MORE highlights have been announced for this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival by its artistic director Graham McKenzie.
Those highlights include the only UK performance of a new Requiem by the German composer Wolfgang Rihm
The 10-day festival, which runs from November 20-29 also includes the UK premiere of Opening of the Mouth, a new work by UK composer Richard Barrett.
McKenzie’s third announcement concerns the work of another British composer James Dillon and, The Passion of the Master, a work commissioned from him by BBC Radio 3, Transit Festival and Ictus.
The Requiem, Et Lux, from Wolfgang Rihm will be performed by the Arditti Quartet and the Hilliard Ensemble. This festival performance will be the only one in the UK.
Richard Barrett wrote Opening of the Mouth, to mark his 50th birthday.
It was commissioned by David Blenkinsop for the 1997 Perth Festival, fittingly receives its UK premiere at HCMF.
The piece was written for an ensemble of two singers, nine musicians and live electronics.
it is a major cycle and a landmark piece in the ongoing artistic relationship between composer Richard Barrett and the ELISION ensemble. The texts are taken from the poet Paul Celan, who says his “own mouth was opened” by the holocaust.
James Dillon’s new 40 minute work will be performed by the Ictus Ensemble.
It sees the composer working out the aesthetic principles characteristic of the Flemish Primitive painter Roger Van der Weyden in a modern musical language.
Tickets are on sale for selected events from this year’s HCMF programme; visit www.hcmf.co.uk for information and booking. Online ticket discounts are available. Box Office 01484 430528.
