Ligeti. Requiem (Bernius)
“For me György Ligeti is the most important composer of the second half of the 20th century” said the conductor Frieder Bernius about the composer who died in 2006. The underlying composition of the CD is a recording of the Requiem with the Kammerchor Stuttgart, recorded in early 2006, which Ligeti himself praised as being “an outstanding interpretation.” The Requiem is being issued for the first time together with Ligeti’s Lux aeterna which, so to speak, represents, with regard to its content, a “completion,” as Ligeti had not set this in his Requiem, even though it is the final sentence of said liturgical text. These two works are supplemented by transcriptions by Clytus Gottwald, the dedicatee of the Lux aeterna, in which he professedly orientates himself according to Ligeti's “microtonality.”
Awarded the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik
Contents
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Preface writer
Frieder Bernius
| 1947Frieder Bernius’s work has earned great worldwide recognition. He is in demand internationally as a conductor and as a teacher. His principal artistic collaborators are the ensembles he founded himself, the Kammerchor Stuttgart, the Barockorchester Stuttgart, the Hofkapelle Stuttgart and the Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart. As a guest conductor, he has collaborated repeatedly with, for example, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester and the Streicherakademie Bozen. Great stylistic versatility is Frieder Bernius’s hallmark. Whether he conducts vocal works by Monteverdi, Bach, Händel, Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré and Ligeti, stage music by Mendelssohn or symphonies by Haydn, Burgmüller and Schubert, his work always aims for a sound that is at once unmistakably personal and at the same time oriented towards the original period sound ideal. He devotes himself equally to the rediscovery of 18th century operas and to first performances of contemporary compositions. He is particularly interested in the musical history of southwestern Germany. Carus-Verlag has awarded Frieder Bernius a Golden CD for his complete recording of the sacred music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The award was presented to him during the German Choir Festival in Stuttgart 2016. The sale of over 250,000 recordings, which has been acclaimed with a number of awards, has made a not insignificant contribution to what today is the obvious presence of Mendelssohn's complete œuvre in the concert repertoire. Personal details
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Preface writer
Clytus Gottwald
| 1925-2023The choral conductor, composer and musicologist Clytus Gottwald (1925 - 2023) made significant contributions to contemporary choral music. As editor for New Music at Südfunk Stuttgart and founder and director of the Schola Cantorum Stuttgart, he was in productive exchange with his contemporaries, Pierre Boulez, Mauricio Kagel, György Ligeti, Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen and many others. With his Schola Cantorum, a 16-voice chamber vocal ensemble, Gottwald decisively shaped the a cappella choral culture of the highest technical level that is taken for granted today. Clytus Gottwald's transcriptions of piano songs and instrumental pieces for unaccompanied choir are appreciated by choirs all over the world. Modelled on the style of Ligeti, his works set the highest of musical standards. Clytus Gottwald has received several awards for his services, including the Cultural Prize of Baden-Württemberg in 2009, the European Church Music Prize in 2012, and the Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2014. His importance for the development of contemporary choral music cannot be overestimated. Personal details
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Choir
Kammerchor Stuttgart
The Kammerchor Stuttgart is regarded as one of the best ensembles of its kind. Over its fifty-year existence, Frieder Bernius has developed the choir into an exceptional ensemble acclaimed by audiences and press alike. This has led to invitations for the choir to perform at all the important European festivals. In Germany the chamber choir performs at festivals and in concert halls in repertoire ranging from the 17th to the 21st century. Frieder Bernius and his ensemble have received numerous accolades for their contribution to new music. The Kammerchor Stuttgart has made over 80 CDs and LPs, numerous of which have been awarded international recording prizes (including the Edison award, Diapason d’or, Gramophone Choice, Classical Internet Award, International Classical Music Award, and German Record Critics’ Award prizes). The International Federation for Choral Music has invited the ensemble to sing at the 1st, 4th and 10th World Symposia on Choral Music in Vienna, Sydney and Seoul. Regular tours of North America and Asia since 1988 and a South America tour reflect the Kammerchor Stuttgart’s international reputation. Since 1984 the top ensemble has also been invited to Israel biennially. Personal details
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Ensemble
Danubia Orchestra Óbuda
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Conductor
Frieder Bernius
| 1947Frieder Bernius’s work has earned great worldwide recognition. He is in demand internationally as a conductor and as a teacher. His principal artistic collaborators are the ensembles he founded himself, the Kammerchor Stuttgart, the Barockorchester Stuttgart, the Hofkapelle Stuttgart and the Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart. As a guest conductor, he has collaborated repeatedly with, for example, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester and the Streicherakademie Bozen. Great stylistic versatility is Frieder Bernius’s hallmark. Whether he conducts vocal works by Monteverdi, Bach, Händel, Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré and Ligeti, stage music by Mendelssohn or symphonies by Haydn, Burgmüller and Schubert, his work always aims for a sound that is at once unmistakably personal and at the same time oriented towards the original period sound ideal. He devotes himself equally to the rediscovery of 18th century operas and to first performances of contemporary compositions. He is particularly interested in the musical history of southwestern Germany. Carus-Verlag has awarded Frieder Bernius a Golden CD for his complete recording of the sacred music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The award was presented to him during the German Choir Festival in Stuttgart 2016. The sale of over 250,000 recordings, which has been acclaimed with a number of awards, has made a not insignificant contribution to what today is the obvious presence of Mendelssohn's complete œuvre in the concert repertoire. Personal details
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Soloist - soprano
Gabriele Hierdeis
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Soloist - alto
Renée Morloc
Renée Morloc trained as a singer in Stuttgart and Salzburg. The contralto made her operatic debut as Erda in Siegfried at the Mannheim Nationaltheater. Her repertoire consists chiefly of Wagner, Richard Strauss and Verdi roles. She has made guest appearances in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Dresden, Tokyo, at many European opera houses, and in the USA. Her Salzburg Festival debut in 2007 was in the Breth production of Eugene Onegin, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. She has also been involved in radio, television and film productions and CD recordings. Her concert career has focused on Mahler’s orchestral works with solo voice, in addition to an extensive oratorio repertoire. She has sung in Leonard Bernstein’s seldom-performed Jeremiah Symphony as well as in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and numerous contemporary works. Personal details
Reviews
Für Verehrer des Komponisten und Schöpfers außergewöhnlicher Transkriptionen im vokalen A-Cappella- Bereich Clytus Gottwald ist die CD über die beiden Ligeti-Werke hinaus ein Juwel...
ChorPfalz, März/April 2018
Inutile de dire que la perfection de l'interprétation contribue beaucoup à la réussite de cet album très bien venu.
Bernard Postiau, 21.03.2018, Crescendo Magazine
[Das liegt] auch an Frieder Bernius und seinem Chor, die diese Musik so wunderbar, so glasklar zu interpretieren und zu singen wissen.
Klaus Röhring, Musik&Kirche, Januar/Februar 2018
... es ist eine Referenzaufnahme! Was andernorts nur hübsch schillernd herumliegt, beginnt hier zu atmen, ja manchmal gar zu tanzen ...
Susanne Benda, Schallplattenkritik, 16.02.2018
The performances here, both vocally and orchestrally, successfully meet the challenges of these Ligeti works with their micropolyphony and dynamic extremes.
Leslie Wright, MusicWebInternational
Bernius entfaltet die Totenmesse mit feinem Gespür für ihren genial imaginierten, ungemein differenzierten Klangstrom. Die ... 2001 aufgenommene Interpretation von "Lux aeterna" fand Ligeti damals "ausgezeichnet"...
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 02.01.2018
... sensationell ... Und was die fünfzig Sängerinnen und Sänger des Kammerchors Stuttgart hier an Intonationssicherheit, klanglicher Transparenz und gestalterischer Imagination leisten, ist wahrhaft unerhört.
Uwe Schweikert, Stuttgarter Zeitung, 21.11.2017
Der Chor meistert all diese Herausforderungen mit einer schier unglaublichen klanglichen und musikalischen Perfektion. Die Homogenität des Ensembleklangs ist selbst in stimmlichen Grenzbereichen außerordentlich...
Guide Krawinkel, Chorzeit, Oktober 2017
Frieder Bernius setzt auf extreme dynamische Kontraste. Neben der musikalischen Genauigkeit begeistert die ungewöhnlich radikale, persönliche Lesart.
Andreas Falentin, Concerti, Oktober 2017
...die Klangregionen, in die diese Musik den Hörer führt, sind in ihrer hier musizierten Plastizität schlicht atemberaubend.
Jan-Geert Wolff, pizzicato, 08.09.2017
In unterschiedlichen Besetzungen ... bringen der Kammerchor Stuttgart und das Danubia Orchestra Obuda ... unter Bernius’ Leitung diese anspruchsvolle Chormusik mustergültig zum Klingen.
Werner Fritsch, Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine, 01.09.2017
Es ist faszinierend, wie souverän der Kammerchor Stuttgart mit der Mikrotonalität Ligetis umgeht, wie exakt hier gesungen und musiziert wird.
Die Rheinpfalz, 19.08.2017
Der Chor klingt individuell, erkennbar, dazu ausgewogen, beweglich, schlank und lupenrein in der Intonation - auch bei diesen diffizilen Stücken!!
Astrid Belschner, 26.09.2017, kulturradio
The combination of works presents the pinnacle of gorgeously edged European modernism and the pinnacles of the choral literature...
Jens F. Laurson, forbes.com,23.08.2017
Mit diesen Wiedergaben hat die hochprofessionelle Chorarbeit von Frieder Bernius Modellhaftes geleistet. Sehr empfehlenswert!
Hartmut Lück, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Juni 2017