Simone Beneventi - Golfi D'ombra - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

R. Schumann - Symphonies 2 & 3 [COMPACT DISCS] date 07/27/2010

The tale of Hans Winterberg (1901-91) is a strange one. A survivor of the Terezín concentration camp, where he had been interned as a Czech Jew, he settled in Munich after the War as a German citizen, and his music enjoyed a number of broadcasts - but with his death his estate disappeared into a legal limbo, emerging only in 2015. This first album of his piano music reveals an unusual and individual voice, an idiosyncratic blend of Janácek, Ravel, Schoenberg and other mid-twentieth-century masters, animated by a hard-edged, freewheeling energy and grim humour reminiscent of his close contemporary, Nikos Skalkottas. Brigitte Helbig, who grew up in Munich and also studied there, is one of Germany's livelier young pianists, with a respectable track record in the performance of new music.

Wood is a primordial material. As such it contains life, both natural and human. To strike wood, to make it vibrate is the ancestral musical gesture second only to the rhythm of footsteps and breathing. No one can really know for certain, but without too many anthropological doubts, we can assume that the first non-body related instrument was a piece of wood. From that moment on human imagination has discovered countless ways of manipulating this many-sided material as a medium, ranging from constructing to music making. The wooden instrument is of profound cultural significance for the human race. The natural material has always been perceived by humans as an extension of the body. Take for example the stamping stick in the hands of a Master of Ceremonies as the stick is hitting the ground the Master keeps the tempo for the chorus and the dancers, a primeval action for most music-oriented civilizations. Simone Beneventi's research is focused on the wooden universe. He has collaborated with composers and master carpenters such as Giuseppe Bussi, ebony woodworker and conservator, creating and constructing wooden sound objects, many of which were made for the occasion.