Ildiko Raimondi - Begegnungen (2020)

Encounters are what shape and enrich every person's life. Be it in the form of rapprochement or emotional connection between people, be it as a fruitful dialogue or as a dissolution of borders and barriers.
Chamber singer Ildikó Raimondi has been closely associated with the internationally renowned Austrian composer Friedrich Cerha for many years and launched a new song cycle on the occasion of his 90th birthday in 2016. Cerha, however, composed songs at a very young age, and between 1946 and 1964 "A Book of the Minne" was created, a collection of late romantic songs based on medieval texts, which he dedicated to his wife Gertraud.
The selection from this cycle follows seamlessly and effortlessly on Franz Liszt's title song "Again I want to meet you" and just as easily bridges the gap to Peter Cornelius' first opus. We encounter Peter Cornelius on this recording in several ways: as a text writer for Franz Liszt, whose pupil and secretary he had been for many years, and as a composer who set his own poems to music. I also owe the development of my compositions to groundbreaking encounters: Roland Hagenberg's text on the misery of boat refugees in the Mediterranean is tragically up-to-date and almost contained the imperative need for setting to music. The long-term collaboration with Ildikó Raimondi is enriched by her suggestion to make the present haikus as short as possible - in accordance with the traditional Japanese poem form - with another facet.
Eduard Kutrowatz