MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


 REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK


Alfred ZIMMERLIN (b. 1955)
String Quartet No. 2(2003) [10:58]
Euridice singt (2004-05) [35:28]
String Quartet No. 1 (2001/02) [12:23]
Carmina Quartett (Quartet 2), Æquatour (Euridice singt), Aria Quartett (Quartet 1)
rec. October 2007, Kultur-& Kongresshaus Aarau (Euridice singt), and August 2006, Radio Studio DRS, Zurich (Streichquartette)
ECM NEW SERIES 2045 (476 3261) [58:54]
Experience Classicsonline

Not having heard of Swiss composer Alfred Zimmerlin before encountering this recording, I was intrigued to read of his reputation as an improvising cellist, being an active mover in the “Werkstatt für improvisierte Musik” (WIM, Workshop for Improvised Music) Zurich since 1980. His current catalogue consists of more than 70 compositions, including solo pieces and music with live electronics as well as works for radio and film.

With the String Quartet No.2, Zimmerlin points towards an association with Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Duino Elegies”, with its rebellion against the limitations of the “space of human existence.” This is musically expressed in relative understatement rather than grand emotive gestures, concentrating on ‘the little things.’ Pizzicati, sustained notes and textures and an initially soft dynamic move towards rising stress and tension with microtone scales which push the tonality higher, finishing in a mound which closes in on itself; the pig’s tail of a single vibrato laden sotto voce note being the only thing which really escapes in the end.

Euridice singt is a 35-minute “Szene” for soprano, oboe, cello, piano and tape, and is based on a libretto by Swiss poet, rapper and free improviser Raphael Urweider. Euridice substitutes the more frequently represented Orpheus as the central character in this version of a familiar operatic subject from Greek mythology. Euridice’s death in the opening scene is taken as the catalyst for Orpheus’ artistic awakening, represented on the oboe. Euridice’s musings are taken over by a short ‘rap’ from an electronic chorus, her fans. She reflects on the state of being dead, concluding that she actually quite enjoys it. The works continues with an interaction between these three active participants: the chorus, a kind of mixed gender Kraftwerk-style vocal ensemble, Orpheus in the oboe, who is capable of passionate singing as well as some stunning multiphonic effects, and the quietly deceased Euridice, whose flashbacks and reminiscences vary from conventional singing, through representation in Morse code, to the application of a tuning fork to the skin of a bass drum. Electronic sounds enrich the general palette of sound, giving it a pictorial feel, and the effect of the piano, percussion and strings is arranged such that you almost forget their presence. This is very much ‘modern idiom’ music as you might imagine, but fascinates more often through gentle musical caressing rather than confrontation. Even the little ‘rap chorus’ moments come more from the soft-toy rather than the bad-boy department. This is the kind of piece which I suspect would have more of a life-pulse when seen performed on stage, but the recording does have a quality which haunts the memory, and the final gorgeous moments are only spoiled for me by being closed with the same symbolically significant but rather tacky electronic noises which open the piece.

The String Quartet No.1 opens with more intensity in the opening minute or so than in almost the entirety of the rest of the disc put together. This is more abstract as a musical piece, but does use what Zimmerlin calls “one of the most beautiful Swiss folk songs of the eighteenth century: the Guggisberglied.” This is apparently to be heard in augmented or stretched form in the cello, but if this and the other references to Biber’s Rosenkranz Sonatas wasn’t mentioned in your concert programme notes I doubt if many in the audience would ‘get it.’ Never mind, this is suitably intriguing contemporary music, with plenty of variety in sonorities from the strings, and some fascinating effects using tuning forks.

I may sound a bit sceptical, but in fact I’m quite pleased to have made the acquaintance of Alfred Zimmerlin’s music. The pieces can initially give a ‘contemporary music festival’ impression - the kind where the bar is more attractive than the concert hall, but in fact there is more to this music than meets the ear. This is the product of a gently insistent and intensely creative intellectual world which transcends the superficial and the pretentious, and I would commend it to all those seeking to broaden their horizons, incrementally.

Dominy Clements 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index