Over the coming week the Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center will be treating audiences to a series of concerts featuring a selection of some of the most ground-breaking contemporary classical music ever performed in Taiwan.
Entitled The Contemporary Music Festival, the six program series is the brain child of Ensemble Modern founder and CKS Cultural Center music adviser Karsten Witt. It is the first of its kind to be held in Asia. If successful, organizers hope to make the festival an annual event that will host some of the world's leading contemporary ensembles, orchestras and soloists.
As part of the series, The Frankfurt-based Ensemble Modern will be performing a string of specially designed concerts that, according to Witt, will give Taiwan audiences maximum exposure to some of the finest examples of contemporary ensemble/chamber music.
"The program has been exclusively drawn up for Taipei audiences. We will try to open up different and previously unheard aspects of contemporary music as well as giving them [audiences] a point of reference from which to draw from," Witt said. "None of the works are experimental and all have been performed by ensembles more than 50 times worldwide."
Established in 1980, Ensemble Modern consists of 19 soloists and has built a reputation as one of the most adaptable ensembles in the world. Along with performing traditional chamber/orchestra styled contemporary and classical concerts, the group is one of the few to incorporate video, dance and theater into its lively and often off-beat performances.
"As I was given very short notice in regard the festival's starting date, I opted to invite the Ensemble Modern to showcase the event because it is an ensemble that, while specializing in contemporary music, remains hugely versatile," he said. "The material in the series demonstrates this with the group performing works from two very different ends of the musical scale, namely contemporary works and more orchestrated and chamber-like material."
The festival will see the ensemble performing well-known contemporary works by rock satirist Frank Zappa, minimalist composer Stephen Reich and musical dramatist Heiner Goebbels.
Along with the more off-beat and contemporary concerts, the ensemble will also be presenting works by more conventional composers, including Helmut Lachenmann, Anton von Webern, Edgar Varese and Olivier Messaien. Though different from the festival's more contemporary concerts, Witt believes that the inclusion of more orchestrated pieces is important for local audiences.
"Because this type of concert series is new to Taipei audiences we wanted to include some more traditional chamber music in order to give audiences a point of reference," said Witt. "While Weber and Messaien may not be seen as contemporary composers, they were still very influential. Zappa was influenced by Varese and Messaien is considered by many as one of the greatest 20th century composers."
The opening concert in the series, which takes place at the National Concert Hall on Sunday, will see the Ensemble Modern performing a selection of tunes from its latest album Modern Rock of Zappa and Ensemble Modern. Having first collaborated with Zappa in 1992 on the Yellow Shark project, the ensembles' latest tribute to the late avant garde rock 'n' roll guru features a selection of what are considered to be some of Zappa's most provocative and absurd compositions. The program will include reworkings of The Beltway Bandits, A Pig with Wings, The Dangerous Kitchen and Night School to name but a few.
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