ARIBERT REIMANN (b.1936): Zyklus and Kumi Ori for Baritone and Orchestra, Die Pole sind in uns for Baritone and Piano.

Description: Having made a career out of being associated with the voice more than just about any other contemporary composer, unsurprisingly it is Reimann's vocal lines - flexible, expressive, one imagines an unqualified (though not unchallenging) pleasure to sing that is at the heart of these song-cycles. The texts are all taken from the obliquely expressive post-symbolist poetry of Paul Celan, Reimann's constant inspiration over the years. Although the orchestral resources are generous they are used sparingly; extended passages are for voice alone, or with the most subtle accompanimental sounds or instrumental punctuation. Kumi Ori sounds more post-romantic, overall, than the earlier Zyklus; Berg and Webern are the most apparent influences, though Reimann constantly achieves a consistent mellifluity of vocal line which was less important to the Second Viennese composers, and presumably derives from his immersion in the great Lieder composers of the previous generations. The composer's highly imaginative use of extended playing techniques on the piano in the chilly, restrained Die Pole sind in uns forms a tremendously effective backdrop to the haunted vocal part. German-English texts. Yaron Windmüller (baritone), Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra; Günther Herbig, Axel Bauni (piano).