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THREADS AND HANGING GARDENS It is well known that both "Hedera helix" and "Campsis tagliabuana", "Hydrangea petiolaris" and also "Euonymus fortunei" belong to the genus of climbing and creeping plants. Plants that do not form any supporting structures and that – this is what connects them to one another – can grow along a wide variety of axes, wriggling and stringing. Those plants seem to be pursuing only one goal: ever further, ever wilder. Sometimes they twist to the left, sometimes to the right - and sometimes they even turn around and grow back to themselves, so to speak. This excursion into botany, which may at first seem strange, is no coincidence: "Real creepers are growing..." writes Philipp Maintz regarding the formal disposition of his 2017 in the Berlin Philharmonie by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach, who also is the dedicatee of the work, premiered orchestral work hanging gardens and thus indicates an excellent field of association that immediately captivates and stimulates the imagination. Not only are the tempi and formal dispositions intertwined and give the listener an idea of a form plan constantly growing in different directions, the immediate tonal event also has something of vegetal proliferation due to its numerous, often tiny, ramified lines. However, to stay with the image, no largely monochromatic undergrowth grows rampant here, but always colourful, magnificent and wild plants - it is no coincidence that the title alludes to one of the seven ancient wonders of the world: the legendary hanging gardens of the legendary, sung about by numerous ancient poets Assyrian queen Semiramis. »Exactly this image«, says the composer, »for me best suited the idea of this orchestral piece: on the one hand as a facility in which you can plant, garden, look after and grow plants (yes, actually writing ›music from music‹) On the other hand, it is also a 'garden of longing', in which it should bloom beautifully, but also grow rampant.« In previous works, Maintz often worked with such formal and motivic proliferation as well as delicate lines that occasionally and only briefly appear in the polyphonic meshwork , before they have transformed themselves into another musical form. In hanging gardens Maintz works just as obsessively, almost obsessively, on details: the harp part of the first two bars is paradigmatically singled out. Maintz notates seven tones here, which, on closer inspection, turn out to be different colorings of just one pitch (f1) in four different variants (as octave harmonics or as a chromatic mix-up). In addition, each pitch variant has a correspondence in the design of the dynamics - and so the delicate plant "f" is nurtured and cared for from the most diverse sides in a very short space. But from many a delicate line a tremendous power can also emerge, for example when a few notes split off from an almost casual bass clarinet solo, shift to the tutti of the large orchestra and there are unpredictable and strongly rhythmically shaped, almost voracious passages. Those hanging gardens are obviously not only delicate and colourful, there is always danger lurking in them: the poisonous "butterfly" is also a creeper, and it is up to its shaggy mischief even in the most beautiful gardens. The three orchestral songs dedicated to the singer Marisol Montalvo and the conductor Christoph Eschenbach triptico vertical based on that Quinto triptico vertical by the Argentine poet Roberto Juarroz (1925–1995), whose work is still relatively little received in Europe. Maintz reports that the pianist and song specialist Axel Bauni drew his attention to Juarroz: »If poems make something resonate in me the first time I meet them, the conditions are ideal.« The almost ruthless turning to the equally lyrical and expressive melodic line appears in triptico vertical even more clearly than in hanging gardens, since Maintz concentrates here completely on the development possibilities of Marisol Montalvo's voice, for whom the work was literally written for the body. The orchestra, often extremely economical and chamber music-like, reacts – almost seismographically – to the finest nuances of content and language in the text. Here, too, the beginning is selected as an example. In Juarroz' text it says: "No tener más objetivos / que las manos abiertas - To have no further goals / than the open hands". The voice begins, initially in a fairly low register, with a melodic line that is as simple as it is introverted. The idea of the “open hands” has both a tonal and a structural echo, because the work also begins very openly: a fixed tempo or even a meter has not yet been established – the passage can be sung almost improvisationally – it says “libero”. in the score. And the orchestral accompaniment also has to emerge from the openness of nothingness: alongside a few, barely audible percussion sounds, a few strings play a toneless, breathy sound on the bridge – the voice has, so to speak, an instrumental lung around it that gives air, but also at the same time Leaves air and space and always breathes together with the hints of the text. And while the voice continues to unfold, it takes some time in the orchestra before clear pitches finally emerge. In the third song, Maintz goes beyond that and gives the voice much more room to unfold unaccompanied at first. The nothingness of the orchestra is the initially empty stage for the voice: "Hilos que se desprenden de la ausencia, mínimas fluctuaciones del vacío - threads that break away from the absence, smallest fluctuations of emptiness..." Threads and the smallest fluctuations: With such metaphors, the wild growths in hanging gardens describe. And so it becomes obvious that Maintz in triptico vertical not only sets a text to music in the traditional sense, but in dealing with it also provides information about fundamental aesthetic positions that go far beyond the concrete work: Maintz composes threads that always seem to be under high tension. The ear is constantly on the alert, because it remains uncertain when the threads will tear. Gordon Kampe program: [01] hanging gardens for large orchestra (2016/2017) 21:19 German Symphony Orchestra Berlin [02] triptico vertical music for soprano and large orchestra (2012/2014) 26:16 Commissioned by the Munich Philharmonic Marisol Montalvosoprano
Total playing time: 47:40
World Premiere Recordings Press:
# 6_2018 (…) ... Philipp Maintz devotes himself in the three connected songs of the tríptico vertical ... above all to the creation of changing atmospheres: The focus is on a constantly new vocal line by the soprano, composed of individual phrases, which is dynamically refined and accompanied by Marisol Montalvo performed with the finest shades of vibrato, moved smoothly through the tonal space and is repeatedly interspersed with jagged coloratura. (…) Behind all of this - underlined by the excellent sound quality of the production - is the unmistakable preference for melos, which sometimes makes Maintz's music seem pleasantly old-fashioned. Stefan Drees
January 2019 Philipp Maintz aptly compares his orchestral music to climbing and creeping plants, which “do not form any supporting structures and grow along different axes, twisting and pulling threads. Sometimes they even turn back and grow back into themselves. (…) Maintz's music has a strong rhythmic emphasis. He staggers the orchestra apparatus. This results in layers that constantly merge and diverge. “triptico vertical” is completely different: in the songs based on poems by the Argentine poet Roberto Juarroz, Marisol Montalvo's soprano leads the accompanying orchestra. (…) Sometimes the soprano has to master passages alone. She does it brilliantly. Tilman Urbach |
