BERND ALOIS ZIMMERMANN (1918-70) : Recomposed - Original Compositions and Arrangements for Orchestra. Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Alagoana. Caprichos Brasileiros - Ballett für Orchester (1951/1955); Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959) A Lenda do Caboclo for piano (1920) Transcribed for orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1953) *; Darius Milhaud (1892–1974) Leme, from Saudades do Brazil - Suite de Danses pour piano op. 67 (1920–1921), Nr. 3 Transcribed for orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1951) * ; Sorocaba, aus Saudades do Brazil - Suite de Danses pour piano op. 67, Nr. 1 Transcribed for orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1951) *; Alfredo Casella (1883–1947): Bolero, from Undici pezzi infantili per pianoforte a due mani op. 35 (1920), Nr. 4 Transcribed for orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1951) * ; Carillon, from Undici pezzi infantili per pianoforte a due mani op. 35, Nr. 9 Transcribed for orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1952) * ; Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Bolero moderato (1943) (after Extemporale für Klavier) Transcription for orchestra (1950) * ; Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Chunchitos. Maskentanz der Chunchos transcribed for Orchestra (1956) * (After "Aru Amunyas" - Dances and songs on Bolivian themes arranged for piano by Hans Helfritz (1902–1995)), Nr. 4 ; Laquitas. Danza del altiplano transcribed for Orchester (1956) * nach "Aru Amunyas" by Hans Helfritz, Nr. 10 ; Pjusi-Phias. Danza del altiplano für Orchester bearbeitet (1957) * nach "Aru Amunyas" von Hans Helfritz, Nr. 3 ; Bernd Alois Zimmermann : Bergère légère Transcribed for soprano and orchestra (1950) * (after a French song of the 18th century in the piano version by Jean Baptiste Weckerlin) (1894) ; Maman, dites-moi transcribed for Soprano and Orchestra (1950) * (after a French song of the 18th century in the piano version by Jean Baptiste Weckerlin) (1894); Jeunes fillettes für Gesang und Orchester bearbeitet (1950) * (after a French song of the 18th century in the piano version by Jean Baptiste Weckerlin) (1894) ; Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Un petit rien - Musique légère, lunaire et ornithologique d’après Les oiseaux de lune de Marcel Aymé für kleines Orchester (1964) ; Bernd Alois Zimmermann : Rheinische Kirmestänze für dreizehn Bläser (1962) ; Bernd Alois Zimmermann : Kontraste. Music for an imaginary ballet after an idea by Fred Schneckenburger, für kleines Orchester (1953) ; Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881): Reiseeindrücke aus der Krim für Klavier (1879–80) Transcribed for orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1949) * ; Modest Mussorgsky: Au village. Impromptu für Klavier (1880) Transcribed for orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1950) * ; Franz Liszt (1811–1886): Die drei Zigeuner für Gesang und Klavier (1860) Transcribed for voice and orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1953) * ; Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Intermezzo (Valse triste) für Orchester (1949) * ; Franz Liszt: Oh! Quand je dors für Gesang und Klavier (1849) Transcribed for voice and orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1954) * ; Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943): Morceaux de Salon pour piano op. 10, Nr. 6 Romance (1894) transcribed for Saxophone and orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1950) * ; Bernd Alois Zimmermann : Concertino für Klavier und Orchester (1950) * after Morceaux de Salon pour piano op. 10, Nr. 5 - Humoresque (1894) by Sergei Rachmaninov ; Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Konzert für Orchester, 3rd version (1946/49) * ; Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Sinfonie in einem Satz für großes Orchester, 2nd Version (1953) ; Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924): Ballettszene III aus Zwei Clavierstücke op. 30a (1889), Transcribed for orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1949) * ; Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884): Polka (1879), aus Venkovanka [Das Landmädchen] für Orchester (arranged for piano by the composer, 1880) New orchestration by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1953) * ; Bedřich Smetana: Oves (1879), aus §eske Tance [Böhmische Tänze] für Klavier, Band II, Nr. 3 Transcribed for orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1950) * ; Antonín Dvorˇák (1841–1904) Causerie (1889), aus Poetische Stimmungsbilder [Poetické nálady] für Klavier op. 85, Nr. 11 Plauderei [Na tácˇkách / Causerie] Transcribed for orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1953) * ; Walter Niemann (1876–1953): Im Teehaus (1923), aus Japan - Ein Zyklus für Klavier op. 89 arranged for two Violins, Viola, Violoncello, Kontrabass, Harp and Piano by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, 1st version (ca. 1951) * ; Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) : Il pleut dans la ville, Nr. 3 of 7 Klavierstücke op. 11 (1910–18) („il pleure dans mon cœur comme il pleut sur la ville”, Paul Verlaine) transcribed for two Violins, Viola, Violoncello, Kontrabass and piano by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1949) * ; Cyril Scott (1879–1970): Lotus Land für Klavier ( 1905), from Two Pieces for piano op. 47, Nr. 1 Arranged for Flute, Harp, two Violins, Viola, Violoncello and Kontrabass by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1952) * ; Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Souvenir d’ancien balet für zwei Violinen, Viola, Violoncello, Kontrabass und Klavier (1950) after Musicalischer Parnassus. 9 Suiten für Cembalo (1738), Suite Nr. 2 „Calliope”, Nr. 2 Ballett by Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (1656–1746); Paul Haletzki (1911–2000): Vater und Sohn. Intermezzo scherzoso (veröffentlicht 1938), Transcribed for orchestra by "Bernardo Pazzi" (Pseudonym of B. A. Zimmermann) (1963) *; Edmund Nick (1891–1974) Blues (1929) Transcribed for orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1954) *; Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Stille und Umkehr. Orchesterskizzen (1970). * First recordings

Description: This set is essential listening for anyone even mildly intrigued by the unclassifiable creative genius, Bernd Alois Zimmermann. While not exactly over-represented on recordings, his large-scale, mature masterworks - the Requiem, Die Soldaten, Photoptosis, Musique pour les soupers du Roi Ubu, Cello Concerto, etc., - are at least available in fine performances on modern recordings. It is perhaps surprising, then, that more than 50 years after his death, it is possible to release three discs of wholly characteristic works that, moreover, shed new light on a significant aspect of his output, most of which are world premieres. These are his pieces transcribed, arranged, composed, and recomposed for the radio during his years at WDR; a body of work as replete with originality and the overlapping, blending, and layering of musics from throughout history and multiple genres as his "serious" compositions. He spoke of this work as drudgery, and it earned him a degree of opprobrium from the "purists" of the Stockhausen circle, but the results are so immaculately crafted and imaginative, and appealing on so many levels, as to utterly belie these characterisations. Sometimes he completely transforms the original, as in his brilliant transcription of Rachmaninov’s early Romance in F minor, a Morceau de salon, which in Zimmermann's hands becomes a morceau de smoky nightclub, with some sort of tense drama overlain on the piano piece's melancholy mood. The Humoresque from the same cycle becomes a jazzy little concertino, a hybrid of neoclassical Stravinsky and Rachmaninov’s own concerti, with added virtuoso flourishes. A favourite ploy is to heighten the effect of the original work, like rendering into three-dimensional colour a pre-existing monochrome sketch - like Liszt's Lenau setting, "The Three Gypsies" to the Hungarian Rhapsody atmosphere of which Zimmermann adds the Gypsy fiddle and the cimbalom, or his orchestration of Liszt's “Oh! Quand je dors", with glistening, flowing string textures and harp bringing out its similarity to Mahler. Or the two late Mussorgsky piano pieces, atmospheric in their original form, positively operatic in orchestral garb - Pictures from Crimea is reimagined as Dawn over the Moscow River! A short, early piano piece by Busoni - not one of his greatest creations, to be honest - is elevated into the entirely convincing ballet scene of its title; the Smetana and Dvorak pieces are orchestrated exactly as the composers would have done, but Scott’s Lotus Land, in a Debussyan shimmer of harp and flute, and the Kodály, darkly intense, seeming to hold its breath, are limned in luminous colours at which the piano could only hint. Chunchitos, Laquitas, and Pjusi-Phias (after a collection of piano arrangements of Bolivian folk songs by Hans Helfritz) and the Milhaud and Villa-Lobos orchestrations display Zimmermann’s unerring ear for colour and atmosphere, sounding as authentically Latin as one could wish, with the incorporation of the suite of rhythm instruments he used – with only minor variations – in all his Latin American pieces: bongos, congas, claves, shakers, maracas, guiro, etc. we have boogies and blues, both transcribed and original; puppet theatre ballet, “elegant and ironic” (as he himself said) light music arrangements; a cornucopia of musical delights as all-inclusive, unexpected, and original as one could possibly wish. Of the original works here, the Concerto for Orchestra of 1946-49, a substantial short work in four tough, dramatic movements, is - rather astonishingly - receiving its world premiere recording. The piece had a complex genesis in its search for an original language, and was much revised, while drawing on earlier works, especially Zimmermann's string quartet. The music’s spiky, somewhat sardonic and belligerent nature has something in common with Shostakovich, especially - strangely - the 4th Symphony, which is of course chronologically impossible. We are also treated to three staples - relatively speaking - of Zimmermann’s recorded canon in first-rate performances as one would expect of Holliger, a true Zimmermann aficionado; firstly the ballet suite Alagoana, based on Brazilian mythology and musical styles. An early work (c.1940-1950), this infectiously attractive score, full of gloriously technicolor orchestration and lush harmony - admitting some ingeniously unexpected shadowy ambiguity to be sure, but entirely approachable throughout - reminds us that before the experimental modernism of the 1960s, Zimmermann had already traversed many twentieth century mainstream styles; here the most striking similarities are to Milhaud (a particular favourite because of his fondness for bi- and poly-tonality, jazz, and South American music, all dear to Zimmermann’s heart), and Ravel, with some hat-tips to Le sacre thrown in for good measure. The Sinfonie, which shared “a substantial amount of common material” with some of his music for radio plays – was Zimmermann’s first large commission from the WDR; Requiem für einen jungen Dichter [Requiem for a Young Poet] would be the last – seems to compress the content and argument of a full-scale post-romantic symphonic canvas into a terse, event-filled quarter hour. The piece is not completely atonal, though well on its way to dodecaphony, and formally unconstrained and original, permitting eruptions of expressionistic pathos, a cataclysmic march, with thunderous use of percussion, and demonstrating yet again the composer’s præternatural timbral alchemy, in passages of mysterious ethereal sound from a string section divided into 30 parts. Stille und Umkehr was the composer's penultimate work, and his last for orchestra; an odd, static, withdrawn and introverted progression of subtly shifting, eerie sounds, anchored by the failing heartbeat of an incessant, obsessive, irregular drumbeat, perhaps hinting at the unhappy composer's mental state in the months leading up to his suicide. The release is exceedingly well documented, and includes a lengthy interview with Holliger, with many interesting insights. Sarah Wegener, Soprano, Marcus Weiss, Saxophone, Ueli Wiget, Piano, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Dirigent: Heinz Holliger. Soloists aus dem WDR Sinfonieorchester: Ye Wu und Johanne Stadelmann, Violine : Junichiro Murakami, Viola : Johannes Wohlmacher, Violoncello : Michael Geismann, Axel Ruge und Stefan Rauh, Kontrabass : Florence Millet, Klavier : Andreas Mildner, Harfe : Michael Faust, Flöte. 3CDs.