Brad Lubman - Klaus Huber: Vocal Works (2022)

This double-CD of world-premiere recordings of vocal works by Klaus Huber (1924–2017) is a document of the special artistic partnership between Huber and his daughter, the contralto Katharina Rikus. Just as she was strongly influenced by her father in her relationship to music, her voice was the inspiration for many of the works recorded here. Singing his music, Rikus says, requires a very precise ear and rhythmic security, combined with great openness in interpretation. "I worked intensively and persistently on the works with him and am grateful to him from the bottom of my heart for his trust in me."

The most important work on this double album is Umkehr – im Licht sein ... for choir, mezzo-soprano, speaker and small orchestra, composed in 1997 and a milestone in the creative phase of the late 1990s. It is preceded by another orchestral work: Oratio Mechtildis bears the subtitle "Chamber symphony for chamber orchestra with alto voice" – characteristic of Huber's free approach to classical forms and instrumentation. Thus, on the purely chamber-musical second CD there are no traditional piano songs, but duets for voice and viola (Das kleine Lied), Ein Hauch von Unzeit in the version for voice and accordion and the solo work Nous!? – La raison du coeur ..., as well as one of Klaus Huber's last compositions, Intarsioso for fortepiano, string quartet and alto voice.