Am Rande des Abgrunds / De profundis / Quaternion / In croce

On the occasion of Sofia Gubaidulina's 75th birthday on 24 October 2006, WERGO publishes a CD with chamber music where – besides Julius Berger and Stefan Hussong, two well-known interpreters of new music – Sofia Gubaidulina and her colleague, Viktor Suslin, join the artists. In "Am Rande des Abgrunds", the two composers play waterphones, instruments, which resemble water-filled censers with strange decorations. Their sound is rich in overtones and quite unusual, and contrasts sharply with the shimmering sound of the strings. Waterphones, employed rather rarely in new music – are an expression of the composer’s eagerness to experiment, actively and consciously grappling with the sound worlds of the cultures of Africa or East Asia.