Jonny Greenwood 2010 Popcorn Superhet Receiver Premieres
http://www.ilikemusic.com/music_news/July_1st_Is_A_Night_Of_Avant_Garde_Experimentalism-10028
http://www.rncm.ac.uk/component/option,com_events/task,view_detail/agid,1844/333/
Jonny Greenwood Popcorn Superhet Receiver
Avner Dorman Spices, Perfumes, Toxins! (UK première)
Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring
Ólafur Arnalds Songs from ‘...and they have escaped the weight of darkness’ (world première)
André de Ridder conductor
DYAD Percussion Duo
Ólafur Arnalds composer, piano
As the guitarist for Radiohead, Jonny Greenwood has helped push the boundaries of rock music by integrating electronics and unconventional song structures.
Greenwood is also a classically trained violinist and contemporary composer and Popcorn Superhet Receiver, his brilliant slice of avant-garde romanticism, takes its name from a shortwave radio catalogue − inspired by ‘white noise’. Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!, Avner Dorman’s concerto for two percussionists and orchestra, references three substances that are extremely appealing, yet filled with danger: Spices that delight the palate, yet can cause illness; Perfumes that seduce, yet can also betray; and Toxins that bring ecstasy, yet are deadly. This high-energy score combines Middle-Eastern drums, orchestral percussion and rock drums with symphonic forces to create a unique sound that, like the title, is both enticing and dangerous. The inspiration for Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring came to the composer in a fleeting vision: ‘I saw in my imagination a solemn pagan rite: sage elders, seated in a circle, watched a young girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her to propitiate the god of spring’. A score of unprecedented rhythmic and harmonic ferocity, this seminal, highly influential piece caused a riot at its 1913 Paris première and established the composer as the prince of the avant-garde.
The final part of tonight’s event features Icelandic composer and pianist Ólafur Arnalds. Ólafur has already played a sell-out show at the Barbican and opened for Sigur Rós on their most recent European tour. His exploration of the space between classical and pop generates a uniquely graceful musical language. He defies traditional terminologies, melding piano, strings and discreet electronics into delicate orchestral compositions. This will be a world première of songs from his latest album, performed with a full orchestra.
Australian Chamber Orchestra
Richard Tognetti: 21 years with the ACO
It's hard to believe, but one of our young, funky, new-guard music leaders is about to notch up 21 years with his ensemble.
Richard Tognetti has been directing the course of the ACO - the Australian Chamber Orchestra - since 1989, and no-one finds the passage of time more bewildering than the man himself.
To mark the event, the ACO is super-sizing to twice normal capacity, so that they can fulfill a few big ambitions. This will be the first time the ACO has attempted a Brahms symphony, and they're starting at the very beginning, with Brahms Symphony No. 1. They're also going to perform Schubert's 8th (and unfinished) Symphony. But the great contrast of the night will come with a piece called Popcorn Superhet Receiver. If you saw the film There Will Be Blood, you'll have heard some of the work, which was written by Jonny Greenwood, the very gifted guitarist and songwriter with innovative British group Radiohead. And it's this sort of collision of creative ideas that still captivates Richard Tognetti, after more than two decades of orchestral leadership.
Michael Shirrefs asked Richard Tognetti if he understands the sort of chemistry that has made him so visible on the musical skyline.
Richard Tognetti Artistic Director and Lead Violin
GREENWOOD Popcorn Superhet Receiver (Australian Premiere)
SCHUBERT Symphony No.8, Unfinished
BRAHMS Symphony No.1
Sidney; 29 May, Sidney Opera House; 30 May, Melboure 6 - 7 June
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLdwvqp6bfc
http://www.aco.com.au/Default.aspx?url=/romanticsymphony
http://www.filmink.com.au/filmbiz/notice/2376/
The ACO plays two of the great Romantic symphonies! That doesn't happen every day. In fact, the ACO has never played a Brahms symphony till now. We do, however, play a Beethoven symphony most years and Brahms’ first symphony is nicknamed Beethoven’s 10th. Poor Brahms, he took decades to finish it, such was the pressure to produce a symphony on a par with Beethoven’s. Most people think he did. Certainly he created a bold, sweeping symphony, perfect for the massed sound of ACO and ACO2 combined.
The ‘Unfinished’ may be Schubert’s most popular work, two movements of tension and turmoil, serenity and lyricism: the Romantic era well and truly underway.
Something else that doesn't happen every day is a rock star writing great orchestral music, but Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood is the real deal. Described by the New York Times as classical music on “steroids, or acid, or both”, Popcorn Superhet Receiver won the Listeners’ Award at the BBC British Composer Awards. The work was featured in the Academy Award-winning film, There Will Be Blood, and was called “a movie music breakthrough” by the Boston Globe and “revolutionary” by Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly. The New Yorker compared it to Bernard Herrmann’s Citizen Kane score for the significance of its contribution to the film.
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/radioheads-jonny-takes-a-bow-20100530-wnen.html
RICHARD Tognetti wants this made absolutely clear.
Yes, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, as part of a program involving Schubert and Brahms, will be performing a piece by the composer Jonny Greenwood. Yes, that's the Jonny Greenwood who has a day job as the floppy-haired, noise-making guitarist of Radiohead, the most adventurous rock band of the past 20 years. But no, his Radiohead gig is not why his work for string orchestra, Popcorn Superhet Receiver, is on the orchestra's program.
Greenwood is there ''because of the piece rather than being a famous rock composer. Otherwise we could have chosen someone even more famous on which to hang the marketing flag,'' Tognetti says, suggesting with a slight shudder in his voice Paul McCartney's classical excursion Ecce Cor Meum as an example of the bums-on-seats choice one could make if quality wasn't your criterion.
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