Photo: Jakob Boserup
Athelas Sinfonietta: Opening concert
True to tradition, KLANG's house ensemble, Athelas Sinfonietta, will open this year's festival in The Royal Library. They will present three works that, as always, paint a picture of an adventurous ensemble, who delight in taking their audience to unforeseen places.
The concert opens with Jexper Holmen's Sinfonella – a title that came to him in a dream – which he has written specifically for Athelas. Through contrasting sections, alternately for the whole ensemble and for smaller parts of it, the audience is given the opportunity to examine the components of the ensemble and their relationship to the musical experience. Sinfonella is followed by the Polish composer Aleksandra Gryka's Einerjedeneither – a work that is bound to surprise, perhaps even shock, even the most tired ear: Between the heavy, pitch-dark background painted by the woodwinds and the siren cries of the strings, the euphoric moaning of a woman is heard and then – suddenly – a restless piano that seems to almost tease the listener with its surprising, almost pretty melodiousness. Einerjedeneither is a work that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, knowing that the journey can change course at any moment.
Finally Athelas, in the company of actress Signe Egholm Olsen, premieres composer Rune Glerup and playwright/librettist Jokum Rohde's musical work about the secret, underground city of Almænsk. In Almænsk, the fountain of youth springs, and all the citizens are children. No one knows about the fountain – not until a traveling salesman finds it and brings home the gift of immortality to a circle of powerful people in Copenhagen. What is it that immortality does to us? What tragedies will fall upon those who do not live within time, the immortal few whose families, loved ones, and children grow old and die before them? And what happens the day the fountain of youth runs dry? Equal parts eco-catastrophe drama, time travel adventure, and mortality study, Almænsk is a work that asks difficult questions about the relationship between time and human life.
Program
Jexper Holmen: Sinfonella (2022) (uropførelse) ** ***
Aleksandra Gryka: Einerjedeneither (2011) (Danmarkspremiere)
- PAUSE
Rune Glerup / Jokum Rohde: Almænsk (2023) (uropførelse) * ***
I. Vand
II. Ensomt midnatslys
III. Ungdommens kilde
IV. Det elektriske Europa
V. Intermezzo
VI. Requiem-Koral
* The piece is a co-commission between the Royal Library and Athelas Sinfonietta.
** The work was commissioned by Athelas Sinfonietta.
*** The projects are supported by the Statens Kunstfond and by Koda Kultur
Duration ca. 75 min
Biographies
Athelas Sinfonietta
Rune Glerup
Jexper Holmen
Aleksandra Gryka
Pierre-André Valade
Jokum Rohde
Signe Egholm Olsen