This autumn’s Exposition of New Music is about to begin. Songs from another dimension, a world premiere and some contemplation in the penitentiary

3 October 2018, 2:00
This autumn’s Exposition of New Music is about to begin. Songs from another dimension, a world premiere and some contemplation in the penitentiary

The autumn part of the Exposition of New Music will be beginning this week. This year, it will offer four events at different spots in Brno. The motto of this 31st year is Když nestíháš, zpomal (“When you can’t keep up, slow down”).

The first evening of the Exposition goes under the name Mimo čas a prostor (“Beyond Time and Space) The world-renowned soprano Lore Lixenberg will perform the complete cycle of the mysterious Songs of Capricorn by Giacinto Scelsi for the first time. “The Italian aristocrat and composer wrote in a very distinctive way. He sat down, let mind and time flow and used to sing his works for his writers. These works then seemed to come from a different world, where the laws of today’s rushed world didn’t apply,” said the festival’s dramaturge Viktor Pantůček. The concert will take place on October 11 at 7.30 p.m. in the Stiassni Villa.

Two days later, on 13 October, the festival will move to Besední dům, where the Spanish ensemble Plural Ensemble, specialising in contemporary music, will be performing. “Our intention is not simply to present top musicians and unique compositions to the Czech public, but also to get Czech compositions into the repertoires of these brilliant ensembles. The concert will also include the world premiere of a composition by Brno composer Ivo Medek and Spanish composer Fabian Panisello,” said Pantůček. According to him, the concert is conceived of as that sometimes necessary break, a slowing down. The concert begins at 7.30 p.m.

Every year it is the intention of the festival to give space for local top musicians to present. In the autumn part, the Brno Contemporary Orchestra will be performing in the chapel of the former penitentiary on Cejl street. The evening, bearing the name Dům strach (“House of Fear”), will connect the poems of the unjustly convicted Jan Zahradníček with the music of Fausto Romitelli. The poems written in prison together with the expressive and emotionally taught compositions, sounding like a parallel world of the sick and prematurely deceased Italian composer Fausto Romitelli. Two different journeys leading from chaos and suffering to hope and resurrection, all of it in an extraordinary environment. The story of suffering and hope will be played out on October 17 from 7.30 p.m.

The festival will be concluded on 30 October with the ceremonial opening of Vašulka Kitchen Brno, the ceremonial beginning of service for the exhibition and research centre. The fully equipped space is intended for experimental research into electronic media.

Lore Lixenberg/ photo archive

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