‘ FESTIVAL MUSIC continued
=3 CONTEMPORARY MUSIC PREVIEW
Eislermaterial
Composer Heiner Goebbels and the wonderful Ensemble Modern follow their memorable realisation of Black and White in 1997 with an equally fascinating piece, Eislermaterial. As the name suggests, it explores Goebbels’ fascination with his primary inspiration, the music of Hanns Eisler.
As a student, Goebbels was drawn to the intensely interwoven relationship between music and politics in Eisler’s songs. His own first recording was entitled Four Fists for Hanns Eisler, and he sees a parallel to Eisler’s working relationship with Brecht in his own long association with poet Heiner Mueller.
'The fact that Eisler composed a lot of music for the theatre is a further link, because theatre music was an important step for me. He was highly educated and intellectually up-to-date, and that penetrated his music. The mutual penetration of time, political attitude and musical material didn’t just happen theoretically, but very physically too. The structural reference to Eisler has been subconsciously carried on in my compositions on different levels all the time.’
(Kenny Mathieson) I E is/ermateria/ (lnternational) Festival
H THE LIST 19—26 Aug 1999
festival
Theatre, 473 2000, 23 Aug, 7.30pm, E 5-£20.
John Adams
The Frankfurt-based Ensemble Modern are leading interpreters of 20th century composition. The second of their two concerts, in which John Adams conducts a programme of American music, will offer a very different perspective to the one reflected in Heiner Goebbels’ Eislermaterial.
It will feature Charles lves's great Symphony No 4, a new work by the iconoclastic New York composer Michael Gordon, and the European premiere of Adams’s latest large-scale work, NaiVe and Sentimental Music. It plays with an updated version of Schiller’s once-famous dichotomy between the naive and sentimental in poetry.
’For the naive artist,’ Adams says, an is a natural form of expression, uncompromised by self-analysis or worry over its place in the historical continuum. This particular piece, perhaps more than any of my others, attempts to allow the naive in me to play freely, and what comes out is — so far as it can possibly be in this time - spontaneous and emotionally fulfilled music.’ (Kenny Mathieson) | Ensemble Modern (Festival) Usher Hall, 437 2000, 24 Aug, 7.30pm. £5-£20.
FOLK PREVIEW Peatbog Faeries
Having gigged mainly at festivals this year, their second album is 'a lot more up-tempo; but it still has its mellow moments.’
The six-strong lineup has ’evolved over the years', taking different influences from the 22 members who have come and gone to produce the present sound. They plan to shake the dance floor with arrangements of traditional tunes as well as their own compositions; as Morrison promises, ’it should be a rather dancey affair!’ (Jennifer Alford)
l Peatbog Faeries (Fringe) Beck '5 Spiegeltent (Venue 87) 558 8070, 22
The Peatbog Faeries are dying to have their second album released.
While they wait, they're using their time to ’tidy up and improve' on the Abbey Road-produced album. On its release, they hope to tour the States with their unique brand of Celtic music. The hypnotic intros, driving bass-drum and wailing pipes produce an unusual mix of Celtic, traditional and up-to-the-minute dance music. ’We find the dance stuff gets the best reactions, so we tend to go with the audience,’ says piper Peter Morrison.
In the bottom of your garden: Peatbog Faeries
The Lanterns Luminate
Yer Heid
The Stunning New Album Released August 16th
A
f. Includes: HighRise Town. Winter In My Heart and It’s Not Thursday Every Day. “The Lanterns are going to illuminate the world." Evening News , “A shining beacon of beauty in a wOrld full of drab pop." The Big Issue. See The Lanterns Live: 20th August - Planet Pop Festival. Midnight at the Spiegeltent.
‘Luminate Yer Heid’ is available at FOPP: Glasgow. Edinburgh. Sheffield. Leamington Spa. and Aberdeen.
mii \Ilil\ www.thelanterns.com