Ensemble Modern
Bas Wiegers | Dirigent


Rebecca Saunders
Skull (2023)
für Ensemble
Kompositionsauftrag von Ensemble Modern, Oslo Sinfonietta, Ensemble Contrechamps, ACHT BRÜCKEN | Musik für Köln und La Biennale di Venezia
Uraufführung


Estimated end at 21:15


Das Konzert wird vom WDR für den Hörfunk aufgezeichnet und kann am 11. Juni im Radio und anschließend für 30 Tage auf wdr3.de nachgehört werden.

Gefördert durch die Kunststiftung NRW


ACHT BRÜCKEN

»Dust is the skin of a room.« This line from Samuel Beckett’s television play »Ghost Trio« inspired Saunders’ composition »Skin«. At the core of the piece, however, is not the texture of a room, but of a voice – that of soprano Juliet Fraser, whose sonic dimensions are revealed layer by layer, unfolding within the surrounding instrumental sound.

»Scar« also indicates a piece of skin, at the same time a relict of its wounding, when something »gets under your skin«, such as – metaphorically – the piercing instrumental entrances in Saunders’ eponymous ensemble work. Sharp glissandi rend the silence. In its abrasive left-right structure, the sound panorama is torn open over and over. The back-and-forth resembles the exchange of blows.

The game played within and with the space, with musical surfaces and undergrounds, can be further intensified: with the world premiere of the third composition »Skull«, Saunders revisits this context, and »Skin« and »Scar« become part of a triptych.