Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival16th to the 25th November 2012

Discounted tickets for selected events at this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival are now on sale, revealing the first glimpse of an international programme once again filled with ambitious music and unmatched creativity from the world’s leading musicians and composers.

Highlights of the 35th festival, which runs from Friday 16 November to Sunday 25 November 2012, include the British premieres of works by US composers Glenn Branca, Nico Muhly and Arnold Dreyblatt performed by Ireland’s energetic Crash Ensemble on Sunday 18 November. Crash will also open hcmf// 2012 with a concert on 16 November exploring the music of the group’s co-founder and artistic director, Donnacha Dennehy.

Festival veterans Arditti Quartet return with a concert on Sunday 18 November that includes the UK premiere of new work by former hcmf// Composer in Residence Rebecca Saunders and the world premiere of a quartet by rising star Naomi Pinnock. In addition, the quartet’s leader Irvine Arditti will be marking the centenary of John Cage’s birth (and the 20th anniversary year of his death) with a full performance of Cage’s Freeman Etudes on Tuesday 20 November 2012. These 32 solo pieces were intended to test the limits of playability on the violin: Arditti’s mastery of them inspired Cage to finish composing the set after the original violinist, Paul Zukovsky, had admitted defeat.

Technical brilliance and musical sensitivity will also be on maximum display at Nicolas Hodges’ concert on Saturday 17 November, when the pianist presents a portrait of Jean Barraqué, the French composer whose catalogue of intense and demanding serialism was cut short by his death at the age of 45 in 1973.

The 60th birthday year of German composer Wolfgang Rihm is marked at several concerts, including a joint performance by hcmf// regulars musikFabrik and EXAUDI on Sunday 18 November, which features the UK premiere of Rihm’s Vigilia; ensemble recherche’s concert on Saturday 24 November, and Minguet Quartet’s concert on Sunday 25 November.

For the first time in several years, hcmf// is welcoming a full orchestra to the festival, with two concerts by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, both in Huddersfield Town Hall on Saturday 24 November. The first combines Rihm with work by hcmf// 2012 Composer in Residence, Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, also the concert’s vocal soloist. The second includes the UK premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s Mar’eh, with Pintscher himself conducting.

Keep visiting http://www.hcmf.co.uk for more news about tickets and festival events. The online prices for the events listed below are only available for a limited time (until Sunday 7 October 2012, or earlier if limits are reached before that date), so book now to take advantage of the discounts. Tickets can be booked by clicking the links to each event or by calling the Festival Box Office on 01484 430 528.

Tickets available to purchase now – at discounted online prices

Full Festival Saver

Covers admission to all ticketed events and a free Festival Programme Book

Full price: £350

Online price: £325

Weekend Savers 1 & 2

Covers admission to all eight ticketed events on Saturday 17 & Sunday 18 November (Weekend Saver 1) or on Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 November (Weekend Saver 2)

Weekend Saver 1 full price: £125

Online price: £100

 

Weekend Saver 2 full price: £100

Online price: £70

Individual Events

Full and concession prices apply to tickets after the full programme goes on sale in early September or when online discounts cease due to limited availability – whichever is sooner.

 

Donnacha Dennehy Portrait

Friday 16 November 2012, St Paul’s Hall, 7pm

Full Price: £15

Concession: £13

Online: £10

 

Nicolas Hodges

Saturday 17 November 2012, St Paul’s Hall, 12 noon

Full Price: £15

Concession: £13

Online: £10

Arditti Quartet

Sunday 18 November 2012, St Paul’s Hall, 1pm

Full Price: £19

Concession: £17

Online: £15

 

Ensemble musikFabrik + EXAUDI

Sunday 18 November 2012, St Paul’s Hall, 8pm

Full Price: £19

Concession: £17

Online: £15

 

American Originals

Sunday 18 November 2012, Bates Mill, 10.30pm

Full Price: £15

Concession: £13

Online: £10 – READ MORE & BUY TICKETS

 

John Cage: Freeman Etudes

Tuesday 20 November 2011, St Paul’s Hall, 7pm

Full Price: £15

Concession: £13

Online: £10

 

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Rihm

Saturday 24 November 2012, Town Hall, 1pm

Full Price: £15

Concession: £13

Online: £10

Special Offer: book for both BBC SSO concerts via the Box Office and see both concerts for £20 – please quote ‘hcmf// BBC offer’ when booking

 

ensemble recherche

Saturday 24 November 2012, St Paul’s Hall, 3pm

Full Price: £19

Concession: £17

Online: £15

 

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Pintscher

Saturday 24 November 2012, Town Hall, 7.30pm

Full Price: £19

Concession: £17

Online: £15

Special Offer: book for both BBC SSO concerts via the Box Office and see both concerts for £20 – please quote ‘hcmf// BBC offer’ when booking

 

Minguet Quartet

Sunday 25 November 2012, St Paul’s Hall, 1pm

Full Price: £15

Concession: £13

Online: £10