Piano Works
Jan Philip Schulze has been playing Henze’s piano works “in his sleep,” as he says. Indeed he has worked with the composer intensively on every piece, yet during the recording sessions he was noticeably surprised, while listening back to recordings, to find himself confronted by the work afresh, discovering new sides to it which he had previously experienced differently.
12 Sonate Da Chiesa
There is little doubt that Helmschrott’s Sonate da chiesa only bear a fleeting resemblance to their namesakes from the 17th and 18th centuries, which, emerging from Northern Italy, quickly rose to great popularity in Baroque Europe. Among the resemblances is their bipartite structure with slow and fast movement and, of course, the use of an organ. Far from expressing formal dependence, the archaic names of the movements lend the twelve pieces a Mediterranean superstructure, as it were. The manif…
Metamorphose
“Once you focus your will and mind on a particular thought or sentiment, and screen out the external world, you’re being transported into a state of contemplation, which fully takes effect in solitude: relaxation in a unity of subjective and objective experience which has come to rest.” (Robert M. Helmschrott) In the best case scenario, this basic, contemplative frame of mind helps sharpen consciousness, which, in turn, further deepens the understanding of music,” “reaching deep into the all-enc…
Cathédrale
Concert music for solo harp: The harp, whose ancestor belongs to the most ancient musical instruments, is usually associated with impressionistic sound. But Roman Haubenstock-Ramati - the most visionary inventor of sounds among contemporary composers, according to Wilhelm Sinkovicz – has never been satisfied with the status quo. So, while teaching composition and investigating new forms of musical notation, he succeeded in his endeavor to explore new possibilities of musical expression again and…
Guitar Album
This enterprising programme of 20th century music, recorded in England by the distinguished Japanese guitarist Azusa Shimizu, contains first recordings of pieces by Højsgaard and Mamiya, as well as offering a rare opportunity to hear the sonata by Antonio José, who was brutally murdered during the Spanish Civil War. An outstanding CD for all guitar music enthusiasts.
And: The feast is in full progress
The second cello concerto, entitled: Y: la fiesta está en pleno apogeo – And: The feast is in full progress (1993), is based on a poem by the Chuvash poet Gennadi Aigi. The vision of a raging mass of people awaiting the last Judgment is transformed into music by the composer with gripping, immediate, expressive force, free of graphic patterns. A moment of glory not for Gubaidulina only, but for David Geringas on cello, too. And as a bonus on this CD: Diez Preludios –Ten Preludes for Cello, in Vl…
Orchestral Works & Chamber Music
Dmitri Shostakovich was to encourage the young Gubaidulina, for instance when he told her in his official function as the chairman of a board of examiners: "Keep on composing on your errant ways." Her intuition was based on her profound religious faith as well as on literature and philosophy. In her String Trio of 1988 she accomplished a particularly impressive motif transfer in the finale. The motif, which has been powerfully completed before, sneaks in again through the first violin, endures, …
Songbook
If you'd like to hear what might remain, and might survive, of the popular common musical property, these two works by the Salzburg composer Clemens Gadenstätter will give you some essential clues. "Akkor(d/t)anz" is based on the character of Romantic piano music manifested by monumental chords. The explosion of the chord is followed by pulsations derived from differentiated perceptions of its details. The "dance" of chords in accordance with new formations of the original chord demands an energ…
Fama
Site-specific FAMA, “audio theatre piece for large ensemble, eight voices, actress, and sound structure,” requires the best performers for execution. Luckily, Furrer draws upon the talented Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and Klangforum Wien. Also credited are the architect, acoustician, technical and lighting engineer, costumer and stage direction. Texts are by Ovid and Arthur Schnitzler. The focus on space and solo instruments (contrabass flute and two bass clarinets) suggest Nono’s late aestheti…
Complete Organ Works
Franck turned to writing organ music only in his thirties, prompted not least by his appointment as organist at the Parisian Basilica Ste-Clotilde in 1858, a post he held until his death. He had played the organ at smaller churches in Paris before; the Six Pièces date back to that time and his first years at Ste-Clotilde; the core piece, Prélude, Fugue et Variation op. 18, with its extraordinary structure including a fugue as the central part, is dedicated to Camille Saint-Saens. Pastorale is de…
Schubertlieder
Most of Franui's musicians are from East Tyrol. In fact, Franui is the name of a mountain pasture in the Villgraten valley, some 2,000 meters above sea level: a fertile breeding ground for creative flights of fancy, as is evidenced by these original arrangements for an enchanting dance band. With woodwind, brass, harp, zither, dulcimer, violin and double bass Franui not only reveal the very core of the folk music influences in Schubert's music, but take us further into the suburban taverns of Vi…
Nothing Is Real
Each of the piano pieces assembled here is a gemstone in its own right; even so, it is their arrangement side by side that makes this album a unique experience. ...The outstanding pianist Marino Formenti begins his journey with Beat Furrer's Voicelessness – The Snow has no Voice (1986), a piece reminiscent of Debussy's Des pas sur la neige and depicting the same profound hopelessness. John Cage's Music Walk (1958), "for one or more pianists who also play radios and produce auxiliary sounds by si…
AURORA / THRENOS IV / PIRKEI TEHILLIM / MEMORARE
Titles often occur to Reinhard David Flender only after he has completed a composition. When listening to Aurora, for example, "a visual association is evoked. The piece starts with a long double bass tone. Then a high pitched tone played by oboe and harp comes in, briefly at first, repeated at intervals; as the piece proceeds it is joined by other tones, until a short melody emerges. Thus the title Aurora, the first rays of sun at the crack of dawn, which then give way to a shape: the dome of t…
Glaciers in Extinction
One can hardly imagine a more striking description of the anticipated disappearance of these ice giants: Glaciers in Extinction is a warning by sounds. Fabbriciani’s deep, grieving sounds tell not only of the catastrophe to come but of the unfathomable origin of existence itself. The sound of nature revealed, and not for glaciologists only: This concerns all of us. The famous Italian flautist and, with his hyperbass flute, much sought-after interpreter of New Music has himself composed powerful …
Experimentalstudio Freiburg 25 Jahre
This Three-CD box set celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the world’s most renowned studio for electronic music. Who didn’t experiment there and “make the seemingly solid boundaries of the doable tremble”? Stockhausen, Nono, Ferneyhough, Minciacchi, Andre Richard, and Nunes did – to name only a very few. The reissue of this box set is dedicated in gratitude to Andre Richard: he will be leaving the institute after this year.
Mise en Scène
"I wrote Mise en Scène between July 1992 and May 1994. Apart from the four additional clarinets involved besides the soloist (two of them as 'doppelgangers' of the soloist) having to move around in the hall during the five movements of the composition, the choice of title is also justified by a number of scenographic instructions that constituted an, albeit vague, starting point for the whole composition." For his concerto José Ramón Encinar also falls back on his own compositions for clarinet, …
des Nichts, verlorene Schatten / l\'étendue des fins éclats, épa
Concentrated chamber music: Gerald Eckert captures the world of sounds in its manifold forms and shapes with meticulous care and maximum individuality.
Ode / Clarinet Quintet / Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra
Like Brahms in his later years, Edison Denisov, the European-oriented composer firmly rooted in Russian-Siberian soil, developed a certain partiality to the tonal qualities of the clarinet. Eduard Brunner, clarinet virtuoso and former soloist of the Symhonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, got acquainted with Denisov's music in the mid 1960s, and has been playing Denisov's works regularly ever since. Brunner's performance of the Ode, a composition revealing an original "Russian" element but …
Hauptweg und Nebenwege
A miniature for every day, a movement for every month, a cycle for the whole year: Hauptweg und Nebenwege, a musical diary inspired by Paul Klee.
Hebdomadaire op. 62
52 pieces of the year for a pianist: in Hebdomadaire, Michael Denhoff carries on the noble tradition of cyclic piano music in his own inimitable way.