Liturgical Chants, Two Spiritual Songs, Two Spiritual Chants, Two Psalms of David, Diptych, Alleluia

Kiev Chamber Choir, Mykola Hobdych

Chick Corea: piano, Ida Kavafian: violin, Theodore Arm: violin, Steven Tenenbom: viola, Fred Sherry: viloncello, Steve Kujala: flute, Peter Gordon: French horn

Theo Bleckmann, Ellen Fisher, Katie Geissinger, Ching Gonzalez, Meredith Monk, Allison Sniffin, Sasha Bogdanowitsch: voices
Allison Sniffin: piano, violin, John Hollenbeck: percussion, Bohdan Hilash: woodwinds

Keith Jarrett: piano, Jan Garbarek: tenor and soprano sax, Charlie Haden: bass, Mladen Gutesha: conductor

Clara Schumann: Romanzen / Heinz Holliger: Romancendres
Christoph Richter: cello, Dénes Várjon: piano

Heinz Holliger: Gesänge der Frühe
SWR Vokalensemble, Sinfonieorchester des SWR, conducted by Heinz Holliger

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