A cycle after Lorca

The edition of this first audition of a subtle work by Jost Meier comes in the form of a double album: an audio cd and a blu-ray video cd. Let's just say from the outset that the latter doesn't offer much in the way of cinematography: a single camera in a fixed shot, an ugly gray curtain behind the performers... The plus, on the other hand, is the interview between Manfred Osten and Jost Meier (in German with English subtitles).

Jost Meier has made García Lorca's magnificent poems his own. He penetrates their essence, restoring them to music in a subtle way, without any picturesque Spanishness, in a totally personal way. And there is personality in this music, the kind of personality that a free composer can have, one who has detached himself from all influence and dogmatism. These magnificent pages are very dense, finely chiselled, moving from spidery melody to dense contrapuntal strata. Strictly speaking, there are no themes in the classical sense, but a succession of furtive climaxes that keep us on the edge of our seats. This is demanding music for the listener: you can't listen to these poems with a distracted ear while going about your business. You have to immerse yourself in them, enter into a symbiotic relationship with the score. It's a demanding music for the performer too. If the vagaries of live performance mean that there is sometimes a little slag at the attack of a note, Franziska Hirzel's emotional involvement is astonishing, going far beyond the simple vocal virtuosity demanded by Meier's music. The Beethoven Quartett fully succeeds in rendering all the kaleidoscopic colors of these unheard-of pages.

This is an important recording in the Swiss musical landscape. Not to be missed!

Jost Meier: Lorca Cycle for String Quartet and Soprano. Beethoven-Quartett; Franziska Hirzel, Sopran; bmn-audiophil CD & Blu-Ray 20155