the meadow) (In memoriam Ligeti Ilona)

Morton Feldman (1926–1987): “Piece for violin and piano” (1950)

György Kurtág: from “Bagatellen”
– Zank und Sanftmut

Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918–1970): “Sonate” for violin solo (1951)
– Präludium
– Toccata

György Kurtág: from “Bagatellen”
– Blumen die Menschen, nur Blumen (flowers the people, just flowers)

Giacinto Scelsi (1905–1988): “Ko-Lho” for flute and clarinet (1966)

György Kurtág: from “Bagatellen”
– La fille aux cheveux de lin – enragée (the girl with the flaxen hair – enraged)

Morton Feldman: “Piano” (1977)

The composition competition “Phoenix Satellite 2018/19” followed in its outer, organizational form the pattern of the 2016 modified, second Satellite edition, as it had proven itself in every respect. In addition to the 8 candidates, this time we awarded a “wild card” to the (very) young and talented composer Joey Tan, who had come to our attention during our trip to Singapore last fall. Joey participated as a full member of the group, but externally funded and thus not a burden on the adjacent budget.

In an initial module in November 2018, there was room for instrument-specific issues ranging from small instrumentation to balance issues in full instrumentation. Our core members involved were able to pass on their experience and know-how and information about relevant literature directly to the composers present together as a “class”, which fell on very fertile ground.

In a second module – scheduled for January 2019 – the composers arrived partly with sketches, partly with fully developed compositions in their luggage, which were tried out and tested by larger registers and subsequently by the full ensemble. Feedback from Detlev Müller-Siemens, who was present from this point on, from Jürg Henneberger and from members of the ensemble led to a deeper, more intensive examination of the compositional sketches. Erik Oña had to withdraw completely from the project due to his serious illness, and we were able to replace him with Detlev Müller-Siemens, with whom we had already successfully collaborated in the same capacity in the 2016/17 edition.

For the third module (June 2019), all composers provided a finished piece in score and part material (digital and on paper), which 8 of the 9 composers also complied with (Korean’s Ji Hyon Yoon stayed away from the last module for family reasons). In an almost too dense rehearsal phase, the full ensemble rehearsed the eight partly extensive compositions, again with the constant presence of all composers and Detlev Müller-Siemens. On Saturday, June 8, 2019, all compositions were premiered in a deliberately internal concert and recorded simultaneously.

From the candidates, two will be selected as prize-winners for the concert planned for January 2020 in connection with Witlod Lutosławski’s “Chain I”.

In 2020/21, the EPhB conducted its three-part Satellite Workshop for the fourth time, which was successfully held for the first time in 2014/15.

In an international call for compositions, 8 young composers were sought. The collaboration was divided into three modules with workshop character. For a fourth module, two of the participants were selected, who received a regular commission from EPhB within the following season for a work that refers to or comments on a programmed central work of a “modern classic”. In 2021, the work in question is Gérard Grisey’s “Vortex Temporum”.

Swiss composer and improviser Norbert Möslang, who comes from St. Gallen, composed a new work for the inauguration of the “Binary Clock” commissioned by the St. Gallen Building Authority.

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