Composer: Charles Uzor
Performer: Ensemble Mothertongue, Ensemble La Notte, Quasi Fantasia Guitar Ensemble, Isabel Pfefferkorn, Domenico Cerasani, Lux Nova Duo, Ernst Brunner
Conductor: Rupert Huber
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Neos
Catalogue: NEOS12108-09
Release: 2021
Size: 1.34 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
CD 01
Mothertongue
01. No. 1, Wolfsbohne
02. No. 2, Rain
03. No. 3, Fire/Mimicri
04. No. 4, Tongues
05. No. 5, Reigen
White Paperflowers Descending on Tienanmen Square
06. I. —
07. II. —
08. III. —
09. 8’4″ George Floyd in Memoriam
CD 02
01. Go
Zimzum
02. Quasi
03. Sephardic Lilt/Mimicri
04. La Princesse de Samarkand
The work of the composer Charles Uzor (*1961) reflects his African origins – and with it the story of his emigration to Switzerland as a seven-year-old. This also and especially applies to the new double album entitled “Mothertongue”.
“Mothertongue” is a five-part cycle for mezzo-soprano, tape and ensemble. Uzor is looking for the sounds of his own mother tongue, Igbo, which he lost as an adolescent. The overall program of the two CDs is a journey through Uzor’s musical and spiritual cosmos. The works, created between 1989 and 2020, deal with the uprising on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the fairy tale of the Princess of Samarkand, the negative theodicy of the Italian philosopher Sergio Quinzio and the brutal murder of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis in 2020. Charles Uzor’s topics are socially relevant. In this sense, this is a particularly haunting portrait of the Swiss-Nigerian composer.