In a large-scale evening concert, the KNM Berlin ensemble, together with the Cantando Admont vocal ensemble from Vienna, brings history and the present together. The program is part of the ensemble's three-part project "reading music - the season", which deals with the interrelationships between music and (written) language.

For "Back and Forth" in the Radialsystem, works from the distant past and the recent present as well as from several cultures enter into a dialogue - including four world premieres.

In the first concert of the evening, the composers Cao Thanh Lan, Juliana Hodkinson, Lin Fang-Yi and Ana María Rodríguez are inspired by Nina Simone's song "Four Women", which they approach in different ways with their biographies and experiences.

In addition, the musicians of the KNM interpret the book of the “Folkloric Dances of Mexico” not only as a traditional alphabet of (dance) steps, but as a hypnotic performance:

The piece “LA OFRENDA” by Tania Candiani and Rogelio Sosa translates a choreographic score of the traditional Mexican Huichol dance into an improvisation structure for string quartet, ukulele and maracas.

The second part of the evening mediates between the ars subtilior, which in the 14th century countered war, plague and religious conflicts with artistic sound manuscripts, and the music of today: Beat Furrer, master of expressive internalization and the dramatic moment, creates a moving sound cosmos from lapidary sayings.

The series “reading music – the season” is devoted to the relationship between music and (written) language in three parts. “Books must be read as carefully as they are written”. This sentence by Henry David Thoreau is not only a radical demand on readers and on a new relationship between author and audience. It also introduces the medium of time into reception.

This is where music comes into play. Isn't slow, interpretive reading of texts, signs, symbols the very power of music and its protagonists? Isn't the notation of music to be understood as compressed time and space?

After the opening in Berghain in June 2024, the double concert in Radialsystem is the second stop of "reading music - the season".

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Additional information

“reading music - the season” is a project by Ensemble KNM Berlin. Supported by the Capital Cultural Fund. Cantando Admont and the composer Cao Thanh Lan are supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport as part of “reading music”. The composer Cao Thanh Lan also receives support from the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna and AKM / austro mechana. In cooperation with Radialsystem and FAHRBEREITSCHAFT.

Program Part I: 4 READING19.30 - 20.30

Lin Fang-Yi“GUA” (world premiere)for percussion

Cao Thanh Lan“Bekommen” (world premiere)for voice, flute, double bass clarinet, electronics and movement

Ana María Rodríguez“in nature alone are forms” (world premiere)Version for instrumental duo, video and electronics

Juliana Hodkinson“The skin is long” (world premiere)for flute, double bass clarinet, violoncello and electronics

Tania Candiani and Rogelio Sosa“LA OFRENDA” (2022)for string quartet, ukulele and maracas

Program Part II21.00 - 22.15

Beat Furrer“Prophecies”for alto, contrabass clarinet and accordion

Solage“Fumeux fume par fumée”for 3 voices

Beat Furrer“Spazio Immergente”for soprano and trombone

Philippus de Caserta“De ma douleur”for 3 voices

Beat Furrer“Akusmata”for eight voices, flute (also bass flute), clarinet (also bass clarinet), violin, viola, violoncello, double bass, piano and percussionText: Fragments of Pythagoras

Participating artists

Cordula Bürgi (Dirigat)

(Ensemble KNM Berlin & Gäste)

Rebecca Lenton (Flöte)

Theo Nabicht (Klarinette, Bass- und Kontrabassklarinette)

Juan Felipe Waller (Maracas)

Michael Weilacher (Schlagzeug)

Joseph Craig Houston (Klavier)

Ruben Mattia Santorsa (Ukulele)

Christine Paté (Akkordeon)

Theodore Flindell , Michael Yokas (Violine)

Kirstin Maria Pientka (Viola)

Cosima Gerhardt (Violoncello)

Adam Goodwin (Kontrabass)

(Cantando Admont)

Friederike Kühl, Elīna Viļuma-Helling (Sopran)

Heidemaria Oberthür, Helena Sorokina (Alt)

Hugo Paulsson Stove, Aleksander Rewinski (Tenor)

Benjamin Harasko (Bariton / Bass)

Ulfried Staber (Bass)

Stephen Menotti (Posaune)

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