Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music, this year under the direction of Augusta Read Thomas, is packed with a wide array of selections from the Schott/EAM catalogue. Beginning Friday, August 7 and continuing through Tuesday, August 11, the festival kicks off with an opening concert by the Tanglewood Music Center Fellows led by Stefan Asbury, featuring Christopher Rouse's Ku-Ka-Ilimoku, Matthias Pintscher's Lieder und Schneebilder, Pierre Boulez's mémoriale (...explosante-fixe...Originel), Beat Furrer's Voicelessness. The Snow Has No Voice and Oliver Knussen's Requiem - Songs for Sue.

Following the FOCM opening concert, Tanglewood audiences will hear Maestro Asbury lead the Tanglewood Music Fellows through performances of George Benjamin's Upon Silence on August 8, Tansy Davies' Neon on August 9 and Julian Anderson's Shir Hashirim, alongside Wolfgang Rihm's Verwandlung 2: Musik on August 10. Scored for mezzo-soprano and five viols, George Benjamin's Upon Silence is a setting of "Long-legged Fly," a late Yeats poem portraying three momentous figures in history absorbed in silent contemplation: Julius Caesar planning a crucial military campaign, Helen of Troy as an adolescent in Sparta and Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel.

The final night of the FOCM features a piano recital by Nicolas Hodges performing the US premiere of Pierre Boulez's une page d'éphéméride, as well as Boulez's Incises.

On the opposite American shore this summer, the Cabrillo Festival presents the US premiere of Matthew Hindson's techno-influenced Rave Elation on Sunday, August 8 featuring Marin Alsop and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra. Hindson comments on the work:

The piece is almost exclusively hedonistic in content, and this is deliberate. The main inspiration for the work comes from dance and 'rave' parties, especially the party-goers' single-minded indulgence in physical enjoyment.

'Rave' parties are large dance events, popular in the 1990s where the music is loud, produced through loud amplifiers. A steady drum beat, simulated and at times reproduced in Rave-Elation by a MIDI drum kit, controls the tempo and the excitement of the dancing crowd. The tempo and beat of Rave-Elation reflect the popular fast mood of this 'dance' music.

For more on the music of George Benjamin, Oliver Knussen, Tansy Davies, Julian Anderson and Matthew Hindson visit www.fabermusic.com.

To learn more on Matthias Pintscher and Beat Furrer, go to www.baerenreiter.com.

Visit www.universaledition.com for more on Pierre Boulez and Wolfgang Rihm.

Visit www.tanglewood.org and www.cabrillomusic.org for more detailed information on the festivals.

Matthew Hindson
Rave Elation (Schindowski Mix) (1997/2003)
for orchestra
pic.2(2.pic).2.ca.3.2.cbsn-4.3.3.1-timp-2perc-pno-str
14'

Beat Furrer
Voicelessness. The Snow Has No Voice (1986)
for piano
10'

Matthias Pintscher
Lieder und Schneebilder (2000)
for soprano and piano
after poems by Edward Estlin Cummings
20'

Christopher Rouse
Ku-Ka-Ilimoku (1978)
for four percussionists
5'

Wolfgang Rihm
Verwandlung 2:Musik (2005)
for orchestra
2.2.2.2-4.2.3.1-timp.perc-hp-str
20'

Oliver Knussen
Requiem - Songs for Sue (2005-06)
for soprano and ensemble
fl.afl.2 cl.bcl-2hn-pno(cel)-hp-perc-2va.2 vc.db
12'

George Benjamin
Upon Silence (1990)
for mezzo-soprano and string ensemble
2va.3vc.2db
10'

Pierre Boulez
mémoriale (...explosante-fixe...Originel) (1985)
for flute and ensemble
2hr.3va.2va.vc
7'

Pierre Boulez
Incises (1994/2001)
for piano
3'

Pierre Boulez
une page d'éphéméride (2005)
for piano

Julian Anderson
Shir Hashirim (2001)
for soprano and chamber orchestra
2(2.pic).2(2.ca).2.2(2.cbsn)-2hn-2perc-str
10'