Leading British composers and music trends of the 20th and 21st centuries - this is the central theme of the
Sacrum Profanum Festival which starts in Kraków on 13 September 2009. This year's festival will be Poland's and Europe's biggest promotion of contemporary British music, and at the same time one of the most interesting events of this autumn. The festival closes on 19 September.
The programme includes presentations and world premieres of works by such British composers as Julian Anderson, Jonathan Harvey, Oliver Knussen, Harrison Birtwistle, George Benjamin, Brian Ferneyhough, and Mark Anthony Turnage. Works by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen's Music in the Royal Household, will also be featured.
Major events at the festival include performances by famous European ensembles playing contemporary music: The Cinematic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, and Asko/Schönberg.
The Cinematic Orchestra
The festival will be opened by The Cinematic Orchestra in a performance with Sinfonietta Cracovia. That same evening Chris Cunningham, director of Madonna's and Björk's music videos, will present his latest show to the music of Aphex Twin. A legendary experimenter with synthesized sound, Aphex Twin himself will be the focus of the festival's two final concerts in the industrial interiors of the chemical tinning plant at ArcelorMittal Poland (formerly the Sendzimir Steel Mill).
The Sacrum Profanum Festival, held for the seventh time, is organized by the Kraków Festival Office. Its format is based on presenting contemporary instrumental and instrumental-vocal music in which elements of sacrum and profanum intersect, with an added geographical criterion. Each successive festival revolves around these ideas, previous editions having presented the music of Vienna, France, Russia, the United States, and Germany.
Aphex Twin
The festival, recommended by the leading music magazine "Gramophone" for example, is appreciated by critics and audiences alike. Last year's edition drew an audience of almost 20,000, of whom more than 10,000 attended three concerts by a legend of electronic music - Kraftwerk. The concerts are held in unusual, post-industrial settings. Venues of varying character are made available for the festival - from the
Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic in Kraków, through Oskar Schindler's Factory, the Municipal Engineering Museum, to the industrial halls of Nowa Huta.
PROGRAMME
13 September 2009, 8:00 PM, Tin Mill of Nowa Huta Steelworks / ArcelorMittal Poland
The Cinematic Orchestra feat. Sinfonietta Cracovia
13 September 2009, 11:00 PM, Łaźnia Nowa Theatre
14 September 2009, 7:00 PM, Museum of Urban Engineering
Anderson
Julian Anderson - Khorovod, Comedy of Change, Alhambra Fantasy, Book of Hours
Asko/Schönberg, Reinbert de Leeuw - conductor
14 September 2009, 10:00 PM, Łaźnia Nowa Theatre
Harvey
Jonathan Harvey - Hidden Voice 1, Hidden Voice 2, Soleil Noir/Chitra, Bhakti
Ensemble Iitercontemporain, Hannu Lintu - conductor
15 September 2009, 7:00 PM, Museum of Urban Engineering
Davies
Peter Maxwell Davies - Ave Maris Stella, Veni sancte - Veni creator spiritus, Eight Songs for a Mad King
Ensemble Recherche, Martin Lindsay - baritone
15 September 2009, 10:00 PM, Łaźnia Nowa Theatre
Kussen
Oliver Knussen - Masks, Coursing, Ophelia Dances, Elegiac Arabesques, Songs without Voices, Secret Psalm, Requiem - Songs for Sue
London Sinfonietta, Elizabeth Atherton - soprano, David Atherton - conductor
16 September 2009, 7:00 PM, Museum of Urban Engineering
Birtwistle
Harrison Birtwistle - Cortege, Cantus Iambeus, Ut Heremita Solus, Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum, Virelai, Secret Theatre
London Sinfonietta, David Atherton - conductor
16 September 2009, 10:00 PM, Łaźnia Nowa Theatre
Benjamin
George Benjamin - Into the Little Hill, Three Miniatures, Viola, Viola, At First Light
Ensemble Modern: Keren Motseri - soprano, Hilary Summers - alto, Jagdish Mistry - violin, Megumi Kasakawa - viola, Patrick Jüdt - viola, Franck Ollu - conductor
17 September 2009, 7:00 PM, Museum of Urban Engineering
Ferneyhough
Brian Ferneyhough - Funerailles I, Funerailles II, Cassandra's Dream Song, Chronos - Aion
Klangforum Wien, Vera Fischer - flute, Emilio Pomárico - conductor
17 September 2009, 10:00 PM, Łaźnia Nowa Theatre
Turnage
Mark Anthony Turnage - Blood on the Floor
Ensemble Modern: John Parricelli - e-guitar, Ian Thomas - drums, Martin Robertson - saxophone, Laurence Cottle - e-bass, Stefan Asbury - conductor
18 & 19 September 2009, 9:00 PM, Tin Mill of Nowa Huta Steelworks / ArcelorMittal Poland
A detailed programme of the festival is available from the
organizer's website.
Source: PAP,
www.polmic.pl,
www.sacrumprofanum.com (photos).