Rudolf Escher - Univers de Rimbaud

Описание: Rudolf Escher (1912-1980)

Univers de Rimbaud : for tenor and orchestra (1969-1970; rev. 1977)

text by Arthur Rimbaud

1. Le mal - 00:00
2. Le dormeur du val - 03:39
3. L'étoile a pleuré rose... - 11:44
4. Oraison du soir - 13:20
5. Ma bohème (fantaisie) - 16:07

Jean Giraudeau, tenor
Orchestra: Residentie Orkest
Conductor: Ferdinand Leitner

dedicated to Louise Bolleman


Program note (Dutch): (...) Elke keuze van een gedicht of van een reeks gedichten betekent voor mij een confrontatie met de bijzondere, eigen psychische wereld van een dichter of dichteres. Eén van de belangrijkste daarvan is de 'wereld van Rimbaud', waarmee ik op mijn 22ste voor het eerst kennis maakte en die mij sindsdien is blijven bezighouden. De vijf gedichten waaruit deze liederencyclus bestaat, werden in 1870 en 1871 geschreven en behoren alle tot de eerste rijpe periode in Rimbauds kortstondig dichterschap. Hij maakt hierin nog gebruik van regelmatig, 'klassiek' gestructureerde versregels. Zowel de vier sonetten als het kwatrijn zijn in strenge alexandrijnen geschreven. Niettemin zijn de gedichten door klank, woordfantasie en het spel met briljante (soms zelfs brutale) betekenis-associaties volstrekt origineel (...). - RUDOLF ESCHER

Rudolf Escher was a Dutch composer. From 1916 to 1921 he lived with his parents on Java, where his father worked as a geologist and mineralogist. Back in the Netherlands he studied the piano, the violin and harmony privately. At the Rotterdam Conservatory he studied the piano (1931-1937) and composition (with Pijper, 1934-1937). Until 1940 he lived in Rotterdam, where most of his scores were destroyed during the bombing by the Germans in May of that year.
During World War II Escher composed Musique pour l'esprit en deuil (1941-1943), which was first performed in 1947 by the Concertgebouw Orchestra under van Beinum and which made him overnight the most important composer in the Netherlands. From 1945 until his death he lived in Amsterdam. After a short study at the Electronic Studio of the Delft Technical University he taught (1960-1961) at the Amsterdam Conservatory. From 1964 to 1977 he taught theory of contemporary music at the University of Utrecht. The result of his teaching is to be found in many studies in the field of music theory and audiology. He was also a talented writer and painter, continuing to publish poetry in literary magazines until well into the 1950s. From 1945-1946 he wrote on music and art for the Groene Amsterdammer.
Escher's music is lyrical, expressive and elegiac, with a great propulsive force, more French then German in its orientation (the main influences being Ravel, Debussy and Mahler). It is always basically tonal, and mostly cast in a strictly contrapuntal frame with chains of variations. Everything he wrote can be clearly discerned by the ear. In 1938 he wrote: 'The miracles of a piece of music will never be revealed, unless in a natural way, through sounding and hearing. That means sounding well and hearing well. The latter condition is a priori impossible if the former one cannot be fulfilled'. (Toscanini en Debussy). Apart from this technical aspect of composing, Escher discerned a psychic one: 'The technique of a composer is intimately related to his spiritual and intellectual self, his psyche'. This can be seen in his war compositions, such as Musique pour l'esprit en deuil, the Sonate concertante (1943) for cello and piano, Arcana (1944) for piano (originally called Arcana Musae Dona), and the first two movements of the Sonata for cello solo (1945; the third movement was completed in 1948). Each of these compositions is in a way an impressive 'document humain'. The works written immediately after 1945 do not reflect the war in the same way, but Escher's longing for peace is reflected in the 'Arcadian' choral works such as Songs of Love and Eternity (1955) and Ciel, air et vents (1957).
As a theorist, Escher analysed many 20th-century scores from Debussy to Boulez, explaining the latter on the basis of Escher's own analysis of the former's music. As a composer, however, he preferred to remain true to the music of Debussy and Ravel without denying the technical implications of the music of the serialists, as in his Second Symphony (1958, revised in 1980), Wind Quintet (1967) and Monologue for flute solo (1969).
In the early sixties Escher tried to extend his technique towards electronic music and serialism, but after several crises he was unable to find a technique which would allow him at the same time to remain true to his psyche. The results of this search are nevertheless interesting, and the brilliant Wind Quintet (1967) and Summer Rites at Noon for two orchestras (1971) are examples of Escher's technical and emotional powers.