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