SOFIA GUBAIDULINA (b.1931): Am Rande des Abgrunds for 7 Cellos and 2 Aquaphones, De profundis for Accordion, Quaternion for 4 Cellos, In Croce for Cello and Accordion.

Description: Offered for the new and otherwise unavailable Am Rande des Abgrunds ("On the Edge of the Abyss"), which uses a group of cellos, reaching ever higher into harmonics and the highest registers available to the instrument in the gap between the fingerboard and the bridge - one meaning of the 'abyss' of the title (another, which seems to have eluded the booklet annotator, is suggested by the work's explicit and persistent use of the Dies irae). This unsettled sound-world is enhanced by the unearthly sound of the aquaphones, a bowed stringed canister containing water. Julius Berger (solo cello), Stefan Hussong (accordion), Sofia Gubaidulina, Viktor Suslin (aquaphones), Niklas Eppinger, Aleksandra Ohar, Diego Garcia, Yoohan Choi, Yoon-Jung Hwang, Tai-Yang Zhang (cellos).