Composer: Othmar Schoeck
Performer: Christian Gerharer, Andreas Reiner, Diane Pascal, Helmut Nicolai, Anja Lechner, Rosamunde Quartet
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: ECM
Catalogue: 4766995
Release: 2009
Size: 172 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Notturno – Fünf Sätze für Streichquartett und eine Singt imme, Op. 47
01. I. Ruhig
02. II. Presto
03. III. Unruhig bewegt
04. IV. Ruhig und leise
05. V. Rasch und kräftig (quasi Recit.)
The outstanding German baritone Christian Gerhaher, winner of a BBC Music Magazine Award earlier this year and rapidly becoming one of the most sought-after interpreters of Lieder today, makes his ECM debut with the Rosamunde Quartet in the very personal, romantic Notturno by Othmar Schoeck (1886–1957).
Although generally acknowledged as one of the leading composers of his native Switzerland, Schoeck has never acquired a stable reputation outside the German speaking world. This is partly due to his strong focus on the sung word: His output comprises eight operas, some 400 songs and a couple of smaller instrumental works. Moreover, his essentially late-romantic style was considered démodé after the Second World War when the avant-garde was arguing for a more rational and emotionally restricted approach to composition. “Here is a composer who deserves rediscovery,” says Heinz Holliger. “His works often come across to me as immensely personal, intense utterances that are both touching and moving – perhaps none more so than the wonderful Notturno op.
47.” Composed by Schoek between 1931 and 1933, it served as a personal confession after an unhappy extra-marital love affair. Its five movements set verses by German 19th-century-poet Nikolaus Lenau and by the great Swiss writer Gottfried Keller. The highly differentiated, insightful interpretation by Christian Gerhaher – one of the most distinguished young German “Lied” singers and a former disciple of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau – and the Rosamunde Quartet offers a strong plea for Schoeck’s expressive music and sheds an exciting light on his artistic preoccupation with the dark abysses of human existence.