The fifth volume of the Edition Musikfabrik, Krönung (Coronation), has nothing to do with kings. Its four works grow almost like plants, sending up shoots and blossoms like crowns. Ensemble Musikfabrik plays Vykintas Baltakas's (co)ro(na), Rebecca Saunders's double concerto cinnabar, Magnus Lindberg's Joy and Iannis Xenakis's Thalleïn. All four were recorded live in concert.
The recordings were made in the Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal of the WDR Funkhaus in Cologne between May 2004 and May 2006. The soloists in cinnabar are violinist Juditha Haeberlin and trumpeter Marco Blaauw. The conductors are Etienne Siebens (Baltakas), Peter Rundel (Saunders), Stefan Asbury (Lindberg) and Diego Masson (Xenakis). Patrick Hahn wrote the booklet and co-produced the release with Michael Bölter and Thomas Oesterdiekhoff; Michael Peschko supervised the recordings for Westdeutscher Rundfunk. Baltakas was born in Vilnius in 1972 and, like Saunders (London, 1967), studied with Wolfgang Rihm. Lindberg was born in 1958, and Xenakis lived from 1922 to 2001.
(co)ro(na) (2005) grows from a cascade of motivic branchings. Its roots lie in a cycle named after the Ouroboros, the alchemical snake that swallows its own tail. Its "dragon's blood", legend says, is cinnabar red, the hue of Saunders's cinnabar (1999). That work, for solo violin, solo trumpet and an ensemble that includes drawbar organ and eleven music boxes, was premiered by Ensemble Modern under Rundel at the Berlin Biennale in March 1999. Lindberg's Joy (1989-90), half an hour long, is lavish with spectral harmonies and the resonant snap of the strings of a demolished piano. It was commissioned by the Ensemble intercontemporain and dedicated to Jukka-Pekka Saraste. In Thalleïn (1984), for fourteen musicians, Xenakis lets his sieves proliferate until they turn into archaic dances lit by brass.
Thalleïn was written for the London Sinfonietta, which premiered it in February 1984. Its Greek title means to sprout or bud, which fits the plant image of the programme. Each instrument appears only once, and Xenakis bans vibrato on the first page of the score.
CD, Wergo WER 6855 2, Edition Musikfabrik vol. 5, released in 2010 (total time 70'13").
