New CD: KRASNOYARSK COUNTERPOINTS

"Counterpoints" in Krasnoyarsk, a Siberian center, which geographically forms almost the center of Asia: Composition commissions for two festivals, the "Transsiberian Art Festival" in April 2019 and the festival "Asia - Siberia - Europe" in September 2019. Once chamber orchestra - once symphony orchestra. Once the natural world of the archaic world of Siberia - once the artistic world of Mozart's opera. In one work, the double bass from art music (played by Artem Chirkov, the soloist of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra) and the almost exotic-looking double bass balalaika (played by Mikhail Dzyudze, a jack-of-all-trades from folklore to the electric bass of rock music) are juxtaposed. - In the other work Reinhold Friedrich combines three highly contrasting registers of the trumpet and plays the flugelhorn, the trumpet and the high piccolo trumpet, which are contrasts that are difficult to master from a technical point of view. BUT: as with the plus/minus pole of electricity, opposites create tension. Yes, - to consistently create tension and to take the listener on a journey marked by contrasts, that is the intention of this CD compilation.

SPIRITS OF SIBERIA was premiered and produced in September 2019 in Krasnoyarsk. This work is my deepest bow before this magical and for western people unknown continent of untouched nature. In 2020 I am invited as "Composer in Residence" at the Krasnoyarsk Philharmonic Orchestra ...with further world premieres.     

Siberia is an immeasurably vast country. At 13 million square kilometres, it accounts for 77 percent of Russia's land area. Siberia stretches from the Arctic Ocean to the mountains of Kazakhstan and the borders with Mongolia and China. It is divided into a western and an eastern part by the river Yenisey. With rich flora and fauna, NATURE is omnipresent. In unbelievable dimensions you can find tundra, taiga, forests, lakes, rivers, and landscapes full of gigantic mountains and steppes. Nature is animated everywhere and all animals, plants, mountains and lakes are given a spiritual world. Therefore shamanism is more widespread in Siberia than anywhere else in the world. The following contents are dealt with in the six movements: 

1: SIBERIA - IN TUNE WITH NATURE, the supremacy of nature. 2: The YENISEY, one of the world's largest rivers, which crosses all climatic zones, was unfortunately also the "river of tears" in Stalin's era, because on it people were distributed with no return to the gulags. 3: BIRCHES DANCING IN ENDLESS TAIGA. Worships the birch tree, the oldest post-glacial tree of highest cultic importance. The birch symbolises spring, youth and vitality. 4: The STOLBY nature reserve is world famous. With gigantic rocks, Stolby is one of the most spiritual corners of Siberia. 5: HORSES. The horse is legendary in mythology and its origin in this area of Central Asia is legendary. 6: SHAMANIC JOURNEY is the quintessence of Siberian life. Healing and deification always runs through the shaman, who is a being directly connected to nature. During the shamanic journey everything can be transformed and shows that reality is far more complex than our everyday senses would suggest. 

LEPORELLO & GIOVANNIexposes, besides the double bass (played by the virtuoso Artem Chirkov, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra), as a special feature the double bass balalaika, an instrument little known outside of Russia, - mainly native to traditional folklore. The poetic idea of this unorthodox connection is the tension-filled male duo from Mozart's "Don Giovanni": Giovanni, who walks his frivolous life path between gallantry and brutal instinct, - and Leporello, who is by no means a servile secondary figure, but is himself driven by thoughts of freedom and sexual desire... 

The Double Concerto also makes extensive use of motifs and themes from Mozart's opera, first performed in Prague in 1787. So when the "noble" double bass (the gentleman) meets the "rustic" double bass balalaika (the servant), sparks fly and surprises are in store. 

....and a great THANKYOU for the two excellent conductors: Vladimir Lande (Siberian State Symphony Orchstra) and Martín Baeza-Rubio (Krasnoyarsk Chamber Orchestra & Siberian Percussion Group)

Short audio examples of the new CD are given on the website with link:

https://www.enjott.com/werke/krasnoyarsk-counterpoints-cd-wergo