Collegium Novum Zürich, Poppe, Lorenz, Experimentalstudio Des SWR - Haas: Works for Ensemble (2009)

Georg Friedrich Haas writes music that is strongly hypnotic. A simple title like … und … (… and …) forces together the ensemble and electronics, the microtones and the tempered system, this in a unique way. The result – at the premiere in September 2008 – are 27 minutes of intensely exciting playing, with the Experimentalstudio of the SWR and the Collegium Novum Zürich under Enno Poppe. These sounds impinge on the ear, and find their corollary in a vision no less intense: Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich … (Who heard me when I cried…), with the percussion soloist Martin Lorenz. Other completely different but also fervent notions held by the composer Haas are more redolent of a piece for merely solo voices, which … aus freier Lust … verbunden … (… arising out of free volition … shall join …), and are able to – here for example in the chamber music quartet-intermezzo.

“The three substantial pieces here, composed over the last 15 years, show how powerfully original and satisfying Haas's music can be...the writing is remarkably assured, and full of wonderfully detailed musical events.”