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2CD
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NEOS 12018-19CD
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Christian Ofenbauer's composition Zerstörung des Zimmers/der Zeit (Destruction of the Room/of Time) was created in 1999 as a sound installation for the Schauspielhaus Graz (6 scores: string quartet, zither, contra guitar, 2 violins, piano and amplifier system). The string quartet and especially the piano part have found their way into the concert hall. Taking up essential elements of his own compositions and placing them in a new context is one of the peculiarities of the Austrian composer. This is how the concert version for string quartet and piano was finally created in 2000, in which the original idea of the sound installation was taken up in a completely new way: the string quartet and piano form two temporal levels, metrically independent of each other, but together they are set to a duration of exactly 48 minutes. Both versions of composition Zerstörung des Zimmers/der Zeit, the piano quintet and the piano version from the installation, now appear in direct juxtaposition on this double-CD, recorded ingeniously by Quatuor Diotima and Johannes Marian.
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CD
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NEOS 11905CD
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Zwei Frankfurter Préludes (Two Frankfurt Préludes) presents a live recording of the twos première given on November 19, 1999 with the hr Sinfonieorchester conducted by Arturo Tamayo. The titles of these works are nearly identical ("Two Cranes and Clouds" and "Two Cranes and Clouds / Double") and are conceptually related, though they could hardly be more different. One is based on an extreme accumulation of density over about a minute and a half, while the other explores a radical expansion in both time and space. Each work is scored for large orchestra and the second of them, which lasts some 50 minutes, positions the musicians along a diagonal line that bisects the performance space.
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2CD
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NEOS 11513-14CD
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When an ensemble like the world-famous and prizewinning Arditti Quartet enters the studio for the purpose of recording a composer's complete output for string quartet, this certainly can be considered an expression of highest praise. Here it holds true for the composer, organist, and master of Japanese archery Christian Ofenbauer, who was born in Graz in 1961 and today teaches as a professor at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg. This double CD includes an extensive cycle of six string quartet movements composed between 1997 and 2011 alongside another protracted solitary work for string quartet from 1999, which was inspired by Ödön von Horváth's Tales from the Vienna Woods and carries a title borrowed from Bertolt Brecht: Zerstörung des Zimmers/der Zeit (Destruction of the Room/of Time). With these premiere recordings, an elaborate and haunting compendium of modern composition for string quartet awaits the listener.
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