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Alexander Polzin

Michael Berkeley's guest is sculptor, painter and set designer Alexander Polzin.

Alexander Polzin is a German sculptor, painter, costume and set designer. He began his career as a stonemason, but is now well known for his collaborations with writers, composers, choreographers and scientists.

He has created sets, often drawing on his work in sculpture, for operas including Verdi鈥檚 Falstaff and Rigoletto, and Wagner鈥檚 Tristan and Isolde, for which he created huge illuminated stalactites, suspended above the stage. For a 2022 production of Mozart鈥檚 opera Mitridate in Copenhagen, the centrepiece was an enormous layered ochre-coloured rock formation, with which bodies merged or slid across.

As a painter and sculptor, he鈥檚 enjoyed exhibitions in galleries around the world, and has collaborated with the Aldeburgh Festival in Suffolk, in 2016 and 2023. His work also appears in prominent public spaces, including his statue of Giordano Bruno in Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.

Available now

40 minutes

Last on

Sun 2 Jul 2023 12:00

Music Played

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Aria variata in A Minor, BWV 989: Aria

    Performer: Tamara Stefanovich.
    • PENTATONE.
  • Robert Schumann

    Andantino, Schumann G Minor Piano Sonata No.2 Op22

    Performer: Mitsuko Uchida.
    • Schumann:G Minor Sonata. Waldszenen, Gesange Der Fruhe.
    • Decca.
    • 11.
  • Richard Wagner

    03_AP_Tristan und Isolde: Act 3 - Prelude; Shepherd's Pipe; "Kurwenal! He!"

    Lyricist: Richard Wagner. Singer: Anton Dermota. Singer: Ren茅 Kollo. Singer: Dietrich Fischer鈥怐ieskau. Orchestra: Staatskapelle Dresden. Conductor: Carlos Kleiber.
    • Wagner: Tristan und Isolde.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).
    • 21.
  • Gy枚rgy Kurt谩g

    H枚lderlin-Ges盲nge - For Baritone, Op. 35a, Gestalt Und Geist

    Performer: Heinrich Huber. Performer: David LeClair. Lyricist: Friedrich H枚lderlin. Singer: Kurt Widmer.
    • Signs, Games and Messages.
    • ECM Records.
    • 3.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Sonatina (Cantata no.106 'Actus Tragicus')

    Music Arranger: Gy枚rgy Kurt谩g. Performer: M谩rta Kurt谩g. Performer: Gy枚rgy Kurt谩g.
    • Kurt谩g: J谩t茅kok.
    • EMC New Series Records.
    • 13.
  • Konstantia Gourzi

    An谩jikon - The Angel In The Blue Garden, Op. 61

    Ensemble: Minguet Quartett.
    • 础苍谩箩颈办辞苍.
    • ECM New Series Reocrds.
    • 8.
  • Miles Davis

    The Pan Piper

    Performer: Miles Davis. Music Arranger: Gil Evans. Ensemble: Studio Orchestra.
    • Sketches of Spain.
    • Columbia.
    • 003.
  • Matthew Locke

    Locke: Canon '4 in 2' on a plain song

    Ensemble: Phantasm.
    • Locke: For Lovers of Consort Music.
    • Linn Records.
    • 23.

Broadcast

  • Sun 2 Jul 2023 12:00

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