Weiss - Das Gespenst - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

John Ringer - L'oiseau Du Feu / Violin Concerto [COMPACT DISCS] date 08/16/2005

Wintergesänge by Harald Weiss was composed between 1984 and 1986 in Schreyahn, a small place in northern Germany as well as in Rome, where Harald Weiss lived for one year on a scholarship at the German Academy InchVilla MassimoInch. The cycle was written incidentally rather than by intention, as Harald Weiss says himself, long intervals interrupting the work. The instruments belong mostly to the percussion group and are supplemented or opposed by the human voice in it's various sound-colours. At a studio of the Hessischer Rundfunk Harald Weiss has recorded in playback not only the percussion parts but the vocal parts as well consist of elements sung and spoken. There is no text, words remain unintelligible, evoking at most some associations. However, Harald Weiss has written a couple of poems for his InchWintergesängeInch which he describes as subjective, dissociated thoughts of the composer, like those programmatic titles, which Debussy put at the end of his pieces as aids to comprehension.

Harald Weiss, composer, percussionist, and stage director, applies his artistic energies at the dividing line between music and theater. An experienced composer and performer, he smuggles musical material into visual environments and creates figures for the stage that quietly or restlessly occillate between audible and visible worlds. Peter Müller piano / Cyklus / Carina Mora sopran / Mandolinenorchester Bielefeld / Harald Weiss pecussion, voice.