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John Tilbury: prepared piano
Pianos: Érad Brothers 1818 (op.101), Georg Haschka c.1825 (op.106), John Broadwood 1814 (op.109) · 1819 (op.110), Conrad Graf c.1835 (op.111)
Malcolm Binns: fortepiano
Christopher Hogwood: cabinet organ, Italian spinet, harpsichord
The Consort of Musicke, Anthony Rooley: director, lute
Jaap Schroeder: violin, Christopher Hogwood: pianoforte
Thomas Zehetmair: violin, Thomas Demenga: cello, Gerd Böckmann: voice, Robert Hunger-Bühler: voice, Andreas Schmidt: bass, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Heinz Holliger: conductor • Konzert (1950), für Violine und großes Orchester • Canto di speranza (1952/57), Kantate für Violoncello und kleines Orchester • Ich wandte mich und sah an alles Unrecht, das geschah unter der Sonne (1970), Ekklesiastische Aktion für zwei Sprecher, Bass-Solo und Orchester
Three keyfigures from ECM’s contemporary music roster – Heinz Holliger, Thomas Zehetmair, and Thomas Demenga – team up for an exceptional recording of three works by German post-war composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann. Zimmermann, almost half a generation older than the serialists such as Boulez and Stockhausen, integrated state-of-the-art compositional methods in his writing while constantly following his own independent, highly expressive musical language. The rhythmically energetic violin concerto (1950) which is partially based on twelve-tone models and cast in three movements, was soon hailed as a model for a post-war solo concerto, while “Canto di Speranza” (1953/57), a one-movement cello concerto, acccording to Zimmermann, emphasizes monologue and introvert meditation. “Ich wandte mich…” on the other hand is Zimmermann’s last work, finished only a few days before his suicide in 1970. Labelled by the composer as an “ecclesiastical action”, the 35-minute oratorio on biblical verse and the famous parable "The Grand Inquisitor" from Dostoevsky’s “Brothers Karamazov” is a deeply pessimistic “performance art” work - of the kind that flourished in Germany’s ‘Fluxus’ scene around 1970 - involving recitation, singing, and both gestural and acrobatic action.
based on vocal fragments by Guillaume Dufay (1397–1474) John Potter: tenor; Ambrose Field: composer, live and studio electronics
