Anne Sofie von Otter - Symphony No. 3 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This portrait CD provides insight into the sensitive and exciting sound aesthetics of the composer Malika Kishino. Nature and beauty constitute the main points of reference of her oeuvre. Japanese culture and it's aesthetics leave a mark on Kishino's music, yet it is futile to look for anything reminiscent of the traditional music of her home country. Nature, especially optical and visual phenomena or physical states, are an inspiration for the structure and character of her works which she herself describes as Inchsound organismsInch. InchRayons CrépusculairesInch, for example, refers to a radial light phenomenon that shows particularly in the spatial arrangement of this composition. Three groups of musicians stand facing loudspeakers which reverberate the sounds modified by live electronics back into the room. The work which was recorded specifically for this CD is a Inchcomplex acoustic event which not only sets the space in motion but also sharpens one's hearing with regard to special tonal qualitiesInch (Michael Struck-Schloen). Meanwhile the currents of the water and it's changing states of matter are the starting points for InchSensitive ChaosInch. This examination becomes more or less audible in the form of dripping sounds which later turn into more flowing structures. Another topic is the menace to nature Kishino dedicated the choral piece InchPrayer / InoriInch to the memory of the catastrophe of Fukushima.

Jascha Horenstein (1898-1973) was born in Kiev but studied in Vienna. After a move to Berlin, he became Wilhelm Furtwangler's assistant and during the 1920s he conducted both the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. At this time, he came into contact with Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Nielsen. In 1929, Horenstein became the music director of the Dusseldorf Opera but, with the outset of war, he settled in the US. He conducted some of the major orchestras there but returned to Europe in 1947, where he was much in demand including a close association with the LSO. He is best remembered for his outstanding Mahler and Bruckner performances but, being Russian, he conducted Shostakovich who he knew, and because of his early links with Nielsen, both composers were featured throughout his life.

Torsten Nilsson - Balthasar [COMPACT DISCS] date 03/01/1990