Tensions

The 6 works presented on the CD Tensions document the wide range within the contemporary music scene in their highly differentiated tonal language and show an exemplary kaleidoscope of diversity in compositions of the present time.

As an introduction, the eponymous work Tensions II by Bert Breit from 1991 can be heard. In this piece, according to Breit, “short musical elements are juxtaposed in order to make states of tension clear. […] In all seriousness, it is not about bemoaning the state of tension in the world, but rather making the state transparent and changing it.” Gunther Schneider’s comment on his piece einander for oboe, clarinet and bassoon and chamber orchestra is just as political: “With each other, against each other, through each other, for each other – we cannot manage without each other, we need each other.” In Perception and Communication by Judith Unterpertinger, we witness how “the audience is seduced to listen, to eavesdropping”. Andreas Trenkwalder, on the other hand, borrows from the short message service Twitter in 3 Tweets @innstrumenti: in an analogy to tweets on Twitter the three completely independent and self-contained, short pieces are limited to a maximum of 140 basic beats. Ivana Radovanovic leads us into the Arabian region and the Balkans with her Little Piece for Orchestra, dedicated to the theme of freedom in her Belgrade homeland. In Circus, Christof Dienz faces the previously unrealized challenge of a composition for six natural trumpets and orchestra.