Touched By The Strings

Orpheus Vokalensemble; Alber, Michael; Bieler, Ida

The present album explores the question of how two ostensibly opposite protagonists, such as a solo violin and a mixed choir, can form a closed artistic form. European composers with various stylistic roots were confronted with this question. The result is an exciting conceptual album filled with compositional surprises and new sonic ideas which demonstrate how varied the respective composers’ approach to the task was and how they found coherent and creative solutions. The composers reveal differing conceptual approaches when answering these questions. Nystedt and Hubner decided to write a kind of concerto for violin and choir in which the violin as soloist outdoes the choir- in its role as orchestra- with its virtuosity, simultaneously commenting on the test or affirming it with doublings. Hoybye stages a theater piece, assigning clear roles to the solo violin and the choir; the violin, representing the voice of God, enters into a dialogue with the choir which represents the voice of man. They speak to one another, they comment on each other, wrestle with each other, spur each other on and thus develop a musical momentum. Buchenberg works with a cross-fading technique and sound surfaces, Miskinis alternates between the violin taking on the function of a descant and a blending of violin and choir, whereas Gjeilo integrates the violin in the choir’s sound weave, turning it into an additional soprano voice, as it were.

Price: $27.98

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