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Press Releases
A Journey of the Soul - the music of Sofia Gubaidulina
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91Èȱ¬ Symphony Orchestra January Composer Weekend
Friday 12 - Sunday 14 January 2007
Barbican, 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3
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For its 20th annual January Composer Weekend, the 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Orchestra celebrates the mystical and contemplative music of Sofia Gubaidulina in January
2007.
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Top artists associated with her work including Sharon Bezaly, Valery Gergiev,
Gidon Kremer and Friedrich Lips take part and, for the first time, the 91Èȱ¬
Symphony Orchestra has invited fellow Barbican-based orchestra, the London
Symphony Orchestra, to participate.
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A Journey of the Soul is packed full of orchestral, choral and chamber music,
films and talks, including two rare appearances by the composer herself.
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There
are important premieres and new works as well as much of her best-known music.
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Gubaidulina herself has helped to plan the weekend and has placed alongside her
own music works by JS Bach, Schütz and Haydn, who like her have a religious
faith at their core.
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Gubaidulina (b.1931) was always at odds with the Soviet regime in which she has
spent most of her life.
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Her spiritual music, with its mix of Slavic, Tatar,
Jewish and Russian Orthodox sounds and religious symbolism, was labelled "irresponsible" under Stalin and largely banned.
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With encouraging words from
Shostakovich to pursue her "mistaken path", she continued in relative
obscurity.
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Only thanks to Gidon Kremer's unfailing advocacy did her name begin
to become known in the West and, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, her
music has reached out to a global audience.
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She is now widely recognised as one
of the world's most original, respected and emotionally powerful musical voices
and widely regarded as the most important Russian composer since Shostakovich.
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The January Composer Weekend includes premieres of her most recent work.
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There's the world premiere of the complete Triptych, Nadeyka, written in
memory of her daughter who died in 2004.
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It comprises three works which each
receive their UK premieres here: a violin concerto and flute concerto each
composed specifically for this concert's soloists, Gidon Kremer and Sharon
Bezaly, and an energetic orchestral work inspired by Pushkin.
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Another UK
premiere is Under the Sign of Scorpio, a concerto for bayan (a type of Russian
accordion) written for long-time friend and compatriot Friedrich Lips, who
performs it here.
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Among the most famous of her works is the violin concerto Offertorium, which
brought Gubaidulina to international attention.
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It is played here by Leonidas
Kavakos and the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev in a programme
which also includes the Chaconne from Bach's solo violin Partita in D minor
(Offertorium is based on a Bach theme) and Pro et Contra, Gubaidulina's
monumental composition for orchestra.
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Gergiev also conducts the 91Èȱ¬ Symphony
Orchestra and the 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Chorus in the final concert of the weekend which
includes Alleluja, written after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the powerfully
large-scale orchestral work The Light of the End.
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The hugely acclaimed Polish Royal String Quartet performs all four of
Gubaidulina's haunting string quartets in two separate concerts.
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They
encapsulate the composer's fascinating breadth of musical ideas, from the
poignant Quartet No. 1 which, with isolation at its heart, has the players
sitting far apart, to the electronic effects of Quartet No. 4.
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Her Third
Quartet was inspired by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, and captures perfectly its
atmosphere of desolation and barrenness as well as its hint of redemption
through a mixture of Christian, Buddhist and Hindu spirituality.
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Another particular highlight of the weekend is a concert by the Guildhall
Symphony Orchestra and Guildhall Wind Ensemble with pianist Nicolas Hodgeswhich includes Gubaidulina's gorgeous Introitus and Hour of the Soul.
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There are
additional concerts featuring Gubaidulina's smaller scale ensemble music at the
Guildhall School of Music & Drama in the days before the 91Èȱ¬ SO's concerts.
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Three major films include A Life's Passion, which follows Gubaidulina as she
undertakes a pilgrimage to the island of Valaam and traces her life-story and
music development with interviews with the composer and friends, and Barrie
Gavin's wide-ranging film portrait Soviet Music - The Fire and the Rose.
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The
last film is a recorded performance of one of her most famous recent works, the
St John Passion, performed by Gergiev and the Orchestra and Chorus of the
Mariinsky Theatre.
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The 91Èȱ¬ SO is committed to adventurous and innovative education work, and
always seeks new ways of opening the orchestra, and the distinctive music it
plays, to the broadest range of participants.
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Following the success of recent
January Composer Weekend educational projects, two large-scale Freestage
performances are planned for the Gubaidulina weekend.
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Led by Orlando Gough,
composer and director of The Shout, Saturday's project, Swarm, sees singers of
all ages invited to create and perform music inspired by Russian Orthodox
Church music - a key source of inspiration for Gubaidulina.
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On Sunday, to mark
the UK premiere of Gubaidulina's bayan concerto, Under the Sign of Scorpio, 91Èȱ¬
Symphony Orchestra players are joined by young instrumentalists, including
accordionists and bayan players, for the culmination of their creative project.
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All the concerts will be broadcast on 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3 - most of them live.
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And
Radio 3's Afternoon Performance will feature works by Gubaidulina in the week
leading up to the Weekend.
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Notes to Editors
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See bbc.co.uk/symphonyorchestra for more information.
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Sharon Bezaly is a member of 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme
which is supported by Aviva plc.
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VB
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