Peter Ruzicka's opera HÖLDERLIN was premiered in Berlin in November 2008. As with it's predecessor, the music drama CELAN, it stands at the center of a large group of works, some of which point to it, while some underwent greater or lesser changes to find their place within it, and some emanated from it and reflected further on aspects of it. Two particularly significant examples of this further reflexion are united on this album. The HÖLDERLIN Symphony, like the CELAN Symphony, presents a concentrate of the stage work. This is the source of it's material, but it is distilled into a constellation of it's own nature; it can most readily be compared with the vocal symphonies of Gustav Mahler and Alexander Zemlinsky.
A**S
Two excellent works, one a vocal symphony drawn from Ruzicka's second opera
Peter Ruzicka's second opera, "Hölderlin," was finished in 2008, and this 33:34 Symphonie is drawn from it, featuring baritone Thomas E. Bauer singing four monologues of Empedokles from Hölderlin's "The Death of Empodokles." The lyrics are provided only in German -- the text has been translated into English, and is available as a book. The orchestra, led by the composer, is the Deutsch Radio Philharmonie. The NDR Chor is led by James Wood.The second piece is also based on Hölderlin -- "Mnemosyne" (Remembrance and Forgetting), about the goddess of remembrance and mother of the Muses. Sung by soprano Sarah Maria Sun, the instrumentation is 18 strings and percussion, drawn from the DRP, and led by the composer. Once again, the lyrics are presented only in German.Like the "Celan Symphonie," based on Ruzicka's first opera (see my review), I find these to be powerful, affecting works even though the vocals serve as another instrument since I don't have the German translated into English. Ruzicka is one of my favorite contemporary composers, and these recordings from 2012 and 2021 are superb additions to his body of compositions.*** *** ***Peter Ruzicka (b. 1948) is a German composer of the same generation as Wolfgang Rihm. Born in Dusseldorf, trained in the Hamburg Conservatory, he studied composition with Hans Werner Henze. Since the early 1970s his touchstones have been Mahler, Webern, and Celan, and he has consciously attempted to reconnect with tradition as he saw the avant-garde of the 1950s and 1960s as having burned its bridges and left itself with nowhere to go.Ruzicka has a strong, distinctive voice. He has written many works for orchestra since the early 1970s, many of them recorded on the Thorofon label and not readily available outside of Germany. Peter Ruzicka has developed a tragic, postmodern vision in his music that speaks powerfully to the condition of Germany and the world in the 21st century. His music is somber; sober; serious. Rather than nostalgia, Ruzicka's focus is on memory -- he is determined that we NOT FORGET.Peter Ruzicka's is a voice that should be widely heard!
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