infotext:
THE SNOW QUEEN “The Snow Queen's cold sounds many-faceted. Their sound appears as clear and transparent as frozen crystals. The serial techniques that always accompany the appearance of the icy ones also seem frosty and cool – academic arithmetic games that solidify into lifeless formulas. In sharp contrast, micro-intervals and overtones combine to create dazzling natural harmonies that evoke an unaffected, genuine warmth. These are the contrasts that play the central role in David Philip Hefti’s new family opera ›The Snow Queen‹.« David Philip Hefti composed his second musical theatre, the snow Queen, 2018 on behalf of the Tonhalle Society Zurich on the occasion of their 150th anniversary. Andreas Schäfer wrote the libretto based on motifs by Hans Christian Andersen. As a large-scale work, the musical narrative for soprano, two speakers and orchestra lasts around 75 minutes and is aimed at children (from the age of eight), young people and adults alike. The semi-staged premiere took place on November 11, 2018 in the Tonhalle Maag in Zurich with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the soloists Mojca Erdmann (The Snow Queen / The Old Man / The Young Man / The Robber Woman), Delia Mayer (Narrator / Gerda) and Max Simonischek (Kay / a crow) conducted by the composer. Eva Buchmann set up the scenery and Ruth Schölzel set the stage. At the heart of the story are the children Gerda and Kay, whose friendship is put to the test. One cold winter day, Kay gets a splinter in her eye and then begins to distance herself from Gerda. The reason for this is the Snow Queen, who first casts a spell over Kay and then lures her into her ice palace. Gerda misses Kay terribly, so she goes in search of him. On her journey, she encounters all sorts of strange characters. In the guise of an old woman, a young man and a robber, the Snow Queen keeps trying to dissuade Gerda from her path, while she herself takes more and more possession of Kay. A race against time begins for Gerda. But she's not alone: a friendly, if enigmatic crow accompanies her every step of the way and eventually helps her find Kay. At the last second, Gerda manages to warm Kay's cold heart with her tears and put the Snow Queen to flight. Shimmering cold and cozy warmth, deep connection and distanced seclusion - David Philip Heftis snow queen is full of contrasts that face each other in a charged tension. Musical motifs develop from supposedly meaningless interludes to existential expressions of emotion. This emotional inner conflict of the figures is reflected both in the different characters that are assigned to the three singing and speaking voices and in the special instrumentation: Because the orchestra on the stage includes instruments distributed throughout the room, such as a glass harp. The wine glasses, filled with water and tuned in quarter tones, draw iridescent soundscapes. The music becomes spatial-perspective when it can be heard from different corners of the concert hall. Hefti's tonal language extends this complex, heterogeneous listening impression. The sounds that he lets wander through the orchestra oscillate between artificiality and natural harmony, expressiveness and intimacy, chamber music and opulence, silence and noise. In doing so, Hefti repeatedly explores the limits of playing techniques and possibilities of expression. Whether through the cold chords of the Snow Queen, the warmth of the bass clarinet or the so-called "shooting stars" of the strings, which fly through the room as overtone glissandi - Hefti's music theater wants, like the Snow Queen herself, to cast a spell over the audience. Deborah Maier |
program:
the snow Queen A musical tale for soprano, two speakers and orchestra (2018) Libretto by Andreas Schäfer [01] Prolog 02:07 Total duration: 78:19 Mojca Erdman, Soprano (The Snow Queen / The Old Man / The Young Man / The Robber Woman) Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich first recording |
Press:
# 2_2021
[…] Everything that is sung here comes from the soprano Mojca Erdmann, who, as the snow queen, helps shape all the antagonistic characters. Her ice-clear soprano whirls to the highest heights and through leaps and bounds, as carefree as a dancing snowflake.
The action is in the hands of the actors Delia Mayer (narrator/Gerda) and Max Simonischek (Kay/Krähe), who tell us in a well-articulated way about Gerda, who is looking for her friend Kay, who has been kidnapped by the Snow Queen. Here Mayer in particular is highlighted with her gentle fairytale voice, which makes listening a pleasure […]
Mike Graf
05/2021
[…] The suggestive music by David Philip Hefti takes the listener into a harmonically complex country. Deep connection and cool detachment stand side by side in this multi-faceted score. Musical motives correspond to clear expressions of feelings, whereby the singers act very expressively. This applies above all to the outstanding soprano Mojca Erdmann, who does justice to her highly demanding role with steel cantilenas and a passionate timbre. Above all, the enormous leaps in tone are memorable here. She not only plays the Snow Queen, but also the old woman, the young man and the robber. As the narrator and Gerda, Delia Mayer is expressive and multifaceted. As an additional narrator, Max Simonischek offers a concise performance. […]
[…] All in all, this recording impresses with its amazing tonal variety, which is carried over to the entire team. The Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, conducted by David Philip Hefti, offers a convincing performance.
Alexander Walther
23.02.2021
Icy, eerie moods
David Philip Hefti has created a "snow queen" with shimmering quarter tones and serial techniques that is intended to appeal to both adults and children.
[...] The author Andreas Schäfer arranged the libretto, simple and easy to understand, but the "abstract" of Andersen's template remains. Can a child understand when "poetry" conquers the Snow Queen? It is Hefti's music that brings the fairy tale to life.
[...] The soprano Mojca Erdmann has to embody four different characters: in addition to the Snow Queen, her appearances as an old woman, a young man and a robber's bride. Erdmann sings this challenging part with impressive color changes, she masters the low register just as confidently as the virtuoso high part of the Snow Queen. But despite all the drama required, she remains true to her lyrical voice.
The two actors Delia Mayer and Max Simonischek also contribute a lot to the success of this production. They tell the story with a lot of empathy, know how to switch between liveliness and desolation with relish and give the two children sympathetic and authentic voices. […]
Sibylle Ehrismann
Aargauer Zeitung
St. Galler Tagblatt
Berner Zeitung
14.01.2021
[…] You can hear a gripping music theater with a great Tonhalle Orchestra, the actors Delia Mayer and Max Simonischek as well as the coloratura soprano Mojca Erdmann. children's opera? Yes, of course, but the parents will be listening just as spellbound. […]
Christian Berzins
The international cultural platform
01.01.2021
The composer David Philip Hefti composed his music theater piece "Die Schneekönigin" in 2018 on behalf of the Tonhalle Society Zurich for its 150th anniversary. Andreas Schäfer wrote the libretto based on motifs by Hans Christian Andersen. The story focuses on the children Gerda and Kay, whose friendship gets into trouble. On a cold winter's day, Kay gets a splinter in her eye and then begins to distance herself from Gerda. The reason for this is the Snow Queen, who casts a spell over Kay and lures her into her ice palace. Gerda goes in search of him. In the guise of an old woman, a young man and a robber, the clever Snow Queen keeps trying to dissuade Gerda from her path. She herself takes possession of Kay. A friendly crow finally helps Gerda to find Kay and to warm her heart's tears. This drives the Snow Queen away. The suggestive music by David Philip Hefti takes the listener into a harmonically complex country. Deep connection and cool detachment stand side by side in this multi-faceted score. Musical motifs correspond to clear expressions of feelings, with the singers acting very expressively. This applies above all to the outstanding soprano Mojca Erdmann, who does justice to her highly demanding part with steely cantilenas and a passionate timbre. Above all, the enormous leaps in tone are memorable here. She not only plays the Snow Queen, but also the old woman, the young man and the robber. As the narrator and Gerda, Delia Mayer is expressive and multifaceted. As an additional narrator, Max Simonischek offers a concise performance. In the musical design, chromatic ramifications and large, electrifying interval tensions are noticeable again and again. A glass harp is also part of the instrument set. Artificiality and natural harmony stand side by side. The warmth of the bass clarinet and above all the "shooting stars" of the strings leave a deep impression. They even fly through space as overtone glissandi. At the same time, one hears repeated staccato attacks from the orchestra, which accompany the action in rapid succession. Finally, the entire set of instruments seems to fan out like a giant butterfly. All in all, this recording impresses with its astonishing tonal variety, which is carried over to the entire team. The Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, conducted by David Philip Hefti, offers a convincing performance. The composer often ventures into new territory here.
Alexander Walther
onlinemerker.com
Classic CD Reviews
15.12.2020
New classical music releases reviewed in detail by Gavin Dixon
David Philip Hefti (b. 1975) is a prolific Swiss composer who is performed widely in his home country and also has a presence on the German new music scene. This album presents “Die Schneekönigin” (The Snow Queen), a theatrical concert work for children. The piece was commissioned by the Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich, and premiered in that city in November 2018, the recording taken from the premiere performance.
With audio-only releases of music theater works, especially of new works, you often get the impression of only hearing half the story. But Hefti weighs the drama heavily in the direction of the music, rather than the staging, so the loss is minimal. The work is scored for a soprano (Erdmann) and two speakers (Mayer and Simonischek). In the premiere performance, which is described as semi-staged, the speakers stood at the front of the stage, and Erdmann at the back, raised about the chamber-sized orchestra. The story, based on Hans Christian Andersen, tells of two children, Gerda and Kay. Gerda must rescue Kay from the enchantment of the Ice Queen, which she does with the help of a crow. Mayer takes the role of Gerda and acts as narrator, Simonischek is Kay and the crow, and Erdmann is the Ice Queen, plus several alter eros that the Ice Queen takes on over the course of the story.
Hefti's music is modern but child-friendly. Musical evocations of ice and chill underline everything in the score, and Hefti has a keen sense for the orchestral sounds he can employ to create these effects. Icy untuned percussion plays a role, but there only seems to be one percussionist, and the composer does not overly rely on percussion sounds. More ubiquitous are the low woodwind and brass, especially the contrabassoon and bass clarinet, which are regularly employed to create sinister moods and to evoke creaking ice. The music occasionally drifts into tonal harmonic order, but for the most part is freely atonal, though usually consonant.
The German libretto is also child-friendly, which has the added bonus of making it non-native speaker friendly too. The speakers are both admirably clear (and obviously were amplified in the hall to ensure that clarity), and with a basic level of German you can follow the story. And if not, a full libretto is supplied, in German, English, and French, though not sadly side by side.
Mojca Erdmann is best known as a Mozart specialist, and her voice is characterized by a lightness and clarity of tone. Hefti makes significant demands on her, especially in the upper register, where she regularly hangs for long stretches in quiet, fragile cantilena. The result is a narrow, unsettling tone, an icy vocal characterization ideal for the role, but not always pretty.
The composer conducts with a sure hand. Despite the modernity of the score, there are no serious challenges for the ensemble here, but the players are clearly well rehearsed and fully engaged. Packaging from NEOS is elegant, with enough stills to give a good impression of the semi-staging—the stage is dominated throughout buy a giant ice crown, from which the conductor seems to emerge. All round, a fairly modest new music project, but one that succeeds on its own terms.
www.classical-cd-reviews.com
28 November 2020
Magically ice-cold to flatteringly warm
This musical story follows the fairy tale The Snow Queen by the Danish poet Hans Christian Andersen to a libretto by Andreas Schäfer. Daniel Philip Hefti composed the music. The first performance by the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, which commissioned it, is now recorded.
The story is about a little girl who is looking for her longtime playmate who has been kidnapped by the Snow Queen. Like many other fairy tales from Andersen's pen, this one also deals with the small happiness of ordinary people in a humorous and ironic way. The girl's search takes place in dreamlike scenarios in which she encounters various figures, until she frees the one she is looking for with her tears.
Although Hefti works with a modern tonal language including microtonal elements, this music unfolds a more than appealing soundscape. This may also be due to the fact that one listens to the sung or spoken words and perceives the music more as a component that illuminates and characterizes moods than as an independent element, so that in combination with the voices it unfolds a more enchanting than disturbing effect. The dedicated playing of the Tonhalle Orchestra from Zurich under the direction of the composer, exploring the delicacies of the score, also contributes to this.
As a singer, Mojca Erdmann fills the four roles assigned to her, especially that of the snow queen, with intensity and clear structure, without appearing vocally strained. The narrators, each in two roles, Delia Meyer mainly as Gerda and Max Simonischek as Kay, manage to convey the dreamlike and somewhat surreal scenes in an expressive way. In this way, the composer and librettist have created a wonderfully fairytale-like basis, which the interpreters put into practice in an appealing way.
Uwe Krusch
www.pizzicato.lu
28 November 2020
Magically ice-cold to flatteringly warm
This musical story follows the fairy tale The Snow Queen by the Danish poet Hans Christian Andersen to a libretto by Andreas Schäfer. Daniel Philip Hefti composed the music. The first performance by the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, which commissioned it, is now recorded.
The story is about a little girl who is looking for her longtime playmate who has been kidnapped by the Snow Queen. Like many other fairy tales from Andersen's pen, this one also deals with the small happiness of ordinary people in a humorous and ironic way. The girl's search takes place in dreamlike scenarios in which she encounters various figures, until she frees the one she is looking for with her tears.
Although Hefti works with a modern tonal language including microtonal elements, this music unfolds a more than appealing soundscape. This may also be due to the fact that one listens to the sung or spoken words and perceives the music more as a component that illuminates and characterizes moods than as an independent element, so that in combination with the voices it unfolds a more enchanting than disturbing effect. The dedicated playing of the Tonhalle Orchestra from Zurich under the direction of the composer, exploring the delicacies of the score, also contributes to this.
As a singer, Mojca Erdmann fills the four roles assigned to her, especially that of the snow queen, with intensity and clear structure, without appearing vocally strained. The narrators, each in two roles, Delia Meyer mainly as Gerda and Max Simonischek as Kay, manage to convey the dreamlike and somewhat surreal scenes in an expressive way. In this way, the composer and librettist have created a wonderfully fairytale-like basis, which the interpreters put into practice in an appealing way.
This musical story follows the fairy tale The Snow Queen by the Danish poet Hans Christian Andersen and is based on a libretto by Andreas Schäfer. Daniel Philip Hefti composed the music. The first performance by the commissioning Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich has now been recorded.
The story is about a little girl who is looking for her long-time playmate who was kidnapped by the Snow Queen. Like many of Andersen's other fairy tales, this one also deals with the small happiness of ordinary people in a humorous and ironic way. The girl's search takes place in dreamlike scenes in which she meets various characters until she redeems the boy with her tears.
Although Hefti works with modern tonal language including microtonal elements, his music is truly appealing. This may also be due to the fact that one listens above all to the sung or spoken words and that the music is effectively creating background moods, so that in combination with the voices it unfolds a more enchanting than disturbing effect. This is also helped by the committed and delightful performance by the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra under the direction of the composer.
Mojca Erdmann sings the four roles assigned to her, especially the one of the Snow Queen, with intensity, without appearing vocally strained at all. The narrators, in two roles each, Delia Meyer and Max Simonischek, succeed in creating their parts so that they convey the dreamlike and also somewhat surreal character of the piece in an expressive way. In this way, composer and librettist have created the base of a wonderful fairy-tale, which is then strikingly interpreted by the performers.
Uwe Krusch
www.pizzicato.lu
Awards & Mentions:
28 November 2020
Magically ice-cold to flatteringly warm
This musical story follows the fairy tale The Snow Queen by the Danish poet Hans Christian Andersen to a libretto by Andreas Schäfer. Daniel Philip Hefti composed the music. The first performance by the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, which commissioned it, is now recorded.
The story is about a little girl who is looking for her longtime playmate who has been kidnapped by the Snow Queen. Like many other fairy tales from Andersen's pen, this one also deals with the small happiness of ordinary people in a humorous and ironic way. The girl's search takes place in dreamlike scenarios in which she encounters various figures, until she frees the one she is looking for with her tears.
Although Hefti works with a modern tonal language including microtonal elements, this music unfolds a more than appealing soundscape. This may also be due to the fact that one listens to the sung or spoken words and perceives the music more as a component that illuminates and characterizes moods than as an independent element, so that in combination with the voices it unfolds a more enchanting than disturbing effect. The dedicated playing of the Tonhalle Orchestra from Zurich under the direction of the composer, exploring the delicacies of the score, also contributes to this.
As a singer, Mojca Erdmann fills the four roles assigned to her, especially that of the snow queen, with intensity and clear structure, without appearing vocally strained. The narrators, each in two roles, Delia Meyer mainly as Gerda and Max Simonischek as Kay, manage to convey the dreamlike and somewhat surreal scenes in an expressive way. In this way, the composer and librettist have created a wonderfully fairytale-like basis, which the interpreters put into practice in an appealing way.
This musical story follows the fairy tale The Snow Queen by the Danish poet Hans Christian Andersen and is based on a libretto by Andreas Schäfer. Daniel Philip Hefti composed the music. The first performance by the commissioning Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich has now been recorded.
The story is about a little girl who is looking for her long-time playmate who was kidnapped by the Snow Queen. Like many of Andersen's other fairy tales, this one also deals with the small happiness of ordinary people in a humorous and ironic way. The girl's search takes place in dreamlike scenes in which she meets various characters until she redeems the boy with her tears.
Although Hefti works with modern tonal language including microtonal elements, his music is truly appealing. This may also be due to the fact that one listens above all to the sung or spoken words and that the music is effectively creating background moods, so that in combination with the voices it unfolds a more enchanting than disturbing effect. This is also helped by the committed and delightful performance by the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra under the direction of the composer.
Mojca Erdmann sings the four roles assigned to her, especially the one of the Snow Queen, with intensity, without appearing vocally strained at all. The narrators, in two roles each, Delia Meyer and Max Simonischek, succeed in creating their parts so that they convey the dreamlike and also somewhat surreal character of the piece in an expressive way. In this way, composer and librettist have created the base of a wonderful fairy-tale, which is then strikingly interpreted by the performers.
Uwe Krusch