Baltic Youth Philharmonic Led by Kristjan Järvi to open the Usedom Music Festival

By -

New youth orchestra of the Baltic region wraps second season with a September 19th Performance at Peenemünde

North German Radio to broadcast concert in this historic space

The seventy young musicians of the Baltic Youth Philharmonic have had a thrilling second season of music-making bringing their “extraordinary sound” (Weser Kurier) to six countries this summer: Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Denmark and Germany. On September 19, 2009, the Baltic Youth Philharmonic will open the 16th Usedom Music Festival, performing in the historic turbine hall at the Peenemünde Museum. This former Third Reich weapons research and testing facility on the island of Usedom in Germany has now been reimagined as a monument of peace and remembrance. This performance will be recorded for broadcast on North German Radio (NDR) and will be distributed to radio stations worldwide through the European Broadcasting Union.

The Baltic Youth Philharmonic will present Symphony No. 1 by Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 5 by Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, the Overture Das Märchen von der schönen Melusine by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy as well as Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto Opus 61 in a version for piano and orchestra by Beethoven himself. The cadenzas of the concerto, more commonly known in its version for violin and orchestra, were written specifically for the Baltic Youth Philharmonic by Lithuanian composer Anatolijus Senderovas. Swedish pianist Peter Jablonski premieres this new version of the concerto.

During their summer 2009 performances, the Baltic Youth Philharmonic was warmly greeted by audiences and journalists alike. The Weser-Kurier Bremen said the Baltic Youth Philharmonic “knows how to put a spell on an audience,” while the orchestra was also praised for their “sheer joy of playing” (Nordkurier) and a sound which is “very cultivated, but at the same time passionate” (Ostsee Zeitung).

The Baltic Youth Orchestra is an innovative training orchestra founded in the summer of 2008 as a joint initiative between the Usedom Music Festival and Nord Stream AG and led by Founding Conductor and Music Director Kristjan Järvi. The Baltic Youth Philharmonic brings together the most promising young musicians ranging in age from 18-30 from music academies in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany to create A New Voice in the North, an experience that draws upon the richness of the region’s diversity. Since April 2009, the Baltic Youth Philharmonic is an associate member of the European Federation of National Youth Orchestras (EFNYO).

Together with the North German Radio (NDR), the Usedom Music Festival initiated a series of concerts at Peenemünde in 2002 with a performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich. The Peenemünde Concerts are now the highlights of the annual festival, marking a new chapter in the history of the place. In the former electricity plant serving the production of rockets, a new generation of young musicians now gather to make music in this historic context.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more