Date / Place I
12 April 2024 Gare du Nord, BaselDate / Place II
13 April 2024 Gare du Nord, BaselSeries
PhoenixTitle
Kon-textProgram
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’Musicians
- Graham Valentine
- speaker
- Jürg Henneberger
- conductor
- Christoph Bösch
- flute, piccolo
- Toshiko Sakakibara
- clarinets, bass clarinet
- Raphael Camenisch
- alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, baritone saxophone
- Nenad Marković
- trumpet, piccolo trumpet
- Michael Büttler
- trombone
- João Pacheco
- percussion
- Kirill Zvegintsov
- piano
- Friedemann Treiber
- violin
- Martin Jaggi
- cello
- Aleksander Gabryś
- double bass
Program description
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.