Sofia Gubaidulina – Jetzt Immer Schnee; Perception (1995)

Two pieces from Gubaidulina I’ve never seen posted before: “Jetzt Im Schnee” and “Perception”.
A rare release this one, as I found out when I tried to search for reasonable cover art on the net.
Zilch. An 8kb sized miniature was the best I managed. That meant I had to restore the heavily damaged front of my library copy after making scans. Alright, it turned out more or less OK, but please don’t look at it into closer detail. I mustered the best of my restoration skills, which, in thgis case, implied throwing pixels around like Pollock threw his paint.
Of course I had to post this, I’m not going to withold a Gubaidulina album most of you will be unfamiliar with, this in spite of the meagre covers. It’s the music which is most important. The disc itself ripped flawlessly and sounds very good. An old Philips…you know, those are the guys who invented the stuff. Their early cds used to be more or less indestructible. Times have changed.

A good deal of Sprechgesang comes into these compositions; further, it’s that particular blend of serial and ancient forms of music Gubaidulina has become famous for. These aren’t her easiest pieces, but then, does she ever become easy?

Tracks

01. Jetzt immer Schnee, Ty maya tishyna [0:07:25.00]
02. Zapis: Apophatic [0:03:44.60]
03. Tiper fsigda sniga [0:04:22.15]
04. Zapis: Apophatic [0:06:39.00]
05. O da: rodina [0:05:36.00]
06. Perception: Einsicht [0:02:44.50]
07. Wir [0:04:59.25]
08. Pizzicato I [0:01:33.00]
09. Dezember [0:02:39.00]
10. Pizzicato II [0:00:24.35]
11. Begegnung [0:02:27.40]
12. Am Meer [0:08:09.00]
13. Col legno I [0:01:57.00]
14. Ich [0:06:54.00]
15. Ich und Du [0:04:43.00]
16. Col legno II [0:00:48.00]
17. Montys Tod [0:09:56.00]
18. Stimmen [0:02:29.00]

Performers:

Netherlands Chamber Choir (1st work)
Schönberg Ensemble ; Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor.
Stella Kleindienst, soprano (2nd work)
Siegfried Lorenz, baritone (2nd work)
Leonid Stasov, speaker (1st work)
.