Rihm: Et Lux

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This extremely well-recorded performance finely conveys the music's searing struggle to cohere; and while some of the more austere episodes might strain the listener's concentration, they are... — Gramophone Magazine, July 2015 More…

Release Date: 6th Apr 2015
Catalogue No: 4811585
Label: ECM
Series: New Series
Length: 61 minutes

Diapason d’Or de l’Année

2015

Winner - Musique Contemporaine

Rihm: Et Lux

Work length1:01:32

$1.10

$1.50

Album only

Minguet Quartett (string quartet), Aroa Sorin (viola), Annette Reisinger (violin), Matthias Diener (cello), Ulrich Isfort (violin), Matthew Vine (tenor), Sabine Lutzenberger (soprano), Axelle Bernage (soprano), Terry Wey (tenor), Achim Schulz (tenor), Tim Whitheley (bass), Stefan Berghammer (tenor), Guillaume Orly (bass)
Huelgas-Ensemble
Paul Van Nevel
Recorded: 2014-02-09
Recording Venue: Augustinus Muziekcentrum, Antwerpen

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The hour-long piece is dedicated to The Hilliard Ensemble and the Arditti Quartet who gave the world premiere in Cologne in November 2009 and its UK premiere later that month at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. This pairing of a vocal group and a string quartet specializing in early music and contemporary music respectively is replicated by the artists on this ECM disc - the Cologne-based Minguet Quartet and the Belgian early music group, the Huelgas Ensemble whose founder, Paul van Nevel, conducts the recording.

‘Et Lux’ emerges as if from centuries ago, and reflects upon the musical processes that have shaped it, including the ritual of the requiem: “What we have is not music remembered but music remembering.” It incorporates text fragments of the Latin Requiem Mass, which appear as components of a progressively realized whole. “Great significance is displayed by the reappearance of specific groups of words, for example ‘et lux perpetua luceat’ (and let perpetual light shine upon them). Through circling reflection the comforting yet disturbing meaning of the words may become perceptible.”

Reviewing the premiere performance the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praised the work’s interwoven musical and linguistic elements while the Daily Telegraph said of its UK premiere: “Beautifully paced and very moving”. ‘Et Lux’ was recorded in February 2014 in Antwerp. The CD booklet includes an introductory statement by Wolfgang Rihm, and liner notes by Paul Griffiths and Wolfgang Schreiber.

Reviews

July 2015

This extremely well-recorded performance finely conveys the music's searing struggle to cohere; and while some of the more austere episodes might strain the listener's concentration, they are set against eruptive, even melodramatic passages that demonstrate Rihm's special ability to make something distinctively edgy out of meditation and reflection.

9th April 2015

Tropes waft in from across the ages: this music treads the line of tangibility, with sudden rushes of anger or fondness and the messy half-memories that come with grief...van Nevel doubles the vocal parts to create broad, generous textures that sound lovely and lush against the strings’ icy clarity – all qualities that ECM’s engineers are expert at capturing.

Rihm: Et Lux

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