Sylvain Cambreling, Dennis Russell Davies, Friedrich Cerha - Friedrich Cerha: Spiegel-Monumentum-Momente (2010)

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Sylvain Cambreling, Dennis Russell Davies, Friedrich Cerha - Friedrich Cerha: Spiegel-Monumentum-Momente (2010)

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Friedrich Cerha (b. 1926) is revealed by this great 2-disc Kairos set to be one of the great composers of the late 20th Century, who deserves to be recognized alongside Xenakis, Ligeti, Nono, Stockhausen, and Boulez. Cerha was the 2012 recipient of the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, the "Nobel Prize of music," and so his reputation and stature outside of Austria are belatedly coming to more closely match the esteem he enjoys in his own country. Cerha's own music has only been extensively documented recently, with a series of discs on Austrian neuemusik label Kairos, as well as recordings on the ECM, Col Legno, and Neos labels.
I first learned of Cerha for two of his accomplishments other than his own music. The first was his co-founding of the Ensemble "die riehe" ("the series") in Vienna, which brought the chamber music of the Second Vienna School and the avant-garde to the Austrian public starting in 1958. The second was his finishing the fragmentary third act of Berg's "Lulu" over many years. It was completed in 1979, and the acclaimed three-act "Lulu" was first led in performance by Pierre Boulez.
"Spiegel" (Mirrors) is a cycle of seven highly abstract works for orchestra written in 1960-61. While the seven parts were premiered one at a time throughout the Sixties at neuemusik festivals, the entire cycle was not performed until 1972, and the first recording did not appear until many years later. It is clear now that "Spiegel" is a stunning masterpiece of the post-war avant-garde, and Cerha failed to be recognized appropriately because of the lag between creation and reception.
"Spiegel" is a vast, cyclopean, architectonic work, 88 minutes long in its entirety. Here is part of Cerha's description of the work from the 76-page booklet in German, English and French:
"The series' title is a double-entendre to the extent that it refers in a very concrete way not only to extra-musical content, but also to compositional processes. From a macroscopic perspective, 'Spiegel IV' forms a centre – an axis around which 'Spiegel III' and 'V' position themselves as the most static, 'II' and 'VI' as more motion-filled to varying extents, and 'I' and 'VII' as quasi-'first beginning' and 'eschatonic' situations. But even where they are not directly detectable due to an overlapping process of development, such as in 'Spiegel I,' mirror-processes play an important role in the details of individual sections and their respective parts."
Having deliberately left behind all the scaffolding of earlier music, including 12-tone rows, it is very difficult to describe what "Spiegel" sounds like, which is why I have not written this review sooner. I agree with the reviewer of the earlier live recording that the two obvious comparisons many listeners are likely to make are to Xenakis and Ligeti, Xenakis in the bolder, more dynamic passages, and Ligeti in the use of microtones and smooth surfaces. But Cerha's explorations were his own. Any similarities are a result of the common Darmstadt trajectory of the avant-garde of those times, there is nothing derivative in "Spiegel."
It sounds vast and alien, abstract expressionism as opposed to any sort of representationalism or story-telling. The organ is used periodically to add to the layering of sound of the orchestra. Long passages lack overt dynamics, and require close attention to follow the subtle, shifting sounds. The booklet includes several photos of the score, showing thickly layered geometric patterns.
Sylvain Cambreling leads the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg in the performance, arguably the best orchestra in the world in contemporary repertoire. Although the liner notes do not emphasize it, this was a live performance on July 20 opening the 2006 Bregenz Festspiele in the Werkstattbuhne (Workshop Theater) in Bregenz, Austria. I have not heard the 1996 recording on Col Legno, with Cerha leading the ORF RSO-Wien live in Salzburg, but I have no doubt that this recording is definitive.
Also included are two later orchestral works that pursue some of the same cyclopean sounds as "Spiegel" in later less radical contexts, "Monumentum" (1988 – 21'59) and "Momente" (2005 – 20'52). Dennis Russell Davis leads the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien on "Monumentum" while Cerha leads the same orchestra on "Momente." (ORF is the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation.)
"Monumentum" was written for Cerha's friend the Austrian architect Karl Prantl. Each of the work's nine sections is inspired by one of Prantl's sculptures. His stones are also used for the covers of the entire Kairos series of Cerha discs. Cerha says of "Monumentum": "I feel that the hectic, excited nature of many forms of contemporary music is senseless. Prantl once said that 'art is help.' The concentrated, simple peace and strength of his stones was a help for me to arrive at the language of "Monumentum." I view the piece as thanks, and I would be happy if, through it, I were able to pass on the help which I once received."
Of "Momente," Cerha says "'Momente' consists of 11 sections, each of whom possesses its own specific character, its own tempo, its own way of movement, its own relationships of duration, rhythm, and melodicism. All sections blend into those adjacent to them."
I am glad I finally discovered the music of Friedrich Cerha. I hope this review helps to spread the word to more discerning listeners. I have since reviewed Cerha's more accessible concertos: the Konzert fur Violin and the Concerto for violoncello and orchestra.

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Sylvain Cambreling, Dennis Russell Davies, Friedrich Cerha - Friedrich Cerha: Spiegel-Monumentum-Momente (2010)

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