Stockhausen Cosmic Prophet at the South Bank 2019

Pierre-Laurent Aimard playing Stockhausen Klavierstück XI with Hr-synphonieorchester Frankfurt in 2016

Please read my review of Donnerstag HERE  Stockhausen Cosmic Prophet, a new Stockhausen series at the South Bank, London, scene of so many great Stockhausen events over the years. This one's special.  (Please click on my label "Stockhausen" below and right for more).  The big highlight is  Donnerstag aus Licht the first UK staging since 1985 of Stockhausen's fourth opera in his Licht saga.  Maxime Pascal conducts the London Sinfonietta, staged with light, computer music design and video.  Stockhausen needs to be experienced live for full impact, to achieve his visionary ideals. His is music that's more than music, but conceptual art that provokes and stretches boundaries.  All round surround sound event, even in the constraints of the Royal Festival Hall.  Some seats still available.
On the weekend of 1st and 2nd June, Stockhausen In Depth, two full days of performances supplemented by talks and workshops.  On Saturday night, in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Pierre-Laurent Aimard does Klavierstück I; Klavierstück II; Klavierstück III; Klavierstück IV; Klavierstück V; Klavierstück VI; Klavierstück VII; Klavierstück VIII; Klavierstück IX; Klavierstück X; Klavierstück XI and Kontakte for electronic sounds, piano, percussion. Aimard is a brilliant Stockhausen pianist, so this should be a must. Aimard will be joined by percussionist Dirk Rothburst of Ensemble musicFabrik, with sound design by Mark Stroppa, the composer and former head of music research at IRCAM.  Stick around too for the late night performance of Stimmung with the London Voices.
On Sunday 2nd June at 2.30, Apartment House do Für kommende Zeiten (For Times to Come) "intuitive music", which grows from interaction between performers. Even more stellar (deliberate pun for the Man from Sirius, Zyklus for percussion; Mantra for 2 pianos with 12 antique cymbals, woodblock & 2 ring modulators (and shortwave radio/tape) where Pierre-Laurent Aimard is joined by Tamara Stefanovich and Dirk Rothbrust percussion and Marco Stroppa sound design
Earlier this week, Marc Bridle was at the Royal Festival Hall for Actress x Stockhausen Sin {x} II, Actress being Darren Cunningham, a new work that takes its cue from Stockhausen's Welt-Parlament, the first scene from Stockhausen's Mittwoch, the third opera in the Licht saga.   Please read Marc's well-informed analysis of the new work, discussed in the context of Stockhausen's Cosmic Pulses and Mittwoch, as it was staged in Birmingham a few years back. (More on both pieces on this site, too) . Please read Marc's review in full, HERE In Opera Today