Brodsky Quartet & Loré Lixenberg

The Pharos Arts Foundation presents the Brodsky Quartet and mezzo-soprano Loré Lixenberg in a unique concert, which includes the newly commissioned song cycle “Trees, Walls, Cities” as well as works by Schubert and Purcell. Comprising eight songs written by renowned composers from eight different cities in partnership with local poets, “Trees, Walls, Cities” is an imaginative and ingenious project, which reflects going through and growing beyond the barriers of city walls between divided peoples. The concert, which takes place on Tuesday 8 April 2014, at The Shoe Factory, 8:30pm, is organised in collaboration with the British Council.

THE IDEA BEHIND “TREES, WALLS AND CITIES”:
“Trees, Walls and Cities” is a newly commissioned song cycle that links the cities of Derry (Northern Ireland), London (UK), Utrecht (the Netherlands), Berlin (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Nicosia (Cyprus) and Jerusalem (Israel) in creative reconciliation.

City walls not only exist as ancient, originally defensive but now potentially inclusive structures which surround people, but also have sprung up more recently in modern, ugly and practically exclusive forms.

This new song cycle (a modern day Winterreise), comprising eight songs written by local composers in partnership with local poets, reflects going through and growing beyond such barriers between divided peoples. The theme running through the texts will be Trees – symbolic of freedom, life, nourishment, environment, building and travel.

Each city in the cycle’s journey calls to mind a particular tree connection, for example, both Derry and Dubrovnik are derived from 'oak grove' in their own traditional tongues, and, for the City of London, the Mulberry not only relates to the Pyramus and Thisbe theme of the song, but also to the Mulberries planted in the gardens of Drapers' Hall (for the failed purpose of developing silk worms in the City). With Utrecht there is Anne Frank's Chestnut, and the reference to the Linden tree in Berlin permeates the cycle through musical references to Schubert's Lindenbaum from Winterreise.

The song cycle is bought together by an interlocking suite of musical material, composed by the multi-linguist and international humanitarian, Nigel Osborne, which creates a coherent journey between the styles and characters of the songs and cities.

THE SONG CYCLE “TREES, WALLS, CITIES” CONSISTS OF THE FOLLOWING PIECES:
Derry: Once there was an Island (Composer: Christopher Norby / Text: Matt Jennings)
London: Pyramus and Thisbe (Composer: Jocelyn Pook / Text: Richard Thomas)
Utrecht: Der Garten des Paracelsus (Composer: Theo Verbey / Text: Peter Huchel)
Berlin: Just Outside (Composer: Soren Nils Eichberg / Text: Soren Nils Eichberg)
Vienna: Flakturm Esterhazy Park (Composer: Gerald Resch / Text: Ferdinand Schmatz)
Dubrovnik: When God was Creating Dubrovnik (Composer: Isadora Zebeljan / Text: Milan Milisi)
Nicosia: Walls Have Ears (Composer: Yannis Kyriakides / Text: Mehmet Yashin)
Jerusalem: Song of Songs (Composer: Habib Shehadeh Hanna / Text: Solomon)
- Prelude, Interludes, Postlude by Nigel Osborne

BRODSKY QUARTET
Daniel Rowland / violin
Ian Belton/ violin
Paul Cassidy / viola
Jacqueline Thomas / cello

“The Brodsky Quartet are the team for the new century”
Gramophone Magazine

Since its formation in 1972, the Brodsky Quartet has performed over 3000 concerts on the major stages of the world and has released more than 60 recordings. A natural curiosity and an insatiable desire to explore has propelled the group in a number of artistic directions and continues to ensure them not only a prominent presence on the international chamber music scene, but also a rich and varied musical existence. Their energy and craftsmanship has attracted numerous awards and accolades worldwide, while ongoing educational work provides a vehicle for passing on experience and staying in touch with the next generation.

Throughout their 40-year career, the Brodsky Quartet has performed at many of the UK's major festivals and venues, and is regularly recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio. The Quartet also has a busy international performing schedule, and has toured extensively throughout Australasia, North and South America, South Africa, and Europe. Over the years the Brodsky Quartet has, on numerous occasions, performed complete cycles of the quartets of Schubert, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Britten, Schoenberg, Zemlinsky, Webern and Bartok. They are perhaps best known, however, for their performances of the Shostakovich Quartets and therefore chose 2012, the year of their 40th anniversary, to revisit the repertoire and perform the cycle worldwide.

The Brodsky Quartet also has a busy recording career, and last season marked the beginning of a new and exclusive relationship with Chandos Records. The Quartet's first disc for the label, Petits Fours, was released in February 2012 and is a celebratory album of ‘Encore’ pieces, arranged exclusively by the Quartet for their 40th anniversary. In April 2012, Chandos released the Quartet's long-awaited recording of the great Debussy Quartet alongside Deux Danses arranged for harp and string quintet. This new collaboration with Chandos will help add to their already huge and diverse discography. Recent awards for recordings include the Diapason D'Or and the CHOC du Monde de la Musique for their recordings of string quartets by Britten, Beethoven and Janacek, and, for their outstanding contribution to innovation in programming, the Brodsky Quartet has received a Royal Philharmonic Society Award. They have taught at many international chamber music courses and held residencies in several music institutes, including the first such post at the University of Cambridge. They are currently International Fellows of Chamber Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and have been awarded Honorary Doctorates at the University of Kent and University of Teesside.

The Quartet is named after the great Russian violinist Adolf Brodsky, dedicatee of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto and a passionate chamber musician.

LORÉ LIXENBERG / MEZZO-SOPRANO
Mezzo-soprano Loré Lixenberg has performed as soloist with many distinguished orchestras and ensembles including BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and Ensemble Intercontemporain. Her rich experience in music theatre includes performing the lead role in Bent Sørensen’s opera Under Himlen at the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen as well as featuring in many projects with Théâtre de Complicité. She was featured in numerous television programmes, including the Channel 4 documentary What made Mozart tick and Kombat Opera Presents…, a set of six comedy operas on BBC2. Loré Lixenberg sang the main female operatic role in Richard Thomas’ award-winning Jerry Springer - The Opera at the Edinburgh Festival, the National Theatre and in London’s West End, as well as on the subsequently released CD. In 2011, she sang the role of Shelley in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s opera Anna Nicole at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, a role she will reprise in 2014.

PROGRAMME:

Bjork: Cover Me
Franz Schubert: Du bist die Ruh
Henry Purcell: Dido's Lament (from the opera Dido and Aeneas)
Franz Schubert: String Quartet in A minor, No.13, D.804 “Rosamunde”

Interval

Song Cycle: “Trees, Walls, Cities”
- Derry: Once there was an Island (Composer: Christopher Norby / Text: Matt Jennings)
- London: Pyramus and Thisbe (Composer: Jocelyn Pook / Text: Richard Thomas)
- Utrecht: Der Garten des Paracelsus (Composer : Theo Verbey / Text : Peter Huchel)
- Berlin: Just Outside (Composer: Soren Nils Eichberg / Text: Soren Nils Eichberg)
- Vienna: Flakturm Esterhazy Park (Composer: Gerald Resch / Text: Ferdinand Schmatz)
- Dubrovnik: When God was Creating Dubrovnik (Composer: Isadora Zebeljan / Text: Milan Milisi)
- Nicosia: Walls Have Ears (Composer: Yannis Kyriakides / Text: Mehmet Yashin)
- Jerusalem: Song of Songs (Composer: Habib Shehadeh Hanna / Text: Solomon)
- Prelude, Interludes, Postlude by Nigel Osborne

TICKETS:
€15 Adults / €10 Members of the Foundation, Concessions
Box Office: Tel. 7000-9304 (daily 9.30-11.30am) / www.pharostickets.org