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Artist: Delian Quartett

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Delian Quartett:

Im wachen Traume w/Barainsky, Timoshenko

Named after a lyric from the first piece in Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben song cycle, the Delian Quartett’s programme of Im wachen Traume combines said cycle – in a new arrangement for soprano and string quartet by the late Aribert Reimann – with music by Renaissance composer William Byrd and Baroque composer Henry Purcell. Most of the works appears in world premiere recordings here. The earlier English repertory bookends the album, framing Frauenliebe und Leben in a thematic embrace and, as the quartet’s violinist Andreas Moscho puts it, “in dazzling harmonies, that colour the musical span from the bliss of the moment to the end of things”.

Much has been said about Frauenliebe und Leben, from 1840 based on the poetry cycle by Adelbert von Chamisso, and many interpretations and versions of it uttered. This remodelling, however, conceived specifically for the Delian Quartett and soprano Claudia Barainsky, opens up truly new perspectives that seem to have been lying dormant within the original score all along. By transferring the piano part to four voices, Reimann dresses the cycle in an entirely new guise – one that builds on the sustained quality of the strings and utilizes both the art of reduction, to a concentrated and minimalist end, and embellishment, in form of vibratos, pizzicati and harmonic flourishes, for the purpose of emotional emphasis of both music and lyrics.