Search - Cilensek, Zechlin, Other :: Orchestral Works of Johann Cilensek

Well worth your acquaintance

G.D. | Norway | 11/25/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The ever interesting series of modern to contemporary European, often German, music from Hastedt hasn't garnered much attention among reviewers internationally, which is something of a pity. There are several interesting treasures there for the adventuresome, and this release of orchestral music by Johann Cilensek (1913-1998) is one of them.



The works on this discs representing rather different periods in his carreer. The fifth symphony, written in 1959, the earliest work here, is a complex polyphonic utterance. The first movement, a fugue, is dense and slightly dry but masterfully orchestrated and followed by a beautiful, slightly Shostakovich-like second movement Fantasie for strings only. The third rondo-movement is again built up around the first movement fugal motive. The symphony is mostly tonal but not driven by any thematic-motivic structural principle.



In the Konzertstück for piano and orchestra (1966), Cilensek's compositional techniques have been expanded with twelve-note and serial elements. In the first movement, a colorful Fantasie, the note rows are based around the fourth and the tritonus. The second movement is a somber, almost funereal adagio, and it is followed by a turbulent, motoric toccata movement.



The Konzertstück for violin and orchestra (1974) is the most individual and probably the best work on the disc. Here, the influence of Lutowlawski is obvious, with aleatoric counterpoints and micro-intervals etc. It is a less turbulent, far more lyrical work than the other two, resourcefully building up to a brilliant and complex final part.



Well, I guess the reader has an idea about what kind of music this is, and if it sounds appealing (it would to me), I really urge you to give it a try. The playing of soloists and orchestras are generally good to very good, the sound a little variable (the symphony and piano konzertstück are archive recordings from the 60s, the violin Konzertstück a live recording from 1988), but not unacceptable. This is, indeed, gray mainstream modernism, and in my opinion (based on the evidence of this disc) Cilensek is one of the more interesting representatives; purposeful, concentrated and serious."