Metamorphosen

“Metamorphosen” is the first of ten CDs in the Enjott Schneider edition released by WERGO: Many of Enjott Schneider’s compositions refer to well-known works from music history or to the idiomatic stylistic tendencies of individual composers, in order to then create something new through metamorphosis as a creative response to tradition. It is a play with cultural sediments, a subjective commentary on existing forms and models. In this sense, the four compositions on this CD all refer to four historical models:

“At the Edge of Time” is an homage to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Out of gestures and motifs from his Requiem, there arises a web of emotions melodically held together by the solo English horn, the traditional instrument of death and otherworldly lamentation.

“Ein ewig Rätsel will ich bleiben” [I wish to remain an eternal riddle] was composed for the 125th anniversary of the death of the Bavarian fairy-tale king Ludwig II. The piece combines the idioms of Richard Wagner with a free musical narrative style so that it is often unclear to the listener whether it is “still Wagner or already Schneider”.

“Ein feste Burg” [A Mighty Fortress] was conceived as a companion piece to Felix Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony. In terms of melody, the works refers to Martin Luther’s militant chorale (written around 1529) which, with its radiant C major, embodies the Protestant spirit and the character of the Lutheran Reformation like no other music. The symphonic poem lets the richly symbolic melody grow out of dark and magical textures; it is interwoven with other themes and increasingly evokes – in the midst of the turbulent textures of the orchestra – some of the fighting spirit with which this music was originally associated.

“Florestan & Eusebius”is a one-movement work for orchestra that depicts Schumann’s psychic fragmentation into a schizophrenic dual personality that led to his final days in the mental asylum at Endenich: Florestan is the vital and energetic youth; Eusebius is the soft and almost feminine poet.