Bernd Alois Zimmermann - Violin Concerto; Photoptosis; Die Soldaten (Hannu Lintu)

Information

Composer: Bernd Alois Zimmermann

• Violin Concerto
• Photoptosis, Prélude für großes Orchester
• Die Soldaten, Vokal-Sinfonie für 6 Gesangs-Solisten

Leila Josefowicz, violin

Anu Komsi; Jeni Packalen; Hilary Summers

Peter Tantsits; Ville Rusanen; Juha Uusitalo

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Hannu Lintu, conductor

Date: 2019

Label: Ondine

https://www.ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=6192

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Review

The fragmentary nature of Zimmermann’s pre emptive vocal symphony on Die Soldaten reflects that of his entire artistic outlook – the idea that an indecipherable or disorientating mixture of past, present and future is all that’s now attainable in art, and that the cocktail itself can prove prophetic and beautiful. In Zimmermann’s Violin Concerto, his concertante snapshot of the entire mid 20th-century European horror show, such beauty is to the fore in a performance from Leila Josefowicz that is more elasticated and lyrical (than, say, Thomas Zehetmair – ECM, 7/09) while the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra are more sharp-edged and immediate (than Zehetmair’s WDR Symphony Orchestra). Josefowicz plays the rumba finale with notable grit and pushes the conversation towards the edge of the precipice this composer’s music insists on existing at.

Zimmermann’s intent that his opera Die Soldaten and the vocal symphony that went before it would speak of ‘yesterday, today and tomorrow’ can be read on a multitude of levels but in using a play that foreshadowed Büchner’s Woyzeck and a musical language that is the successor to Alban Berg’s, we have one obvious manifestation. There is just enough in these fragments to reveal the human detritus at the heart of the story but, again, the power is often there in the lack of continuity – what we don’t see or hear – while the symphonic presentation offers a clearer vision of Zimmermann’s Berg-like structuring of each scene along highly formal lines. There is a beautiful strain in the writing and despite this different tension, a certain laissez-faire attitude as if Lulu has dismissed half her orchestra and told the rest to take their shoes off. Anu Komsi is consistently on her toes as Marie. The music and its questions are strong enough to ensure the ‘tomorrow’ the composer speaks of remains all of our tomorrows.

The Intermezzo, with fulsome organ chords and all manner of quotation, reflects Zimmermann’s orchestral Prelude after Yves Klein, Photoptosis, a work that reminded many of Zimmermann’s power and originality when it opened the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg two years ago. It is a reflection of Zimmermann’s ideas about collage in relation to form but could just as easily be viewed as a rhapsody on the pregnant instability of the wobbling semitone with which it starts. This recording starts out quite clinical and the very opposite of spatial but there’s no doubting Lintu’s ability to draw the collage together to a single point of focus and a thrilling climax. Every Zimmermann recording is one to be welcomed but this one is delicious in its variance.

-- Andrew Mellor, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://artmusiclounge.wordpress.com/2019/01/26/hannu-lintu-conducts-zimmermann/

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Mar/Zimmermann_soldaten_ODE13252.htm

https://www.allmusic.com/album/bernd-alois-zimmermann-violin-concerto-photoptosis-die-soldaten-vocal-symphony-mw0003242130

https://www.amazon.com/Zimmermann-Concerto-Photoptosis-Soldaten-Symphony/dp/B07LD4P45X

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Bernd Alois Zimmermann (20 March 1918 in in Bliesheim – 10 August 1970 in Königsdorf) was a German composer. He is perhaps best known for his opera Die Soldaten, which is regarded as one of the most important German operas of the 20th century, after those of Berg. His eclectic music, which employs a wide range of techniques including dodecaphony and musical quotation, encompasses the styles of the avant-garde, serial, and postmodern. Zimmermann was Professor of Composition as well as Film and Broadcast Music at the Cologne Music University. Among his notable students was Clarence Barlow.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernd_Alois_Zimmermann

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Leila Josefowicz (born October 20, 1977 in Missisauga, Ontario, Canada) is an American-Canadian classical violinist. She attended Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Jaime Laredo, Jascha Brodsky, Felix Galimir and Joseph Gingold. Since her teens, Josefowicz has played with symphony orchestras in Europe, Asia and North America, and made recordings for Philips, Warner Classics, Nonesuch and Deutsche Grammophon labels. She is also acclaimed for championing new compositions, including the works of John Adams, Oliver Knussen and Thomas Adès.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leila_Josefowicz
http://www.leilajosefowicz.com/

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Hannu Lintu (born 13 October 1967 in Rauma, Finland) is a Finnish conductor. Lintu studied piano and cello at the Turku Conservatory and at the Sibelius Academy, and studied conducting with Atso Almila, Jorma Panula and Eri Klas. He was chief conductor of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra (1998-2001), Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra (2009-2013) and is currently chief conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (since 2013, his contract will expire in 2021). Lintu has conducted commercial recordings for such labels as Claves, Dacapo, Danacord, Hyperion, Naxos, and Ondine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannu_Lintu

http://www.hannulintu.fi/

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