Talking Music
In this programme lovemusic presents 3 new works commissioned by the collective over the last 2 years which have been devoted to research on voice and speech. The collective explores communication through direct speech but also with other forms of vocal and non-verbal expression.

At the center of the concert is the world premiere of Helmut Oehring's [i⊖ˈfɛrno] (from: MAPPA) Contrapasso I - V (to: Vladimir Putin / Sergey Lavrov). Helmut Oehring feeds his music with gestures and physical expressions specific to sign language. This new piece is inspired by Mappa dell’Inferno, taking its name from the five rivers of the underworld as described by Dante, illustrated by Botticelli and re-contextualised here by Helmut Oehring. [i⊖ˈfɛrno] is also based on speeches by the Russian President and the Russian Foreign Minister, which they held at the beginning of their war of aggression against Ukraine.
Much of the work of British composer Philip Venables centers on the use of text and the idea of ​​story-telling. In the two new additions to his Numbers cycle commissioned in 2021 by lovemusic, Musica and the Festival d’atone à Paris, the voices and breaths of the instrumental ensemble respond and punctuate that of the singer creating a hypnotic synergy bringing Simon Howard's visceral poems to life.
Influenced by the environment in which he grew up and the non-verbal communication with his parents,
In Joanna Bailie’s Artificial Environments Nos 1–5 a voice (the composers own) guides us throughout the piece like an auditory programme note. The text explains the compositional techniques of the piece and describes imaginary environments in which the rules of time and space are no longer as we know them. However, in the end it is the musical realisation that allows us to understand the environments being described in words.
Michelle Agnes Magalhaes’ new work in collaboration with the poet Micheliny Verunschk proposes a musical journey inside The Word. The first part, in the form of statement, affirms the poet's total engagement and submission to the word. The second puts at the core of the music the glorious resurrection of dead languages. Polyphonic and vertiginous, the word finds its place in the big cosmic eye (U Qux Cah, the heart of the sky between the stars).

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