"Vielschichtig"

VIELSCHICHTIG. Two of the defining forces in contemporary music come together: Ensemble Resonanz and Enno Poppe. The Hamburg ensemble has long been among the most innovative and acclaimed string ensembles in Europe. Enno Poppe ranks among the most performed and sought-after German composers working today. At Musica Viva he appears not only as a composer but also as the conductor of his own work.

The programme is built around the idea of expansion. Starting from Johann Sebastian Bach's solo suites, performed by Amarilis Dueñas Castán on cello and viola da gamba, the sonic space gradually widens. Even in Bach's music, polyphony seems latent - present within a single instrument.

Caroline Shaw's Entr'acte and Bryce Dessner's Aheym each extend the classical string quartet in their own way. The centrepiece is Enno Poppe's Wald, a work for four string quartets in which sixteen voices merge into a dense, luminous web of sound. From a single voice grows a musical organism of remarkable complexity. It is rare to witness so clearly how organically Bach's thinking flows into the music of our own time.

Amarilis Dueñas Castán (cello)
Ensemble Resonanz
Enno Poppe (conductor)