Justification of the jury in awarding the Salzburg Music Prize to Georg Friedrich Haas:
Distinctive among the composers of the present
Extract from the jury decision: "At 59 (years of age), Georg Friedrich Haas is now among the distinctive personalities of today's contemporary composers. Regardless of all the compositional fashion, he has developed a prominent artistic independence over the decades of his career, while both reserved in person and artistically unflinching. Early on Haas perceived the well-tempered scale as a restriction of his sound imagination and turned to the open field of microtonality, experimenting with overtones and partials, while stressing the importance of tonality over the pitch. Since then, his music has moved beyond the traditional compositional paths – it is highly elaborated yet still experienced by the listener in a direct way."
The jury further explained its decision: "In his compositions, Haas does not retreat into a closed system. Nor does he settle for existing development and achievement. On the contrary, marked by skepticism about any form of dogma, he poses the central questions of sound, shape and texture in his work again and again. Haas has evolved into a tireless seeker of contemporary music. The central feature of his compositional signature is – besides the ability to question material in a scrupulous and rigorous fashion – an unerring sense of sound. Georg Friedrich Haas has supplied almost all major musical genres with substantial contributions: from chamber music (as, for example in 2003, String Quartet no. 3, which is to be played in total darkness) to large ensemble pieces (such as his composition 'in vain' which is equally confusing and sharpening to perception), to the musical theatre, where he achieved resounding success with the premiere of his opera 'Bluthaus' last year. Haas is not a composer that is remote from the world. With his music, he responds to the present as well as social and political relevance. His extensive oeuvre is manifold. And in all its complexity, it always addresses the people hearing it emphatically."
Haas: sensual stimulus of sound at the focal point
Georg Friedrich Haas was born in Graz in 1953 and spent his childhood in the mountainous province of Vorarlberg, whose landscape and atmosphere have shaped him strongly. He returned to his native city to study music with Ivan Eröd and Gösta Neuwirth. Later, Haas continued his studies in Vienna with Friedrich Cerha.
In spite of all the contrasts that can be felt in the music of Georg Friedrich Haas, it is the sensual stimulus of the sound and an interest in a vital instrumental tone that form a central focus for the Austrian composer. Already as a student, Haas investigated different concepts of microtonal systems, consulting the oeuvre of composers such as Wyschnegradsky, Hába, Tenney, Nono and Grisey. Thus early on, microtonality became an important denominator in his work, as for example in his chamber opera 'Nacht' ('Night') which was premiered with great success at the Bregenz Festival in 1996. After initial experiments with quarter-tones, in the mid-1980s he began to explore sound as a set of iridescent intermediate values. In pieces such as his 'First String Quartet' (1997) he worked intensively with overtone constellations – a process that culminated in his ensemble piece 'in vain' (2000).
Since the late 1990s, Georg Friedrich Haas’ works have been performed at the most prominent contemporary music festivals. At the Salzburg Festival 1999, he gained much attention as the featured Next Generation composer. The Bregenz Festival commissioned another chamber opera ('Die schöne Wunde'), which was premiered in 2003 by Klangforum Wien. In the same year, the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra performed his work 'Natures mortes' in Donaueschingen, where 'Hyperion. Concerto for light and orchestra' was also met with great acclaim in 2006. In the 2010/2011 concert season, 'limited approximations', a work for six pianos, was met with praise and honoured in Donaueschingen.
Many renowned symphony orchestras have performed works by Georg Friedrich Haas, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra ('Concerto for cello', 2004), Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg ('Sieben Klangräume', 2005), Cleveland Orchestra ('Poème', 2006), Munich Philharmonic ('Bruchstück', 2007), Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra ('Piano concerto', 2007), WDR Radio Symphony Orchestra ('Concerto for saxophone', 2008), Gewandhausorchester Leipzig ('Traum in des Sommers Nacht', 2009), and the Munich Chamber Orchestra ('chants oubliés', 2011; American premiere by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra). His opera 'Melancholia' has been performed at several opera houses following its highly successful premiere at Opéra national de Paris in 2008. Georg Friedrich Haas' second opera 'Bluthaus', featuring a libretto by Händl Klaus, successfully premiered at the Schwetzinger SWR Festival in 2011.
In addition, Haas works closely with Klangforum Vienna, Ensemble Recherche, Kairos Quartet, Hagen Quartet, musikFabrik as well as Ensemble Phoenix Basel and many more. He teaches at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz and, since 2005, as a professor of composition at the Music Academy of Basel. Georg Friedrich Haas was honoured for his work with numerous composition awards, and in 2007 with the Grand Austrian State Prize. Haas became a member of the Austrian Art Senate in May 2011 and member of the Berlin Academy of Arts in May this year.
The Internet provides further information on Georg Friedrich Haas as well as a list of his works.
