Search - Hans-Joachim Hespos, Manfred Reichert :: Seiltanz

Very interesting

Samuel Andreyev | Paris, France | 12/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"An excellent introduction to a very intriguing composer who deserves to be better known. Hespos is clearly an outsider, even within the wide spectrum of contemporary music ; yet his aesthetic preoccupations and views on the purpose of art would seem to situate him in territory similar to that of Lachenmann and Ferneyhough, albeit with considerably different results. Like these composers, Hespos tends toward extremes in his use of (and choice of) instruments, and his sound world is a decidedly untamed one : he makes frequent use of extreme woodwind registers, all manner of unconventional tone production on string instruments, frequent and abrupt changes of texture and dynamics, all within a surface highly prone to a sort of splintered frenzy. Yet there is also an intriguing looseness to his pieces, which belies the fundamentally non-developmental character of his music. These pieces seem at first to have no stuctural/formal goals, yet because Hespos is posessed of strong dramatic instincts and knows how to effect an engaging balance between continuity and rupture, one remains interested throughout the course of these mostly short works. A more detailed examination is beyond the scope of this review ; suffice it to say, in summary, that this composer is clearly dedicated to a pursuit of the perilous unknown, and listeners with similar interests will be rewarded."

In sich schleifig

scarecrow | Chicago, Illinois United States | 02/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"this music here was from the Wintermusik "80 program in Baden Baden, Germany performed by Ensemble 13 with Manfred Reichert directing,leading. Hespos has been writing music from the early 1960s, and has been known quite well in Europe, less so the USA, He is self-taught, his music is like an invitation to do something, to move,play,write, impart an attitude, a response to nothing yet an expression, fully combustible not in sinc with the order of things(well in relation) for what is in sinc, (Adorno's enigmatic canon) the loss of certainty seems to be what Hespos wants, and his music is fascinating only when he allows it to take a course of its own,it must surprise and be not what I tell it, it is, and when the music resorts to what the mind already knows, it encumbers the process down, it must have a divination a mystical realm, (although those are un-useful concept here), how about simply the "Unknonwn" and the "Known", someplace in between, experimental might be a boring word for this. He comes to depend then on the sheer force of timbre, his music weighs heavily on what timbre,(the colour(s)of noise, sound) can do, should do, wants to do, within various states of temporality, it is music you will find boring, and tedious, but also sets the imagination in motion toward something. It does have what you will find as the clique-ish avant-garde, so-called "noise" elements, tappings the bodies of the intruments,even shouting while playing afterwards"un-musical" within todays post-modernist parlance of obsessions of being loved. Hespos wants you to love timbre, and the power of musical instruments when they combine themselves with each other, Thes is a live performance the only venue for Hespos really, and we are short-changed for Hespos thinks of timbre as theatre as well, You must see someone produce sound, to make a noise, noises come from places. So a CD is only a fraction of the music, it is like a blueprint, you haven;t seen the house yet.I tended to like the short works here as "point" a mere 1:42, for clarinet, alto trbn, cello & piano, this work is from 1971, it crisp and clean and clear, and it seems the short length forced something to happen to say the most with the least. But this is a gentle work non-violent, that we all need.dschen as well was for Tenor and Bari Sax (one player) 6 violins, 3 violas, 2 cellos and one double bass, the sax kicks things off and remains the arbiter, the :clown: that gets most attention,wonderful screams, and bellows, all misdirected to nothing, just flexing muscles it seems; the strings simply seem to have a collective voice. All this music is notated graphically, which means that it should sound fairly much as it looks,Hespos indicated register, graphic icons that are closer together occur in time closer together, Hespos is also like a theatre director in that the music has incessant word expressions abovelike "bark like a dog into the bell of the horn",or like a long scratch" and couched within the iconic musical graphics,fatherly advice to enter the "magical places", probing/prompting images to the musicians, "verquietscht","kreishend","versprillt","scharf gerissen/knarrend" "verpresst","berstand grotesk". The primary work here is"go" from 1978 for winds, saxes, a contra sarrussaphone,alto trbn,an Hungarian tarogato (clarinet-like),flugel horn,,contrabass, piano, soprano sax, clarinet, it is a mere 6:30 and has again a "mystery" about for you are like waiting for something to happen with the instruments you never heard before in combinations, the music goes from pencil-thin sustain tones, (uzually in the oboes and saxes,for that pinched upper painful timbre)to full ensemble punctuation, those are all rehearsed, and this music is not spontaneous to the point where everyone simply does what they want, that has long been a myth in the avnat-garde, this music is controlled, and directed."ein-kin" from 1970 was another tune I liked here for clarinet, sop sax,bassoon,flugle horn and contrabass, again you come to appreciate the power of the mixtures, and combinations that are possible with these instruments."