JOHANNES MARIA STAUD (b.1974): Configurations/Reflet, ERICH URBANNER (b.1936): Piano Concerto, KARLHEINZ ESSL (b.1960): Deviation, FRITZ HEINRICH KLEIN (1892-1977): Die Maschine.
Catalogue Number: 12K119
Label: Gramola
Reference: 98783
Format: CD
Price: $18.98
Description: Staud's Configurations/Reflet is a glimpse into the composer's workshop; musical material is constantly reconfigured and adjusted; the piece is a constant assemblage of divergent ideas and components, more about process than completed form. Urbanner's concerto is rather more approachable, but its apparent allusions to classical and romantic models only make sense if they are viewed as deeply ironic. Nostalgic, even sentimental, elements are embedded alongside avant garde dissonances and serial constructions in a work of lively discourse. The Essl is a double trio, in which two related but different groups of instruments confront, approach and ultimately merge their contradictory soundscapes, before the music finally disintegrates and drifts apart. Klein's Maschine is the odd piece out here; from 1921, it is an early experiment in dodecaphony, which may (it is argued) have anticipated some of Schoenberg's or Hauer's developments in the technique. Not surprisingly, the harmony of the chords that Klein developed sound 'Second Viennese' to us now; metrically the piece has a good deal of the motoric, musical depiction of a machine character that was in vogue at the time. Harald Ossberger (piano), exxj (ensemble xx. jahrhundert); Peter Burwik, Erich Urbanner.