Das Salzburger Spiel vom verloren Sohn

Hellmuth Matiasek has taken an Old German mystery play by Burkard Waldis (1490–1556) as the basis for his work Das Salzburger Spiel vom verloren Sohn, setting the story in the period of the Reformation. The opera depicts a young man in his protest against the feudal authority, his fight for new ideas and, ultimately, his failure; the 1555 Peace of Augsburg provides a conciliatory conclusion. Wilfried Hiller comments on his music: ‘I see the violin as a compelling instrument of death. I transposed all monologues on death from the original play into melodies for violin. My music provides accents and acoustic punctuation, forming an acoustic background for the chants of the enraged peasants.’