Various Artists - Peter Ruzicka: Orchestral Works, Vol. 5 (2025)

The genre of solo concertos has become increasingly important for Peter Ruzicka since the 1990s. In his oeuvre, it mediates between the dramatic forms of music theater and orchestral or ensemble works. The four compositions on this CD were created over a decade: AULODIE in 2011, STILL in 2016 (included as the final movement in the Chamber Symphony in 2021), the second concerto for viola or violin and large orchestra in 2020 and 2021 (expanded to include a chamber choir in the violin concerto). DEPART and EINGEDUNKELT were written when cultural life was at a standstill due to the COVID pandemic. For both, remembering acts as an elixir of life, and in both, Paul Celan once again takes center stage in Ruzicka's music. In DEPART, the title and form refer to the poet, "who knew how to name the wounds of the 20th century like no other" (P. Ruzicka), in EINGEDUNKELT his poetry forms the center.

Peter Ruzicka has once again brought together top-class musicians on this CD: Nils Mönkemeyer (viola), Carolin Widmann (violin), Albrecht Mayer (oboe), Kris Garfitt (trombone), the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the SWR Vokalensemble with the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Festival Orchestra of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen. In addition to Ruzicka himself, Matthias Pintscher, Bas Wiegers and Massimiliano Matesic are represented as conductors.