Special concert musica viva - Commemorating the 100th Birthday of Galina Ustvolskaya
Thursday, 21. November 2019, 8.00 pm
Munich, Herkulessaal
Programme
Henri Dutilleux
Trois Strophes sur le nom de Sacher
Johann Sebastian Bach
Suite für Violoncello solo Nr. 5 c-Moll, BWV 1011
Galina Ustvolskaya
Composition No. 1 "Dona nobis pacem" for piccolo, tuba and piano [1970-71]
Galina Ustvolskaya
Composition No. 2 "Dies irae" for 8 double basses, percussion and piano [1972-73]
Galina Ustvolskaya
Composition No. 3 "Benedictus, qui venit" for 4 flutes, 4 bassoons and piano [1974-75]
Nicolas Altstaedt, Cello
Natalie Schwaabe, Piccolo
Henrik Wiese, Flute
Ivanna Ternay, Flute
Petra Schiessel, Flute
Marco Postinghel, Bassoon
Susanne Sonntag, Bassoon
Rainer Seidel, Bassoon
Francisco Esteban Rubio, Bassoon
Stefan Tischler, Tuba
Markus Steckeler, Percussion
Lukas Maria Kuen, Piano
Heinrich Braun, Double Bass
Philipp Stubenrauch, Double Bass
Simon Wallinger, Double Bass
Frank Reinecke, Double Bass
Teja Andresen, Double Bass
Lukas Richter, Double Bass
José Trigo, Double Bass
Yi-Rung Lai, Double Bass

“To me she’s like a meteorite that fell to earth.” Commentaries on Galina Ustvolskaya, like this one by Martin Hinterhäuser, often go to extremes. Born in 1919, this Russian composer knew no middle ground; her music opens up gaping chasms. When quiet realms shudder beneath a hammerblow, she reduces her resources to a bare minimum. No one before had ever shown how infinite is the distance separating a tuba from a piccolo. Ustvolskaya commanded respect with her unwillingness to compromise. One of her teachers, Dmitri Shostakovich, called her “my musical conscience” and subjected his unpublished works to her scrutiny. Her own works, of which only 25 reached publication, are often written for small ensembles, but hardly for small spaces: “My music is never chamber music, not even in the case of a solo sonata!” Her pupil Boris Tishchenko compared the density of her style with the bundled rays of a laser beam, which is capable of piercing metal. Now, for the centenary of her birth, Nicolas Altstaedt contrasts her Triade with two pieces for unaccompanied cello that convey not only the profound loneliness of her music but its existential force.
Gallery












22.11.2019
Peter Rundel
07.02.2020
27.03.2020
Brad Lubman – CANCELLED