<<  -- 5 --  Tess Crebbin    THE BASIC ESSENCE

TC: Yet, unlike Mahler, you chose not pure orchestral Lieder performed by a singer. You have recitative passages in there also, read by a German actress.

TR: The idea behind this is contrast: between song and speech, between life and death, between fast and slow passages of success and hope. Sometimes life speeds up, sometimes it seems to slow down and drag out almost unbearably slowly. So sometimes the text is read, sometimes sung.

TC: But the music is always there, even if the manner of how the words are delivered changes.

TR: Just like in real life, the basic essence is always there and it is the same for all of us humans -- no matter the fluctuations in details.

TC: One man forms an orchestra to make music that unites rather than destroys, another turns his back on his homeland only to return over a decade later with a great triumph, a literary genius whose day job is as a singer with a rock band, a young orchestra consisting of some of the most gifted instrumentalists from around the world ... all of them united in the quest to create a monumental classical Lieder cycle. What an inspiring and extraordinary story. Gentlemen, congratulations on your extraordinary success and your Echo Award for best world première recording.

TR: Thank you.

SH: Thank you.