Haas: in vain

Huddersfield Town Hall
Huddersfield Town Hall, Ramsden Street, Huddersfield HD1 2TA
United Kingdom

André de Ridder conductor
London Sinfonietta

“How to describe it? An astonishing work of art that has become a cult wherever it is played. One of the first great masterpieces of the C21st.”
Sir Simon Rattle

Premiered in 2000 and now receiving its much-awaited UK premiere performance at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Haas’ in vain is an extraordinary work of contradictions and juxtapositions, exploring a heightened sensory world where darkness and light coincide. Written in protest to the rise of the far-right Freedom Party in the 1999 Austrian elections, in vain hints at a frightening world where dark, unnatural forces are at work. As familiar harmonies meet microtonal systems, Haas evokes an otherworldly realm that oscillates between the past and the present, between clarity and dystopia. Performed partly in complete darkness, in vain transforms the concert hall into a mysterious new landscape, where you must trust your ears and relinquish your sight.

Georg Friedrich Haas : in vain