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NEOS 11220CD
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2012 release. "...a l'ame de descendre de sa monture et aller sur ses pieds de soie...": "In April 2002 I read a previously unpublished poem by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, one he had written in January that year in the occupied city of Ramallah. His poem touched me so much that it drew me away from Avicenna's ode -- although this remains the conceptual background to my composition -- and thus leads me into the present. Regarding the poem 'The soul must dismount and walk on silken feet,' it came for me both as a surprise as well as a kind of confirmation to discover how, thousands of years later, Darwish is so obviously able to reach in a central verse of his text Avicenna's mystic depth -- whether he does this knowingly or not I can not say. As I react to the present -- in this I have no choice - I hope with this work to have made a humble contribution that will help stem the flow of reification with which humanity (and its soul) is presently confronted, and that this will ultimately prove the salvation of that which is human in an age that has set itself other aims. I do this in full awareness of an extremely brutalised present, one not only affecting Palestine." - Klaus Huber. For the new work the composer reworked both "Die Seele muss vom Reittier steigen" (The soul must dismount its horse, premiere Donaueschingen 2002) and "...a l'ame de marcher sur ses pieds de soie..." (The soul must march on its silken feet, 2004). "Metanoia" for organ solo (1995): This recording of "Metanoia" was made for Suddeutscher Rundfunk (South German Radio) in 1997 by Hans-Peter Schulz, using the renowned historical organ built by Johann Nepomuk Holzhey in the abbey church of Neresheim, and was presented on tape at the First International Week of New Organ Music in Trossingen. The premiere took place a year later, when Schulz played it on the same instrument in 1998. "'Metanoia' does not result from reflection, but 'falls upon us from above like a bolt of lightning.'" The lightning-bolt of this reversal or turnaround is already visible in a sketch, where it is shown as the Fall of the Angels, dividing the piece into two sharply contrasting sections of unequal size. Section 1 is meant to bring about a compression and intensification of the tonal and timbral material in undulating motions and turbulence. Section 2 is characterised by what Huber himself terms "monotony." The lightning-bolt itself -- the turnaround -- is left unheard, for the ending, orbiting the pitch A-flat, emerges from the reverberations emanating from the loud conclusion of Section 1. "Metanoia," too, bears audible traces of the composer's study of Arabic music. In Section 2 Huber calls for microtonal alterations of the pitches -- a special challenge on the organ, whose nature and construction actually forbid such effects. In this respect the unequal tuning of J. N. Holzhey's historic instrument serves the composer in good stead. Performed by: Walter Grimmer (violoncello), Max Engel (baritone), Katharina Rikus (contralto), Hugo Noth (accordion), Michael Pattmann, (percussion).
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NEOS 10809CD
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Performed by Anne Haenen, mezzo-soprano; Theophil Maier, tenor and speaker; Paul Yoder, bass baritone Treble solo from the Tölzer Knabenchor; Schola Cantorum Stuttgart SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart; SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg Matthias Bamert, conductor Kenneth Jean/Burkhard Rempe/Arturo Tamayo, co-conductors. "This important oratorio by Klaus Huber is both a plea and a defense, the concomitant aspects of the work dealing with physical and spiritual hunger that can not be met by any system, nor by any power, or contained by any set of relations. It asks that we heed others, and create a social working environment of the here and now: 'for heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that one man took and with which he sowed a whole field.' The hope for a life free from violence, free from fear, is articulated in actual historical events. Verses from the Bible, transmuted by Ernesto Cardenal into a political manifesto, are combined with voices off into a complex and ambivalent collage that may now be heard anew, examined again, and discussed once more."
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