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Aribert REIMANN (b.1936) Zyklus (1971) [23:35] Kumi Ori (1999) [22:18] Die Pole sind in uns (1995) [9:39]
Yaron Windmüller
(baritone)
Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra/Günther Herbig
Axel Bauni (piano, Die Pole sind in uns)
rec. Musikstudio I, Funkhaus Halberg, Saarbrücken, 28 March,
11 May, 19 June 2004. NAXOS 8.570199 [55:33]
Berlin-born Aribert Reimann is known not only as a composer,
but also as an eminent accompanist to singers such as Brigitte
Fassbaender and Ernst Haefliger, but most famously and devotedly
to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, for whom he wrote a sequence
of song cycles including Zyklus, and the monumental
role of Learin
his 1978 opera.
Reimann’s work has become something of a staple in terms
of darkly serious teutonic modernism, and the works on this
disc do nothing to dispel this reputation. Zyklus is,
as its title suggests, a cycle which uses texts from the
collection of poems Atemwende, by Paul Celan. Kumi
Ori was given its first performance by the singer on
this recording, and uses Paul Celan texts alongside verses
from Psalms 74, 79 and 122. Die Pole sind in uns is
for piano and baritone, and is also a Celan poem.These
texts are included in the booklet, and the choices made by
the composer are a stark indicator of the nature of much
of the music.
The vocal lines in the works with orchestral accompaniment
are characterised by an often angular atonality, and while
the intervals in Die Pole sind in uns are closer,
you’d be hard put to call them lyrically expressive. Reimann
is clearly at home with vocal treatments however, and the
power of his word settings springs from an almost recitative-like
clarity. The most significant impression these pieces left
with me was Reimann’s imaginative use of colour and sonority
from both the orchestra and the piano. There are some remarkable
effects, most especially in Zyklus, where chamber
music interludes are contrasted with vastly glowering cluster
chords pointing to unspeakable depths. The tempi are more
often than not slow, and even when there is a greater concentration
of activity the sensation is of tidal rising and falling
rather than helter-skelter impetus. The heaving brass is
particularly strong in the third song in Zyklus, “…how
far I have pushed you into the depths, where/my most bitterly
heartfelt dream/sleeps with you, on the bed/of my irredeemable
name.” The following Du darfst mich getrost mit Schnee
bewirten is a masterpiece of grim suppression.
With nearly thirty years between them, you might expect considerable
differences between Zyklus and Kumi Ori, but
if you are not following the track numbers you might not
notice when the one ends and the other begins. ‘Kumi Ori’ are
the words with which the poem Du sei wie du, immer ends,
the Hebrew words of Isaiah, which mean ‘arise and shine’.
The composer’s own comment is that “this enlightenment was
the hope for the next millennium: that what had happened
in the past century would never happen again.”
Die Pole sind in uns uses plucked, damped and
struck strings as well as conventionally played notes and
chords, continuing the interest in different
colour and texture in Reimann’s music. The bell-like harmonics
towards the end are particularly striking. The text is delivered
with elongated restraint, but with more word painting and
elaboration than in many of the orchestral works. The austerity
of this last work punctuates the mood of the others, and
furthers the darkly serious expressive voice and message
of the composer.
The content of this disc might be a hard pill to swallow,
but there is no doubting the strength of purpose with which
Aribert Reimann seeks to express the depth and meaning of
Paul Celan’s texts. For an honest emotional response I played
it to my daughter of 5, who screwed up her eyes, stuck her
tongue out and cried “it makes me sad!” With excellent recording
and performance values, this is however another Naxos stopper
in the gap of interesting and under-represented repertoire,
and as such is a welcome addition to the catalogue. If you
feel your collection lacks intellectual weight and you long
for an antidote to superficial hedonistic thrills, then this
is certainly worth a try.
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