Label: NEOS 11016
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David Philip Hefti (b. 1975): Rotas (2009); Wunderhorn-Musik (2008)

Thomas Indermuhle, oboe
Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra; Rudolf Piehlmayer, conductor
Rahel Cunz, violin; Ensemble TaG; Jac van Stehen, conductor

ROTAS, a Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra, was composed in 2009 to a commission from the Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra and is dedicated to that orchestra, to its conductor Rudolf Piehlmayer and to the soloist Thomas Indermühle. ROTAS is the last composition of my five-part SATOR cycle. These five compositions are united through the use of common musical material derived from the famous “SATOR square” (sator, arepo, tenet, opera, rotas) that serves as the germ cell of these works. All the parameters of this music are developed from it, as are the formal structures. The Oboe Concerto is particularly closely related to the first composition of the cycle, my Clarinet Concerto, and this creates an arch stretching across the whole cycle. In this three-movement composition, the solo oboe contrasts short phrases played in a single breath (and thus of a “natural” length) with overlong passages that can only be played by means of circular breathing. An area of conflict is thus created between passages that are perceived as organic in conception, and melodies that seem almost unending. Wunderhorn-Musik was composed in 2008 to a commission from the Ensemble Theater am Gleis in Winterthur (TaG) and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, and is dedicated to the violinist Rahel Cunz, the TaG Ensemble and the conductor Jac van Steen. Wunderhorn-Musik was inspired by the folksong collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn, which was published by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim in 1806. Its subtitle “7 Sound Pictures for Violin and Ensemble” refers to the fact that the texts on which the work is founded were used in neither a pictorial nor an onomatopoeic fashion during the process of composition. Rather is this work a setting of impressions that were evoked while reading the 7 texts in question. - DAVID PHILIP HEFTI

Label: NEOS 11040
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Concerto for Piano and 13 Instruments; Sonata for String Trio and Piano; Scene for solo trombone, part 2; Scenes for Violinist (e) and Pianist(e)

ARTISTS: Antje Messerschmidt, violin; Hermann Keller, piano; Martin Flade, viola; Ralph-Raimund, cello; Matthias Jann, trombone
Ensemble Chronophonie, Manuel Nawri, conductor

Hermann Keller is the prototype of a circumspect and restless experimenter, an improviser who turns out unprecedented inventions while holding his audience in thrall. One of his favourite occupations is to play ex tempore at the piano, attacking the keys and the body of the instrument in veritable transports of madness. Anything that can be coaxed and twisted from the instrument is brought to bear on his music. There are bonus features as well, the most familiar being preparations, i.e. distorting the piano sound with such implements as erasers, screws, mallets or cymbals. He works with cluster bars, fingernails, fists, elbows – the entire body, it would seem. He claims that he has never laid eyes on a Cagean prepared piano, but of course he knows the relevant Cage recordings. Henry Cowell, John Cage and Hermann Keller, according to the composer and piano preparer Hans Rempel, form a single a line of evolution. Rempel is right: over the years Keller has experimented ceaselessly with preparation and produced truly evolutionary achievements.

Label: NEOS 11041
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Keimblätter; Schumann-Metamorphosen for violin and piano; Piano Sonatas nos 2 & 3

ARTISTS: Antje Messerschmidt, violin; Tomas Bächli, Hermann Keller, pianos

Hermann Keller has been a freelance composer, pianist and improviser since 1981. On this release his compositions explore arcs of tension—clashes of major and minor, Schumannesque cross-rhythms—and the tension between improvisation and composition, when genuine discoveries are made in the course of playing the piano.