KLANG: A Tribute to Karlheinz Stockhausen is a major Stockhausen festival that Southbank Centre shaped with the composer before his death in December 2007. The festival, one of the highlights of Southbank Centre's 2008/09 classical music season, is curated by Southbank Centre Associate Artist Oliver Knussen and runs from Saturday 1 to Sunday 9 November.
It includes four UK premieres of major Stockhausen works, the world premiere of Urantia (commissioned by Southbank Centre), and his final work Zodiac.
In addition to the concerts, there will be a number of events which explore the future of Stockhausen’s creative ideas, his music and legacy, including late-night performances, interviews, keynote lectures and performer masterclasses. An additional highlight will be the screening of rare film footage throughout the week.
KLANG (meaning 'sound') is a cycle of pieces based on the 24 hours of the day and was being written right up to the composer’s death. 21 of the 24 hours were completed and six of the works to be performed during the festival are from the KLANG cycle. In addition to the newest works there will be performances of Stockhausen classics such as Mantra, Gesang der Junglinge, Stimmung and Trans. Performers include the London Sinfonietta conducted by Oliver Knussen, the Asko Ensemble from Holland, a range of soloists chosen by Stockhausen who worked closely with him, and young musicians from the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.
Composer and conductor Oliver Knussen is internationally feted as an inspirational interpreter of music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Knussen was in close touch with Stockhausen before his sudden death and it was to him that Stockhausen had entrusted the performance of what turned out to be his last work, Zodiac.
Oliver Knussen, Southbank Centre Associate Artist and Festival Curator said: ‘It has been a great pleasure for me to curate Southbank Centre's festival in tribute to Karlheinz Stockhausen. Stockhausen's reputation rests on a number of path-breaking works from the first half of his career which are indisputable modern classics. Several of these are heard during the week – Gesang der Junglinge, Stimmung, Mantra and Trans. But within the huge projects that occupied him for the rest of his creative life can be found similarly extraordinary and innovative compositions which have yet to be experienced by audiences here, notably the amazing and monumental Lucifers Tanz from Samstag aus LICHT, which is given its first UK performances, in London and Manchester, during our festival.
I am particularly happy to be conducting a concert which brings Stockhausen's remarkable first orchestral work, the Drei Lieder, together with his very last composition Zodiac, completed the day before his death last December, and the world premiere of Urantia from KLANG.
The works which make up the late KLANG cycle represent, in my view, a remarkable distillation of the ideas and ideals which Stockhausen pursued throughout his life. When we consulted Stockhausen in the early stages of planning this week, he was happy that these works would be central to our scheme. The spirit of KLANG, which means 'sound', 'tone' or 'ring', binds together this series of performances, installations and events, all inspired by and in celebration of this great creative figure of our time.’ -- www.southbankcentre.co.uk
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