Arthur Russell’s classic Tower of Meaning with a contemporary twist
True to tradition, Klara will once again fill the capital with classical music from 8 to 24 March. Under the motto ‘Crossroads’, Klara Festival 2024 will be a meeting place for musical traditions and generations to intersect. Klara Festival’s surprising programme seeks out places where familiar and less trodden paths converge to create a context within which the classical repertoire receives a contemporary meaning. Musicians of all sorts think critically about the music that they write and/or perform. They deliberately and resolutely choose classical music, but their approach is often unconventional. Discover the entire programme here.
You can come and enjoy just such a musical encounter at AB too: on Wednesday 20 March, composer/producer/singer Peter Broderick and France’s 12-member Ensemble 0 perform a rework and expanded version of Arthur Russell’s classical debut Tower Of Meaning (1983): Give it to the Sky.
Arthur Russell (1951 – 1992) was an American cellist, composer, producer, singer and musician who moved as easily amongst the New York avant-garde as he did through disco, art pop, folk and new wave. He was as much a perfectionist as he was eclectic and in fact, in his far too short life, he released only two studio albums – Tower Of Meaning (1983) and World Of Echo (1986, the year in which he received his HIV diagnosis) – but he left behind a gigantic archive of unreleased material. Both his posthumous output (now about 20 albums) and his legacy have grown incredibly in recent years (with fans like Devendra Banhart, Frank Ocean, David Byrne, and Sufjan Stevens). Peter Broderick also counts himself among those fans – he once paid 500 dollars for an original copy of van Tower Of Meaning. Together with Ensemble 0, Broderick (who previously performed at AB with Efterklang) captured an entire re- recording of Russell’s epic minimalist orchestral debut on October 6: Give It to the Sky – an intimate portrait of a musical non-conformist. Come experience this inventive reworking of Russell’s timeless music for yourself on March 20!
More info & tickets to be found here.
