Upcoming Performances & Anniversaries
Alexander Goehr
born: 08/10/1932
nationality: United Kingdom
Upcoming:
Little Music for Strings
Conductor: Gerald Gentry
10/16/2008 | Melba Hall, The University of Melbourne - Melbourne - Australia
"...kein Gedanke, nur ruhiger Schlaf"
11/30/2008 | Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall - London - United Kingdom
Alexander Goehr, composer and teacher, was born in Berlin on 10 August 1932, son of the conductor Walter Goehr, and was brought to England in 1933. He studied with Richard Hall at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where together with Harrison Birtwistle, Peter Maxwell Davies and John Ogdon he formed the New Music Manchester Group, and with Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod in Paris. In the early 60's he worked for the BBC and formed the Music Theatre Ensemble, the first devoted to what has become an established musical form. From the late ‘60’s onwards he taught at the New England Conservatory Boston, Yale, Leeds and was appointed to the chair of the University of Cambridge in 1975. He has also taught in China and has twice been Composer-in-residence at Tanglewood. He is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a former Churchill Fellow, and was the Reith Lecturer in 1987.
He has written four operas: Arden Must Die, Hamburg 1967; Behold the Sun, Deutsche Oper 1985; Arianna, lost opera by Monteverdi, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1995 and subsequently recorded for NMC); Kantan & Damask Drum, Theater Dortmund September 1999; and a music theatre Triptych.
He has written four operas: Arden Must Die, Hamburg 1967; Behold the Sun, Deutsche Oper 1985; Arianna, lost opera by Monteverdi, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1995 and subsequently recorded for NMC); Kantan & Damask Drum, Theater Dortmund September 1999; and a music theatre Triptych.
His orchestral works, including four symphonies, concerti for piano, violin, viola and cello and other orchestral compositions have at various times been performed by Dorati, Boulez, Barenboim, Pritchard, Haitink, Ozawa, Dohnanyi and Rattle, with soloists including Parikian, Ricci, Jaqueline du Pré, Ogdon and Barenboim. Peter Serkin has premièred and recorded several works, and Oliver Knussen regularly conducts his music.
The cantata The Death of Moses was premièred in Seville Cathedral by the Monteverdi Choir conducted by John Eliot Gardiner; Schlussgesang was given its first performance at the 1997 Aldeburgh Festival by Tabea Zimmermann and the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Oliver Knussen. Idées fixes, for The London Sinfonietta's 30th Season, received its first performance with Oliver Knussen in December 1997. Premières in 2001 included two orchestral works, for the Halle Handel Festival and the BBC Proms, and a Suite for Pamela Frank and Peter Serkin commissioned by the Harvard Musical Society. This work is now in the repertory of Midori, and featured in her groundbreaking 2005 Contemporary Music Project. ...around Stravinsky, written for the Nash Ensemble, was premièred in March 2002. His Piano Quintet, commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Peter Serkin and the Orion Quaret, was given its first performance at the Aldeburgh Festival in June 2002 by Tom Poster and the Brodsky Quartet, due to the indisposition of Peter Serkin. However, Peter Serkin and the Orion Quartet presented the US première in the Zankell Hall in September 2003. Its London première took place in November 2005 with Daniel Becker and the Elias Quartet.
In 2003 Alexander Goehr completed a Koussevitsky commission, Marching to Carcassone, for Peter Serkin and the London Sinfonietta conducted by Oliver Knussen. A new version for orchestra was premiered by Serkin with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra in July 2005.
Recent works include an orchestral piece,Adagio (Autoporträt) commissioned by the Musikalischen Akademie des Nationaltheater-Orchesters Mannheim e.V; Fantasie, for Paul and Huw Watkins (who also recorded his Cello Sonata); and a series of piano pieces, Symmetry Disorders Reach, which is now available on WERGO performed by Huw Watkins.
Recent works include an orchestral piece,Adagio (Autoporträt) commissioned by the Musikalischen Akademie des Nationaltheater-Orchesters Mannheim e.V; Fantasie, for Paul and Huw Watkins (who also recorded his Cello Sonata); and a series of piano pieces, Symmetry Disorders Reach, which is now available on WERGO performed by Huw Watkins.
Goehr’s current projects are an opera, ‘Promised End’ based on King Lear – work in progress, and a Clarinet Quintet commissioned by the BBC for the Nash Ensemble, to be premièred at Wigmore Hall, London on 12 March.
