HELMUT OEHRING
2020 χώρος (CHORÓS)
for 24 voices + dancer
text + signpoetic choreography + composition: Helmut Oehring
duration: 45'
LOWmusicMOL
world premiere September 2020 HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts, Dresden
Choreography + dance: Katja Erfurth
2015/16 Massacre. Listen, MASSACRE! (to Racep Tayyip Erdogan)
melodrama
for guitar/voice + 12phonic womens' choir + string orchestra
on a poem by Armenian poet Rupen Sevag,
verses of the Ya Sin Sure and a poem by Helmut Oehring
libretto: Stefanie Woerdemann
audioconception + -production: Torsten Ottersberg/GOGH s.m.p.
commissioned by Dresden Symphonics on 100. anniversary
of the genocide againts the Armenians
duration: 35’
wp 2015 RADIALSYSTEM V Berlin
performances in Dresden + Budapest + Yerewan
Marc Sinan + AuditiVokal + Dresden Smphonics
musical direction: Andrea Molino
"An anger, an implacability and fullness that Oehring's music unleashes without sacrificing tenderness and lamentation, in order to, at the height of our days, which promise anything but good, in fact open new fields of energy - and we will do so in the future." sorely need it!”
Olaf Brühl, www.kultur-extra.de
"Oehring's tremendously powerful melodrama MASSACRE! is more of a beacon than a complaint and is addressed to President Erdoğan. Marc Sinan as speaker and on the electric guitar, soloists, a women's choir and interspersed quotations leave nothing to be desired in terms of clarity."
Michael Bartsch, taz
2016 Angelus Novus III
for ensemble and orchestra
based on pictures by Paul Klee and texts by Walter Benjamin
text book: Stefanie Wördemann
duration: 25'
world premiere 2016 Theater Freiburg
Ensemble Aventure + Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra
musical direction: Daniel Carter
2015/16 Vocalise of an inconsolable Angel
for solo soprano + solo electric guitar + orchestra
duration: 10'
world premiere 2016 Tonhalle Duesseldorf
Marisol Montalvo + Daniel Göritz + Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra
musical direction: Kerri-Lynn Wilson
2013 Words in the Air (Saf Haki)
for vocal soloist + sign language soloist + solo e-guitarist + choir + orchestra
commissioned by the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2013
duration: 30'
world premiere 2013 Donaueschingen Music Days
SWR Symphony Orchestra + SWR Vocal Ensemble Stuttgart + David Moss + Christina Schönfeld
+ Najat Suleiman + Hassan Tahar + Daniel Goeritz
musical direction: Rupert Huber
2012 not YOU?
rhapsody for soloists + orchestra + students' ensemble + youth choir
commissioned by the Konzerthaus Berlin
duration: 25'
world premiere 2012 Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt Berlin
David Moss + Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin + Berlin students
musical direction: Titus Engel
2011 The Four Seasons ("Our summer is but a winter painted green")
for solo violin + string orchestra
freely adapted from Antonio Vivaldi and Heinrich Heine
duration: 30'
world premiere 2011 Liederhalle Stuttgart
Patricia Kopatchinskaja + Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra
musical direction: Konstantin Lifschiz
2011 POEndulum
monodrama for narrator + violoncello solo + orchestra
based on Edgar Allen Poe's novel The Pit and The Pendulum
libretto: Stefanie Wördemann
duration: 25'
world premiere 2011 Old Fruit Market Glasgow
David Moss + BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
musical direction: Ilan Volkov
2010 MEERE
for solo bass clarinet + orchestra on the song Die Meere by Johannes Brahms
duration: 25'
world premiere 2010 Opera Oslo / Ultima Festival Oslo
Rolf Borch + Norwegian Radio Orchestra
2010 mucity. Faces of a City
orchestral suite
commissioned by KlangZeit Munster 2010
duration: 15'
world premiere 2010 Theater Munster
Munster Symphony Orchestra
musical direction: Fabrizio Ventura
2009 LOVE. HOME. DEATH?
cantorium for solo concert+electric guitar + children's choir + mixed choir + orchestra
+ visuals + live electronics
conception + text book: Stefanie Wördemann
audio conception + production: Torsten Ottersberg/GOGH smp
Commissioned by the Academy of Arts in Berlin
duration: 65'
world premiere 2009 Frankfurt/Oder
Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt + students from Frankfurt/Oder
musical direction: Howard Griffith
"Oehrings Vocalise is a score of shimmering sounds, times of massive impact. Marisol Montalvo lent to the serious work her golden, warm radiant voice. A distorted and feedback electric guitar offered a strong counterpoint to this angelic song."
Norbert Laufer, Rheinische Post
Hagen Klennert, Graphics for Helmut Oehring's GOYA II . Yo lo vi based on Desastres de la Guerra by Francisco GoyaInk on paper 2008
2008 GOYA II. Yo lo vi
memoratorio for vocalist/double bassist + boy's soprano + e-guitar + Spanish guitar
+ sign language soloist + mixed choir + big orchestra + live-elektronics
on paintings by Francisco de Goya and texts by Hermann Kesten and Fédérico Garçia Lorca
under use of music by Manuel de Falla, Hans Werner Henze e.a.
conception + libretto: Stefanie Woerdemann
audioconception + -produktion: Torsten Ottersberg/GOGH s.m.p.
commissioned by German Symphonic Orchestra
duration: ca. 45’
wp 2008 Berlin Philharmonic
German Symphonic Orchestra + Broadcast Choir Berlin + Matthias Bauer + Joerg Wilkendorf + Daniel Goeritz
musical director: Ingo Metzmacher
"Helmut Oehring, together with librettist Stefanie Woerdemann, impressively transposes Goya's kireg images into the language of music and with it into the present. The memoratorium, which was created in the context of Federico Garçía Lorca and Hermann Kesten, creates a unique space of thought and memory that develops out of the network of relationships between word, sound and movement."
Heike Catherina Mertens, laudatory speech on the awarding of the Arold Schoenberg Prize 2008 to Helmut Oehring
"Helmut Oehring's large-scale work GOYA II. Yo lo vi intensifies disturbance many times over, without the work lacking in beauty of sound, in wonderful tenderness. Oehring can do a tremendous amount, he can deal with music history both seriously and playfully, he knows how to master large devices in the same way that Mahler or Strauss or Schoenberg could. And above all, he is related to all these masters in terms of ideals and technique. For Helmut Oehring, the figure of Goya is both an image and a role model. Goya: the first war correspondent in art. The fear that screams from his etchings is the minefield that Oehring composes. Whatever the composition draws in, the terrain is explosive. Hell's journey on mined terrain. GOYA II is a composition of ruptures, distortions and explosions. Something is constantly blowing up, and a tremendous amount of humanity remains."
Stefan Amzoll, Märkische Oderzeitung
GOYA II is an elaborate, illustratively eloquent oratorio. The passages of the orchestral and choral machinery rolling in with noisy force are convincing, as are the chamber music episodes: The quiet despair of the concert guitar, the boy's futile cries, the slow motion of rigor mortis, the silent signs of the gesture soloist into the air - an electrifying work."
Christiane Peitz, Der Tagesspiegel
2007 GOYA I
for orchstra on Les Desastres de la Guerra by Francisco de Goya
and under use of music by Ludwig van Beethoven
duration: ca. 20’
wp 2007 Donauesching music days
SWR Smphonic Orchestra
musical director: Rupert Huber
2003 The BlueSea (from: RetreatDay)
for male soprano + e-guitar + trumpet + big orchestra + live-electronics
on Franz Schubert's The Wanderer
audioconception + -produktion: Torsten Ottersberg/GOGH s.m.p.
duration: ca. 30’
wp 2003 musica viva / Herkules Hall München
Arno Raunig + Joerg Wilkendorf + Bill Forman + Bavarian Broadcasting Orchestra
musical director: Martin Brabbins
2001 Berlin Symphony o
for orchstra for the FilmRemake by Thomas Schadt
on Walter Ruttman's silent movie of 1929
Co-composition: Iris ter Schiphorst
audioconception + -produktion: Torsten Ottersberg/GOGH s.m.p.
duration: ca. 75’
wp 2001 States Opera Berlin
Staatskapelle Berlin
2000 LostWater (from: The Space / Musical Sacrifice)
for voice +o electric guitar + double bass + 9 sign language soloists + large orchestra
on texts by Helmut Oehring
audioconception + -production: Torsten Ottersberg/GOGH smp
duration: 25'
Boosey & Hawkes
world premiere 2001 Liederhalle Stuttgart
Orchestra of the Stuttgart State Opera + Christina Schönfeld and others
musical direction: Lothar Zagrosek
1999 CRUISEN - STUDY OF PORTRAIT I
for orchestra + live electronics
audio conception+ production: Torsten Ottersberg/GOGH smp
graphics: Hagen Klennert
duration: 20'
Boosey & Hawkes
world premiere 2000 Lille
Blindman Saxophone Quartet + Orchester National de Lille
musical direction: F. Karaoui
1991 COMA I
for orchestra
duration: 10'
Boosey & Hawkes
world premiere 1992 Leipzig Gewandhaus + Cologne Philharmonic
Radio Symphony Orchestra Cologne
musical direction: Hans Vonk