Contemporary music
Black Page Orchestra | Ensemble Kontrapunke | ORF RSO Vienna | Composer in Focus
For more than two centuries, the “revival of music in all its branches” has been the main goal of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde has always attached great importance to contemporary music and new formats and approaches.
Black Page Orchestra
The Black Page Orchestra is an ensemble founded in Vienna in 2014 for radical and uncompromising music of our time. Its name was inspired by Frank Zappa’s composition “the black page”, a piece whose score has an almost black page due to its high density of notes. In addition to this aesthetic approach, the ensemble focuses on works that artistically incorporate electronics, video and various current technologies in particular, as well as on compositions that go far beyond a conventional classical concert situation due to their performative character.
Experimental and versatile programming is an essential concern of the collective. In addition to classical festivals of contemporary music such as Wien Modern or Klangspuren Schwaz, the ensemble also regularly performs at festivals of completely different scenes – from the ZOOM Festival of the Jazzwerkstatt to the Wiener Festwochen or performance festivals such as ImPulsTanz Wien.
Ensemble Kontrapunkte
The Ensemble Kontrapunkte, founded in 1965 by Peter Keuschnig, is made up mainly of members of the major Viennese orchestras and specializes primarily in chamber music of the 20st and 21st century music. Since the 1974/75 season, the Ensemble Kontrapunkte has continuously organized a subscription cycle for the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. It also undertakes guest performances and participates in international music festivals. In 2017, Ensemble Kontrapunkte under Peter Keuschnig was awarded the Louise Zemlinsky Prize of the Alexander Zemlinsky Fund at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien. In 2021, Peter Keuschnig handed over the artistic direction to Gottfried Rabl, who places the juxtaposition of established major works of ensemble literature and the latest works at the center of Ensemble Kontrapunkte’s artistic work.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
ORF RSO Wien
The ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra is a world-renowned top orchestra that is committed to the Viennese tradition of orchestral playing and is known for its unusual and bold programming: the classical-romantic repertoire and works of classical modernism are often combined with contemporary pieces and rarely performed works from other eras. Marin Alsop has been chief conductor since September 2019.
In Vienna, the RSO Vienna performs two subscription cycles, one at the Musikverein and one at the Konzerthaus. The orchestra also performs at major festivals in Austria and abroad: It has close ties to the Salzburg Festival, the Musikprotokoll at the Steirischer Herbst and Wien Modern. Tours regularly take the RSO Vienna to Japan and China, Thailand, Taiwan, the USA and South America, Spain and Germany, where it makes guest appearances at the Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg philharmonic orchestras, among others.
Composer in focus: Clara Iannotta
A “sound image” – for composer Clara Iannotta, this is often the starting point for a work. When the works of the “composer in focus” are performed at the Musikverein in October in cooperation with Wien Modern, you can get an impression of what she means by this: “When I compose, I don’t start from the instruments, but from something that I imagine internally. And then I strive to get as close as possible to this ideal image with what the instruments provide,” says Iannotta in the interview. If she deems it necessary, she sometimes modifies the instruments. “This has its roots in my childhood when my father didn’t buy me toys but showed me how to make one. I take a similar approach to my music.”
