schott aktuell - the journal 3/2012 online

A featured theme in this years Salzburg Whitsun Festival is ‘Queen Cleopatra’. The legendary, beautiful Queen, shrouded in mystery has been the subject of literature and arts. Rodion Shchedrin chose the scene of Cleopatra’s death from her dramatic life for a work commissioned by the festival. This work for soprano and symphony orchestra is inspired by Shakespeare’s tragedy. One of the most eminent sopranos of our time, Anna Netrebko, a compatriot of the composer, sings ‘Cleopatra’ in Russian, their mother tongue, at the world première in May. A short opera with a soprano and large orchestra is based on a similar idea to Francis Poulenc’s La voix humaine, as Shchedrin says.

Our Repertoire Recommendations in this issue present a selection of the works for soprano and orchestra composed during the past two decades. We hope you will find plenty of opportunities to appreciate the many ‘different forms of lyrical expression conveyed by the soprano voice and a large symphonic orchestra.’ (Henri Dutilleux)

- from the editorial by Yuki Yokota, Schott Music Tokyo

p 3: Editorial by Yuki Yokota · Contents
pp 4-7: World premières: Rodion Shchedrin: Cleopatra and the Snake · Gerald Barry: Long Time · Gavin Bryars: OverWorlds · Chaya Czernowin: Esh (Fire) · Christian Jost: DnA · Krzysztof Penderecki: De natura sonoris no. 3 · Fazil Say: Symphony No. 2 · Huw Watkins: Piano Quartet · Jörg Widmann: Zirkustänze
pp 8-9: First nights: Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler in Zurich · Toshio Hosokawa: The Raven in Luxembourg · Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Die tote Stadt in Sydney · György Ligeti: Lontano als Ballett in Düsseldorf · Richard Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos in Hamburg and Heidelberg · Richard Wagner: Parsifal in Amsterdam
pp 10-17: Repertoire recommendations - SOPRANOS
p 18: Jean Françaix: 100th birthday on 23 May 2012
p 19: New sheet music editions and catalogues
pp 20-21: New CDs and DVDs
pp 22-23: News
p 24: Repertoire - Carl Orff: Carmina Burana

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