Nachtraum, Klangforum Wien, Daisy Press, Bas Wiegers
Nachtraum, Klangforum Wien, Daisy Press, Bas Wiegers | © Christian Palm / Ruhrtriennale 2021

Lying on matting beds, the audience will immerse themselves with Klangforum Wien in a vast nocturnal dream.

About the concert

Mirela Ivičević Sweet Dreams
Ferruccio Busoni Berceuse élégiaque op. 42
Iannis Xenakis Persephassa
Emmanuel Nunes Nachtmusik I
Rebecca Saunders Fragments of Yes
Gérard Grisey Sortie vers la lumière du jour
Salvatore Sciarrino Let me die before I wake
Georg Friedrich Haas Streichquartett Nr. 3 In Iij. Noct.

While falling asleep, just before unconsciousness takes control, our still lucid minds hold the key in their hands to a world that time forgot filled with wisdom, fantasy and fear. Lying on matting beds, the audience will immerse themselves with Klangforum Wien in a vast nocturnal dream and follow composers with an affinity for night and darkness along a variety of paths into this unfathomable intermediate realm.  

After Ferruccio Busoni's Berceuse élégiaque op. 42 Mirela Ivičević will let the audience loose in the unpredictable domain of dreams with her unsettling goodnight kiss Sweet Dreams. They will find themselves again in the centre of a hexagonal soundscape in Iannis Xenakis’ Persephassa, from which Emmanuel Nunes and his Nachtmusik will open the doorway to nocturnal nostalgia that seeks out the present like a gentle ghost. Slumbering at the heart of this night dream lies Rebecca Saunders’ somnambulant masterpiece Yes, a large-scale ensemble composition, in which she balances on the fine edge between sleeping and waking states in Molly Bloom’s closing monologue from James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Gérard Grisey beats a path out from the turmoil of the night towards the light of day with Sortie vers la lumière du jour, though Salvatore Sciarrino forces us to return by pointing out the close links between sleep and sleep’s brother in his clarinet solo Let me die before I wake. Finally in his third string quartet, In iij. Noct., Georg Friedrich Haas wraps the entire space in a cloak of complete darkness and plunges everything into an ecstasy of semi-tones.

Klangforum Wien is supported by Erste Bank.

Dates and tickets

These events might also interest you