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Helmut Lachenmann at Eighty
MALCOLM MILLER attends
a study day and concert in London
With his eightieth birthday approaching on 27 November 2015 and a festival devoted to his music being mounted in his native city of Stuttgart, Helmut Lachenmann is increasingly receiving the glow of global recognition for his contribution to what one might call the 'post avant-garde'. No doubt London is set to host events of a similar celebratory and retrospective kind, yet there was an early start with the Study Day and Concert in celebration of the 80th birthday year of German composer Helmut Lachenmann held some months ago on 16 February 2015.
The event, which attracted a large and enthusiastic audience, and the composer himself, was presented by Kings College, London, where it was held, together with London University's Institutes of Musical Research and Modern Languages Research, well-timed to follow on from Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic's performance of Lachenmann's Tableau (1989) alongside Mahler's 2nd Symphony, at the Barbican the previous day.
The richness of Lachenmann's achievement was traced in presentations by leading academics on philosophical context, aesthetic aims and technical strategies, followed by a conversation with the composer and an afternoon screening of two films, by Bettina Ehrhardt and Barrie Gavin...
Copyright © 19 July 2015
Malcolm Miller,
London UK
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