infotext:
Martin Smolka (* 1959)
43:43 Simple (2006)
for old and new instruments in six movements
[01] 09:55 I
[02] 06:55 II.
[03] 08:20 III.
[04] 05:50 IV.
[05] 09:33 v.
[06] 03:10 vi.
ensemble research
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Lucas Vis, conductor
Wolfgang Mitterer (* 1958)
22:39 internally detached (2006)
for baroque orchestra, ensemble and electronics
[07] 01:11 empty and plaintive
[08] 03:05 rapid
[09] 01:49 clinking at a loss
[10] 03:58 incrementally elongated
[11] 02:01 casually prancing
[12] 01:29 roaring
[13] 02:29 free floating
[14] 02:41 tear blind
[15] 01:37 with a laughing eye
[16] 02:19 for hours
Wolfgang Mitterer, turntables
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Lucas Vis, conductor
ensemble research
Experimental studio for acoustic art, Freiburg
Reinhold Braig/Joachim Haas, sound direction
total 67:40
Press:
03.2008
02.2008
13.12.2007
From old to new
Interpretation: 
Sound quality: 
repertoire value:
Booklets:
A new tradition is beginning to establish itself in Donaueschingen: in addition to the pure 'world premiere concerts', there are more and more projects dedicated to the development of new musical concepts. In 2006, three composers were commissioned to write music that consciously integrated the 'old' in the form of historical instruments and playing techniques. The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, which has already proven with its project 'About Baroque' how flexibly it can adapt modern tonal language, advanced to become the protagonist of the concert with the ensemble recherche. Two pieces were selected for the Donaueschingen documentation 2006, the third episode of which has now been published by NEOS.
Martin Smolka's 'semplice' for old and new instruments confronts the dialectic of old and new tonality. In a good three-quarters of an hour, differences in the mood and sound of the instruments are carefully heard: untempered tones, microtonal deviations, juxtapositions of different layers of overtones rich in beats and, again and again, silence as the goal and starting point of the musical structure, create a calm, concentrated flow that, despite the limited material never leaves a feeling of emptiness. Time is suspended here, in the limitation to seemingly small gestures lies unheard-of richness and penetrating intensity. Although Smolka flirts with the simple, he nevertheless shows the complexity of what appears so inconspicuous at first glance.
The musicians of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra are doing what they are used to doing here: they bring an allegedly 'old' sound to life and show how up-to-date it is. In the interplay with the 'new' tones of the ensemble recherche, a homogeneous music emerges that, to a certain extent, conducts basic research into the musical gesture.
With 'ininnen detached' Wolfgang Mitterer has created an extremely innovative concept that frees itself from the strict corset of exact notation and gives the musicians back a piece of improvisational freedom that was the norm in music history for centuries. The basis of his work is Georg Philipp Telemann's Water Music, interpreted in excerpts by the musicians of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. The passages are imitated, sampled, electronically alienated and replayed. The musicians of the ensemble recherche sometimes play to CD tracks played via headphones, as an imitation template for effects that cannot be exactly notated. Mitterer himself controls the entire process from his turntables.
The sonic result is a virtuoso deformation of musical structures and phrases of the original template, a collision between old and new aesthetics that generates something new like a big bang. 'internally detached' also impresses with the coexistence of lively emotionality and structural complexity, with the creative contrast between formal, dissolving strictness and improvisational freedom.
Both works are a wonderful example of the potential of crossing borders that have little to do with the new German 'crossover'. Perspectives on new possibilities open up here, while at the same time the listener is given a rarely close look at the tonal roots of today's music. The only regrettable thing is that the supplement to the documentation CD is limited to the reproduction of the short program notes by the composers. A look from the outside, perhaps a look back at the innovative character of the project, would have been appropriate given the scope of the event.
Paul Huebner
11/12.2007
