Edition Künstler im Gespräch Vol. 8 – I am convinced that all these things, complex processes though they are, are so conceived that every listener, no matter which intellectual or social stratum they belong to, is gripped somewhere along the way (…). (B. A. Zimmermann)
These original recordings of Bernd Alois Zimmermann (SACD 2) are taken from a conversation between him and Prof. Herbort, restored by Cybele, which took place in 1968 at Zimmermann’s house in Großkönigsdorf in connection with a planned sleeve note for his opera Die Soldaten; extracts from it, in Zimmermann’s own voice, are published here for the first time.
Bernd Alois Zimmermann – On the one hand there is his symphonic work, in some respects extremely demanding to realise, which uses among other things instruments very rarely called for: the glass harp in the Concerto pour violoncelle et orchestre en forme de ,pas de trois’ (recorded here with glass harp for the first time), and the cimbalom, for which few players can be found. In his most extensive works he sought to work through the most complex connections of contemporary events and of his own world view, and to do so in a manner so intense and all-encompassing as though each of these creations were the only one — and perhaps his last. On the other hand Zimmermann had to cope with terrible wartime experiences, which had lastingly traumatised so sensitive and profound a man.
York Höller, one of Zimmermann’s last pupils, studied with Bernd Alois Zimmermann from 1967 to 1970 — precisely the years in which the late symphonic works heard in this edition were written. Höller speaks about deeply personal values, about his own works and world views and about the existential significance of artistic work.
In his conversation with Mirjam Wiesemann (SACD 2 & 3) he recalls events and impressions from the composer’s last years — Höller witnessed the making of the Roi Ubu at first hand (SACD 1). At the end of SACD 1 you will hear a „modern fairy tale“ by Elke Heidenreich, recorded by the author especially for Cybele to accompany the Roi Ubu.
The performers of the three late works are the ideal cast for Zimmermann’s complex music: under the direction of Bernhard Kontarsky, whose Cybele recording of Zimmermann’s Requiem für einen jungen Dichter has already won many international prizes, the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR is on peak form. In Zimmermann’s cello concerto, the exceptional cellist and Zimmermann specialist Jan-Filip Tupa and the glass-harp duo sinfonia di vetro open up sound worlds never heard in this way before.