The Treasure Hunt with Bas Wiegers

With Rebecca Saunders, on working closely with musicians

I have a chat with Rebecca Saunders, who works very closely with musicians to find the sounds she loves. We speak about the new piece (Skull) which we have just premiered at the Achtbrücken Festival, but also about other pieces and musicians who have inspired her. 
 
I’ve woven small fragments of her music into the episode. If you want to have a proper listen to the entire pieces, the links are below. 
 
YES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtuJLKb0Vwc
Ensemble Musikfabrik, Juliet Fraser, Enno Poppe
 
DUST https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA2P7PQp0OU
Dirk Rothbrust, percussion 
 
SKIN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkdODcg2Fmw
Klangforum Wien, Juliet Fraser, Bas Wiegers
 
SCAR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BriQ35IrGxA
Klangforum Wien, Julien Leroy 

With Johanna Zimmer, on singing in very different situations

For this episode, I spoke with Johanna Zimmer, a wonderful soprano I had the joy of working with many times. She works as a soloist, as a chamber musician, in the choir, in opera. We speak about this versatility and why she needs it in her life. We speak about words in music and how important they are for us as musicians. At the moment, we are working with the SWR Vokalensemble on a program with music by Ligeti, Feldman and Orlando di Lasso. 
 
The music you hear, is: 
 
György Ligeti - Three Fantasies: Wenn aus der Ferne 
SWR Vokalensemble, Yuval Weinberg 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvJzdYziCic
 
Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel 
SWR Vokalensemble, Marcus Creed 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGQe3NsuvfM&t=636s
 
Orlando di Lasso - Lagrime di San Pietro: il magnanimo Pietro 
Ensemble Vocal Européen, Philippe Herreweghe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeHZQ83oFQM
 
Franz Tunder - Ach Herr, lass deine lieben Engelein
Johanna Zimmer, Ensemble with Fabian Wöhrle, continuo 

A talk with Enno Poppe

For this episode, I spoke with Enno Poppe. At the moment of recording, I am doing his piece Speicher with Klangforum Wien. We speak about deciding what ideas you want to put in a piece, Enno's love of idiomatic material and his close relationship to players, which is so important for the way he writes. We speak about the different roles we can have: in the case of Enno, he is not only a composer, but also a conductor, a player, and, of course, also sometimes audience. How does his persona change when his role changes? Is a conductor a different person? 
The music you hear is:
 
Enno Poppe - Speicher (Klangforum Wien, Enno Poppe) 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR_43dJWjFw
 
Enno Poppe - Augen (Sara Maria Sun, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Bas Wiegers) 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkiG3uWah1s
 
 

Getting to know Chaya Czernowin

In this episode, I try to describe the process of getting to know a composer I haven't worked with before. To my great joy, I finally get to work with Chaya Czernowin. I try to explain how I get into her music, I speak to her about the music, and we listen to some inspiring musicians playing her music. 

Joseph Haydn, the great surpriser

In this episode, I try to share how I fell in love with Joseph Haydn. It's a shout out to my former theory teachers! 
I'm preparing two of his symphonies (38 and 101) for a concert with the Münchener Kammerorchester, and studying and rehearsing these works is so exciting and refreshing. Why does Haydn inspire me so much? And how can we keep discovering his music over and over again? 
Here are links to the full recordings of the fragments I used: 
 
Starsailor, Four on the floor 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k98fnaHGjwU
 
String Quartet no 57, Dudok Quartet 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9umdVIyx13w
 
Symphony no 103, Sigiswald Kuyken & La Petite Bande 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWexiBzbqTw&t=3
 
Symphony no 101, Frans Brüggen, Orchestra of the 18th Century 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9Qtu15FLTM&t=2s
 
 
 
 
 

With Trevor Grahl: on finding treasures

A chat with composer and good friend Trevor Grahl about taste and fashion in music, the pressure to follow this fashion, and the journey to to find your own voice. 
Links to the pieces: 
Kapote https://youtu.be/ZXs8Q6UYANU
Sterre Konijn, voice
Jurjen Hempel, conductor
RKST21
 
Dreams of Machines: https://youtu.be/4RtBrQG6hnw
Brno Contemporary Orchestra, Pavel Šnajdr, conductorWolfgang Heisig, pianola
 
Of Ancient Days: https://youtu.be/XNCihLvcjDo
Trevor Grahl, organ 
 
Babbelbox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXbShFT_rGY&ab_channel=Lonelinoise
Sebastiaan Kemner - trombone & chickenVincent van Wijk - Oboe D'amore & poser
 
 

With Georg Friedrich Haas: on interpretation

In this episode, I speak with the great composer Georg Friedrich Haas. I try find out what he has to say about "interpretation", this space between what a composer writes down and what a musician makes of it. We speak about communicating your ideas with an orchestra, teaching young composers and writing for Austrian brass bands. 

A chat with Mollena

I have the magnificent Mollena Lee Williams Haas as my guest. We speak about the opera Sycorax and its characters. About women in opera, people of color in opera, and generally about how to make stories that translate to as many people as possible. About opera as a way to make people see what life is. Also, about Georg Friedrich Haas, and about our previous collaboration in Mollena’s and GF’s joint piece Hyena. 
The music is an excerpt of Hyena, the live recording of the première at Wien Modern, with Mollena speaking, Klangforum Wien playing and me conducting. The recording can be found here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oa4uCKbj4g&list=RD5oa4uCKbj4g&start_radio=1
By the way, contrary to what I’m announcing in the talk, we heard a bit of the BEGINNING of Hyena, not the ending. 
Mollena’s own podcast can be found here: 
https://allthatandmo.com
 

Sycorax, a new opera!

Discovering the building stones of Sycorax, the new opera by Georg Friedrich Haas. We hear some Haas, some Grisey, some Vivier, some Tibetan throat singers, and a wonderful Jubilate. 
 
G.F. Haas - Limited Approximations - SWR Sinfonieorchester and Sylvain Cambreling 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoqvGLdjUhE&t=1540s
Gérard Grisey - Partiels - Asko Ensemble and Stefan Asbury
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v7onrjN6RE&t=30s
Claude Vivier - Lonely Child - AskoSchoenberg and Reinbert de Leeuw 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP23EnBQjw8
G.F. Haas - String Quartet no 9 - Jack Quartet 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk_2bg3utv8&t=409s
W.A. Mozart - Exsultate, Jubilate - Julia Lezhneva and Helsinki Baroque Orchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLan_H8w8S4
W.A. Mozart - Ach, ich fühl's by - Christiane Oelze, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg96zrTe_jY
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Prologue

The Treasure Hunt, a personal account by conductor Bas Wiegers about how a musical score functions as a treasure map and leads to a concert. Also an upbeat to the next episode, where I will tell you more about Sycorax, a new opera by Georg Friedrich Haas, opening at the Bern opera house in September 2022. 
 
Mirela Ivicevic - Black Moon Lilith - RSB Berlin, Bas Wiegers 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unJRA38yvX8
Georg Friedrich Haas - in vain - Klangforum Wien, Sylvain Cambreling 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUfLkc_Smvg
W.A. Mozart - Symphony no 40 - Concentus Musicus, Nicolaus Harnoncourt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5iVnSBOz6w