Amour / Der kleine Harlekin / Wochenkreis

“This CD aims to be a direct expression of the joy that the act of composing aroused in Stockhausen and, at the same time, to pick up the pieces that made me more attached to him and to his music in the 10 fortunate years of artistic collaboration with him that have totally changed my life not only from a musical point of view.” (Michele Marelli)

“Amour” is a series of 5 pieces for clarinet based on 5 short poems written as gifts for women whom Stockhausen was deeply connected to. All pieces of “Amour” carry something magical within them; the most complex and hypnotic of these is “Die Schmetterlinge spielen” [The Butterflies are Playing]. In this composition Stockhausen sets to music the flight of two butterflies playing and chasing, each moving with two different rhythmic metres and two different speeds.

“Der kleine Harlekin” [Little Harlequin] is probably the most known and extreme among Stockhausen’s theatrical works: the clarinetist faces a musically demanding score while wearing a costume and performing a range of dance movements precisely indicated in the score – involving and amusing the audience both visually and acoustically.

“Wochenkreis” [Circle of the Week], derived from the opera “Montag” [Monday] from Stockhausen’s seven-opera cycle “Licht” [Light], is a series of songs. Each song has its own intervals, figures and timbres. The basset horn player represents a man who walks through seven stations, each one representing a day of the week. At the same time, “Wochenkreis” musically describes an initiatory journey from birth to ascension to God, accompanied by the electronic sounds produced by the synthesizer player who has the role of the antagonist Lucifer.