Jörg Gottschick, Nicola Birkhan,Verena Obermayer, Paul Rivin
Description
A disc of Songs and Variations for violin, violoncello and
piano on motifs from the Book of Job.
The music of Alexander Asteriades moves “out of the cul-de-sac of atonality.� And so it is not without good reason that the composition of songs with piano accompaniment, very much in the tradition of the nineteenth century, accounts for a significant part of his oeuvre.
As in the songs of his great models, Goethe, Eichendorff, and Möricke are encountered among the poets of his texts – but he has also set Georg Trakl and Nikos Kazantzakis.
Although Asteriades’ songs are tonal, they pose supreme challenges to the interpreters; their grand leaps, extreme registers, and long melodic lines require a singer of superb
skill and a pianist who supplies a finely felt and multifaceted accompaniment.
Asteriades draws on Martin Buber’s translation of the Book of Job as his source of inspiration in this five-part work. Buber’s
text endeavors to reproduce the verbal rhythm of the Hebrew original and as a result assumes a very unique musicality. It is from a little seed that the composer develops the musical material evoking the moods of this famous sapiential work in a finely crafted setting.
Tracklisting
Doris Hochscheid & Frans Van Ruth
Doris Hochscheid; Frans Van Ruth
Giocoso String Quartet, Ursula Thurmair, Jorg Gottschick, Paul Rivinius
Ginzel/Richter
Beethoven Quartett
Beethoven Quartett
Do.Gma Chamber Orchestra
Jazz 'N' Spirit
