LINensemble – Gorecki/Gubaidulina (1994)

Although I chose this cd mainly for Gubaidulina’s “Punkte, Linien und Zickzak”, I’m quite happy it contained Gorecki’s “Lerchenmusik” as well, of which I didn’t have a lossless version yet. The title of this impressive work doesn’t refer to the elegant lark, daintily flying to and fro; Gorecki was commissioned by his host Louise Lerche-Lerchenborg, organiser of the annual Lerchenborg festival for classical music, and he named the piece after her. It’s a heavy, slowly moving composition for cello, piano and clarinet, slightly minimalistic in its approach. Quite beautiful.

Gubaidulina’s very powerful piece shows her as the experimentalist she basically is, always trying to find ways to derive unfamiliar sounds from conventional instruments. In this case, the piano isn’t played through the keys; it’s the strings themselves that are touched by the player’s hands (and sometimes he uses coins). Main role is for the clarinet, though. It’s positioned right in front of the piano’s soundboard, creating fantastic reverberations. The composer teaches us everything there is to know about the sound of the clarinet.

Tracks:

01. Gorecki - Lerchenmusik - Lento - Largo [0:15:46.23]
02. Gorecki - Lerchenmusik - Molto Lento [0:10:37.22]
03. Gorecki - Lerchenmusik - Andande moderato [0:14:47.30]
04. Sofia Gubaidulina - Punkte, Linien und ZickZack [0:17:13.13]

Performers

The LINensemble are:
Jens Schou – clarinet
John Ehde – cello
Erik Kaltoft – piano