Festival Internacional de Musica de Canarias

Oct. 14, 2023
Espacio la Granja
Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Oct. 15, 2023
Teatro Guiniguada
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

conductor
Nacho de Paz

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano/keyb
Berndt Thurner, percussion
Samuel Toro Pérez, electric guitar
Jacobo Hernandez Enriquez, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Maximilian Ölz, double bass

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

Programm

Mirela Ivicevic
Case Black for 7 instruments & electronics, 2016  8’

José Luis Perdigón
ill-use III
for bass flute, bass clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, cello and e-guitar, 2023 (wp)

Fausto Romitelli
Professor Bad Trip: Lesson I – III for ensemble and electronics, 1998-2000

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Focus on Sarah Nemtsov

31. Mai. 2024 // 20.00
Graz, Kunstuniversität Graz,
MUMUTH Probebraum

PHACE
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano/keyboard
Roland Schueler, cello
Maximilian Ölz, electric bass
Berndt Thurner, percussion

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

eine Produktion von open music in Kooperation mit der KUG. Zentrum für Genderforschung und Diversität (ZfGD)und PHACE 

Sarah Nemtsov’s music doesn’t fit into one or even all drawers. Finely branching sound structures, peppered with countless signs, metaphors, phrases, symbols and influences from all imaginable directions can be found and yet the deep roots in the tonality of European musical tradition can also be heard. Not afraid of breaks and profound interventions in the sound, Nemtsov likes to use electronic means of alienation and artificiality, but also manages to breathe an organic liveliness into the music that can hardly be imitated. For example, when the fingers on the drum dance in a duet with a robot beetle in Bugs. And the composer does not shy away from something else: the big, the difficult and the unpleasant themes. Be it dealing with death, loss and memories in Seven Colours or looking at the contrasts in the reality of life between rich and poor, between the first and third worlds in Mountain & Maiden, where the piano, almost like a 21st-century silent film pianist, plays over beautiful images of huge mountains of garbage in the film by Shmuel Hoffman and Anton von Heiseler. Nemtsov doesn’t hide anything in her music, doesn’t sugarcoat it, she uses tones and sounds to focus on the core. Reason enough for a closer look at the outstanding work of one of the most exciting composers of our time and a focus on Sarah Nemtsov.

 

 

PROGRAMM 

Sechs Zeichen for cello und (prepared) piano, 2010. 8′

Seven Colours for amplified cello, electric bass, prepared piano and sampler, drum set und electronics, 2018 D: 15‘

Bugs – study for snare, mini robot, hands and amplification, as well as live video ad libitum, 2021. 5′

Kadosh  for (amplified) violin solo (with effect pedals), 2021 14′

Mountain & Maiden
a Film by Shmuel Hoffman & Anton von Heiseler
with a composition by Sarah Nemtsov for keyboard solo (with amplified piano and voice), 2019 d: 24′

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Im Bett des Imaginariums

26.Mar.2024 // 20:00
Osterfestival Tirol
Hall i.Tt, Salzlager

 

26.Jun.2023, REAKTOR, Wien

büro lunaire
Gina Mattiello, text, voice
Reinhold Schinwald, sound design, live electronics
Florian Kindlinger, Sound

PHACE
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello

Eine Produktion von büro lunaire in Kooperation mit PHACE und Osterfestival Tirol .

Die Fantasie entreißt dem Verstand die Beute des Vergessens.

 

The text of the live radio play is an attempt of poetic intensification in the form of footnotes. The author moves in space around a Kunstkopf-microphone while speaking the text. The recordings are played to the audience in real time via wireless headphones. Consequently, the audience not only perceive the text from the narrator’s perspective, but also immerse into an interplay between closeness and distance, interior and exterior perception, as well as real and artificial spaces. Remains of landscapes emerge, memory particles, day or night dreams: fragments rushing away in different directions. The language oscillates between what the author perceives, as well as objets trouvés from thevisual arts, literature and philosophy. The compositions for string instruments and live electronics woven into the text allow the literary fragments to grow into the imaginary.

Program

Christoph Herndler
Abschreiben (2005) Streichtrio

Clara Iannotta
dead wasps in the jam jar (2014-2015) Violine

Reinhold Schinwald
empreintes III (UA, 2023) Streichtrio und Live-Elektronik

Franck Bedrossian
The Spider as an Artist (2014) Violoncello und Verstärkung

Klaus Lang
die ränder der welt (2005) Violine

Enno Poppe
Fingernagel (2009) Violine und Viola

Rebecca Saunders
hauch (2018) Violine

Gérman Toro Pérez
Rulfo / ecos II (2006) Streichtrio und Live-Elektronik

Di, 26. March 20:00
Hall, Salzlager

Information & Tickets

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PHACE | ANIMAL SMILEYS

7.May.2024 // 19:30
Wiener Konzerthaus, Berio-Saal

PHACE Series 23/24 – N°3

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Reinhold Brunner, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Berndt Thurner, percussion
Ivana Pristasova Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Maximilian Ölz, double bass
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
and many more …

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

With support by

PROGRAMM

Sarah Nemtsov
Sechs Zeichen for cello und (prepared) piano, 2010

Mikel Urquiza
Opus Latericium for flute, saxophone, clarinet and piano, 2018

Katharina Rosenberger
wälzen, schieben, frachten for string trio and Turntables (wp), 2023/24
Comissioned by PHACE, with support of the Swiss art council Pro Helvetia

Victor Ibarra
B-side for saxophone, percussion and piano (wp), 2023/24
Comissioned by  PHACE, funded by Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (FONCA) Mexico

Jorge Sanchez-Chiong
Animal Smileys for string trio, electric organ, mid-0 equipment & psychedelic electronics, 2022/24
wp of the new version

 

Opus Latericium is inspired by a Roman adobe construction of the imperial period. Triangular bricks, united to a dotted, polished, hard and refractory surface: from the outside, the repetitive music of Mikel Urquiza destructively hammers in time-lapse the hard shell, exposes the ruin. What remains of the wall shows little resemblance to the beginning. Fractured and weathered, a scattered remnant. Sechs Zeichen by Sarah Nemtsov is also built on a deceptive foundation of instability. What seems static begins to take on a life of its own and change shape. Fragile sounds of longing, wrapped in a mysterious veil of sound, enter into an interplay with the insistent throbbing of sharp-edged sounds, rocking up to opposing poles that ultimately cancel each other out. In Animal Smileys, Jorge Sanchez-Chiong uses completely different tools to create music that is no less intense. Strange string sounds, dragged through the experimental laboratory of electronic effects, deformed, denatured, saturated. A rich sound experience that makes the ears gyrate on the experimental trance floor. Victor Ibarra’s compositions are usually characterized by a very precise handling of harmonies and tone structures and attention to rhythmic accents. In contrast, Katharina Rosenberger’s works question both musical production and reception habits from several angles. Both of them will probably contribute very different new works to the concert.

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PHACE | TIEMPO SUSPENDIDO

20.Mrz.2024 // 19:30
Wiener Konzerthaus, Berio-Saal

PHACE Series 23/24 – N°2

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Maria Chlebus, percussion
Ivana Pristasova Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Samuel Toro Perez, e-guitar

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

PROGRAM

 

Raquel García-Tomás
Estudio Sonomecánico no. 1 – Tiempo Suspendido for ensemble, electronics and video, 2018

Lorenzo Troiani 
La voce delle conchiglie for amplified bass clarinet and electronics, 2022

Joanna Bailie
Dissolve or ensemble, electronics and video, 2020 (ÖEA)

Daniela Terranova
Rainbow Dust in the Sky for string trio, 2018 (ÖEA)

Clara Iannotta
Outer Space for bariton saxophone, percussion, electric guitar, object performer, film und electronics, 2018
Film by Peter Tscherkassky

 

A woman, on the run from her own reflection, pursued by invisible enemies, driven into an errant scenario of annihilation. A horror-like dance of faces and reflections that spills over the edges and takes possession of the space outside. With music by Clara Iannotta, Peter Tscherkassky’s short film Outer Space unfolds an almost overwhelming sensual effect. Music and film are closely intertwined in very different ways in Estudio Sonomecánico no. 1 – Tiempo Suspendido by Raquel García-Tomás. Less of a soundtrack or background to the images, García-Tomás allows cinematic gestures and movements to emerge anew in the music and approaches standstill and timelessness with humorous everyday images. Daniela Terranova takes the musical classic “Over the Rainbow”, burned into the collective memory by Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz and a Hawaiian ukulele, as the starting point for Rainbow Dust in the Sky. Subtly pulverized and crushed to dust, the tracks of the song become nuanced, diluted echoes that, circling meditatively within themselves, suggest the ritualistic character of a lullaby. A constant, unstoppable flow is evident in Joanna Bailie’s Dissolve. In time-absorbing transitions, both the film and the sonic events alternate between concrete states and abstract moments, reality dissolves beyond recognition. Lorenzo Troiani goes into the inner world, playing in La Vita delle Conchiglie with the returning resonances and feedbacks in the body of instruments, creating a hidden and mysterious sound world, as if inside a conch shell.

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PHACE | PROFESSOR BAD TRIP

9.Jan.2024 // 19:30
Wiener Konzerthaus, Berio-Saal

PHACE Series 23/24 – N°1

 

 

In cooperation with
Österreichische Gesellschaft
für zeitgenössische Musik ÖGZM

CONDUCTORS
Nacho de Paz

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Reinhold Brunner, clarinet
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Francesco Palmieri, e-guitar
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Ivana Pristasova Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Maximilian Ölz, double bass

SOUND DESIGN
Alfred Reiter

PROGRAMM

Alexander Kaiser
[ˈprɪz(ə)m] for six musicians, 2014 (rev. 2016)

Emre Sihan Kaleli
A Dark Light / A Black Sun  for ensemble and electronics, 2023 (wp)
Comissioned by PHACE

Fausto Romitelli
Professor Bad Trip: Lesson I – III for ensemble and electronics, 1998-2000

Inspired by the descriptions of the effects of mescaline in the works of Henri Michaux, Fausto Romitelli’s work is all about “the artificial, the distorted, the filtered.” Romitelli forges sound sculptures that materialize like surreal musical visions of the deformations, distortions and disfigurements in Francis Bacon’s paintings. Influenced by the distorted and “dirty” sounds of psychedelic rock music, Romitelli creates a unique music that unfolds waves of melodic fragments over seductively fragile harmonies and exalted embellishments and rushing glissandi, only to collapse again and again. Material is jolted, develops expressive metastases, like a virus-infested musical mutant that becomes a beautifully ghoulish monster and captivates. The music of Alexander Kaiser, who in [ˈprɪz(ə)m] takes on the promises of an ideal world through area-wide monitoring of communication in the Western hemisphere, has a similarly wild balance sheet. Musically, the piece can be understood as a transformation of energy, with diverse influences from jazz, punk and electronic music merging into a rhythmically pronounced soundscape. More than enough expressive energy can usually be found in the music of Emre Sihan Kaleli, who likes to work with intensities, impulsivity and changeability and will contribute a new work for the concert.

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Normal 74,- Euro

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ensemble – electronics

PHACE | LIMINA

our series at
Wiener Konzerthaus
2023/24

 

CONDUCTOR
Nacho de Paz

 

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Reinhold Brunner, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Berndt Thurner, percussion
Ivana Pristašová Zaugg, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Maximilian Ölz, double bass
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
and many more …

The surface reveals nothing about the nature of the reverse side. The closer you get to it, the greater the counterpressure. Whoever wants to cross the threshold to see what lies behind it must expend an additional measure of energy. In LIMINA, everything revolves around the idea of considering sound and image as material into which one immerses oneself in order to forge one’s physical features as well as one’s mode of perception. Distorted images, deformed reflections of what has been, bent perspectives, following their own logic generate audiovisual constellations where reality melts into unrecognizability. Processes of extreme deceleration and acceleration, let us examine, as if with a magnifying glass, how grainy, holey, luminous, dense and elastic a sound can be when viewed from the other side of the threshold.

Before each concert, at 6:45 p.m., Juri Giannini will speak with composers of that evening at Salon PHACE

Termine in diesem Zyklus
DI 09.01.2024 KH Zyklus 1 – PHACE | PROFESSOR BAD TRIP
MI 20.03.2024 KH Zyklus 2 – PHACE | TIEMPO SUSPENDIDO
DI 07.05.2024 KH Zyklus 3 – PHACE | ANIMAL SMILEYS

Details zum Programm finden Sie auf den jeweiligen Seiten.

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Mitglieder 64,20 Euro
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ensemble – electronics

PHACE | KXE!

our series at
Wiener Konzerthaus
2022/23

 

CONDUCTORS
Nacho de Paz
Lars Mlekusch

PHACE
Doris Nicoletti, flute
Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Reinhold Brunner, clarinet
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Berndt Thurner, percussion
Ivana Pristasova, violin
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Maximilian Ölz, double bass
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
and many more …

On the centenary of Pier Paolo PASOLINI’s birth, Stefano Gervasoni and Paolo Pachini are searching in images and voices for the junction point between barbarism and civilization, for human authenticity, the heart of Pasolini’s vision. With this homage we start into new vocal-instrumental spheres, which span the arc from traces of Franco-Flemish vocal polyphony by Josquin Desprez to the voice-acrobatic miniature dramas Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures by György Ligeti – the second centenerian. With this pioneer of modern music, we continue the discourse on vocal-instrumental expression opened with Pasolini – the voice wanders with precision away from the level of meaning towards a labyrinthine amalgamation of imaginary actions and exaggerated emotions. New spaces open up between these program points: contours melt, sounds rub and grind, pulsate, flicker, melt away, are torn apart. An interplay of near and far: the view from a distance into the microscopic world of sound, into its granularity and brittleness and ultimately into silence.

Prior to each concert, at 18:45,  Juri Giannini will discuss the pieces with the composers of the evening.

Dates in this series:

WED 23.11.2022 KH series 1 – PHACE | PASOLINI
TUE 31.01.2023 KH series 2 – PHACE | CHROMA
TUE 28.03.2023 KH series 3 – PHACE | BLUR
TUE 29.05.2023 KH series 4 – PHACE | NOUVELLES AVENTURES

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members EUR 75,10
regular price EUR 91,-

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members EUR 81,50
regular EUR 89,50

youth subscription
regular EUR 48,-

Prices of single tickets are available as from fall 2022!

voice & ensemble 

PHACE | FACE Dia.De

6.Mar.2024
Salzburg, aspekteFESTIVAL, SZENE Salzburg

12.Sept.2020 // 20:00
Innsbruck, Klangspuren Schwaz – Haus der Musik

22.March.2020 // 20:00
Berlin, Berliner Festspiele / MaerzMusik – Festival für Zeitfragen

5.Nov.2019 // 19:30
Wiener Konzerthaus, Mozart Hall

PHACE Series 19/20 – N°1

A production by Wien Modern, PHACE, Wiener Konzerthaus & Berliner Festspiele / MaerzMusik – Festival für Zeitfragen

ARTISTS
Anna Clare Hauf, voice
Annette Schönmüller
, voice
Karera Fujita,
voice (Salzburg)
Emilio Pomarico, conductor  (Wien, Berlin)
Johannes Kalitzke, conductor (Innsbruck)
Lars Mlekusch, conductor (Salzburg)

PHACE

Michael Krenn, saxophone (Wien, Berlin, Salzburg)
Alvaro Collao Leon, saxophone (Innsbruck)
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Tom Pauwels, electric guitar (Wien)
Samuel Toro Perez (Innsbruck, Salzburg)
Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano
Alex Lipowski, percussion (Wien)
Berndt Thurner, percussion (Innsbruck)
Maria Chlebus, percussion (Salzburg)
Igor Gross, percussion
Roland Schueler, cello
Alexandra Dienz, double bass
Fredi Reiter, sound director

 

 

AVAILABLE NOW!

PROGRAM

Pierluigi Billone
FACE Dia.De
for two female voices and 8 instruments (2019) (world premiere) (65′)

commissioned by PHACE, Wien Modern and Berliner Festspiele / MaerzMusik – Festival für Zeitfragen
with financial support by BKA.

 

Press review:

Enthusiasm in the Mozartsaal of the Konzerthaus! “A rush, I’m very drunk, it was so beautiful,” enthused a gentleman in the dressing room after the premiere of Pierluigi Billone’s 65-minute piece “FACE Dia.De”, a composition commissioned by PHACE, Wien Modern and Berliner Festival. Emilio Pomàrico directs the singers and eight musicians of the outstanding ensemble PHACE, founded in 1991, which found its artistic home with its own subscription series at the Wiener Konzerthaus, through the enormously complex score. It is reminiscent of a ritual, of a “cultic space”. FACE Dia.De was the first highlight of the Festival Wien Modern.  (Karlheinz Roschitz, Kronenzeitung, 7.11.2019)

***

“The 65-minute work for two voices, saxophone, trombone, electric guitar, piano, percussion, cello and double bass does not play with text, but lets the vocals flow in nonverbal rhythms and sounds. With self-evident virtuosity, Anna Clare Hauf and Annette Schönmüller unlock a huge spectrum of vocalizations, between expressive vocalise and cackling, the fabulous ensemble “PHACE”, under the inspired direction of Emilio Pomàrico, concentrates the shimmering, sometimes weightless, then explosively discharging sounds into a trance-like density. ” (Regine Müller, NMZ, 2/2020)

In 2016 PHACE premiered FACE for voice and ensemble (65 ‘) by Pierluigi Billone at Festival Wien Modern 2016 and later at Philharmonie Luxembourg and Festival Ultraschall Berlin. For season 2019/20 PHACE commissioned FACE Dia.De for 2 female voices and 8 instruments, which should enter and extend the dimension, which the collaboration with Face has opened.

 

Pierluigi Billone about FACE Dia De:

»›FACE Dia.De‹ is the second part of my composition ›FACE‹ for voice and ensemble from 2016. The first part of the title, ›FACE‹, is derived from the old Italian world for light or star, as well as the English concept of face. The second part, ›Dia.De‹, signals the voice is always a dyad, ie. an entity made up of two separable parts. Dia and Deare also individual references to Diamanda Galas and Demetrio Stratos, two Greek singers whose lives are an adventure of the voice. There is no text. The voice flows to its rhythms and fashions, before the words emerge, its own accents. It is a constant vocal flow in which one voice always contains the other, there are plural, vocal acts that arise in the body and out of the body. They are autonomous, pre-verbal, they are the background and the foundation on which every word could find its place, but which is unnecessary here. Also, no literary or intellectual reference is needed to encounter the singing whose completeness and autonomy reach an area where the word can only have a limiting effect.« (Pierluigi Billone)

“Pierluigi Billone belongs to one of those rare magicians, who can suspend lineal time. One assumes with his music as if to enter a ritual space”
(Heinz Rögl)

“…his radical methods have led him to explore unchartered soundworlds and to develop idiosyncratic instrumental and vocal techniques. Nevertheless, the concurrent roots of these sources of inspirations lie in an archaic world – a sacred universum – where, as if for him, the most progressive standpoint of modernity would be when music itself reaches its own phenomenal essence.”
(Philippe Albéra)

aspekte 1 | Eröffnungskonzert: PHACE

6. März | 19:0020:30

Szene Salzburg

film & livemusic

Die Stadt ohne Juden
Olga Neuwirth

 

next & recent performances

14.6.2024 Tangente St. Pölten, Festspielhaus
27.7.2024 Salzburger Festspiele, SZENE Salzburg
28.7.2024 Salzburger Festspiele, SZENE Salzburg

13.5.2023 Berlin, Akademie der Künste
06.02.2023 Graz,  Oper Graz

07.11.2018 Vienna, Wiener Konzerthaus (wp)

 

Conductor

Nacho de Paz

PHACE

Walter Seebacher, clarinet
Reinhold Brunner, clarinet (Graz)
Michael Krenn, saxophone
Spiros Laskaridis, trumpet
Stefan Obmann, trombone
Samuel Toro Perez, electric guitar (Berlin, St. Pölten, Salzburg)
Francesco Palmieri, electric guitar (Graz)
Tom Pauwels, electric guitar (Berlin)
Felix Pöchhacker, electric guitar
Petra Ackermann, viola
Roland Schueler, cello
Barbara Riccabona, cello (Berlin)
Mathilde Hoursiangou, keyboard
Manuel Alcaraz Clemente, percussion (St. Pölten, Salzburg)
Berndt Thurner, percussion
Alfred Reiter, sound

The cooperation of PHACE and Nacho de Paz is kindly supported by Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) / PICE.
supported by Bundeskanzleramt Österreich, City of Vienna, SKE-Fonds.
ACE accion cultural logo

Stummfilm
Die Stadt ohne Juden 
(Österreich, 1924)

Director: Hans Karl Breslauer
Music: Olga Neuwirth Music for a silent film by Hans Karl Breslauer, for amplified ensemble and playback (2017)

Comissioned by Wiener Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Barbican Centre and Sinfonieorchester Basel. 

The silent film THE CITY WITHOUT JEWS is now considered one of the most important Austrian productions of the interwar period. In an irritatingly prophetic way, it shows the cultural and economic impoverishment of a city after the expulsion of the Jewish population. The work was only preserved in a fragmentary version – also trivializing its content – until the Austrian Film Archive finally rediscovered the missing parts in France.

Die Stadt ohne Juden. (c)Markus Bruckner)
It is a unique document with a unique story: Hans Karl Breslauer’s silent film stimulates deep reflection, about historical time, about the blindness of contemporaries, about our present and future itself. On the eponymous “„Die Stadt ohne Juden – ein Roman von übermorgen“ by the Jewish writer and journalist Hugo Bettauer (1872 – 1925), the film was shot in Vienna in 1924. In an irritatingly prophetic way, it shows – 15 years before the November pogroms – the escalating anti-Semitism of the time and the impoverishment of a city in all areas of life after the expulsion of the Jewish population. The work, long preserved only in a fragmentary version, was rediscovered and restored at a Paris flea market in 2015. On the occasion of the publication of the newly restored version, the Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth (*1968) wrote new film music on behalf of the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and others in 2017,  played live by PHACE alongside the film.

Filmarchiv Austria: Die Stadt ohne Juden

“It is very rare to get such a dense and emotionally stirring experience as “The City Without Jews” in the Graz Opera. […] A large part of the effect can also be attributed to the PHACE ensemble which, under the direction of Nacho de Paz, creates an atmosphere full of dark nuances from Neuwirth’s music conglomerate.
Kronen Zeitung, 8.2.2023 [Translated]

Fr. 14. Juni 2024
19:30

Festspielhaus St. Pölten
Tangente St. Pölten – Festival für Gegenwartskultur

Information & Tickets

Eine Veranstaltung der Tangente St. Pölten – Festival für Gegenwartskultur in Kooperation mit Festspielhaus St. Pölten im Rahmen der Jewish Weekends – Festival für jüdische Kultur der Ehemaligen Synagoge St. Pölten.

Sa. 27. Juli – So. 28. Juli
2 concerts

 

Programme

 

Hanns Eisler
Fourteen Ways of Describing the Rain — Variations for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano

 

The City Without Jews
Silent film by Hans Karl Breslauer, Austria, 1924 — Reconstruction and restored version (black and white, 82 min, © Filmarchiv Austria 2018)
Olga Neuwirth
Die Stadt ohne Juden (The City Without Jews)
Music for a silent film by Hans Karl Breslauer, for amplified ensemble and playback

 

7. November 2018
Wiener Konzerthaus, Wien Modern 31

»Hans Karl Breslauer: Die Stadt ohne Juden«

Eine gemeinsame Produktion von Wiener Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Barbican Centre, Sinfonieorchester Basel und ZDF/ARTE in Kooperation mit Wien Modern und Filmarchiv Austria

What can be experienced in the concert hall this evening […] is not a silent film. Not a silent film with music either. From the first moment, sound and images merge to form a breathing organism. The sounds alone immediately draw the viewer into this almost 100-year-old world full of frock coats, hats and dramatic make-up around the eyes. At the beginning, the electronics cause the entire room to vibrate with a deep hum; during the service in the synagogue, circling spherical sounds create the impression of distant, mournful voices, as if they point to the terrible future. Neuwirth quotes various styles with virtuosity: there is a hint of Debussy in the saxophone and a shtetl wistfulness in the clarinet, and of course Alpine folk music is not far away either. Neuwirth’s idiosyncratic style and her high tonal sensitivity remain unmistakable. The composer even gets involved in the film’s sometimes crude satirical humor, although today’s viewers can easily find themselves laughing at the subject. […] “The Viennese drinks to forget,” says Neuwirth the day after the premiere. “When you forget, a lot of things get repressed. Especially when it comes to the Nazi past.
Hamburger Abendblatt, 27.11.2018 [Translated]

“Im Gegenzug habe ich nicht das Gefühl, dass [Olga Neuwirth] ungetrübte Freude an Breslauers Film hatte. Ihre üppig modernistische Partitur hält, trotz einiger verschmitzt illustrierenden Passagen, Abstand zu ihm. Sie folgt ihm nicht, sondern setzt eigene Akzente. Seine komischen Aspekte verlocken die Komponistin nicht, allenfalls die satirischen. Zum Vorspann schweigt das fabelhafte Ensemble »PHACE« noch; die Partitur nähert sich den Bildern zunächst mit einem dezent dräuenden Sounddesign. Tumult wird es noch genug geben in dieser Musik. Sie ist eine fulminante Parallel-, auch Gegenerzählung.”
epd Film, 1.4.2019

“Ein bläser- und elektroniklastiger Fluss, der die laufenden Stummfilmbilder nicht bloß illustriert, sondern auch kommentiert. […] Das Nonett PHACE aus Wien lieferte unter dem Madrilenen Nacho de Paz so subtil wie konzentriert die punktgenaue Tonspur zu dieser Stummfilm-Perle, die Zeitdokument und Fanal der Weltkatastrophe zugleich ist.”
Kleine Zeitung, 8.2.2023

“Hamburg. Gespannte Stille in Halle K 6 auf Kampnagel. Selbst die Musiker des Ensemble Phace unter der Leitung von Nacho de Paz, die im Halbrund auf der komplett schwarzen Bühne Platz genommen haben, bewegen sich kaum, als der Vorspann zum Stummfilm „Die Stadt ohne Juden“ von Hans Karl Breslauer aus dem Jahr 1924 anläuft. Auch nach dem Einsetzen der Musik von Olga Neuwirth: große Konzentration bei den Zuhörern, die sich nach 80 Minuten mit begeistertem Schlussapplaus löst.”
Hamburger Abendblatt, 29.11.2018

“Die Streitgespräche von Wirtshausgästen lässt die österreichische Komponistin von den Bläsern des Ensembles PHACE unter der Leitung von Nacho de Paz komödiantisch kommentieren. Die antisemitischen Äußerungen der Betrunkenen untermalt sie mit Jodlern. In den bedrohlich brodelnden Synthesizer-Teppich webt sie punktgenau Klänge ein, welche die Handlung kommentieren – wenn Sessel im Wirtshaus hinunterfallen und Gongs erklingen. Olga Neuwirth bringt Farbe in den Schwarz-Weiß-Film, indem sie Szenen, die das jüdische Gemeinschaftsleben abbilden, mit orientalischen Klängen und Klezmermusik untermalt oder die Instrumente untypisch einsetzt. Einmal lässt sie die Trompeten regelrecht schreien, dann wieder Trompeter in die Instrumente blasen, dass man an keuchende Dampfloks denkt.”
Salzburger Nachrichten, 09.11.2018

Ausgerechnet in diesen Zeiten erlebt Neuwirths Vertonung ihre Uraufführung im Wiener Konzerthaus. Ein prominenterer Ort wäre kaum denkbar. Das Konzert ist ausverkauft, das Jugendstilgebäude summt vor festlicher Erwartung. Was an diesem Abend im Konzerthaus zu erleben ist und was am 28. November also auch auf Kampnagel zu sehen sein wird, ist kein Stummfilm. Auch kein Stummfilm mit Musik. Vom ersten Moment an verschmelzen Ton und Bilder zum atmenden Organismus.
Hamburger Abendblatt, 27.11.2018

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