RIAS Kammerchor Berlin I

“Regrettably not composed by myself” was Johannes Brahms’s comment on the waltz An der schönen blauen Donau by Johann Strauß (son) which was originally composed as a choral work for the Vienna Männergesangsverein [male-voice choir]. The Hamburg composer described by Eduard Hanslick as “serious and taciturn” took inspiration from his new adopted home of Vienna, especially during his early professional years, leading among other compositions to the Liebeslieder-Walzer op. 52, settings of poetry from Georg Friedrich Daumer’s collection Polydora. These sinuous settings ranging from capricious and coquettish or melancholic to intensely passionate enjoyed consummate success – not least because the individual movements effervesce with an inexhaustible abundance of catchy melodies despite being dictated by the rhythm of the waltz. 

Not love, but rather inner contemplation in the face of the immeasurability of the cosmos lies at the center of Hans Werner Henze’s gently floating Notturno for wind instruments, double bass and piano: an instrumentally reimagined version of the conclusion of the second scene “Mond und Sterne” from his opera Die englische Katze. This is followed by Musen Siziliens leading into the idyllic pastoral world of Virgil’s Bucolica. In this unusually scored three-part work, Henze deliberately “veered away from the sound of a large orchestra and from polyphony and dodecaphony. […] In Musen Siziliens, my aim was to focus on highly simple formulations, circling around individual notes and rotating around tonal centres.  It should be fun to sing […] and the sound of the two solo pianos should also be fun and a pleasure to listen to.” The three-movement work with its transparent instrumentation consists of a dancelike Pastorale followed by a pensive Adagio and a playful Vivace; the choral parts are characterised throughout by melodic invention and a highly expressive tonal beauty.