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Selected reviews
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The heart of this CD, however, is undoubtedly 'Tenet', which Hefti has made the third part of his five-part 'Sator' Cycle. It is a song cycle for soprano and ensemble (sung brilliantly by Sylvia Nopper, with the Zurich Chamber Ensemble directed by the composer). 'Tenet' was commissioned by the Swiss Thyll-Dürr Foundation for the Brazilian Ensemble Mentemanuque, and is a striking success. The cycle is compelling, not just on account of its high degree of formal unity, but also because of the mastery with which the composer gives musical voice to the poems by Else Lasker-Schüler on which the cycle is based. The expressive orchestral sound, utilizing extremes of dynamics, tessitura and timbre, is further expanded by the composer's use of tone colour. The work's timbres seem at times to evoke an association with electro-acoustic music, or with the Spectral Music of Gérard Grisey, and appear as a kind of cantus firmus in the voice part, drawing everything into a coherent whole. (Codex Flores, cf)
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Dramatic Mondschatten (Moon Shadow)
World Première of a Work by David Philip Hefti
Mondschatten (Moon Shadow) (2006), a new piece for violin and marimba by David Philip Hefti, has many guises. This is no disembodied, unsubstantial form; the music grips one powerfully over long stretches, and gets down to business with gestures that are highly immediate. It is a work that could perhaps even be danced as a ballet. The multifarious musical behavioural patterns that one finds in Moon Shadow are all derived by the composer from a central core of material. The work's breadth of expression leads us from the quietness of the opening, punctuated by gentle pulsations - the tension that Hefti produces through this is powerful - to a dithyrambic, wildly rhythmic dance that also has a thoroughly cathartic effect. Constantly changing physical states are conveyed through music in such a manner that a form is here constructed that has its own logic, and whose recapitulations are compelling. (...) Hefti's Moon Shadow was in the excellent hands of Rahel Cunz (violin) und Jacqueline Ott Yesilalp (marimba), and their interpretation was gripping. (Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ, Alfred Zimmerlin)
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Interconnections: The Trio Caleidoscopio in Zurich
It is rare that a chamber music programme presents so many interconnected aspects as did this concert by the Trio Caleidoscopio in the Zurich Tonhalle. And it is rare that a world première is integrated in so organic a manner with pieces from both the recent, and the not-so-recent, past. The violinist Primoz Novsak, the cellist Thomas Grossenbacher and the pianist Keiko Tamura, who have played in this ensemble since 1999, commissioned a trio from the young Zurich composer David Philip Hefti that was to be written with their precise characteristics in mind. Hefti went one step further, and in his Trio drew upon the two works that were to be heard before and after his own: Mozart's Piano Trio in G major, KV 564, and Shostakovich's Piano Trio in e minor, op. 67.
Schattenspie(ge)l is the name that Hefti has given his work, and the Trio Caleidoscopio gave it a compelling première. References back to Mozart include the classical four-movement shape of the work, and the dualism within the individual movements. Thus the first movement, 'Dalla luce all'ombra', is situated in a field of tension between noise and melodiousness, between a rhythmic sense on the one hand pulsating, and on the other free, and between light and shadow. Even the espressivo playing of the string instruments in the slow movement made analogies to Mozart audible, while the final movement - 'Scherzare col fuoco', with its complementary rhythms and its incessant intensification up to a point where no more is possible - prepared the way for the Shostakovich. Hefti's Trio thus negotiated the space between the cheerful world of Mozart and the dark, struggling music of mourning by the Russian, and did so in a manner that the listener could follow. As regards their interpretation, the Trio succeeded in portraying the character of the three composers' different worlds in an impressive manner. The three musicians achieved a magnificent arch, from the problem-free enthusiasm of the first work, via the Janus-like world première, to the radicalism of the third. And they did not spare themselves in doing so, not in the slightest. (Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ, Thomas Schacher)
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(Not) Mahler: David Philip Hefti's Wunderhorn
'Wunderhorn' - what do we associate this with? The literary-minded will think of the folksong collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn, edited by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim. The music-lover will think of the settings of its texts by Gustav Mahler. The Zurich composer David Philip Hefti plays with both of these, if in a veiled manner. For in his Wunderhorn Music for violin and ensemble, he let himself be inspired by the aforementioned collection of texts, and this is reflected in the titles of his seven 'sound pictures'. Last Sunday, Hefti's composition was given its world première in the Theater am Gleis in Winterthur by the violinist Rahel Cunz and the TaG Ensemble under Jac van Steen.
We heard a music that displays its own character in each of its movements. This is a music that does not ingratiate itself, and yet is still able to arrest one's attention at a first hearing. These positive impressions of the work went hand in hand with the high quality of its performance. The solo part played by Rahel Cunz fills the whole spectrum between soloistic prominence and the integration demanded in chamber music, and she utilized to the full the rich technical and expressive possibilities that it offered her. And what about Mahler? The first three sound pictures seemed to have nothing to do with him. But in the middle, in 'Abendstern' ('Evening star'), we heard an adagio pregnant with song, and then the horn threw open the door to sounds of nostalgia that indeed seemed reminiscent of Mahler. A very different world was reached in 'Greuelhochzeit' ('The horror wedding'), which took on a ghostly air that at the close even became quite threatening. (Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Thomas Schacher)
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In between the opulent choral works, the ear was offered welcome relief by a single instrument. It was the solo cello in David Philip Hefti's Ritus (2007), which here received its world première. In these four dance-collages, the composer expands the instrument, as it were, to form a mini-ensemble of its own, and leads the cello into the most outlying regions in order to exhaust all the possibilities it offers. The cellist Thomas Grossenbacher succeeded in unifying the work's different structures to create a single arch. At the same time, he mastered its technical challenges with immense clarity, even though he sometimes had as much to do as - well, if not a whole choir, then certainly a semi-chorus. (Tages-Anzeiger Zürich, Anna Kardos)
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Le trio Schattenspie(ge)l de David Philip Hefti mêlait avec talent musique sérielle, accélérations et catastrophes, soliloques et furia. (L'Indépendant, Michèle Fizaine)
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At its core stands the song cycle (Rosenblätter) of the same name by the young composer David Philip Hefti, who has set texts by Rose Ausländer on 15 leaves of music. Judith Schmid commissioned the cycle, and Hefti obviously paid precise attention to her flexible, strongly radiant voice before composing his songs. These are highly expressive miniatures that bring together Romantic emphases and contemporary vocal techniques, and in which the pianist Oliver Schnyder is far more than a mere 'accompanist'. (Tages-Anzeiger Zürich, Susanne Kübler)
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The bow seems to be flying, rearing up, gently giving way, withdrawing, fleeing. But it only stops in order to accelerate again, to persuade, even to flirt: This is all about DIARIUM, a composition by David Philip Hefti, who was born in 1975. DIARIUM was composed in 1999, premiered by Stefan Tönz in March of this year in Zurich and performed on 3 April 2003 in Venice for the second time. The experience is thrilling: Springtime, the twittering of birds, thunderstorms, presentiments and resistance, singing and lamentation, painful strokes of the pizzicati by the long little finger, then relaxation, slow and calm exhaling. An enormously lively, descriptive and spectacular music. (Maria Cortese Scarpa, Venice)
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An Intensive Approach to Trakl
David Philip Hefti’s Mondschatten (Moon Shadow, 2006), after the poem by Georg Trakl, remained in particular in the mind. This is a work with convincing gestures, and with clear, strong musical ideas and emotions. It is frequently ritualistic in manner, and utilizes the possibilities of the combination marimba/violin to an extent far beyond the purely musical. For long stretches, we heard here a precise, highly charged music of mourning that was able to penetrate deep into Trakl’s worlds. (St. Galler Tagblatt, CH)
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Oliver Schnyder crowned his translucent playing of Mozart's Rondo in D major for piano and orchestra (KV 382) with a cadenza that was composed specifically for him by David Philip Hefti, and which was received with enthusiastic approval. (Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ, Jürg Huber)
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The composer David Philip Hefti has set to music scenes that range from elegiac density to rhythmic noise. This is inspiring poetry in sound! (Schweizer Illustrierte, Uli von Erlach)
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There was once again Bach in Heftis Counterpoints on ‚come, sweet death', but now in a contemporary contrapuntal manner. Thereby, not only the rarely used contrabassclarinet gets threateningly close to the melody of the chorale come, sweet death. Counter voices, running up to one another like scissors, overlap and turn the musical expression inwards. Violent and slapping blow techniques push it even into the background for moments. The economy of the compositional technique is remarkable: each note is given its own, compelling place in the work's meticulously planned construction. (St. Galler Tagblatt, CH)
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The musicologist Patrick Müller characterized Hefti’s compositions as a synthesis of horizontal and vertical structures, and as an entity in which contrary emotional worlds collide off each other. The violinist Stefan Tönz put these thoughts into concrete form with his performance of the composition Diarium for violin solo. (Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ, Thomas Schacher)
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The highpoint was without doubt the world premiere of O, star! II by the young Zurich composer David Philip Hefti. It is a work with stark contrasts in dynamics, tempi and expressive means, which demands a great deal from the performer - one must really say 'artist' here. It is thus significant that two places in the score are even marked 'somewhat quicker than is possible'. The soloist and the composer, who was present, were rewarded with prolonged applause. (Aargauer Zeitung, CH)
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David Philip Hefti's musical language couples a distinctive expressive power with a constructive logic that does not function merely as background scaffolding for the musical material, but is clearly discernible. The various musical parameters - melody, harmony and rhythm - unfold in a free, 'vegetative' process, so to speak. Due to its enormously broad spectrum that includes free development, powerful expression and strict counterpoint, Hefti's music exudes a fascination that is merely intensified by the colourfulness of its sound world and the symbolic ambiguity of its motives. (Tages-Anzeiger Zürich, CH) |
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