Don't look now, for 12 instruments (2014) [Ensemble Reconsil Vienna] by Martin Herraiz

Performed by Ensemble Reconsil Vienna at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna, Austria, on Oct. 04, 2014.
Performers: Eric Lamb, bass flute; Katharina Humpel, english horn; Thomas Schön, tenor saxophone; Theresia Schmidinger, bass clarinet; Matthew Gregory, bassoon; Peter Putzer, horn; Kaori Nishii, piano; Bojidara Kouzmanova and Christina Neubauer-Kraushofer, violins; Julia Purgina, viola; Maria Frodl, cello; Nikolaus Feinig, contrabass. Conductor: Roland Freisitzer.

This work is a subjective commentary on the state of political affairs in post-World Cup Brazil. The period of the 2014 FIFA World Cup has seen an almost complete suspension of the civil rights of the population at large, resulting from the Brazilian government’s policy of prioritizing the economical and legal interests of the FIFA over the demands of its citizens and protecting such interests by any means necessary – including the use of brutal police repression and the incarceration of innocents and free thinkers for crimes they didn’t commit (presumably to serve as “examples” in discouraging further protests). As usual, the less priveleged social strata were the most badly affected, and many poor families had to be violently removed from their homes to make way for the necessary infrastructure. This situation has been euphemistically described as a “state of exception”, although state of suppresion would perhaps be a more accurate term.