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such stuff (Free subscription) | 18/07/2008
Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s 1965 opera “Die Soldaten,” the story of a woman’s degradation at the hands of a series of heartless soldiers, has a prelude of such stupefying intensity that it stands for the moment as the ne plus ultra. The full orchestra sustains an enormous dissonance spread out over many octaves. Beneath it, the timpani pound out, “in iron rhythm,” the note D—perhaps...
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Opera Today (Free subscription) | 13/07/2008
Bernd Alois Zimmermann was a sensitive, none too healthy 21-year-old music prodigy in 1939, when he was drafted into the German army.
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openPR.com Newsfeed (Free subscription) | 04/08/2008
... takes his own individual approach to this material. Contemporary music is also represented with Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Kirmestänze.Again this year, soloists of the highest calibre will perform with both orchestras: Elina Garanca and Hélène Grimaud with the LFO, and Thomas Zehetmair and Renaud Capuçon with the MCO. Elina Garanca’s most recent performance with the MCO was in...
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Darcy James Argue's Secret Society (Free subscription) | 24/07/2008
Kyle Gann follows up on the David Byrne vs. Bernd Alois Zimmermann controversy that sparked so much discussion here and elsewhere. While I still think people are trying to weigh down Byrne's arguments with baggage he did not pack himself[1],...
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The Rambler (Free subscription) | 17/07/2008
Or: How many nights do you need to sell out at up to $250 a seat before critics stop calling you perversely obscure? According to David Byrne’s review of Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten in New York, more than five. Byrne’s review is full of dumb*, but here’s a quick compare-and-contrast between his oppressively conservative version [...]
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Opera Today (Free subscription) | 15/07/2008
By HEIDI WALESON [Wall Street Journal, 10 July 2008] The technical wizardry of the Lincoln Center Festival production of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's "Die Soldaten" is spectacular. Initially produced by the RuhrTriennale Festival in Germany, the New York version is staged in the vast volume (200 by 300 feet, 80 feet high) of the Park Avenue Armory's vaulted Drill Hall. The set (designed...
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The Guardian Music blog (Free subscription) | 14/07/2008
... further you search from these shores. Need to find out when and where the next Hans Abrahamsen or Bernd Alois Zimmermann gig is on, say, or when you can hear euphonium soloist David Childs in concert? Bachtrack will tell you, as well providing a resource for children's events, classical music radio stations wherever you are in the world, and a CD finder.
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The New Yorker - Arts and Culture (Free subscription) | 14/07/2008
... detonation; Alban Berg’s “Lulu” with a sharply stabbing figure that foreshadows the heroine’s fate.Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s 1965 opera “Die Soldaten,” the story of a woman’s degradation at the hands of a series of heartless soldiers, has a prelude of such stupefying intensity that it stands for the moment as the ne plus ultra. The full orchestra sustains an enormous dissonance...
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Darcy James Argue's Secret Society (Free subscription) | 11/07/2008
David Byrne reviews the Lincoln Center Festival's insane Park Avenue Armory staging of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's 12-tone opera Die Soldaten: The playbill refers to the piece as both a monument and a tombstone, since music in this genre couldn’t really...
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Sequenza21/ (Free subscription) | 11/07/2008
Few operas I have seen have left as great an impact on me as Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten which I originally saw at City Opera in the early ’90s and just saw again in its current run at the Park Avenue Armory as part of the 2008 Lincoln Center Festival. (There are only two [...]
