Even though I might
assign it different weightings, it’s
really always the same thing with me:
The struggle for the possibility of
Hope. These words by Jacques Wildberger
printed in the insert notes accompanying
this release provide a clear clue to
the emotional content of the three pieces
recorded here. ‘Hope’ is actually mentioned
in the titles of the two vocal works
: Tempus cadendi, tempus sperandi
of 1999 and of the somewhat earlier
An die Hoffnung of 1979.
Moreover, both pieces provide for an
interesting opportunity to compare the
composer’s approach to the texts, since
it may be said that Tempus cadendi,
tempus sperandi does, as it
were, re-visits the texts set in the
earlier work. Both works open with a
setting of Hölderlin’s Hyperions
Schicksalslied and end with a setting
of Erich Fried’s poem Hölderlin
an Sinclair that ends with the words
Das letzte aber ist Leben. The
main formal difference concerns the
central section of each piece. In the
earlier work, the speaker bluntly narrates
historical facts about the Holocaust
while the soprano sings a song from
the Cracow Ghetto, Stejtellied,
whereas the central section of the later
work consists in two settings of poems
by Paul Celan (Tenebrae, which
Birtwistle also set in his Pulse
Shadows, and Es war Erde
in ihnen) both overtly related to
the Holocaust. Moreover, at the end
of the Hölderlin setting in Tempus
cadendi, tempus sperandi, Wildberger
also quotes the Stejtellied.
So, in spite of the obvious differences
between them, these two pieces are rather
intricately correlated. The main (at
least, the most immediately striking)
difference between the two works is
the actual musical setting and the techniques
used by the composer. To a certain extent,
the earlier work, for soprano, narrator
and large orchestra, is more straightforward,
which does not mean that it is an easy
work. What is meant, is that the idiom
is more overtly expressionist, closer
to Berg and Schönberg, and even
including a brief musical collage in
the course of the central section when
the narrator’s comments are echoed by
ironic quotes from several Romantic
works, such as Liszt’s The Preludes,
Wagner’s Meistersinger overture
and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. An
die Hoffnung, however, is –
needless to say – a deeply serious,
often moving piece of great expressive
strength that communicates directly.
On the other hand, Tempus cadendi,
tempus sperandi (the title actually
echoes Dallapiccola’s Tempus destruendi,
tempus aedificandi of 1970/1),
scored for chorus, percussion and keyboards,
is cast in a somewhat more modern idiom
including the use of speaking chorus
in the second Celan setting Es war
Erde in ihnen. (In this respect,
it may be useful to remember that Wildberger
studied with Wladimir Vogel, who made
the use of Sprechchor entirely
his own.) As a whole, the piece is somewhat
more intractable than its predecessor,
but nevertheless is also quite powerfully
impressive in its own terms. Both pieces
thus are obviously about Hope in spite
of political, social or racial upheavals,
but it is hard-won, fragile Hope that
anything can ruthlessly shatter.
Commiato
for string quartet (the title again
alludes to Dallapiccola’s last completed
work) was partly composed under deeply
personal circumstances. The work was
written in memory of the composer’s
goddaughter whose tragic and untimely
death deeply affected him. This poignant
elegy opens with indeterminate sounds,
sometimes verging on noise, creating
some expectant mood. A long-held note
progressively breaks through this cluster-like
aggregate suggesting an attempt at putting
the music in perspective, and the music
then unfolds as a sorrowful, at times
angry elegy which briefly quotes from
Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder.
In the composer’s own words, For
me, it is just not possible to compose
something comforting for my goddaughter
who died tragically. That would be cheap.
But I have to stand firm... I protest
against such fate, and shall not be
weakened. True to say, there is
nothing cheap about this deeply felt
piece of music.
Wildberger’s music
may not be easy, but it speaks directly
in powerful terms regardless of its
technical complexity. It may not yield
all its secrets easily, but it vastly
repays repeated hearings, especially
when it is served – as it is here –
by well prepared and committed readings.
Recommended.
Hubert Culot
Sylvia Nopper (soprano)c; Georg Martin
Bode (narrator)c; SWR-Vokalensemble
Stuttgarta; Amati Quartettb;
Sinfonieorchester Baselac; Heinz
Holligerac