THE 16TH INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL "MOSCOW FORUM"
A Milieu for New Music and Aesthetical Discussions
October 22–27, 2019
Rakhmaninov Hall of the Moscow Conservatory
Karo Film Oktyabr Cinema Theater
Concert Hall of the House of Composers
One of the most well-known contemporary music festivals in Russia, the “Moscow Forum,” is being restarted as a platform for music and musical discussion. In the situation of an overabundance of various festivals in Moscow, constantly celebrating some holiday or other, the renewed “Forum” positions itself as a working space for contemporary music and serious aesthetical disputes. The music played in the concert halls will be directly interspersed with polemics uttered by composers, artists and well-known philosophers-theoreticians of contemporary art. The themes of the concerts-disputes are unified by one inclusive idea — the examination of the interactions of the phenomena of contemporary society and the tendencies of contemporary music. The guests of the festival will be Austrian composer Klaus Lang, the French Flashback Ensemble, which develops projects on the intersection of music and multimedia in cooperation with the famous French IRCAM electronic studio in Paris, famous soloists — performers of alternative music: Manuel Zurria (flute, Italy), Stephane Ginsburgh (piano, Belgium), Sahib Pashazade (tar, Azerbaijan). Musicologist Stephan Naumovich (Germany) shall present for the first time the first publication in Russian of the works of one of the most influential musicologists of the late 20th century Carl Dahlhaus.
The concept programs shall present Russian premieres of compositions by cult Austrian composers Klaus Lang, Bernhard Lang, Olga Neuwirth, premieres of works by Stefan Prins, Mauricio Kagel, Alec Hall, Erwin Schulhoff, Faradj Karaev, Alexey Sioumak, Arman Gushchyan and Mehdi Hosseini, as well as works by Moscow-based composers Alexey Sysoev, Vladimir Gorlinsky, Kirill Shirokov and others. The festival will conclude with the demonstration at the Large Hall of the Karo Cinema theater Oktyabr of the Russian premiere of the silent film of Hans Karl Breslauer Die Stadt ohne Juden [The City without Jews] (1924, Austria) with the music of Olga Neuwirth, which will sound in performance by the Studio for New Music ensemble under the direction of Igor Dronov.
The theames of the concerts
The program of the concerts and discussions of the Forum is grouped around three absolutely different themes: Free Radicals, Eroica — Erotica and Local vs. Global. In the first of them the following issues shall be researched: what do we examine today as radical art? To what degree is this art really radical, if it is based on and in many ways provides variations of ideas generated a hundred years ago? Does radical art present a form of struggle for social progress and a new, more perfect world order? Or is it a new conventional format produced by numerous cultural institutions of late capitalism?
Eroica (carrying out acts of bravery) and Erotica (manifestation of love) pertain to the oldest and most traditionally “stable” cultural concepts. However, in the present day, their pathetically romanticized interpretation may rather be encountered in genres of popular art – such as, for example, films for wide audiences or pop songs. Within the framework of the festival we shall make the attempt of analyzing how in contemporary art these conceptions are subjected to deconstruction and radical artistic reevaluation. In other words, we shall attempt to research the construction and deconstruction of feelings directly.
Local — Global: In the era of globalization how does the development take place of the art of music in countries which do not pertain to Western Europe, so to speak, the regions “to the East of the West,” which during the course of the entire 20th century in many ways defined the development of new music? Are the cultures of these regions eternally in the state of “catching up” and “looking up to” the West, or, already in view of their lesser degree of integration into the processes of total globalization, do they have a greater chance in their independent development to preserve their cultural identity, which is becoming more and more discernably lost by the contemporary international mainstream? How can one avoid the vortex of cultural nationalism and at the same time not dissolve within the all-neutralizing space of globalist standards? These questions will be discussed by musicians and philosophers directly on the stage of the concert hall in the format of a round table which will be held during the discussion-oriented intermissions in the middle of each concert.
The daytime educational program of the Moscow Forum is organized in collaboration with the portal Stravinsky.online and includes a six-day intensive seminar for culturologists and music critics, as well as master-classes of famous performers of contemporary music visiting from other countries. Proposals for the seminar shall be accepted on the basis of competition. The program of the daytime events shall be published on October 1 on the website of the Festival and on the portal Stravinsky.online.
Artistic director of the festival — composer Vladimir Tarnopolski.
The festival is organized with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum Moscow, Italian Institute for Culture in Moscow, The National Fund of Copyright Holders’ Support, Wallonie-Bruxelles International (W.B.I.), The Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan Republic.
List of events
Tuesday, October 22
Rakhmaninov Hall of the Conservatory
FREE RADICALS
Concert 1
19:00 Georgy DOROKHOV
Manifest for 3 polyfoams (2009)
Daria ZVEZDINA
no-shelled for flute, violin, piano and sine tone (2018)
Peter ABLINGER
Regenstück (from «Instruments &») for ensemble, water and membrane (2007) RP*
____________________
20:00 Discussion 1
Anatoly Osmolovsky, visual artist and art theorist, founder of the BAZA Institute
Simon Mraz, cultural attaché at the Austrian Embassy in Moscow, director of Austrian Cultural Forum in Moscow
Klaus Lang, composer, special guest of the festival (Austria)
____________________
21:00 Dmitry BURTSEV
Body, My Traitor for accordion solo (2016)
Pavel POLYAKOV
What Flowers Tell Me for violin (2019) WP**
Kirill SHIROKOV
Seventeen Fragments of Music for solo viola (2016) /
Numbers, version for 12 performers (2018/2019) WP
Klaus LANG
The Ocean of Yes and No for ensemble (2008) RP
____________________
22:00 Discussion 2
Blitz-speaking of composers:
Dmitry Burtsev, Pavel Polyakov, Kirill Shirokov, Alexey Sysoev, Daria Zvezdina
Alexey SYSOEV
Wallpapers 3.2.24 (2019)
Performers:
Alexey Sysoev, piano / percussion / stepper motors
Vladimir Gorlinsky, guitar
Daria Zvezdina, viola
Dmitry Burtsev, accordion
Vasilisa Filatova, violin
Pavel Polyakov, violin
Studio for New Music Ensemble
Igor Dronov, conductor
* Russian Premiere
** World Premiere
**********************************************************************
Wednesday, October 23
Conference hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, 12:00
Lecture-presentation: Klaus Lang (Austria)
Concert Hall of the House of Composers
FREE RADICALS
Concert 2
19:00 Multimedia Project «Double Jeu» (2019)
Russian Premiere
Jesper NORDIN
Calm Like a Bomb
Alexander VERT & José Miguel FERNANDEZ
Double Jeu
Jesper NORDIN
Ashes in the Fall
Performers:
Ensemble Flashback (France)
Diego Tosi, violin
Thomas Pénanguer, digital visual artist
____________________
20:00 Discussion
Manuel Zurria
flute player, one of the founders of Alter Ego ensemble, guest of the festival (Italy)
Dario Calderone
double bass player, guest of the festival (the Netherlands)
Diego Tosi
violin player of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, guest of the festival (France)
Alexander Vert, composer, director of the Flashback ensemble, guest of the festival (France)
Thomas Pénanguer, digital visual artist, guest of the festival (France)
____________________
21:00 Bernhard LANG
DW 22 “Winterlicht” for bass flute and double bass (2010) RP
Monadology XVI “Solfeggio” for flute (2011) RP
DW 25 “...more loops for U...” for amplified double bass (2014) RP
Performers:
Manuel Zurria, flute (Italy)
Dario Calderone, double bass (the Netherlands)
**********************************************************************
Thursday, October 24
Conference Hall of the Conservatory, 12:00
PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK
Carl Dahlhaus. Izbrannye trudy po istorii i teorii muzyki
[Carl Dahlhaus. Selected Works on Music History and Music Theory]
Centre for Electroacoustic Music of the Conservatory, 14: 00
Workshop: Dario Calderone, double bass (the Netherlands)
Rakhmaninov Hall of the Conservatory
EROICA — EROTICA
CONSTRUCTION AND DECONSTRUCTION OF THE SENSES
Concert 1
19:00 Pierre SCHAEFFER, Pierre HENRY
Symphonie pour un homme seul (1949–1950, fragments)
4. Erotica
9. Eroica
Mauricio KAGEL
Zehn Maersche um den Sieg zu verfehlen for wind instruments and percussion (1978–1979) RP
№№ 1, 2, 3, 9, 10
Sylvano BUSSOTTI
Lachrimae (1978) version for double bass solo by D. Calderone RP
Alexey SIOUMAK
Hero's Last Dance for solo flute (2019) WP
Erwin SCHULHOFF
Sonata Erotica for female voice solo (1919) RP
_____________________
20:00 Discussion
Igor Kondakov, professor of the department of history and theory of culture of RSUH, author of the book «Russian Mass Culture: from Baroque to Postmodern»
Anatoly Osmolovsky, visual artist and art theorist, founder of the BAZA Institute
Klaus Lang, composer, special guest of the festival (Austria)
_____________________
21:00 Olga BOCHIKHINA
…, but the Ship Sails On for violin and piano
for double bass, electronics, also soprano and tenor ad libitum (2017)
Nikolay POPOV
Edit(a)Fill for flute, electronics and video (2015)
video artist — Alexander Plakhin and Alexandra Golikova
Klaus LANG
Darkness and Freedom for flute, cello and accordion (2016/2017) RP
Mauricio KAGEL
Zehn Maersche um den Sieg zu verfehlen for wind instruments and percussion (1978–1979) RP
№№ 8, 7, 6, 5, 4
Performers:
Manuel Zurria, flute (Italy)
Dario Calderone, double bass (Netherlands)
Nadezhda Meyer, soprano
Alexey Smirnov, stage director
Nikolay Popov, electronics
Studio for New Music Ensemble
Sergey Akimov, conductor
18+
**********************************************************************
Friday, October 25
Centre for Electroacoustic Music of the Conservatory, 14: 00
Workshop: Manuel Zurria, flute (Italy)
Rakhmaninov Hall of the Conservatory, 19:00
EROICA — EROTICA
CONSTRUCTION AND DECONSTRUCTION OF THE SENSES
Concert 2
19:00 Stefan PRINS
Piano Hero #1 for midi-keyboard, live-electronics & video (2011–2012) RP
Alec HALL
A Dog is a Machine for Loving for speaking pianist and electronics (2016–2018) RP
Stefan PRINS
Piano Hero #4 for midi-keyboard, live-electronics & video (2016–2017) RP
Performers:
Stephane Ginsburgh, piano (Belgium)
Alec Hall, electronics (Canada)
____________________
20:00 Discussion
Irina Sirotkina, leading research fellow of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, historian of psychology and anthropologist
Roman Nasonov, associate professor of the foreign music subdepartment of Moscow Conservatory
Stephane Ginsburgh, pianist, guest of the festival (Belgium)
Alec Hall, composer, guest of the festival (Canada)
____________________
21:00 Vladimir GORLINSKY
10 Orpheus Songs for voice, artificial reverberation and delay (2018) WP
Performers:
Vladimir Gorlinsky, voice
Alexey Nadzharov, electronics
**********************************************************************
Saturday, October 26
Rakhmaninov Hall of the Conservatory
LOCAL — GLOBAL
19:00 Arman GUSHCHYAN
Stillhörig for 13 instrumentalists (2013) RP
Mehdi HOSSEINI
Inertia for clarinet, piano, violin and violoncello (2014)
Henry COWELL
Homage to Iran for violin, piano and Persian drum (1959)
____________________
20:00 Discussion
Mikhail Velizhev, professor of Higher School of Economics, author of the book «Civilization, or the War of the Worlds»
Faradj Karaev, composer, professor of the Moscow Conservatory
Mehdi Hosseini, composer, director of the Center for Contemporary Music reMusik.org (St. Petersburg)
Arman Gushchyan, composer, founder of the platform «Trajectory of Music»
____________________
21:00 Klaus LANG
Tehran Dust for harmonium and cello (2013) RP
Faradj KARAEV
Sermon, Mugam and Prayer for tar and chamber ensemble (1997) RP
Performers:
Honored Artist of Azerbaijan
Sahib Pashazade, tar
Studio for New Music Ensemble
Sergey Akimov, conductor
**********************************************************************
Sunday, October 27
Karo Film Oktyabr Cinema Theater
DIE STADT OHNE JUDEN (THE CITY WITHOUT JEWS)
Silent film by Hans Karl Breslauer (1924)
Music by Olga Neuwirth (2017)
The film “Die Stadt ohne Juden” which came out in 1922 was produced based on the anti-utopian novel of the same name by Hugo Bettauer. The book was written in the conditions of tide of antisemitism gaining power at that time resounding to it with a bitter satire: the writer narrates about the banishment of the Jews from Vienna.
The book was very popular in its time and became the most well-known work by Hugo Bettauer. In 1923 Hans Karl Breslauer began his work on creating the film. The producer altered a number of details, — in particular, he created the real Vienna into an imaginary Utopia. The greater amount of modifications and deviations from the original story were required in order to avoid problems with the censorship. During the exhibition of the film the Nazis were staging riots across the country, and in 1925 Hugo Bettauer was shot by a member of the National Socialist Workers’ Party.
For many years the film “Die Stadt ohne Juden” was considered to be lost. In 2015 it was found by chance at a flea market in Paris and passed on to the Austrian National Cinema Archive, where it was restored. Presently “Die Stadt ohne Juden” is acknowledged to be one of the most important Austrian films of the interwar period and the first cinematographic document directed against antisemitism.
The music of Olga Neuwirth was composed especially for the premiere of the restored version of the film which took place on November 7, 2018 at the Vienna Konzerthaus.
That’s the game I like to play with: sometimes I call it “an ironic distance” from the content. But on the other hand I do want to be emotionally in the content. I play with clichés and stereotypes – this is something that I do in Die Stadt, in relation to the different types of characters, all the while avoiding turning them into caricatures. For example, I play around with motifs based on Austrian yodellers, sometimes distorting them on the samples, sometimes making them really short for the live musicians themselves to perform. ‘My music has to relate to my own sound world. And that sound world is something between a “musical rage” – which relates to how far the human being can go in terms of hatred – and a “musical distance”, featuring distorted musical stereotypes.’ It would seem to be a dialogue between this ‘musical rage’ and satire that grows out of this composer’s use of musical cliché.
Olga Neuwirth
Based on the program note for the show at Milton Court Concert Hall, Nov 15, 2018
Russian Premiere
Hosted by:
Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory
National Fund of Copyright Holders’ Support
Performers:
Studio for New Music Ensemble
Igor Dronov, conductor