Lifelines sets the first complete recording of Heinz Holliger's Albumblätter (Album Leaves) for piano beside early and late piano works by his friend Jürg Wyttenbach. A third strand is an experiment between the two: Beethoven's Piano Sonata op. 109 with movements elaborated by Wyttenbach from Beethoven's own sketches. The Ukrainian pianist Kirill Zvegintsov interleaves the three strands into a single programme.
Holliger, an exceptional oboist, pianist and composer, wrote nothing for piano for almost 40 years after Elis, three nocturnes of 1961. From the turn of the century he composed a whole series of tributes and birthday greetings, published in 2019 under the Schumannesque title Albumblätter. Wyttenbach, a Swiss composer and pianist who died in 2021, had a close musical bond with Holliger. Holliger himself is also credited as pianist on the album.
The Albumblätter are intricate showpieces full of references, explained in the booklet essay. Among them are a Wiegenlied, two pieces after the songwriter Mani Matter, the three Trois petits riens, which include a birthday flourish for Sándor Veress and a bicinium for András Schiff, a 75. Variation nach Ludwytt Beetenbach and a little firework for the Quatorze juillet. In his last years Wyttenbach took on the daring task of completing Beethoven's sketches for an alternative version of op. 109: on the disc the second movement carries a trio after Beethoven's sketches and the third has variations worked out from them. Zvegintsov gave the first performance of this reconstruction, and Wyttenbach was able to hear it in the last days of his life. Wyttenbach's Drei Klavierstücke à Evelyne Crochet open the programme, and Holliger's Lebenslinien (Lifelines) for solo piano closes it.
The sonata is not played in one piece. Its movements are spread through the sequence, with Holliger's leaves placed between them, so that Beethoven, Wyttenbach and Holliger comment on one another across the album. The title draws on Holliger's closing piece, and the album traces the lines that link the three composers.
CD, Wergo WER 7413 2, released in 2025, total time 69'09".
