Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38039
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MAX BRUCH (1838 – 1920): Acht Stücke für Klarinette, Bratsche und Klavier oder Violin, Violoncello und Piano (1908/09)
FRANK MARTIN (1890 – 1974): Trio über irische Volksweisen für Violin, Violoncello und Piano (1925/26)
PAUL SCHOENFIELD (*1947): Café Music für Violin, Violoncello und Piano (1986)

Trio Panta Rhei: Gudrun Pagel, violin; Sonja Asselhofen, cello; Julia Vaisberg, piano

Label: ARS PRODUKTION SACD 38090
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Artists:
Friedrich Kleinhapl, cello;
Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jan Kucera, director.

Label: BAYER SACD 800855
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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: Requiem K 626 (fragment)
HANS GEORG PFLUGER: Memento mori (1995)

Petra Labitzke, soprano; MarionEckstein, alto; Johannes Kaleschke, tenor; Michael Nagy, bass
Wurttemberg Chamber Choir
Choir of the “Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst” Stuttgart
Wurttemberg Philharmonic Reutlingen/Dieter Kurz

Hans Georg Pflüger wrote his Requiem in the clear understanding of making a final statement. When the work was commissioned by the town of Bietigheim and his close friend, the parish priest Josef Diemer, we had serious discussions about Mozart’s Requiem. During these weeks when composing, he was a different person; even more serious than his usual serious self. He read voraciously, especially Trakl. When we listened to the Verdi Requiem together, he said to me: “Only an opera composer can create such turbulences”. Since he didn’t do too bad a job himself, the reverse conclusion, that he would have been a great opera composer, is allowed. All too soon the work became his requiem and then only a short time later that also of his benefactor, Josef Diemer. “Memento Mori 1995”, as the piece is correctly titled, is undoubtedly the culmination point of Hans Georg Pflüger’s vocal production, as well as being a distinctive work in the long tradition of requiem compositions. The musical quotes are his recognition of a long continuing music tradition in which he always understood himself to be an active furthering part. The orchestration, the function of the winds, the embedding of the choir voices and the arrangement of the solos, together generate great emotional strength, vividly impacting sound and moving depth of expression.

Label: BIS SACD 1429
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SERGEI PROKOFIEV: Sonata in D major, Op. 94 (1943); FRANZ SCHUBERT: Variations in E minor on the song ‘Trockne Blumen’, D802 (1824); HENRI DUTILLEUX: Sonatina (1943); ANDRE JOLIVET: Chant de Linos (1944)

Sharon Bezaly, flute; Ronald Brautigam, piano
Recently released recordings of Mozart’s concertos, of three contemporary works for flute and orchestra and of a program for solo flute have earned Sharon Bezaly epithets such as ‘God’s gift to the flute’, ‘an amazingly talented performer’ and ‘a First Lady among equals’. Here she has turned to some of the central works for flute and piano, and with Ronald Brautigam, familiar from many BIS releases, gives her interpretations of three master-pieces of the 1940s flanking Schubert’s great Trockne Blumen variations, composed some 120 years earlier. Though written in the span of two years, Prokofiev’s Sonata, Dutilleux’s Sonatine and Jolivet’s Chant de Linos each show the flute in a different light. Prokofiev was preoccupied with clarity of style and found the instrument a perfect vehicle: ‘The sonata should be played with a bright, transparent, classical tone’, he wrote. (David Oistrakh later convinced the composer to create a violin version, which quickly became very popular.) A distinctly different approach was taken by Jolivet, who wrote his Chant inspired by the ancient Greek concept of ‘linos’, a ritual lament punctuated by cries and dancing. It is thus based on musical material associated with Greek modes and explores the extremes of expression. Dutilleux, finally, composed his Sonatine as a set piece for the flute competitions of the Paris Conservatoire. But these academic-sounding origins are belied by the by turns atmospheric and spirited writing, so typical of the multi-faceted Dutilleux.

Label: BIS SACD 1505
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ROBERT JOHNSON: Almain; Full fathom five thy father lies; Pavan; THOMAS MORLEY: Thirsis and Milla; Come sorrow, come; GREGORY HUWET: Fantasia; GIOVANNI KAPSPERGER: Toccata; GEORG SCHIMMELPFENNIG: Dolce tempo passato; HEINRICH SCHUTZ: Eile mich, Gott, zu erretten; MICHELANGELO GALILEI: Toccata; Corrente; Volta; SIGISMONDO D’INDIA: Quella vermiglia rosa; Da l’onde del mio pianto; JOHN DOWLAND: Shall I sue, shall I seek for grace?; Go crystal tears; Shall I strive with words to move?; ROBERT BALLARD: Entrée de luth; Branles de village; PIERRE GUEDRON: Cessez, mortels, de soupirer; JEAN-BAPTISTE BOESSET: Que Philis a l’esprit léger; ETIENNE MOULINIE: Paisible et ténébreuse nuit; WOJCIECH (ABLERTUS) DLUGORAJ: Fantasia; JOHN DANYEL: He whose desires are still abroad; Dost thou withdraw thy grace?; Why canst thou not, as others do?

Emma Kirkby, soprano; Jakob Lindberg, lute
A unique lute, built by Sixtus Rauwolf in Augsburg around 1590, was the starting point for this very special recital, which incorporates lute songs and solos by composers from different parts of Europe around 1600. Presenting a wealth of forms and national styles - from French airs de cour to Elizabethan pavans and examples of early Italian monody - the disc is a fascinating survey of the musical life of the time. But in the hands of these interpreters it becomes much more than that: Emma Kirkby and Jakob Lindberg, playing his historic lute, bring this music to life with incomparable immediacy. It is as if we were present when Shakespeare first heard Robert Johnson's setting of his 'Full fathom five', Ariel's song from The Tempest, or when Georg Schimmelpfennig, court composer to Landgrave Moritz in Kassel, showed the daughter of his employer the florid solo madrigal 'Dolce tempo passato', set to her own poem. Some of the names represented on this disc are familiar to all: John Dowland, with three songs, and Heinrich Schütz, with one of his Kleine geistliche Konzerte, a setting of Psalm 70. Others, like Schimmelpfennig or the Antwerp-born lutenist Gregory Huwet, are far less known to the general public. But all of them created musical jewels, which Emma Kirkby and Jakob Lindberg - collaborators of long standing - have gathered together into a glittering diadem encircling a large part of Europe at the dawn of the 17th century.

Label: BIS SACD 1580
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MAURICE RAVEL (1875 – 1937): Gaspard de la Nuit
MILY BALAKIREV (1837 – 1910): Islamey – Oriental Fantasy

Freddy Kempf, piano
Partly on the basis of his several discs on BIS, Freddy Kempf enjoys a reputation as an explosive and physical performer but also as a highly sensitive artist. His performance of Chopin’s Etudes received high praise, for instance in American Record Guide: ‘At 27, Kempf has attained something most pianists strive for over an entire lifetime ... This release can justly take its place among the very finest recordings of Chopin's Etudes. The set of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes was equally well received: ‘Kempf captures the essence of Liszt in playing of wistful nostalgia, yearning passion, with arpeggios and cadenzas that shimmer and scintillate’ (International Piano). The program on the present release bears witness to Liszt’s contribution to piano writing: three central works in the great virtuoso literature for solo piano with qualities in terms of characterization and timbre that have led them all to become the objects of orchestral arrangements – in the case of Mussorgsky’s Pictures numerous times. Pictures from an Exhibition was composed in only three weeks in 1874, in a sort of creative frenzy following the death of Mussorgsky’s friend, the painter and architect Viktor Hartmann. Some of the pictures by Hartmann that inspired Mussorgsky have now disappeared; those that have survived can be seen at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. But to search for a direct correspondence between the pictures and their musical counterparts would be pointless: Mussorgsky sought to portray Hartmann’s world more intuitively. Balakirev’s Islamey was composed five years earlier, and is based on two themes. The first, called ‘Islamey’, is a melody from north Caucasia, and the second is a Tatar melody from the Crimea. It was long regarded as the most difficult work in the entire piano repertory, and in fact, when Ravel 1908 composed Scarbo, the third movement of Gaspard de la Nuit, he specifically wanted to write something that would be even more difficult. Based, like the other two movements, on a prose poem by the French fantastic writer Aloysius Bertrand, Scarbo is the depiction of an evil spirit of the night, while Ondine describes the futile love of a water nymph for the poet, and Le Gibet a hanged man and his gallows.

Label: BIS SACD 1754
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W.A.: Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K 216; Violin Concerto No.5 in A major, K 219; Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major, K 364 for Violin, Viola and Orchestra

ARTISTS: Richard Tognetti, violin and leader; Christopher Moore, viola
Australian Chamber Orchestra

Experiencing the Australian Chamber Orchestra and their leader Richard Tognetti in concert has been described in The Times (UK) as 'like taking a swig of a vitamin drink', while a reviewer in the San Francisco Chronicle was struck by 'the sort of fleet rhythmic control and tonal purity that most chamber groups can only envy.' As demonstrated by this recording of Mozart's violin concertos (the first of two discs), both statements also apply to the team's performances in the studio. These are works which exist in countless versions on disc, and in interpretations of the most varying kind. Even so, Tognetti and his band from the very first tutti chord of Concerto No.3 manage to create a rare sense of expectancy, building sonorities that feel constantly fresh and new, and infusing even the most innocuous figure in the accompaniment with an uncommon rhythmic and dynamic vitality. Contributing to this is the fact that the strings (soloist and tutti) play on gut strings, while the wind players perform on replicas of instruments from Mozart's time. At the same time all hard-line dogmatism has been avoided: as Tognetti writes in his own introduction to the recording 'we know what the treatises say, and that they diverge like different chefs describing the same dish. And we know that Mozart was the most strikingly original of musicians, and thus may have done nothing like what the experts' dissertations directed. So we simply look at the notes he wrote down, and start from there.' It is certainly a philosophy that seems to work, especially for a team – Tognetti has been the leader and artistic director of the ACO for more than 20 years – with a relationship between tutti players and soloist that is so close as to seem almost telepathic.

Label: BIS SACD 1852
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Concerto No.1 in G minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 26; Romance in F major, Op. 85; String Quintet in A minor Posth. (1918)

Artists:
Vadim Gluzman, violin;
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Litton, conductor;
Sandis Šteinbergs, violin; Maxim Rysanov, viola; Ilze Klava, viola; Reinis Birznieks, cello.

Bruch’s Violin Concerto no. 1 was a spectacular success from its first performance in 1868, and soon won over audiences both in Germany and abroad. Supported by the eminent Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and its music director, Andrew Litton, Gluzman couples the work with a rarity, a violin version of the Romance in F major, Op. 85, composed by Bruch for viola and orchestra almost 35 years after the violin concerto. Composed in 1918, the String Quintet in A Minor certainly offers no indication of being the exact contemporary of modernist works such as Stravinsky’s Histoire d’un soldat; on the other hand its almost youthful energy, dramatic instinct and playful exuberance equally belies the fact that it was composed by a man in his eightieth year.

Label: CANTATE SACD 58030
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FIRST RECORDING!!!
ANDREAS HOFER (1628/29 – 1684): Dixit Dominus, Psalm 110 (109) mit einleitender Sonata; Confitebor Tibi, Psalm 111 (110); Beatus Vir, Psalm 112 (111); Laudate Pueri, Psalm 113 (112); Laudate Dominum, Psalm 117 (116); Cum Iucunditate; Magnificat; Virgo Prudentissima – De Sancta Caecilia, Motette
HEINRICH IGNAZ FRANZ BIBER (1644 – 1704): Sonata in F major from “Fidicinium sacro-profanum”
GIOVANNI VALENTINI (1582 – 1649): Canzon à tre in G minor (2)
JOHANN BAPTIST DOLAR (ca. 1620 – 1673): Salve Regina

Monika Mauch, soprano; Tiina Zahn, mezzo; Henning Voss, alto; Hennig Kaiser, tenor; Wolf Matthias Friedrich, bass
Bell’Arte Salzburg/Annegret Siedel
When Andreas Hofer held the position of court chapelmaster in Salzburg, vice-chapelmaster there was the violin virtuoso Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, and the office of cathedral organist was occupied by Georg Muffat (1653-1704). During this period, the residence of the Salzburg Prince-Archbishop was a musical center of European standing. Andreas Hofer was appointed to this highest musical position after many years of experience as vice-chapelmaster and cathedral chapelmaster. Hofer’s compositions, which are preserved in important libraries and monasteries, were written exclusively for liturgical use. Andreas Hofer’s music is distinguished by an intimate and many-layered relationship to the language, which effectively emphasizes the message of the text. The admirable quality of his compositions becomes audible with the whole splendor of Baroque performance practice in the present “Musical Vespers” for Sundays and holidays. Besides the motets by Hofer which are the centre of this release we hear some works by Biber, Dolar and Valentini.

Label: CANTATE SACD 58038
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MUSIC FROM SAXON CASTLE CHURCHES – MUSIC FOR BAROQUE OBOE AND ORGAN AROUND BACH
JOHANN LUDWIG KREBS (1713 – 1780): Fantasia a 4 in F major – Cantabile; Fantasia a 4 in F minor – Adagio non molto; Fantasia in F major - Largo
GOTTFRIED AUGUST HOMILIUS (1714 – 1785?): O Gott, du frommer Gott HoWV X Anh.8; O Gott, du frommer Gott HoWV X Anh.7; Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder HoWV X Anh.9; Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ HoWV X Anh.10; Sonata à Oboe solo col Basso HoWV XI.1; Mache dich,mein Geist, bereit HoWV X.27
Jesu, meine Zuversicht HoWV X. Anh.2 – Spirituoso
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685 – 1750): Fantasia sopra: Jesus, meines Lebens Leben; Sonata in C minor
GOTTHILF FRIEDRICH EBHARDT (1771 – ca. 1840): Befiehl du deine Wege – Andante non molto; Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld
CHRISTIAN GOTTHILF TAG (1735 – 1811): Befiehl du deine Wege – Andante molto; Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein; Nun danket alle Gott – Vivace moderato

Ensemble Concert Royal Köln:

Karla Schröter, baroque oboe, oboe d’amore; Chiharu Abe, baroque violin; Ulrich Schardt, baroque trombone; Willi Kronenberg, organ
In the eighteenth century, a special genre of instrumental ensemble playing developed in church music: works were written for a wind instrument and obbligato organ. The geographical center of this genre was the kingdom of Saxony along with Thuringia. The majority of these works specify oboe as the wind instrument, less frequently horn or even trumpet, flute, or bassoon. Besides a few compositions in a free style, these were predominantly chorale preludes in which the wind instrument played the cantus firmus (the chorale melody), and the organ, usually in trio textures, performed elaborate, often very virtuoso figurations.
Jacob Adlung wrote concerning this: “Since one now tends to give most performances on the organ alone, it can also be pleasant when an oboe or other appropriate instrument is secretly placed behind or next to the organ, which performs the chorale and is accompanied by the organ, either playing from music or improvising. Playing from music, such an instrument could also perform the variation, and the organ takes care of the rest.“ (Anleitung zur musikalischen Gelahrtheit / Guide to Musical Learnedness, 1758).
This genre developed almost exclusively in the circle of Johann Sebastian Bach’s pupils and their pupils, whereby no work of this genre has been preserved that can be attributed with certainty to Bach himself. Among nearly all composers recorded here strong teacher-pupil relationships existed. The recording was done in the church of Wetter (Hassia) which possesses an organ by Johann Andreas Heinemann (1766), in 1997/99 restored by Förster & Nicolaus and built back to the original state.

FIRST RECORDING!!!

Label: COVIELLO SACD 20714
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*WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS!!!
JACOB OBRECHT (1457 – 1505): Missa “Sub tuum praesidium”; *ANONYM: Carmen; Gaudeamus omnes in Domino; Carmen in fa; Alleluia, Anna mater eximia; Luce lucens in aeterna; Diffusa est gratia; Carmen II; Lucis huius festa; Salve Regina; Alleluis, Sancta Dei Genitrix

Gesine Adler, soprano; David Erler, alto; Stephan Gähler, tenor; Sebastian Reim, tenor; Matthias Gerchen, bass
Capella de la Toree/Katharina Bäuml
Capella de la Torre is a group of musicians who have made a name for themselves as specialists in historical performance practice. The ensemble's aim is to give listeners an immediate experience of the rich and hitherto neglected repertoire of mediaeval and renaissance music by performing it to a professional standard. The name "de la Torre" has a double meaning. In the first place, it pays homage to the Spanish composer Francisco de la Torre, who wrote his "Danza Alta" at the beginning of the 16th century. This is probably the most famous piece for what was then known as "capella alta", an ensemble of wind instruments such as shawms, dulcians, sackbuts and cornetti. Capella de la Torre has specialized in music written for the "capella alta". Secondly, the name may be taken in a literal sense: "de la Torre" means "from the tower" and groups of wind players (Spanish: ministriles) often played on towers or balconies at festivals and other official occasions. "Torres de los Ministriles" are still to be found in many Spanish towns today. Capella de la Torre does not confine itself to Spanish music, however, but also plays music written throughout the rest of Europe for the "hauts instruments" or "loud instruments". In general, it tries to breathe life into the old traditions of "ministriles", "piffari" and "Stadtpfeiffer". In the music world of today there are very few ensembles centered around historical double-reed instruments. This is particularly so in Germany.

Label: COVIELLO SACD 30612
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Rhapsody for Violoncello & Orchestra; Suite de “Les amants de Téruel”

Johannes Moser, cello
Symphony Orchestra Aachen/Marcus Bosch
In November 2005, the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis was honored in Aachen with the IMCUNESCO Music Prize, recognized worldwide as one of the most important distinctions in the field of music. The criteria for its conferment include efforts on behalf of peace and understanding between nations and the conservation of traditional cultural assets. Following the ceremony, the symphony orchestra of Aachen performed works by the evening’s prizewinner in a special concert. The live recording of that event is contained on the present Hybrid-SACD. In the ballet Les Amants de Téruel, Theodorakis finds new ways of combining European modernism with traditional melodies; in the Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra, Johannes Moser, who has attained worldwide renown, finds abundant opportunities to demonstrate his formidable lyrical and virtuosic powers.

Label: CYBELE SACD 060302
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MAX REGER (1873 – 1916): Variations and Fugue in F sharp minor, OP. 73 (1903)
WILLEM TANKE (*1959): Two Wind Fantasies (2002)

Willem Tanke, organ
The organ: when one thinks of this instrument, one immediately thinks of the church and sacred music. And of course these associations are not entirely wrong. After all, most of these "queens among instruments" reside in houses of prayer whose administrations initiated and financed the building of the instruments. In addition, most of the music composed for the organ serves the primary purpose of praising the Creator and to provide the various liturgical rites with appropriate musical support. No other musical instrument, with the possible exception of the bell, which of course often also is asked to take over more mercantile tasks, is more closely associated with cult-like rituals than the organ, whereby these rituals predominantly are of Christian origin. Other religious communities, if they have any preference for a particular musical instrument, tend to favour other instruments. Originally the organ was of course not a liturgical instrument. The instruments' true ancestral home is called the arena. There the instrument accompanied chariot races, gladiator battles and executions in strident tones, often together with horns and trumpets. Or, in ancient times, at a time when the organ mechanics were still set in motion hydraulically, the instrument accompanied the comedies and pantomimes of the Greeks and Romans. Some Emperors even played the keyboard instrument themselves, and one of them in the eighth century elevated the organ to a symbol of imperial power. This stature was maintained for a long period and the instrument accompanied men of state also during their travels, in order to provide acoustical praise for themselves. Over time the instrument found its permanent and primary place in the Catholic churches and sounded praises to the glory of God and God's keepers of the faith here on earth (whereby in the Eastern Orthodox liturgy, the sound of instruments is to this day not permitted). In this aspect, the Reformation changed nothing, if one excludes a few Calvinistic opponents of organ music (or for that matter any instrumental music). In the late 17th century, when gradually the first public concert halls came into being, occasionally the organ too found a place in a non-liturgical setting. The repertoire that was performed however remained nearly the same. This also holds true nearly as strongly for the interpretations on these instruments, which since the 19th century have increasingly held a fixed place in newer concert halls. Having said that, by no means does every concert hall have a concert organ, although in churches in western Christianity, the church organ is indispensable. The history of the organ, even in a shortened version, is a most interesting, fast paced and at times rather confusing story. No other instrument in the history of western culture has been the subject of such strong social and church-political discussions, nor been subject to such strong reactions, rejection and acceptance both. This is of course a socio-historical family tree common to all "queens".
This heritage is also bound to the individual instruments which Willem Tanke chose for the two pieces on this Super Audio CD recording. For his interpretation of Max Reger's Variations and Fugue on an original Theme, in f-sharp minor, opus 73 (1903), he chose the Adema organ, built in 1923 for the St. Bavo Cathedral in Haarlem (The Netherlands) and for the performance of his own two Wind Fantasies (2002) he chose the two Marcussen organs in the Grote of Sint Laurenskerk in Rotterdam, built in 1959 and 1973 respectively. These decisions were taken by the organist and composer Willem Tanke for aesthetic reasons and on grounds of performance practice considerations (see here as well the plans for disposition).

Label: CYBELE SACD 361401
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Unreceding on for Cello and Piano, Op. 83e (1999)
Trace d´Etoile - hommage à Wercollier, Op. 87
... as when no words, Op. 77
Sobre tantas cuerdas, Op. 72a
Sieben Bagatellen, Op. 92

Michael Denhoff, cello & campanula

Birgitta Wollenweber, piano
When a composer writes for „his“ instrument one generally expects the technical possibilities of that instrument to be explored to a high level of virtuosity, with maximum impact upon the audience. So at least is the overall experience we have from the past. It does seem that a composer who plays the instrument himself and has a deep understanding of its acoustic attributes can compose for it better than one who has just a basic knowledge of the instrument. Take the piano works of Franz Liszt or the violin pieces of Paganini as examples: it seems that here the composer was inspired by his own dexterity and transferred his fingerwork to paper. This effect is certainly true for the nineteenth century, with its great love of virtuosity; but we find it also in the twentieth century, for example with Olivier Messiaen, a composer who experimented on his instrument – the organ – with a whole new universe of hitherto unknown, excitingly new and subtle sound effects.
To approach the works for cello by the composer and cellist Michael Denhoff in this light might initially lead to disappointment. The listener will not find the flamboyant virtuosity to which he is perhaps accustomed, when a composer also plays the instrument involved or indeed is a public performer on it.
The pieces for violoncello (or campanula) and piano collected on this Super Audio CD appear as an antithesis to extrovertive virtuosity. Fragile sound-figures, shadowy intimations, introverted reflection and a disconcerting transparency of sound are rather the characteristics of the pieces. They seem to demand precise attention and listening from the audience. And yet – if one really listens intensely – they are in their own special way „virtuoso“, in the way in which the sound qualities and nuances of the instrument are explored. Music with such fine colours and nuances can only originate from the hand of a composer who has intimate and indeed practical knowledge of the instrument.
But none of this is of prime importance, it is always secondary to the idea and form of the musical language.

Label: CYBELE SACD 860301
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Un unum Deum – Credo for soprano, baritone, choir, organ and small orchestra, Op. 93
Aus tiefer Not - Invocation for Organ, Op. 41
Credo for mixed choir, Op. 93a

Irene Kurka, soprano; Alban Lenzen, baritone

Orchester der Kölner Kammermusiker - Michael Hoppe, organ

Johannes Trümpler, organ

Choir of the Katholische Hochschule für Kirchenmusik St. Gregorius Aachen/Steffen Schreyer
The composition „In unum Deum”, Credo op. 93 by Michael Denhoff was commissioned in the year 2000 by the „Gesprächskreis zu Fragen von Musik und Kirche” (Forum on music and the church). This forum is jointly sponsored by the Catholic Cathedral Academy in Würzburg and the Academy of the diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. At the time the members of the forum were Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Bretschneider (musician and musicologist in Bonn), Prof. Dr. Albert Gerhards (liturgical scientist in Bonn), Prof. Bertold Hummel (composer, Würzburg, d. 2002) and representatives of both academies: Joachim Herten (Würzburg) and Klaus Weber (Stuttgart). The purpose of the forum is to improve the relationship between the church and contemporary music by means of discussion groups, commissions, religious services, concerts etc.
Given the commission to set an official ecclesiastical creed to music, Michael Denhoff clearly felt a personal commitment: how do these antique ideas and texts relate to our current lives and experiences? Is there any common ground at all? Do they stand up to serious investigation? And then the subjective aspect: what personal problems do I have with these texts? How do I read them, how do I absorb them, do I understand them at all? For even the modern Christ is embedded in a dialectic of belief and doubt, dispute and faith. One is tempted to say: I doubt, because I believe, I believe because I doubt.
Michael Denhoff has treated these questions of the general definition of christian belief and personal relationship to the Creed by setting significant texts of (mostly) German language literary personalities (Rose Ausländer, Paul Celan, Eva Zeller, Hilde Domin, Kurt Marti, Fernando Pessoa and Thomas Bernhard) against the text of the Creed, thus commenting on it, elucidating it, investigating it profoundly: the ancient Creed and precarious modern human existence meet and surprisingly develop into a new unity.