Eröffnungskonzert - 12. Int. Johannes-Brahms-Chorfestival und Wettbewerb

CONCERT INTRODUCTION
Of spatial sound and eternal light
On the Works of
Maija Einfelde, Morton Feldman, Thomas Tallis, Jan Sandström, Garth Knox,
Nana Forte and György Ligeti
The communion in the liturgical requiem mass, which begins with the words “Lux
aeterna luceat eis, Domine” (The eternal light shine upon them, O Lord!), inspired many
20 th century composers, among them György Ligeti and George Crumb. The Lithuanian
composer Maija Einfelde, daughter of an organist and an organ builder and former pupil
of the eminent Latvian symphonist Jānis Ivanos, has also set the text, which revolves
around eternal light, perfect tranquillity and inner peace, to music - with concentrated
music full of soft harmonic sequences and luminous colours that spread an iridescent
sound magic. The piece, which was premiered on 27 April 2012 by the Latvian Radio
Choir under the direction of Kaspars Putniņšin in the Old Gertruden Church in Riga, and
which is heard today in a version for choir accompanied by glockenspiel, is, like many
of Einfelde‘s works, also available in other versions: for choir a cappella as well as for
choir and orchestra. The music, conceived in the context of classical harmony, which
at times also penetrates into expressive-dissonant regions, gradually heads towards a
dense climax, only to gradually come to rest again. The music rises again with a plea for
peace (“Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis“), before the
work ends in a rounded choral sound, oscillating between mourning and hope to the
iridescent sounds of the carillon.
Morton Feldman composed The Rothko Chapel in 1972 as a tribute to his friend Mark
Rothko, who, like Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman,
Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg and Philip Guston, belonged to the painters of the
New York School, whose abstract expressionism Feldman tried to transfer into his music:
Moments like “All-over” and “Non-relational”, used to describe Pollock‘s paintings, in
which finely spun, calligraphic-looking webs of traces and threads of colour, layered in
many layers, completely cover the canvas without the formation of hierarchies or centres
of vision. The approximately 23-minute piece for percussion, celesta, viola, soprano, alto
and double mixed choir is named after a meditation chapel at the Ménil Foundation in
Houston, Texas, for which Rothko had made fourteen large-format paintings. Feldman
was inspired by the haunting effect of the paintings and the chapel‘s particular
architecture, with his music permeating the entire space: “My choice of instruments
(in terms of applied force, balance and timbre”, Feldman says, “was influenced by both
the space of the chapel and the paintings. Rothko‘s paintings go to the very edge of the
canvas, and I wanted to achieve the same effect with music - that it should permeate
the whole octagonal space and not be heard from a certain distance. The result is very
similar to what you hear on a record: the sound is closer, more physical to you than in a
concert hall. The overall rhythm of the paintings, the way Rothko arranged them, created
an unbroken continuity.” In order to achieve a dramatic expression equal to that of the
paintings, Feldman divided the work into contrasting parts: “Whereas in the paintings