Friday 30 November 2012

Zimmermann Ich wandte mich um und sah RFH

"Ich wandte mich um und sah an alles Unrecht, das geschah unter der Sonne; und siehe, da waren die Tränen derer, so Unrecht litten und hatten keinen Tröster; und die ihnen Unrecht taten, waren zu mächtig, daß sie keinen Tröster haben konnten." 

Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall tomorrow (1st December) in a concert that will shatter and shake:  Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Ich wandte mich und sah an an alles Unrecht (Ecclesiatical Action)  here.  (CLICK HERE FOR MY REVIEW) This was Zimmermann's last completed work, written shortly before he committed suicide in despair at the state of the world.  Ich wandte mich um is ferocious, so dramatic that you feel your guts are being ripped out.Soothing and Christmassy it is not. Fortunately for us, Jurowski's planning Brahms German Requiem afterwards, or we would not be able to sleep.  Ich wandte mich is  more tightly constructed than Zimmermann's better known Requiem for a Young Poet, which I wrote about when it was on at the Berliner Philharmoniker (prob still searchable in their archives), and also more concise than Die Soldaten.. Link HERE to Dominy Clements' review of Zimmermann's Requiem for a Young Poet.


No comments: