Yearlong 'The Rest is Noise' Festival

[James]

The Rest Is Noise: The Soundtrack of the 20th Century

http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/classical/2012-13/the-rest-is-noise

The Rest Is Noise festival is one of Southbank Centre's most ambitious classical music undertakings to date – a year-long series of concerts and events bringing to life Alex Ross's widely respected survey of 20th century music, The Rest Is Noise.

If you love classical concerts but feel you need some help with contemporary music, this festival is for you. It's also a guided way in for those just beginning to discover classical music.

The festival features nearly 100 events, including talks, films, performances, participation events and concerts, all exploring 20th-century classical music in the context of historical, political and cultural upheavals. Our partners on the project include the London Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC Four.

Jude Kelly, Southbank Centre's Artistic Director and curator of The Rest Is Noise festival, explains the inspiration.

'The background is something I've been thinking a lot about: how do you get people to fall in love with classical music, and how do you get people who are in love with classical music to be in love with contemporary classical music,' she says.

'In about 2007 I was sent a proof copy of Alex Ross's book and I read it from cover to cover almost instantly. I knew immediately that this was a translation space for people to find a way of understanding music differently. Because what it does is take the history of the 20th century and reveal how this history – the turbulence, intrigue, revolution and warring political philosophies – deeply affected composition.'

Throughout the year, there is a series of weekends looking at different themes. Historians and playwrights have been commissioned to write about important events and major figures of the century, helping put the music into context.

'Each of the weekends gives you a world snapshot that makes you realise the world has always been very joined up, artists have always travelled and borrowed,' says Kelly.

While audiences are asked to challenge themselves with some of the programming, there is also plenty of lyrical and uplifting music to look forward to.

Timothy Walker, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, says: 'Working on The Rest Is Noise has been a fascinating project because there are all sorts of discussions about what you're not going to include as much as what you are going to include.

'From January to May we cover pretty well the first half of the century up to World War I, with Tippett's A Child Of Our Time, Shostakovich's Symphony No.6, then after the war we start with Benjamin Britten. You might think that the second half of the century is much more challenging but believe me we have come up with a way to make it very appealing.'

KEY MOMENTS IN THE FESTIVAL:

January:
THE BIG BANG
A new century, a new world

February:
Nationalism
Folk, roots and nostalgia

PARIS
Experiments, melting pots
and iconoclasm

March:
BERLIN IN THE '20s
Satire, cabaret and
emerging fascism

AMERICA
A new world discovers
its voice

May:
THE ART OF FEAR
The music of oppression

June:
END OF THE WAR
Elegy and heroism

September – October:
POST-WAR WORLD
Britten, Darmstadt and
new beliefs

'60s WEEKEND
The West does revolution

November:
POLITICS & SPIRITUALITY
Music behind the iron curtain

HOLLYWOOD & NEW YORK
Sound, film and minimalism

December:
NEW WORLD ORDER
No more rules

Major Partner:
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Festival partners to include:
Philharmonia Orchestra
London Sinfonietta
Shell Classic International - Shell supports Southbank Centre in bringing the finest international orchestras to London
International Chamber Music Season - In partnership with Intermusica
International Piano Series - In partnership with HarrisonParrott
BBC Concert Orchestra
Royal College of Music
Barbara Hannigan

A wide range of events and packages will be announced throughout 2012.
The Rest Is Noise: The Soundtrack of the 20th Century

In 2007 Alex Ross wrote the seminal book The Rest Is Noise – listening to the Twentieth Century. Throughout 2013 we bring the book alive, with nearly 100 concerts, performances, films, talks and debates. We take you on a chronological journey through the most important music of the 20th century and dramatise the century's massive political and social upheavals. The London Philharmonic Orchestra, with over 30 concerts, is the backbone of this festival, which reveals the stories behind the rich, exhilarating and sometimes controversial compositions that have changed the way we listen forever.

'The Rest Is Noise views 20th-century music through the prism of history with its revolutions and counter-revolutions, its major moral and philosophical upheavals around race, gender, faith, political credo and pacifism – and its new relationship to technology and artistic democracy.'

Jude Kelly OBE,
Southbank Centre Artistic Director.
Southbank Centre's The Rest Is Noise, inspired by Alex Ross' book The Rest Is Noise.

WHERE AND WHEN

The Rest Is Noise covers everything from orchestral concerts and opera, to intimate chamber recitals and discussions.

Listing of events ..
http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/festivals-series/the-rest-is-noise

[springrite]

Sounds wonderful.

But I still can not forgive him for almost totally ignoring Elliott Carter.

[Mirror Image]

Be sure you listen to plenty of Cage, James. Since, you know, he's one of your 'favorites' and you've been totally wrong about him...and still are.

[Mirror Image]

It's really important that someone details 'the major movers and shakers' amongst the 20th Century for James. I mean it's so urgent that his online existence depends on it.

[Mirror Image]

The endless labyrinth that is James.

[springrite]

Next year, there should be a festival focusing on composers Ross decided to neglect. The festival may be called... uh... how about... "This is Noise Festival"?

[Mirror Image]

Alex Ross may have his group of detractors or whatever but I have to seriously commend a guy who's willing to take the time to write exclusively about the 20th Century. I mean this century's music has raised more eyebrows than any other in history. At least he's trying to get to the essence of the music and give people who are new to the music some kind of guide. He has his biases like anyone else and, yes, his book I'm sure is far from perfect and he missed a good bit, but my hat is off to him for wanting to write something like this to begin with.

[CRCulver]

Alex Ross may have his group of detractors or whatever but I have to seriously commend a guy who's willing to take the time to write exclusively about the 20th Century.

I don't care for Alex Ross because he is a detractor. Have you seen the BBC documentary? It's one thing to write a history of 20th-century music that looks beyond the modernist repertoire that often grabs the spotlight. I'd commend him if he did only that. But besides pointing to other figures like Britten and Shostakovich, he has to go ahead and disparage modernism, claiming that it was a wrong musical path with no lasting value, which is news to its passionate following.

Those Darmstadt firebrands are regularly lambasted for dismissing 20th century trends different from their own, but Ross is doing the same thing from the other side. 

[Mirror Image]

I don't care for Alex Ross because he is a detractor. Have you seen the BBC documentary? It's one thing to write a history of 20th-century music that looks beyond the modernist repertoire that often grabs the spotlight. I'd commend him if he did only that. But besides pointing to other figures like Britten and Shostakovich, he has to go ahead and disparage modernism, claiming that it was a wrong musical path with no lasting value, which is news to its passionate following.

Those Darmstadt firebrands are regularly lambasted for dismissing 20th century trends different from their own, but Ross is doing the same thing from the other side.

As I wrote, he has his biases like anyone else. I remember reading several of your reviews about Rautavaara, Chris, where you clearly are beating a dead horse but you continue to review the music anyway when it's clear that you disliked the music from the beginning and continue to with each successive review you write. I mean it's at this juncture where I have to say "We get it already. Time to move along."

[CRCulver]

As I wrote, he has his biases like anyone else. I remember reading several of your reviews about Rautavaara, Chris, where you clearly are beating a dead horse but you continue to review the music anyway when it's clear that you disliked the music from the beginning and continue to with each successive review you write.

For the umpteenth time, I don't dislike everything Rautavaara has ever written, and the reason I continue to explore his output is that occasionally I find pleasant surprises. Yes, I have expressed dissatisfaction with some Rautavaara (mainly works where, as musical scholarship confirms, he is simply rearranging older commissions to fill new ones), but I have also given positive ratings to a number of Rautavaara discs.

There is a major difference between Ross and Amazon reviewers like me, though. I am writing mainly for my own pleasure, and the only real audience for my reviews would be someone with the exact same tastes and experiences as me, except he has not yet heard the disc in question. Ross, on the other hand, is working as a historian, moulding the opinions of the general public, and his authority is now affecting what repertoire gets put on in concerts, what becomes seen as a 20-century mainstream.

[Karl Henning]

Any music writer who prefers to lavish attention on Philip Glass or Steve Reich rather than Charles Wuorinen, or Brian Ferneyhough is not a serious commentator on 20th century, or 21st century music, IMO.

This.

[dyn]

Any music writer who prefers to lavish attention on Philip Glass or Steve Reich rather than Charles Wuorinen, or Brian Ferneyhough is not a serious commentator on 20th century, or 21st century music, IMO.

Alex Ross is a product of the downtown vs. uptown feud of the 70s and 80s, along with virtually every other American critic of his generation (Kyle Gann, etc). He cannot be expected to write neutrally or objectively on modern music, but then nor can anyone else over the age of (say) 40.

[Mirror Image]

Agreed. I say he's essentially neutral and he did a lot of good, spawning discussion and bringing more attention to things and into perspective .. now we have year long festivals like this.

Exactly, instead of spewing negative comments about Ross and his biases, we should be grateful for what he is continuing to do: bring 20th Century music into the 21st Century by encouraging younger listeners to look beyond the wall of Romanticism and into the myriad of styles and genres that make up this last century.

[CRCulver]

we should be grateful for what he is continuing to do: bring 20th Century music into the 21st Century by encouraging younger listeners to look beyond the wall of Romanticism and into the myriad of styles and genres that make up this last century.

But he's not doing that. He is encouraging younger listeners to look beyond the wall of Romanticism and into a select few styles and genres that make up the last century, while other repertoire is just left behind as if it never was.

[Mirror Image]

But he's not doing that. He is encouraging younger listeners to look beyond the wall of Romanticism and into a select few styles and genres that make up the last century, while other repertoire is just left behind as if it never was.

But my whole point is I said Ross has his biases just as you have your own. Apparently, a lot of people have read his book and, while it may be short-sighted which I never argued that it wasn't by the way, still acts as a reference for new listeners.

[Mirror Image]

All of this said, I never really bothered with reference books because all of them have biases. I have always followed my own intuition and have done a lot of reading on Wikipedia, which may not be the best source but at least I got the exposure I needed, which is what I can say of Ross' The Rest Is Noise. If someone who is at least curious about 20th Century and enjoys reading, will probably pick the book up at some juncture. I don't really see how any kind of exposure to 20th Century music can be a harmful thing? It is, after all, the reader who will make up their own minds in the end.

[Mirror Image]

Chris, also look at this way, would you rather a concert goer hear Schnittke's (K)ein Sommernachtstraum or something by Brahms? Which composer needs more exposure? This is what Ross is pretty much doing even within a narrow framework: trying to bring awareness to people who may be initially put-off by 20th Century music.

[Mirror Image]

Alex Ross appears to me pretty light-weight when compared to the music historians of a previous generation, like Donald Jay Grout or Paul Henry Lang, who attempted to survey a period of music history as comprehensively as possible.  What Alex Ross does is very selective, and ends up presenting a distorted view of the period he is writing about.   His book may be the only one many people read, and they will come away with a truncated appreciation of what was happening between 1950-1999. 

Yes, he is a good writer, and yes, he is a good proselytizer for new-ish music, but no, he is not an especially perceptive or discriminating writer dealing with the music of the 20th century.

This is what you get when you give a blogger a book contract.

It doesn't matter we all have our biases and those biases will permeate the surface no matter how objective we try to be. As I have written before, I do not look, nor need, Alex Ross to act as my guide to the 20th Century. I've done a pretty good job of exploring on my own. The newcomer to this music, however, will have to make their own way.

[Karl Henning]

Alex Ross appears to me pretty light-weight when compared to the music historians of a previous generation, like Donald Jay Grout or Paul Henry Lang, who attempted to survey a period of music history as comprehensively as possible.  What Alex Ross does is very selective, and ends up presenting a distorted view of the period he is writing about.   His book may be the only one many people read, and they will come away with a truncated appreciation of what was happening between 1950-1999. 

Yes, he is a good writer, and yes, he is a good proselytizer for new-ish music, but no, he is not an especially perceptive or discriminating writer dealing with the music of the 20th century.

This is what you get when you give a blogger a book contract.

Another keenly perceptive post.

[Karl Henning]

Alex Ross is a product of the downtown vs. uptown feud of the 70s and 80s, along with virtually every other American critic of his generation (Kyle Gann, etc). He cannot be expected to write neutrally or objectively on modern music, but then nor can anyone else over the age of (say) 40.

Fair disclosure: I am over 40, and I am a former student of Wuorinen's.

I make no claim to absolute objectivity (I don't think any honest composer would).  But I certainly know Wuorinen's musical worth (nor do I flatly dismiss Reich).