Pierre Boulez celebrated at musikfest berlin 10

The annual international “summit” of top-flight orchestras which launches Berlin 's concert season is coming to a close. musikfest berlin 10, organized by the Berliner Festspielen in collaboration with the Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker, took place this year from September 2nd to 21st. In addition to the Rundfunkchor Berlin, the RIAS Kammerchor, and Berlin 's five principal orchestras, altogether 20 guest orchestras, ensembles, and choirs – joined by 37 soloists – contributed to the ambitious festival program. The center of attention at this year's festival was shared by the compositional achievements of Pierre Boulez and Luciano Berio, complemented in provocative and illuminating ways by works by Igor Stravinsky and many other 20th and 21st century composers. This wide-ranging homage to two central figures of postwar music history was greeted with pronounced enthusiasm and followed with intense interest by members of the public and specialists alike. More than 35,000 people attended the 24 concerts which took place in the framework of musikfest berlin 10 in the Main Auditorium and Chamber Music Hall of Berlin Philharmonie, in the Parochialkirche, the Gethsemanekirche, and the Konzerthaus.

This ambitious tribute to Pierre Boulez, encompassing 11 concerts in all, began on opening weekend with striking performances of his large-scale vocal compositions Le Soleil des eaux and Le Visage nuptial by the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden under the direction of Susanna Mälkki. At the concerts given by the Berliner Philharmoniker, Pierre Boulez received standing ovations as composer and conductor. Other contributors to our Boulez portrait were the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin , the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Bamberger Symphoniker, and the Ensemble intercontemporain. This tribute to Boulez was concluded by a lecture-concert presented by Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin – a thrilling finale for musikfest berlin 10 at which the composer, also in attendance, was greeted by repeated shouts of “bravo.”

Other highpoints of musikfest berlin 10 included appearances by the London Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Harding, the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam with Mariss Jansons, and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester with Kent Nagano, each of which presented key orchestral works by Luciano Berio in conjunction with compositions by Hector Berlioz, Béla Bartók, Richard Strauss, and Igor Stravinsky – each receiving tumultuous storms of applause. Other highlights of the Berio tribute presented in the framework of musikfest berlin 10 included a concert by musikFabrik with Peter Eötvös devoted to Berio, and a performance of Berio’s immense composition Coro by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

musikfest berlin 2011 will take place between September 1st and 19th. Detailed information on the program and on advanced ticket sales will be announced in spring of 2011.

Press Office,

September 21, 2010

Opening concert Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs and Sinfonia

Just one week from now, the concert season will be launched by musikfest berlin 10, Berlin ’s international orchestra festival. Presented from September 2nd to 21st by the Berliner Festspiele in collaboration with the Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker will be 24 concerts featuring more than 60 works by around 25 different composers, among them the German premieres of Quatre dédicaces and Stanze, a pair of orchestral compositions by Luciano Berio. At the centre of this year’s festival program alongside works by Luciano Berio is the creative achievement of Pierre Boulez. Appearing as conductor for two concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker will be Boulez himself. The program of musikfest berlin 10 illuminates in particular the orchestral output of these two major composers. The first part of the festival will concentrate on the music of Berio, with the focus shifting increasingly to Boulez, culminating in a grandiose homage to his music at the festival's conclusion.

musikfest berlin 10 commences with two evenings, each consisting of an orchestral portrait concert devoted to one of our featured composers. Following a concert showcasing Bach’s Art of the Fugue on the eve of the festival opening, musikfest berlin will commence on September 3rd with a performance of Berio’s celebrated Folk Songs and Sinfonia by the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Daniel Harding. On September 4th, Boulez’s Le Soleil des eaux and Le Visage nuptial will receive a performance by the SWR Sinfonieorchester, the RIAS Kammerchor, and the radio choirs of the SWR and the NDR under the direction of Susanna Mälkki. Appearing as soloists will be singers Laura Aikin and Lani Poulson, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and violinist Thomas Zehetmair. Featured at 10 of the 24 festival concerts will be additional works by Boulez, including his extraordinary cycle Pli selon pli for voice and orchestra, interpreted by the Bamberger Symphoniker with Jonathan Nott and soprano Yeree Suh on September 19th at the Philharmonie.

Altogether eleven works by Luciano Berio are found on the programmes of seven musikfest berlin 10 concerts. The German premiere of Berio’s Quatre dédicaces will be performed on September 5th by the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest of Amsterdam with Mariss Jansons. Receiving its German premiere on the following day is Berio's vocal composition Stanze in a performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Jurowski. Berio’s Coro will be presented at musikfest berlin 10 by the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle with the Rundfunkchor Berlin and soloists Stella Doufexis, Burkhard Ulrich, and Ildebrando d’Arcangelo. Additional highlights in this series of Berio performances will be a concert performed by musikFabrik with Peter Eötvös as conductor, and an appearance by Kent Nagano with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, guests in Berlin once again after a protracted absence.

Presented in exceptional abundance at musikfest berlin 10 are the flagships of European ensemble culture: the Ensemble intercontemporain with two Boulez programs, the Ensemble Modern with Beat Furrer, and the musikFabrik with Peter Eötvös as conductor. Arriving from Belgium will be the ensemble graindelavoix, which performs late-14th century music, and the Duke Quartet from England , which performs string quartets by Kevin Volans. Also on the program are works by Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev, Witold Lutosławski, Richard Strauss, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Hector Berlioz, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Henri Pousseur, Peter Eötvös, Beat Furrer, and others.

musikfest berlin 10 comes to a close with two very special concert evenings on September 20th and 21st: the Boulez programme presented by the Staatskapelle Berlin will be accompanied by commentary delivered in person by Daniel Barenboim.

Information and tickets are available at www.berlinerfestspiele.de


Lack of skilled workers threatens recovery

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Workers with specialized skills like electricians, carpenters and welders are in critically short supply in many large economies, a shortfall that marks another obstacle to the global economic recovery, a research paper by Manpower Inc (NYSE:MAN - News) concludes.

Note: even the working people want to be a doctor (to many "doctors"...)


Russian police detain opposition leaders

MOSCOW (AP) -- Police prevented about 100 opposition activists from marching through Moscow on Sunday with a giant Russian flag and detained three of their leaders, including prominent politician Boris Nemtsov.

The opposition activists were celebrating Flag Day, a holiday honoring the tricolor flag adopted by a newly democratic Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Nemtsov said the decision to stop a march honoring the Russian flag showed the mentality of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government.

"The flag is a symbol of freedom and democracy, only not for Putin," Nemtsov said, speaking to The Associated Press from a city police precinct.


Afghan couple stoned to death

A 25-year-old man and 19-year-old woman who eloped together have been stoned to death in a shocking display of Taliban power.

The Afghan couple were brutally killed when their own families requested that the Taliban arrest the pair after the couple, who were engaged to other people, ran away together.

Note: "their own families requested that the Taliban arrest the pair" (how horrible and disgusting people!)

It was not a spare case:

"... arrest of relatives on suspicion of killing a teenager for having friendships with boys. More than 200 such killings take place each year, said the piece, "accounting for around half of all murders in Turkey". According to Eurostat, Turkey's yearly murder rate averaged 6.1 per 100,000 population between 2005 and 2007 (the ­latest figures), meaning that the 200 are actually set against an annual total of about 4,400."

"Mahmod Mahmod murdered daughter Banaz

The victim of an "honour killing" had been dismissed by police as a fantasist

Mr Sulemani (Banaz's boyfriend) was deemed unsuitable because he did not come from the villages in Iraqi Kurdistan where the Mahmods originated." And thousands others that we didn't know.


Somalia: the taliban way

"Men are forced to grow beards. Women can't leave home without a male relative. Music, movies and watching sports on TV are banned.

... executions by stoning have become a public spectacle." from AP in The Kathmandu Post, August 23, 2010, page 5

Boulez and Berio featured at musikfest

musikfest berlin 10, organized by the Berliner Festspiele in collaboration with the Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker, will take place from September 2 to 21. This large-scale international orchestra festival opens the annual Berlin concert season. This year’s festival program features 24 concerts with more than 60 works by circa 25 different composers. Appearing will be 37 soloists of world rank, and 27 choirs, ensembles, and orchestras from the international music scene.

“The virginal, lively, beautiful today …” (Le vierge, le vivace, et bel aujourd’ hui …): this year’s musikfest berlin draws inspiration from these celebrated lines from the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé. Pierre Boulez set this sonnet in his extraordinary vocal composition Pli selon Pli.

In addition to Pli selon Pli, 16 other works by Pierre Boulez will be featured at musikfest berlin 10. Altogether 11 events make up a rich portrait of Boulez, with the participation of all the former and present directors of the Ensemble intercontemporain, founded in 1976 by Boulez, a roster consisting of Peter Eötvös, David Robertson, Jonathan Nott, and current director Susanna Mälkki.

Born in the same year (1925) as Pierre Boulez and joined to him in a long-term artistic friendship was composer Luciano Berio. His works form the second focus of this festival program. Performed in the framework of musikfest berlin 10 will be altogether 11 compositions by Luciano Berio, including key orchestral works such as Chemins I, Kol od – Chemins VI, Concerto, Sinfonia, Coro, Folk Songs, and Voci (Folksongs II), as well as Quatre dédicaces and Stanze in a German premiere performance.

Featured compositions by Pierre Boulez and Luciano Berio will be set into a stimulating dialogue with the works of Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev, Witold Lutoslawski, Richard Strauss, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Hector Berlioz, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Henri Pousseur, Peter Eötvös, and Beat Furrer. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Art of the Fugue will be performed by the Keller Quartett on September 2, the eve of the opening concert of musikfest berlin 10. Music from the 14th century will resound in a concert by the vocal ensemble graindelavoix from Belgium.

Appearing as guests in Berlin besides the Rundfunkchor Berlin, the RIAS Kammerchor, and the four prominent Berlin orchestras directed by their principal conductors will be the London Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Harding, the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Jurowski, the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam with Mariss Jansons, the Bayerische Staatsorchester with Kent Nagano, and the Bamberger Symphoniker – Bayerische Staatsphilharmonie with Jonathan Nott.

Also performing will be Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, and the ensemble musikFabrik, as well as the choirs Synergy Vocals, Schola Heidelberg, Cantus Domus, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, and the NDR Chor. Among the featured soloists will be Kelley O’Connor, Stella Doufexis, Ian Bostridge, Roman Trekel, and Dietrich Henschel. Also invited are pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the piano duo Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher, trumpet player Marco Blaauw, and violists Tabea Zimmermann, Megumi Kasakawa, Axel Porath, and Antoine Tamestit.

The main event location for musikfest berlin 10 is the Philharmonie Berlin. Additional venues are the Chamber Music Hall of the Philharmonie Berlin, the Parochialkirche, the Gethsemanekirche, and the Konzerthaus Berlin. Press office, April 15, 2010

Pierre Boulez at musikfest berlin 2010

musikfest berlin 2010 will take place from September 2nd to 21st. This ambitious, international orchestra festival, organized by the Berliner Festspiele in collaboration with the Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker, launches Berlin's annual concert season. This year’s musikfest berlin celebrates the great French composer Pierre Boulez, whose impact on the music of the 20th and 21st centuries has been unique. Performed will be a number of his compositions, including large-scale works for symphony orchestra.

Pierre Boulez’s compositional oeuvre will be featured in an enthralling and multifaceted program which includes more than 60 works by approximately 25 different composers, to be performed by 27 orchestras, ensembles, and choirs from international musical life, and with the participation of 37 soloists of international standing – among them Berlin's most prominent ensemble, led by its principal conductor.

The program of musikfest berlin 2010 will be presented by the festival's Artistic Director Winrich Hopp at a press conference organized by the Berliner Festspiele and held on April 15th at 11:30 a.m. at the Philharmonie. Press Office, March 24, 2010

Festival Opening with Shostakovich and Xenakis

Opening in just one week will be musikfest berlin 09, Berlin’s international orchestral festival, organized by the Berliner Festspiele in collaboration with the Berliner Philharmoniker, which acts as an upbeat to Berlin’s concert season. Featured in 24 events at the Berlin Philharmonic and at the Konzerthaus will be more than 50 works by 26 different composers – each piece resonating with the pulse of 20th century history, often referred to as the “age of extremes” (Eric Hobsbawm).

The centre point of this year’s program is the musical oeuvre of Dmitri Shostakovich, nearly all of whose symphonies will be performed, in conjunction with works by Iannis Xenakis, Joseph Haydn, Alban Berg, Paul Dessau, Béla Bartók, Sofia Gubaidulina, and many others. Participating this year are altogether 21 high-ranking orchestras, ensembles, and choirs hailing from the US and Europe, including the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the five great orchestras of Great Britain: the BBC Symphony Orchestra joined by its first guest conductor, David Robertson; the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Kurt Masur; the Philharmonia Orchestra London with Vladimir Ashkenazy; the London Symphony Orchestra with principal conductor Valery Gergiev; and in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with its new music director, Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra opens the festival on September 4th with works by Iannis Xenakis, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and the 9th Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich. This spectacular special programme will be offered beforehand in the context of this year’s Proms Concerts on September 2nd at London’s Royal Albert Hall. It will be repeated two days later at the Berlin Philharmonic to open musikfest berlin 09. The conductor will be David Robertson, and the evening’s soloists will be percussionist Colin Currie and baritone Leigh Melrose.

Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony will be performed on Saturday, September 5th by the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam under the direction of Mariss Jansons, widely regarded as among today’s outstanding Shostakovich interpreters. Additional highpoints of our Shostakovich focus at musikfest berlin 09 include a concert on September 11th by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with Bernard Haitink conducting the 15th Symphony of Shostakovich in conjunction with Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony.

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, four musikfest berlin 09 events will be devoted to the theme of “Deutschland-Lieder” (Songs of Germany): Helmut Lachenmann’s singular and seldom performed Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied (Dance Suite with the German Anthem) will be given together with Mozart’s Gran Partita on September 9th by the SWR Sinfonieorchester and the Arditti Quartet at Konzerthaus Berlin. Performed on September 3rd, on the eve of the opening concert, will be Karlheinz Stockhausen’s epochal electronic poem Hymnen (Hymns), a collage of more than 40 national anthems, and Haydn’s Kaiserquartett (Emperor Quartet) – the original source for the melody of Germany's national anthem – will be played by the Pellegrini Quartett on September 19th. On September 16th, finally, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under the direction of Ingo Metzmacher will perform Hanns Eisler’s magnum opus, the Deutsche Sinfonie (German Symphony), a musical and political statement that deals with a half-century of recent German history. Press release, August 27, 2009

Sanctions against tax havens

At the conclusion of the first economic summit meeting to rivet world attention in decades, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain announced that the leaders had committed to $1.1 trillion in additional loans and guarantees to finance trade and bail out troubled countries.
...
Among the steps Mr. Brown detailed are strict new regulations on hedge funds and rating agencies, as well as a crackdown on tax havens, which will be publicly named and subject to sanctions if they do not agree to share tax information with the authorities of other countries.
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The announcements came after negotiators from the United States and Europe worked frantically to hash out an agreement on new regulations, a day after France and Germany signaled a rift over the level of scrutiny that regulators should have over hedge funds and other global financial institutions.
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France other Europeans countries also pressed China to accept action against tax havens, a step it has resisted because of the possible consequences for its coastal banking centers, Hong Kong and Macao.

“I think we’re going to see an agreement,” said Stephen Timms, the financial secretary to the Treasury. “I am expecting sanctions against tax havens. We want that pressure to be maintained.”

Britain began talks on Wednesday on a tax information exchange agreement with Liechtenstein, an Alpine principality used by wealthy Europeans and others as a place to stash money.


Helsinki Festival

This August, Helsinki Festival 2009 will be bringing a line up of international stars to Finland’s capital city. The festival, which last year celebrated its 40th anniversary, now casts an eye into the future with a programme of new music, never-before-seen guests, unique ensembles and a host of premieres.

The festival kicks off with a visit by classical music legend Pierre Boulez, who arrives in Helsinki with his French Ensemble Intercontemporain, led by Music Director Susanna Mälkki. Hailing from London, the Philharmonia Orchestra returns to Finland, now directed by newly appointed Principal Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. Osmo Vänskä makes a long-awaited appearance at the helm of a Helsinki Orchestra, as he takes up the baton for a concert with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

A Helsinki Festival and Korjaamo Theatre joint venture, the Stage Helsinki Theatre Festival has established itself as a major European theatre event. Now in its third year, the festival will be showcasing ten international ensembles, two Finnish premieres and a review of Finnish theatre. Programme highlights include the latest from Alvis Hermanis from Latvia, Dmitri Krymov from Russia and the Swiss Stefan Kaegi, as well as the Finnish premiere of circus artist Jani Nuutinen’s much-awaited new production.

The Helsinki Festival dance programme, created by Artistic Advisor Kenneth Kvarnström is headlined by the Shaolin combat acrobatics-inspired Sutra and fea-tures Kvarnström’s Destruction Song choreographed for his own ensemble. Circus rolls into town in the shape of a Russian clown troupe. Semianyki delivers laughter therapy for the whole family with a joyously anarchic twist.

A total of 17 international and Finnish acts will be taking to the stage at the festival’s legendary Huvila venue. The Huvila programme treats audiences to a stellar line up of world music’s leading stars from the Malian Oumou Sangare to the L’Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio from Italy. Top Finnish performers include Maija Vilkkumaa, celebrating her 20-year career and the ever-popular Scandinavian Music Group. Adding American flavour to the proceedings will be jazz musicians Joshua Redman and Paquito d’Rivera together with Wilco, here making their Finnish debut appearance. The Huvila season will be brought to a close with a joint performance by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson.

The Amos Anderson Art Museum is to play host to a joint exhibition by Susanne Gottberg and Markus Kåhre. Titled A Dialogue, the duo’s unique spatial exercise was many years in the making. The cinema programme culminates in a retrospective of the work of the Japanese film director Nagisa Oshima, while the free outdoor cinema screenings at the Kinopiha celebrate the fall of the Berlin wall.

The Children’s Festival programme features four Finnish premieres. Junior audiences will love Compañía Kaari Martin’s fresh and flamenco-inspired take on the iconic Pippi Longstocking and Glims & Gloms Dance Company’s new interpretation of the classic Finnish fairytale Pessi and Illusia. At the Suvilahti big top, kids and adults alike will be whisked away on a whirlwind tour of Vietnam in the company of a water puppetry troupe.

The Night of the Arts takes over Helsinki on Friday 21 August - programme to be announced in early August. Flow Festival returns to Suvilahti from 14 to 16 August and the Poetry Moon shines on the city from 26 to 27 August. The Viapori Jazz Festival grooves Suomenlinna Island from 26 to 29 August, while the Art goes Kapakka festival makes its presence felt in Helsinki restaurants from 13 to 22 August.

The 2009 Helsinki Festival programme was created by Risto Nieminen, who has led the festival with great success for the past 12 years. He will depart at the end of April 2009. New Festival Director Erik Söderblom is set to assume his role from May 2009. Press Release


musikfest berlin 09 - Shostakovich, Xenakis, Haydn

14 orchestras perform 50 works at 24 concerts on 19 different days

Opening the concert season and running from September 3rd to 21st will be the musikfest berlin 09, Berlin's preeminent international orchestra festival. Organized by the Berliner Festspiele in collaboration with the Foundation of the Berliner Philharmoniker, musikfest berlin cordially invites you to take part in a festival program that includes 50 works by 26 composers performed at 24 concerts.

Performing in addition to the Rundfunkchor Berlin and the city's four prominent orchestras with their artistic directors will be Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Bernard Haitink, the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam with Mariss Jansons, the four orchestras of the musical metropolis of London (the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra London, and the London Symphony Orchestra), and ensembles from Birmingham, Bamberg, Freiburg, and Vienna. Also making guest appearances in Berlin will be Latvian Radio Choir radio and the "Latvija", the State Choir of the Republic of Latvia, singers Angela Denoke, Christiane Oelze, Matthias Goerne, Dietrich Henschel, and Thomas Quasthoff. Other invited soloists include Colin Currie, Håkan Hardenberger, Marco Blaauw, Steven Osborne, and Lars Vogt.

The center of musikfest berlin 09 will be the symphonic achievement of Dmitri Shostakovich. Interpreters include prominent Shostakovich experts such as conductors Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Forming provocative counterpoints to Shostakovich's symphonies will be works by Iannis Xenakis and Joseph Haydn, as well as compositions by Bartók, Janáček, Poulenc, Rachmaninov, Schnittke, Tishchenko, Gubaidulina, Britten, Turnage, Yun, Nono, Mozart, Schubert, Zemlinsky, Reger, Berg, B. A. Zimmermann, Eisler, Dessau, Enno Poppe, Helmut Lachenmann, and Hans Zender. Presented on the September 3 on the evening preceding the opening concert of musikfest berlin 09 will be Karlheinz Stockhausen's electronic composition Hymnen.

The main concert venue is the Berlin Philharmonic. An additional venue is the Konzerthaus at Gendarmenmarkt, which marks its 25 Year Jubilee. To take place in the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic will be two prestigious benefit concerts marking 25 years of the IPPNW Concerts and featuring top-flight performers. Press Office

The Grand Finale of musikfest berlin 08

musikfest berlin 08 came to a resounding close with a grand festival finale in Hangar 2 of Tempelhof Airport. On the program were Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen für drei Orchester and Olivier Messiaen's Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker under the direction of Principal Conductor Sir Simon Rattle and co-conductors Daniel Harding and Michael Boder. Also receiving a performance in the 4200 m² and 18-meter-tall Hangar 2 by the Ensemble intercontemporain under the direction of Susanna Mälkki was Messiaen's two hour long work Des Canyons aux Étoiles.

Making guest appearances beginning on September 4 at musikfest berlin 08 at the invitation of the Berliner Festspiele and in cooperation with the Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker besides the five great symphony orchestras of the German capital were numerous top-flight orchestras from the international musical scene. Among the guests were the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam with Mariss Jansons, the Göteborgs Symfoniker with Alexander Briger, the London Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Harding, the Orchestre de Paris with Christoph Eschenbach, the SWR-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg with Sylvain Cambreling, as well as the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées with Philippe Herreweghe. Also invited were renowned soloists such as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Akiko Suwanai, Michelle de Young, Angela Denoke, and Measha Brueggergosman.

At the center of the festival as a whole were the orchestral works of Olivier Messiaen - an homage to a great French composer, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year. Performed together with orchestral music by Messiaen were works by Anton Bruckner and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Speaking at the festival's conclusion, Joachim Sartorius, general manager of the Berliner Festspiele, remarked that "Stockhausen once referred to a piano piece by Messiaen as 'fantastic music of the stars.' Over the past 18 days, these two composers, with Anton Bruckner at their side, have guided us through glittering, emotionally powerful, and ecstatic sound worlds, allowing us to experience transcendence."

On the program of musikfest berlin 08 were altogether 44 works by 18 composers, among others Richard Wagner, Alexander Zemlinsky, Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel, Pierre Boulez, Arvo Pärt, Astor Piazolla, Francis Poulenc, Alexander Scriabin, Peter Eötvös, and Gérard Grisey. Wolfgang Rihm's Concerto "Séraphin" received its world premiere, performed at Radialsystem V by MusikFabrik under the direction of Emilio Pomárico. In honor of American composer Elliott Carter, who will turn 100 in December of this year, the Staatskapelle Berlin under the direction of Principal Conductor Daniel Barenboim performed a portrait concert featuring works from his most recent and highly productive decade.

musikfest berlin 09 took place between September 4 and 20. Detailed information on the upcoming season's program and on advanced sales will be announced in spring 2009. The press office, September 24.

Elliott Carter celebrates his 100th birthday

In his honor, Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin will perform a jubilee concert in the framework of musikfest berlin 08. Scheduled for September 15th in the Philharmonic, the program will include Soundings, Of Rewaking, Horn Concerto, and Symphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei. The two last-named works will be receiving their German first performances. This event serves as an upbeat to a series of concerts in Elliott Carter’s honor presented by the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Staatskapelle Berlin.

Daniel Barenboim has been an admirer of Carter's compositional artistry for many years, and has performed many of his works. For musikfest berlin 08, he has assembled an all Carter program, one designed (according to Barenboim) to be “as variegated as possible.” Barenboim is fascinated in particular by the complexity of this music. “I have always held Elliott Carter in the highest esteem as a composer. He is an endless source of knowledge about music. Moreover, there exists a personal tie between us: both of us studied with the same composition teacher – Nadia Boulanger.” Barenboim will be the soloist in the performance of Carter's piano concerto Soundings. “I'm simply delighted to perform an entire evening of his works in Berlin! A hundred years from now, people will refer to Elliott Carter as one of the most important figures in the musical scene during the second half of the 20th century.” (Daniel Barenboim)

Elliott Carter – who was born in New York City in 1908 – will be 100 years old in December. He cultivated friendships with Charles Ives and Gustav Holst, and studied languages, philosophy, piano, and oboe. Again and again, the phenomena of his times have spurred him on toward new compositional possibilities - one powerful influence was the literary modernity exemplified by such writers as Marcel Proust and James Joyce. Carter is one of the most important 20th century composers. musikfest berlin 08 celebrates his birthday at the Berlin Philharmonic. in musikfest berlin 08' s Press Release - 11 September