Boulanger Trio - Friedrich Cerha (2016) [Official Digital Download]

Friedrich Cerha’s output has solid roots in an extended musical tradition, while spanning a wide arc from the beginnings of new music all the way to the present. This is not only due to the composer’s respectable age, but primarily to the great number of activities he has pursued in the course of his long life, along with the great variety of influences he has incorporated into his work. At the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music in 1956, he attended seminars given by violinist Rudolf Kolisch and pianist Eduard Steuermann, who had prepared performances of works by Schoenberg, Berg and Webern in collaboration with the composers themselves. Cerha passed on this firsthand knowledge to the next generations in his numerous articles, in his post as Professor for Composition, Notation and Interpretation of New Music at the Musikakademie (which became the Vienna Conservatory of Music), in his performances as a violinist, and last not least as a conductor of ensembles, orchestras and operas, much in demand on the international new music scene.

Cerha then opened up his music to influences from other continents, such as polyrhythm and microtonality. In maqam (1989), the first of four string quartets, he used Arabian scales with quarter-tones and corresponding complex rhythms. Starting with Catalogue des objets trouvés (1969) and fully with the composition of the Brecht-based opera Baal (1974–80), Cerha’s style started featuring direct links with traditional expression, melodiousness, harmony and structures ranging from the Baroque Age to the early 20th century. His most recent duo and trio pieces pay homage to Bach, Berg, Schoenberg and to his own previous works, including a series of direct quotes. Rooted in tradition yet entirely at home in the present, Friedrich Cerha’s music certainly builds new kinds of bridges. Yet these are no flimsy constructions dangerously suspended over a yawning chasm; instead, his pieces are like sturdy viaducts with several arches firmly planted in different varieties of soil.

Tracklist:

Friedrich Cerha (1926)

01. Five Movements for Piano Trio: No. 1, Parabola
02. Five Movements for Piano Trio: No. 2, Malinconia enigmatica
03. Five Movements for Piano Trio: No. 3, Scherzo spettrale
04. Five Movements for Piano Trio: No. 4, Elegie
05. Five Movements for Piano Trio: No. 5, Stretta
06. Rhapsody pour Violin and Piano
07. Three pieces for Cello and Piano: No. 1
08. Three pieces for Cello and Piano: No. 2, Exact / Fastidious
09. Three pieces for Cello and Piano: No. 3, Rushed / Hurried
10. Six Inventions for Violin and Cello: No. 1, getragen
11. Six Inventions for Violin and Cello: No. 2, Energico-ma pocco leggero-non troppo marcato
12. Six Inventions for Violin and Cello: No. 3, Zart
13. Six Inventions for Violin and Cello: No. 4, Gespentisch huschend
14. Six Inventions for Violin and Cello: No. 5
15. Six Inventions for Violin and Cello: No. 6
16. Trio for violin, cello and piano: Nachtstück

Personnel:
Boulanger Trio:
Karla Haltenwanger, piano
Birgit Erz, violin
Ilona Kindt, cello