Heinz Holliger - Zimmermann: Canto Di Speranza (2008)

Three key figures from ECM’s contemporary music roster – Heinz Holliger, Thomas Zehetmair, and Thomas Demenga – team up for an exceptional recording of three works by one of the leading German post-war composers 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. His compositions ranged from orchestral works and ballets to solo sonatas (ECM has recorded all three on 449 9042), electronic pieces and Die Soldaten (The Soldiers), probably the most important German-language opera since Berg.

The rhythmically energetic and jazz-inspired Konzert für Violine und Orchester (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 (Song of Hope) (1953/57), a one-movement cello concerto with a sensuous quality, emphasizes monologue and introvert meditation. Ich wandte mich und sah an alles Unrecht, das geschah unter der Sonne on the other hand is Zimmermann’s last work, finished only five days before he committed suicide in August 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” piece - of the kind that flourished in Germany’s ‘Fluxus’ scene around the time it was written - involving recitation, singing, and both gestural and acrobatic action. Towards the end the two speakers are called upon to stamp on the floor and scream at the top of their lungs!