Search - Louis Andriessen, Reinbert de Leeuw, Schönberg Ensemble :: Louis Andriessen: De Tijd (Time) for Large Ensemble - Schönberg Ensemble

A hauntingly mesmerizing work

G.D. | Norway | 06/18/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an utterly mesmerizing work. De Tijd employs a female choir - which is more or less constantly present - but is, in practice, an instrumental work, attempting to at least draw inspirations from the nature of time (or rather, musings on the purported nature of time from several authors). Stylistically, the music bears some superficial resemblance to the minimalism of Reich, but the purpose of the figures deployed is different and the language more dissonant. The voices of De Tijd are given a swelling and heaving, long-breathed line as a backdrop for percussive, dissonant chords (interspersed with very effective uses of silences and gear changes), which are slowly but gradually (though almost unnoticeably) accelerating. At the same time there is harmonic motion and development, and the whole work is thus gradually evolving throughout its 43 minute span, building up tension and urgency (I've rarely heard anything as intense and intensely beautiful as the last 8 minutes). And the Schönberg ensemble under Reinbert de Leeuw gives what sounds like a marvelous incisive and scrupulously exact performance (though I haven't heard any alternatives) and the sound quality is fine. I do, perhaps, not think this will be a work for everyone and anyone, but then again I didn't, when acquiring this disc, really think I myself would be one of those who would get enchanted by it. Yet it turned out to be one of the most haunting, hypnotically effective works I've heard in a long time. Strongly recommended."