Heute

The texts are ‘distillations’ from the Austrian author Alois Hotschnig’s slip box – short sentences, shreds of thought, memories of dreams … Accordingly, the texts often only provide impulses for musical developments. The soprano voice is frequently utilized as the speaking voice. The work with recurring and transforming patterns in the (large) orchestra apparatus also corresponds to the often ‘claustrophobic’ character of the texts. The voice is partially covered up – suffocated – by the apparatus. A quick ‘basic tempo’ characterizes the piece, which, as though against its own better judgment, resists the thoroughly dark character of the texts At times the texts are driven forward almost breathlessly, with the orchestra serving as a great percussive machine. Thomas Larcher