updated 22 February 2022
© Harald Hoffmann

Sergej Newski

Russian composer born 10 October 1972 in Moscow.

Sergej Newski began his studies at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory before specializing in music theory. He then studied composition with Jörg Herchet at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden and with Friedrich Goldmann at the Berlin University of the Arts. He took master classes with Vinko Globokar and Mathias Spahlinger and met Helmut Lachenmann, Beat Furrer, and Helmut Oehring, all the while maintaining contact with Berlin’s theatrical improvisation scene.

Newski has received commissions from the Berlin State Opera, Konzerthaus Berlin, Ruhrtriennale, Klangforum Wien, Scharoun Ensemble, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, SWR, Deutschlandradio, and the Norwegian Ministry of Culture. His pieces have been played by Klangforum Wien, Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart, Ensemble Modern, Nieuw Ensemble, Musikfabrik, the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, KNM Berlin, and Ensemble Mosaik. His pieces have been conducted by Peter Rundel, Johannes Kalitzke, Jürg Wyttenbach, Titus Engel, Enno Poppe, Teodor Currentzis, and Vladimir Jurowski, among others.

Newski is interested in polyphonic movement and thought. This is exemplified in his piece Freeze Frame (2014), in which two instruments are each given their own content and beat, creating a polyphony of interactions. In Alles (All), which received the Audience Award at the 2008 Saint Petersburg Music Festival, each instrument is given a different timing, resulting in a complex temporal network. Listeners can also hear an illustration of this polyphony in the BORIS project, in which Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godounov and Newski’s opera Secondhand-Zeit (Secondhand Time, 2018) are performed in the same evening. By drawing situational similarities between Alexander Pushkin’s characters in Boris Godounov and those of Svetlana Alexievitch in Secondhand Time, and by having them played by the same actors, Newski creates an extension of, and a dialogue between, the two works.

In Fluss (2003) — a piece that earned first place in the City of Stuttgart Composition Prize in 2006 — Newski reworked the texts of director Harmony Korine, the first American representative of Dogme 95, a cinematic movement founded by directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. Reacting against formulaic English-speaking productions and seeking direct contact with reality, this movement inspired Korine’s texts as well as Newski’s composition of the piece. Each isolated physical action of a musician has an expressivity that becomes relativized by the actions’ uniform appearance or by the complex superpositions of multiple processes.

Newski worked as a theater composer for the Moscow Art Theatre and the Comédie de Genève. He was also dramaturge for Olga Neuwirth’s opera American Lulu (2006-2011) for the Komische Oper Berlin. In 2012, his opera Franziskus (2008) was premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow under the direction of Philipp Chizhevsky.

He has received grants from Casa Baldi, Villa Serpentara, Künstlerhof Schreyahn, Cité Internationale des Arts de Paris, the Berlin Senate, and the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. From 2011 to 2012, he was also music curator for the project Platform, a series of events at the Winzavod center for contemporary arts in Moscow.

He has given composition masterclasses in Moscow, Kiev, and Viitasaari, to name a few, and has been invited to lecture at the University of California at Berkeley, California Institute of Arts in Los Angeles, Saint Petersburg State University, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and the Hochschulen für Musik of Berlin, Bremen, Dresden, and Hannover.

Newski lives in Berlin, and his works are released by Ricordi.


© Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2021

Sources

Ricordi ; 25 composers

  • Solo (excluding voice)
  • Chamber music
    • Rift version for bass clarinet, violin and piano (1999), 7 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • elec Fotografie und Berührung for string quartet (2000), 10 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Bastelmusik 1 & 2 quartet for violin, percussion, saxophone and piano (2003), 20 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Folia for accordion and double bass (2004), 16 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Altérations for quartet (2007), 10 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Blindenalphabet for bass clarinet, viola, percussion and accordion (2007), 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Blindenalphabet version for bass flute, cello, percussion and accordion (2007), 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Blindenalphabet for bass clarinet, cello, percussion and accordion (2007), 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • 3. Streichquartett (2009), 14 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Glissen for flute and bass clarinet (2009), 12 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • channel surfing trio for alto saxophone, accordion and double bass (2010), 15 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • für F. G. for accordion, piano and double bass (2010), 4 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Arbeitsfläche for horn, viola, percussion, piano, tuba and double bass (2011), 12 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Tcas for violin, two violas and two cellos (2011), 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • elec Opfer von A stage music for trumpet and accordion (2012), Ricordi Berlin
    • Rules of Love for ensemble (2012), 32 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Wut quartet for flute, cello, percussion and piano (2013), 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Freeze Frame for contrabass clarinet (or bass clarinet) and violin (2014), Ricordi Berlin
    • Altérations version for bass flute, clarinet, cello and percussion (2015), 10 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Klavierquartett for violin, viola, cello and piano (2018), 11 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Klavierquartett version for violin, clarinet, cello and piano (2020), 11 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Incidents for flute, cello, piano and accordion (2021), 10 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • Instrumental ensemble music
  • Concertant music
    • Le Greygnour bien improvisation for solo percussion, violin, cello, bass clarinet and piano (2008), 6 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Cloud Ground for violin and orchestra (2015), 18 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Galileo: Messenger for violin and ensemble (2016), 12 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Heath for viola and orchestra (2018), 7 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • Vocal music and instrument(s)
    • Und dass der Tod nicht fern bleibt for narrator and string quartet (2005), 10 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Alles for voice and ensemble (2008), 8 mn about , Ricordi Berlin
    • stage Franziskus chamber opera in four scenes for soloists, mixed choir and large ensemble (2008), 1 h 20 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Dolze mio drudo scenic cantata for five voices, three brass groups and instruments (2010), 22 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Island three pieces for mixed choir, accordion and percussion (2011), 30 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Track #3 for three male voices and bass clarinet (2015), 14 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Letter to H. Marx for baritone and ensemble (2018), 12 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • stage Secondhand-Zeit opera for eight voices, choir and orchestra (2018), 1 h 5 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Votre MM for baritone, cello, clarinet and piano (2018), 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • CANSIÒN for soprano, saxophone and ensemble (2019), 15 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Tarussa for voice and piano (2020), 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Stufen der Ideen for narrator and string ensemble (2021), 12 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • A cappella vocal music
    • Pesnya for medium pitched voice only (1999), 7 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Generator for four voices (2001), 14 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • "Was fliehen Hase und Igel..." for six voices (2004), 20 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • "Vray dieu d'amours" for bass and contralto voices (2007), 12 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • stage Autland musical theater for six solo voices and mixed choir (2008), 56 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • No air here for vocal ensemble (2020), 11 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • elec Die Einfachen for five singers, electronics and video, based on letters written in Russia after 1920, discovered and published by Ira Roldugina (2020-2021), 35 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • 2021
    • elec Die Einfachen for five singers, electronics and video, based on letters written in Russia after 1920, discovered and published by Ira Roldugina, 35 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Incidents for flute, cello, piano and accordion, 10 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Stufen der Ideen for narrator and string ensemble, 12 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • 2020
    • Klavierquartett version for violin, clarinet, cello and piano, 11 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • No air here for vocal ensemble, 11 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Tarussa for voice and piano, 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • 2019
  • 2018
    • Heath for viola and orchestra, 7 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Klavierquartett for violin, viola, cello and piano, 11 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Letter to H. Marx for baritone and ensemble, 12 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • stage Secondhand-Zeit opera for eight voices, choir and orchestra, 1 h 5 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Votre MM for baritone, cello, clarinet and piano, 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • 2016
  • 2015
    • Altérations version for bass flute, clarinet, cello and percussion, 10 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Cloud Ground for violin and orchestra, 18 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Track #3 for three male voices and bass clarinet, 14 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • 2014
    • Freeze Frame for contrabass clarinet (or bass clarinet) and violin, Ricordi Berlin
  • 2013
    • Wut quartet for flute, cello, percussion and piano, 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • 2012
    • Mechanica for accordion, 10 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • elec Opfer von A stage music for trumpet and accordion, Ricordi Berlin
    • Rules of Love for ensemble, 32 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • 2011
    • Arbeitsfläche for horn, viola, percussion, piano, tuba and double bass, 12 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Island three pieces for mixed choir, accordion and percussion, 30 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Opening Gesture for chamber orchestra, 6 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Tcas for violin, two violas and two cellos, 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • 2010
    • Dolze mio drudo scenic cantata for five voices, three brass groups and instruments, 22 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • channel surfing trio for alto saxophone, accordion and double bass, 15 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • für F. G. for accordion, piano and double bass, 4 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • 2009
  • 2008
    • Alles for voice and ensemble, 8 mn about , Ricordi Berlin
    • stage Autland musical theater for six solo voices and mixed choir, 56 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • stage Franziskus chamber opera in four scenes for soloists, mixed choir and large ensemble, 1 h 20 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Le Greygnour bien improvisation for solo percussion, violin, cello, bass clarinet and piano, 6 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • 2007
    • "Vray dieu d'amours" for bass and contralto voices, 12 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Altérations for quartet, 10 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Blindenalphabet for bass clarinet, viola, percussion and accordion, 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Blindenalphabet version for bass flute, cello, percussion and accordion, 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Blindenalphabet for bass clarinet, cello, percussion and accordion, 8 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • 2006
  • 2005
  • 2004
  • 2003
    • Bastelmusik 1 & 2 quartet for violin, percussion, saxophone and piano, 20 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Fluss for ensemble, 12 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • 2001
  • 2000
  • 1999
    • Pesnya for medium pitched voice only, 7 mn, Ricordi Berlin
    • Rift version for bass clarinet, violin and piano, 7 mn, Ricordi Berlin
  • 1998

Liens Internet

(liens vérifiés en février 2022).

Bibliographie

  • Sergej NEWSKI, « Der unruhige Beobachter. Zur Soziologie und Ästhetik der Neuen Musik in Russland 1989-2014 », Osterreichische Musikzeitschrift, 2014, Vol. 69 Issue 5, p. 7-18.

Discographie

  • Sergej NEWSKI, Letter to H. Marx, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, dans « Wilde Lieder - Marx. Music », 1 CD Coviello, 2019, COV91914.
  • Sergej NEWSKI, String Quartet No. 3, Asasello Quartet, dans « Paysages », 1 CD Genuin, 2013, GEN13293d.
  • Sergej NEWSKI, Alles ; Blindenalphabet ; J’étais d’accord ; Arbeitsfläche ; Autland, dans « Alles », 1 CD Wergo, 2013, WER 6587 2.
  • Sergej NEWSKI, Fluss, dans « Donaueschinger Musiktage 2003 », 2 CD col legno, 2004, WWE 2CD 20230.