Incredible music

Just wanted to share some incredible music that I became acquinted with during A Fulbright Afternoon of Music last Sunday (see earlier post called "Sunday"). During this elegant event a fellow Fulbrighter, Jean-Francois Charles, performed a couple of songs from an opera that was written by Karlheinz Stockhausen on his basset horn. Jean-Francois told us about this opera that is truly amazing in terms of the execution for the musicians, since at one point the violinists had to go up in helicopters. I looked up information on this opera which is about the seven days of the week and found the following:

In 1977, Stockhausen began to compose the music-scenic work LICHT (LIGHT) The Seven Days of the Week. To date (2004), 5 of the days have had their staged world premières: DONNERSTAG aus LICHT / THURSDAY from LIGHT in 1981, SAMSTAG aus LICHT / SATURDAY from LIGHT in 1984, MONTAG aus LICHT / MONDAY from LIGHT in 1988 (all at La Scala in Milan), DIENSTAG aus LICHT / TUESDAY from LIGHT in 1993 and FREITAG aus LICHT / FRIDAY from LIGHT in 1996, both at the Leipzig Opera. The world premières of the 4 individual scenes of MITTWOCH aus LICHT / WEDNESDAY from LIGHT (WORLD PARLIAMENT, ORCHESTRA FINALISTS, HELICOPTER STRING QUARTET and MICHAELION) took place between 1996 – 1998, but the opera has not yet been staged in its entirety, as a whole.
The world première of the first part of SONNTAG aus LICHT / SUNDAY from LIGHT, LICHTER – WASSER (SONNTAGS-GRUSS) / LIGHTS – WATERS (SUNDAY-GREETING) for soprano, tenor and orchestra with synthesizer was conducted by Stockhausen in October 1999 during the Donaueschingen Musiktage. The world première of the 2nd scene, ENGEL-PROZESSIONEN / ANGEL-PROCESSIONS for a cappella choir, performed by the large choir of the Dutch Radio, took place on November 9th 2002 in Amsterdam. The world première of the 5th scene, HOCH-ZEITEN / MARRIAGES for 5 choral groups and 5 orchestral groups (choir and symphony orchestra of the WDR) took place on February 2nd 2003 in Las Palmas, and the world première of the 4th scene, DÜFTE – ZEICHEN / SCENTS – SIGNS for 7 vocalists, boy’s voice and synthesizer took place on August 29th 2003 during the Salzburger Festspiele.
LICHT-BILDER (LIGHT-PICTURES) of SUNDAY from LIGHT has been composed last and finished on December 31st 2002 in Kürten. It was commisioned by the studio C.C.M.I.X. Paris, and will be premièred on October 16th 2004 at the Donaueschingen Music Festival, Germany. The world première will take place on October 16th 2004 at the Donaueschingen Music Festival, Germany.
LICHT with its Seven Days of the Week lasts about 29 hours of music: THURSDAY from LIGHT 240 minutes; SATURDAY from LIGHT 185 minutes; MONDAY from LIGHT, 278 minutes; TUESDAY from LIGHT 156 minutes; FRIDAY from LIGHT 290 minutes; WEDNESDAY from LIGHT 267 minutes; SUNDAY from LIGHT 298 minutes.
(official Karlheinz Stockhausen biography website)

I was excited to read that part of the opera was performed in my home country, the Netherlands!

Besides the performance of Jean-Francois the Fulbright music event was very nice. I listened to some Greek folk music, and some nice violin and piano classical music. I even gained a renewed interest in Brahms after listening to Sonata for Violin and Paino in G Op. 78, First movement.
And.... the food was great too!