Austrian composer and former Soundings participant Gerald Resch has been commissioned by the City of London Festival to compose a new piece for their Trees, Walls, Cities song cycle. Resch’s composition entitled Wien Flakturm Esterhazypark is based on a text by Austrian poet Ferdinand Schmatz. It will be performed by Loré Lixenberg, another Soundings participant, and the Brodsky Quartet.
Trees, Walls, Cities is a specially commissioned song-cycle which links the eight ‘walled’ cities of Derry, London, Utrecht, Berlin, Vienna, Dubrovnik, Nicosia and Jerusalem. Eight composers: Christopher Norby, Jocelyn Pook, Theo Verbey, Søren Nils Eichberg, Gerald Resch, Isidora Zebeljan, Yannis Kyriakides and Habib Shehadeh Hanna, have worked with either an existing text or a neighbouring poet, with linking material created by Nigel Osborne.