Schleiermacher
is a name new to me. Based on research
I’ve made, as well as the helpful liner-notes,
Schleiermacher, a composer and pianist,
was a presence in the music scene of
Leipzig in the 1980s, where he acted
as an assistant in ear training, composition
and new music at the Felix Mendelssohn
Bartholdy Academy of Music. From there
he moved on to freelance composition.
His performances of piano music focus
exclusively on music of the 20th
(and now, I am assuming, the 21st)
century. He also founded the Ensemble
Avantgarde, a Leipzig-based group that
focuses on unsung composers, especially
those who have fallen between the cracks,
such as those of the French and Russian/Soviet
avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s.
The disc opens
with a piece for ensemble and pre-recorded
tape, Auto Werk mit Hup Raum.
Commissioned by BMW, the intent, according
to the composer’s note, was to replicate
the noises and atmosphere of a state-of-the-art
auto factory, such as the one where
this piece premiered in Leipzig. The
original idea, once work was underway,
was to use Mossolov’s Iron Foundry
as a model. Upon visiting the factory,
the composer found little there to suggest
the motoric whirling of that earlier
piece. This new work takes us through
the assembly line, beginning with synthesised
metallic clangings as the brass provide
occasional fanfares. The work as a whole
tends to rely rather heavily on the
pre-recorded tape, but certainly holds
interest in its ability to portray a
space not often accorded a musical portrait.
One hears engines starting, seat-belt
buckles being tested, alarm beeps, and,
from the brasses, car horns being given
occasional tentative blasts.
Obophon found its genesis through
a conversation of the composer with
an acquaintance oboe-player, during
which came a discussion on the lack
of oboe ensemble music. The piece begins
with a solo oboe, which holds a prominent
position throughout, bending its pitch
often as the accompanying oboes make
their entries with quiet trills. The
piece maintains an atmosphere of tension
throughout; an overall dark suspension,
especially around the ten-minute mark,
with a stretch of a held E-flat, with
the various members of the ensemble
dovetailing seamlessly to continue the
note as others’ air gives out.
On a smaller
scale, we have the Three Pieces for
Viola and Bass Clarinet written
separately between 2003 and 2005, intended
as birthday presents for Volker Hemken,
a bass-clarinettist whose wife happens
to play viola, thus the unusual instrumental
combination. The first piece, entitled
Streit Fall (Quarrel) certainly
is that, with carping from each instrument,
both talking past each other as tempers
rise, with a rather humorous ending
escalation that some married couples
can relate to better than others. Following
that is Hochzeit (Wedding) which
certainly does not begin auspiciously,
but rather seems to rise out of a drugged
silence, as does the closing piece,
Schei-Dung (Divorce) — strange
birthday presents, these … These last
two pieces hold real drama where the
first makes a less serious attempt at
it. The combination of timbres is quite
interesting and less forced than my
initial fears on first looking at the
track-listing.
Composed for
the consecration of the reconstructed
organ of Merseburg Cathedral, we have
the Merseburger Overtüre mit F. L.
Interestingly, Schleiermacher mentions
that Liszt composed his Prelude and
Fugue on B-A-C-H for the original
consecration of that same organ in 1855.
This piece is a continuation of sorts
- the F. L. stands for Franz
Liszt - in that tradition. Schleiermacher
refers to it as a “remorseful bow”.
It is also a celebration to the organ
builder, Franz Ladegast, who coincidentally
shares the same initials. Liszt quotes
are sprinkled throughout. About five
minutes into the piece, the stops are
opened to show what the organ is capable
of, and the dissonant chords are represented
beautifully in this recording. The Glockenspiel
stop is used here to advantage, in a
stirring way, almost halfway through
the piece. The work does impress, and
at times is rather arduous listening
for those who come to organ music in
search of identifiable melodies. As
a celebration, the only hint in that
direction is the crashing major chord
about a minute from the end of the piece;
the coda evaporates into air with no
resolution.
The closing
Netz Werk of 2002, came into
being, unusually, to commemorate the
retirement of a chairman of the Max
Planck Society. The honoured retiree,
Hubert Markl, studied networks and interrelations,
which became the basis, according to
the composer, of the piece. Occasional
phone bleeps and rustlings are heard
from the pre-recorded tape used to augment
the live instrumental forces here, and
soloists pick up where others leave
off, the held note of one passing to
the other like a baton. There is little
by way of resolution throughout the
piece, as we progress, somewhat like
Auto Werk, through a series of
stages, both loud and quiet, until,
toward the end, with rushing wind noises
and telegraph beeps, the piece ends
abruptly.
The disc as
a whole is performed quite well and
the sound quality certainly is not inferior
— the music itself may puzzle some,
but for those who are new music enthusiasts,
this is certainly worth a listen.
David Blomenberg
