Konzerthausorchester Berlin - Haydn: Die Sieben Letzten Worte Unseres Erlosers Am Kreuze, Hob. XX:2 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Haydn - Haydn Seven Last Words of Christ [COMPACT DISCS] date 05/27/2014

The Seven Last Words of Christ refers to the seven short phrases uttered by Jesus on the cross, as gathered from the New Testament. Over the centuries the crucifixion has served as inspiration to countless composers, and settings of these utterances have become something of a subgenre, beginning in the Renaissance with early motets and continuing into our own time. By way of Cesar Franck and Sofia Gubaidulina, composers ranging from Heinrich Schutz to Tristan Murail have contributed versions using various combinations of voice and/or instruments. One of the best known of these settings is probably the one by Joseph Haydn. The one - or rather the four... A rather complicated story begins in 1785, when Haydn received a commission from Cadiz in Spain, at the other end of Europe. He was asked to compose seven slow movements, each ca 10 minutes long, to be played by an orchestra in alternation with the priest expounding on each of the seven words. Relishing this unusual challenge, Haydn accepted and ended up so pleased with the result that he immediately made a version for string quartet as well as authorising another one for keyboard. The work became so popular across Europe that ten years later the music was used one final time, in an oratorio for choir and orchestra. The work is here heard in the version for keyboard, performed by the French pianist Nicolas Stavy. He closes the disc with another unusual work in Haydn's oeuvre, the Andante con variazioni, Hob. XVII/6, which has been described as 'the deepest and most profound set of variations for piano composed between Bach and Beethoven'.

Daniel Knox lives in Chicago, but his is a different city. Set in the early hours, he nocturnally roams the dark corners in it's quiet beauty; unstuck by time where the lines between himself and the character driven personas of his music blur. 'Chasescene' is a mixture of real-life experiences and gallows humour, songs rooted in tradition, stories of true love and loss. Murder ballads met by Shakespearean tragedy against a backdrop of Lynchian contemporary America.Knox grew up spending a lot of time in movie theatres and currently works the late shift as a projectionist at Chicago's historic Music Box Theatre -he's occasionally enlisted to play the dusty old organ that sits in the corner of the screen. Unsurprisingly his influences stem from here too, the language and feel of movies are what shapes his music inside and out; most prominently in the work of Wim Wenders, David Lynch, Errol Morris, Charlie Chaplin and Abel Gance. Other musical influences include Gavin Bryars, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Paolo Conte, Roberta Flack, Scott Walker, Randy Newman and Moondog. Guests on Chasecene include vocals from Jarvis Cocker and Nina Nastasia, the late saxophonist Ralph Carney (Tin Huey, Tom Waits), David Coulter, Jason Toth of The Handsome Family, and more.