Phœnix
Kon-text
Programming William Walton’s and Edith Sitwell’s once provocative work with Graham Valentine as narrator is a pleasure for us in different ways! The English poet Edith Sitwell became an icon of lesbian-gay movement not only through her poems, but also through her eccentric lifestyle and her uncompromisingly non-conformist views, provoking many a scandal with her appearance already in the early 1920s. At the premiere of “Façade,” she spoke her surrealist verses invisibly behind a painted screen with a hole cut out for a giant megaphone.
In combination with the commissions to the two young composers Asia Ahmetjanova from Latvia and Charlotte Torres from France, both living in Switzerland, current artistic dynamite is guaranteed.
Program
Asia Ahmetjanova (*1992)
“Fledermäuse und Ikonen (bats and icons)” for ensemble (2024, WP, commission EPhB) – 15’
Charlotte Torres (*1979)
“Ton tonton tond ton thon et d’autres tons” for amplified ensemble (2024, WP, commission EPhB) – 20’
William Walton (1902–1983)
“Façade – an Entertainment” with poems by Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) for recitor and ensemble (1922) – 38’
- Graham Valentine
- speaker
- Jürg Henneberger
- conductor