infotext:
MORITZ EGGERT PARADISE SONG
In my composition of songs, the songs for baritone and piano are particularly numerous, which is due to my pianistic collaboration with outstanding artists of this voice. In addition to the heavyweight Neue Dichter Lieben – a one-hour cycle – there are also other, shorter cycles and individual songs, most of which are collected here. All songs are first recordings.
Paradise Berlin was created for the »Le Lied« project, which I realized in 2003 together with the baritone Thomas Bauer and composers from four countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France) for the aDevantgarde Festival. Birgit Müller-Wieland's poems are laconic observations from her time as an Austrian in Berlin, everyday scenes in which the poetic appears like a fleeting moment, such as in the thoughts of a train passenger or in the description of bizarre scenes »in the house opposite«. I set these poems to music with subtle irony and a penchant for onomatopoeia. On New Year's Eve, for example, the pianistic »rockets« spray out, while in the talk of the town the »curses« culminate in rhythmic actions on the piano frame. In The House Across, the 'fourth wall' to the audience is also broken - the singer shows the audience slips of paper showing parts of the poem that are not sung (then tosses the later crumpled slip of paper behind him). As is often the case in my song work, the classic gender roles overlap here – the lyrics from a female perspective are deliberately sung by a man, while in other of my songs women take the male perspective.
Krausseriana was written for the baritone Thomas Berau, who sang the leading roles in two of my operas (Die Schnecke and Wir sind daheim, both premiered in Mannheim) and who commissioned this cycle privately in 1997. I asked my friend Helmut Krausser for a selection of twelve poems, hence the title Krausseriana, which alludes to Schumann (Neues Dichter Lieben, written two years later, also refers to Schumann). Helmut Krausser's very concentrated and sober language - some of the poems are only two lines long - inspired me to write extremely condensed song miniatures that focus on the essentials. A wide variety of compositional approaches are pursued here: In komm strandlesen, the same lines of the short poem are repeated over and over again, while the music slows down in a complex way, in nur Hügel? again, each line is set to music in a completely different way, in part with reference to the previous songs. The cycle ends with the longest song, harpsichord music, in which the pianist grabs the grand piano over an intense ostinato to pluck “note by note” melodies that blend distinctively with the normal piano sound.
The Büchner portrait was created in 1996-1997 as a commission from Claudio Abbado for the Berlin Festival and was premiered by Johannes M. Kösters and me at the piano. This song, which is almost 18 minutes long and based on texts by and about Büchner (among other things, a profile about Büchner was also used) is unique in my composition. On closer inspection, however, one sees that this is actually a real small cycle in which certain musical moods are picked up again and again and transformed into variations, while the individual songs flow into each other again and again without a break in a kind of rondo form . The song demands a great deal from both the singer and the pianist in terms of rhythmic organization, sometimes the pianist is also used as speaker and commentator on an equal footing with the singer. But the lyrical and expressive passages also go to extremes, both in terms of expression and extreme pitches. It seems that a biography like Büchner's also called for "crass" music, yet the piece also has tender and quiet moments that stand in stark contrast to the rest.
A poet dies (composed in 2004 based on poems by Ludwig Steinherr and premiered in the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts by Thomas Bauer and me at the piano) is also a »hidden« cycle, because here four songs also merge seamlessly. Ludwig Steinherr wrote down his impressions of the deathbed of a poet friend here, which is why an “electronic” signal repeated by the piano dominates over long stretches of the piece, as if from a medical monitoring device that stands next to a sickbed. As a result, in contrast to this relentless noise, the music develops into an ever-increasing lyrical breath, as if entering the still-living mind of the dying poet. In the end, all that remains is a gentle farewell, which I wanted to immerse with great tenderness and restraint in seemingly unreal sounds, while the baritone repeatedly sings in the most fragile falsetto register.
Spurned on love and striking both belong thematically to the Neue Dichter Lieben (1999 / 2000) cycle, but were only written shortly afterwards as an »appendix« and have therefore not yet been released on CD. In Spurned Love I set to music the disdainful refusal of one of the poets asked, thereby revealing hurt vanities on both sides, while striking is a complete setting of the first published (bad) criticism of the cycle, with what the critic accuses the composer of being particularly exaggerated is presented. Both songs are often given as encores to Neue Dichter Lieben.
The last piece of the selection - ausklang - was created as part of the Neue Dichter Lieben - Munich Edition at the aDevantgarde Festival 2001, in which 20 composers participated, including myself (as composer and pianist); the songs were sung by Thomas Berau and Martina Koppelstetter. Albert Ostermaier's poem evokes the final hours of Franz Schubert, who is known to have read The Last of the Mohicans on his deathbed. The singer not only sings the text of Ostermaier, but silently marks real texts from North American natives and plays the strings inside the grand piano. A special feature of the song are extreme dynamic differences, ranging from the extreme pianissimo to fortissimo, the rattling background noises of the deep vibrating strings are intended here. Schubert himself also has his say – slightly alienated.
Moritz Eggert, December 18, 2021
program:
Paradise Berlin (2003) 13:14
on poems by Birgit Müller-Wieland
[01] 1st New Year's Eve 02:25
[02] 2. Berlin center 02:45
[03] 3. Talk of the Town 01:15
[04] 4. In the house opposite 03:03
[05] 5. Paradise Berlin 03:46
Krausseriana (1998) 19:21
on poems by Helmut Krausser
[06] I barren 00:55
[07] II hilltops 01:51
[08] III make 00:42
[09] IV still life 00:59
[10] V Wasp Honey 01:33
[11] VI come read the beach 02:35
[12] VII Poem 02:00
[13] VIII tiger 01:03
[14] IX Worm at the edge of the wound 00:45
[15] X Shadow 01:09
[16] XI hills only 01:49
[17] XII Harpsichord music 04:00
[18] Büchner portrait (1996 / 1997) 15:59
Collage on texts by and about Georg Büchner
1 night
2. Profile of the Grand Ducal Hessian Court Court of the Province of Upper Hesse
3rd page in the archives for Heinrich Ferber
4. To the family
[19] A Poet Dies (2004) 10:49
on poems by Ludwig Steinherr
New Poets Loves – Appendix (2000) 02:14
[20] Spurned love on a text by Thomas Kling 01:26
[21] boldly based on a text by Ludolf Baucke 00:48
[22] finale (2001) 05:14
based on a poem by Albert Ostermaier
Total playing time 67:45
Peter Schöne, baritone
Moritz Eggert, piano
first recordings