Aziza Sadikova's Farbenzeiten Receives North American Premiere in Montréal
Aziza Sadikova’s Farbenzeiten—an arrangement of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons—receives its North American premiere with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano in December.
The North American premiere of Aziza Sadikova’s Farbenzeiten is given by the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano on December 10-11. Farbenzeiten is an expansion of Vivaldi’s iconic Four Seasons for solo violin and string orchestra to a version for full orchestra, featuring a different soloist from the orchestra for each of the four concerti: “Frühling” with oboe soloist Vincent Boilard, “Sommer” with trumpet soloist Paul Merkelo, “Herbst” with cellist Anna Burden, and “Winter” with percussion soloist Serge Desgagnés.
Farbenzeiten received its world premiere in March 2024 with Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester at the Philharmonie Berlin. Nagano has championed several Sadikova works in recent years, including her violin concerto Stradivari for violinist Rebekka Hartmann and Silberklang for the Hamburg Philharmonic.
> Listen to the world premiere broadcast of Farbenzeiten
Tagesspiegel praised the rich orchestral palette of Sadikova’s new arrangement, following its world premiere:
“At the beginning of the work, premiered on Easter Saturday under Kent Nagano, the oboe is ensnared by cobwebs of the strings. Tubular bells drone, tinitous tones buzz through the Philharmonie, small disturbing sounds pluck at the baroque euphony. One of the four percussionists gently sweeps over the large gong with his drum brush, the horn players make glasses sing with their fingers, the brass contributes cacophonies and sonorous notes. It is as if the Sahara dust that clouded the spring sky during the day has settled on the music.”
Sadikova explains:
“My arrangements of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons represent a kind of expansion of the sonic palette of the master’s original score. The orchestral variety is inspired primarily by the history of time, people, fashion, architecture, and by everyday sounds that surrounded Vivaldi. Some musical fragments are expanded in sound and duration, too.”
“The pushing of the boundaries of the original volume of these fragments is dictated by Vivaldi’s music itself, and in the course of the work it was as if he simply drew me in to going further and taking my listener away, immersing me in a voluminous musical palette of sounds. The quiet, lyrical parts of the concertos sometimes creep in like dreams, where past and present time spaces collide as if in mirrors. My re-creations of Vivaldi’s concertos are an experiment in hearing the music of a genius in a slightly different way.”
This season sees three additional Sadikova premieres, including the world premiere of a new version of her Silenzio for vibraphone, harp and voice with the Duo Interconnections in Berlin (Oct 5); the world premiere of her new horn concerto Strahlender Engel for the Regensburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Oct 14); and a new solo violin piece, Reflections sur Versailles, to be performed by the winner of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Conservatory Competition 2025 (Jan 19).
Concert Information
Tuesday, December 10 at 7:30pm ET
Wednesday, December 11 at 7:30pm ET
Maison symphonique de Montréal
More info
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Kent Nagano, conductor
Marie-Nicole Lemieux, contralto
Vincent Boilard, oboe
Paul Merkelo, trumpet
Anna Burden, cello
Serge Desgagnés, percussion
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Excerpts from The Nutcracker
MATTHEW RICKETTS premiere (World Premiere)
ANTONIO VIVALDI / arr. AZIZA SADIKOVA Farbenzeiten (North American Premiere)
> Further information on Work: Farbenzeiten
Photo: Alina Leonova