These three CDs pass one of my chief tests, that of uniqueness &
unrepeatablilty. Christoph Delz, Swiss born 1950, settled in Cologne
1974, and first grabbed my attention at a BBC Invitation Concert at the Maida
Vale Studios in London, in which he played his quite extraordinary piano
concerto, its second movement for prepared piano (like Cage's).
Delz was championed by BBC R3 (and also at the Almeida Festival) for a number
of years, with regular broadcast performances from London of his major works,
including the two given here. The last of these, at which I had been looking
forward to meeting him once more, was given by the BBC Chorus in Knightsbridge,
a few days after his untimely death (I wrote his obituary in The
Independent).
Pianist on all these CDs, sometimes taking a surprisingly reticent role,
Delz was in the tradition of composer-pianists, but an anti-romantic, as
testified by his clear no-nonsense, ascetic accounts of personal choices
to go with his own music. He chooses to play late Liszt (not the opulent,
expansive composer of before) and gives an unvarnished presentation of the
Mussorgsky Pictures (little pedal, suiting their originally austere
palette), which however leaves no doubt of his pianistic skill and intelligence,
the latter that of a composer rather than a career pianist.
In the Jungle for large symphony orchestra was the most complex
of his works to be given in UK, two movements inspired by Rousseau (27 mins)
- not simply illustrative; he despised realistic detail and explored instead
'stylistic tensions, contradictions, surprises'. Delz suggests animal noises
with specially contrived instrumental effects - brass 'hissed glissandi'
and 'sucking-in' sounds; for water, brushed bass drum and blowing a trombone
slide filled with water, etc etc, these aimed at musical effectiveness not
verisimilitude. The first part conjures up an exotic forest, and nothing
at all like it is to be heard in music elsewhere - it is at an opposite pole
to Messiaen's painstaking recording and transcription of exotic birds. The
second quotes African folk music and alludes to a Rousseau painting 'with
a dark-skinned flute player'. This required vocalisations, which seemed
disconcerting to the BBC players before they were regularly used to jumping
thought all imaginable modernist hoops.
The two-movement piano concerto is equally far from ordinary expectations
of the genre. The first movement is palindromic & there is a second,
orchestral piano playing a major part besides the composer-pianist at his
keyboards. The orchestral part is based upon lapping waves in periodic
organisation - string cluster glissandi and incorporating a number of unusual
playing techniques for the orchestra. Delz moves to a partly (Cageian) prepared
piano to begin the second movement, which is constructed in short, discontinuous
47 second sections, filmic in conception and dedicated to the memory of Luis
Bunuel.
The Worksongs for soli, choir, piano and wind quintet (1984) draw
on his study of work songs of European & extra-European cultures, with
texts 'which will seem cynical to some'. In the Corn Grinding Song he quotes
Liszt's Mephisto Waltz. His Piano Quartet 'forces the piano
to the edge of the proceedings' in deliberate contrast with the 19 C. chamber
music with piano (which he often played with his friends) 'which are often
virtually piano concertos'. The String Quartet is a (just0 recognisable
parody from Bach's E major violin partita, with pitch priorities reversed
'leaving only the rhythm to remind one of the famous original'. In each of
these pieces Delz displays a quirky, disruptive personality, turning expectations
on their heads.
These programmes are all impeccably recorded and presented. 'Let me hear
how you play and I know what kind of music you write', suggests the commentator
Josef Häusler in his thoughtful introduction to the second; the background
to In the Jungle is supplied by the composer himself. Rousseau
got no nearer to the tropical worlds he depicted than the hothouse in Paris;
Delz 'in an old flat in Cologne', which was transforming itself under his
eyes & ears into a building site, 'the banging & sawing evoking luxurious
jungle landscapes, mingling with memories of Rousseau paintings'.
These CDs constitute a worthy memorial to the imagination and individuality
of a unique creative personality and victim of the scourge of the 80s.
Peter Grahame Woolf
Obituary from the Independent September
1993
CHRISTOPH DELZ
b.3 1 1950. d.13 9 1993
By the early death of Christoph DELZ
we have suffered a profound loss of musical intelligence, personality and
creativity. Captivated by his quirky 1st Piano Concerto, premiered by the
pianist-composer on prepared piano at a BBC Invitation Concert in 1986, I
have not missed an opportunity to hear each new addition to his relatively
small output. This has been possible through the championship of BBC Radio
3 and the loyal partnership of the conductor of the BBC Singers, Simon Joly,
latterly augmented by the recognition of the Swiss record company Grammont.
Born in Basel, Delz lived in Cologne from 1974-89, before returning to his
native Switzerland. He studied with Aloys Kontarsky and Stockhausen during
the '70s. Although the BBC, to their credit, has recognised his importance,
and devoted an entire edition of Music in Our Time to
ChristophDelz, his meticulously crafted scores, every one the realisation
of a unique and idiosyncratic vision, remain unpublished. Delz was a shy
and friendly man to meet, and he maintained artistic integrity which he refused
to compromise, concentrating on composing slowly from inner compulsion, rather
than courting commissions and publicity. It can only be because he lacked
that streak of ruthlessness and entrepreneurial skills that he failed to
find a publisher for his elegantly hand-written scores, which are a joy to
study.
Delz's works have often a philosophical and literary basis, and draw too
upon his own circumstances and inner life. His approach to choral writing
is particularly individual, and can be traced through Worksongs
(1984) through Solde -Lecture d'apres Lautreamont (1986) and the
Joyce Fantasy (1991), a setting in English for soprano and speech-chorus,
with two pianos and harmonium, of fragments from the Siren chapter of
Ulysses, to his last, bravely moving work for the BBC Singers,
Istanbul, which was premiered at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge on
17th September, four days after the composer's death. This is a dramatic
collage and complex meditation upon life's journey, setting extracts from
Odysseus's epic journey to rejoin Penelope with texts in various languages,
quoting Bach's chorale Who do we look to? and confronting the fearfulness
of solitude before death.
Solde, for voices and a vast array of specially devised percussion equipment,
was a hit at the 1989 Almeida Festival, the audience's enjoyment enhanced
by seeing Simon Joly relish his dual role as conductor and accessory
percussionist. The Maida Vale studio was the venue for a small invited audience
to hear the only British performance to date of Delz's biggest orchestral
score, In the Jungle: Homage to Rousseau the Customs Officer, conceived
and composed in a Cologne flat against the invasive noise of builder's
contractors at work outside. Apparently anarchic, but actually fully notated,
this is a work for very large symphony orchestra, with saxophones, Wagner
tubas and percussion which included lion's roar and (taped) chain-saw! Many
unusual effects are achieved with scrupulous precision and there is a leanness
and clarity in Delz's orchestration, which is very personal. This exuberant
piece deserved a wider hearing and would have received a positive response
from a Proms audience; perhaps the BBC might contemplate a revival as a memorial
tribute?
There are 3 recommendable Grammont CDs of Delz as composer and pianist, CTS-P
18-2; FCD 97 742/743. In the first of these, there is a piano quartet in
which the piano is "forced to the edge of proceedings, as opposed to
corresponding works of the 18th & 19th centuries, which are often virtually
piano concertos". On the same CD his string quartet is a parody of that genre
and also of Bach's violin partita in E, with pitch reversals leaving rhythm
alone to remind one of the famous original. These Grammont CDs, which include
the 1st piano concerto, Worksongs and In the Jungle, offer
a balanced conspectus of Christoph Delz's earlier development and an opportunity
to hear him in Mussorgsky and late Liszt as well as in his own works.
