Sofia Gubaidulina - Sieben Worte (1982) for cello, bayan and strings

Sieben Worte [Seven Words] (1982) for cello, bayan and strings Composer: Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931) Performers: Maria Kliegel, cello; Elsbeth Moser, bayan; Camerata Transsylvanica, dir. György Selmeczi 0:00 I. Vater, vergib ihnen, denn sie wissen nicht, was sie tun. [Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.] 4:34 II. Weib, siehe, das ist dein Sohn. - Siehe, das ist deine Mutter. [Woman, behold thy son! - Behold, thy mother!] 8:47 III. Wahrlich, ich sage dir: Heute wirst du mit mir im Paradiese sein. [Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.] 12:38 IV. Mein Gott, mein Gott, warum hast du mich verlassen? [My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?] 21:50 V. Mich diirstet. [I thirst.] 26:43 VI. Es ist vollbracht. [It is finished.] 29:31 VII. Vater, ich befehle meinen Geist in deine Halide. [Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.] _________________________________________________________________ “Sieben Worte (Seven Words), for cello, bayan and strings, was written in 1982 and first performed in Moscow in the same year, with the cellist Vladimir Toncha and accordion-player Friedrich Lips, to whom the work is dedicated. The composer acknowledges her debt to long-standing cultural tradition, to which Heinrich Schütz contributed in his Die sieben Worte unseres lieben Erlb’sers und Seeligmachers Jesu Christi so er am Stamm des heiligen Creutzes gesprochen (The Seven Last Words of Our Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ spoken on the Holy Cross) and to which Haydn also added. The Christian basis of the work was concealed at the first Moscow performance but is clear enough, even without the present title and the composer’s own explanation. Sofia Gubaidulina explains that naturally no purely instrumental work can express the biblical text. Here there are rather, in purely instrumental sounds, metaphorical gestures and in this respect the two solo instruments, bayan and cello, and the string orchestra provided ample material: l am thinking, for example, of the long-drawn sounds of the cello, crossed through glissandi of the neighbouring strings. In the bayan this crossing with the orchestra takes place with the help of pressure on neighbouring keys. In the string orchestra there is the possibility of glissando crossings from unison to multi-octave textures and again back to unison (the figure of the Cross). When the cello bow goes behind the bridge, this is, as it were, the entry to another world. These instrumental metaphors form the thematic foundation of the work, which unfolds in the course of six movements with the continual increase in tension. At the end of the sixth movement (It is accomplished) the tension is broken: the bow plays on the bridge, and in the seventh movement the bow crosses the bridge and the limits of the instrument. This basic thematic material for the solo instruments is in contrast to the music for the string orchestra, which in character is reminiscent of choral writing. To these two thematic schemes is added the threefold repetition of a five-bar quotation from the work of Heinrich Schütz, the melody of the cry ’I thirst’. This figure has an essential structural function.“ ~Keith Anderson Source: this Recording&language=English _________________________________________________________________ For education, promotion and entertainment purposes only. If you have any copyrights issue, please write to unpetitabreuvoir(at) and I will delete this video.