Ensemble Modern / Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart / SWR Experimentalstudio

This speculative exploration of sound and voice brings together the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and the Ensemble Modern, led by Michael Wendeberg, with the SWR Experimentalstudio in Freiburg, where the birth of language promises a story of beginnings—full of possibilities, full of boundless potential.

With *They left us grief-trees wailing at the wall*, Clara Iannotta, on the other hand—following in the footsteps of the poet Dorothy Molloy—looks toward the ultimate end: mournful, mysterious, yet at the same time full of love for life.

The work *echo from afar (ii)* by the Italian composer explores her experience of radiation therapy and the associated sounds as a sonic experience.

Did the music arise from language, or was it the other way around? The origin remains a mystery, though there was likely not just one beginning, but several.

Clara Iannotta and Márton Illes—two representatives of the contemporary music scene who are unconventional in the best sense of the word—draw inspiration from poets.

The poems of the Irish poet Dorothy Molloy have long accompanied Iannotta and laid the groundwork for works such as *They left us grief-trees wailing at the wall*. The Italian composer responds to the surreal scene of an acoustic Wailing Wall with a journey through a soundscape in which hardly anything resembles the familiar sound of classical instruments. Prepared with adhesive tape, Styrofoam, and cardboard—and played in unusual ways—the instruments are transformed, revealing a different identity and shifting the coordinates of the familiar system.

Inspired by the realization that everything that seems certain can suddenly lose its taken-for-granted nature, the chamber music with electronics *echo from afar (ii)* was created. Written following radiation therapy, Clara Iannotta processes her acoustic memories of the treatment—oscillating between fear and hope—in this work. The music is not a reflection of the illness; rather, the composer seeks an expression for “this invisible force that changes one from within”—and thereby places her trust in a new beginning.

Márton llés, a composer who leaves hardly any detail of his nuanced exploration of sound and noise to chance, speculates with the poet Felix Reinhuber on initial articulations. The journey back to the time of beginnings is an attempt to forget the established and the conventional and to move beyond traditional formal languages. The fact that the dream of primeval times is supported by live electronics from the SWR Experimental Studio is no contradiction. Whether setting out or returning to the unknown: with the help of technology, some thresholds can be crossed.

Program

Clara Iannotta (*1983)

They left us grief-trees wailing at the wall (2020)

for 9 amplified instruments and electronics

echo from afar (ii) (2022)

for six musicians and electronics

Márton Illés (b. 1975)

from mouth to mouth (2026)

for voices, ensemble, and live electronics

based on a text by Felix Reinhuber

Commissioned by Ensemble Modern, the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, the SWR Experimentalstudio, and the Berliner Festspiele / Musikfest Berlin, made possible by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation

World premiere

I last common ancestor (~ 7 million years ago)

II Australopithecus afarensis (~ 3 million years ago)

III Homo erectus (~ 1 million years ago)

IV Homo neanderthalensis (~ 40,000 years ago)

V Homo sapiens (~ 10,000 years ago)

VI Synthus (~ in the year 2100)

Contributors

Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart

SWR Experimental Studio

Michael Acker, Maurice Oeser, Eleni Ralli – Sound Direction

Johannes Burgert – Assistant Sound Engineer

Joachim Haas – Director, SWR Experimental Studio

• Ensemble Modern
• Michael Wendeberg – Conductor