Cello alone and in pairs
Compositions by Roland Moser, played by his partner Käthi Gohl Moser, result in an unpretentious, "breathing" CD.
When was the last time I heard such intimate music? The loving togetherness is, as it were, the prerequisite for most of the pieces on this CD, because the composer often writes for the cellist with whom he has shared his life for a long time, Roland Moser writes for Käthi Gohl Moser.
However, there is nothing representative or wanting to be representative about it, no sound photo album. Rather, two people give us an insight, Einhorch into their musical dialog. Gladly in two voices, whereby the cello solo becomes a duo. Here together with the violin of Helena Winkelman, there together with the recorder player Conrad Steinmann, the oboist Matthias Arter or the pianist Anton Kernjak. There are also short soliloquies in which Gohl sings and hums to the cello. There are other guests around him, composers such as Schubert or Offenbach, poets such as James Joyce, Paul Éluard or Arthur Rimbaud, sometimes well hidden, sometimes obvious. Moser's music loves allusion, she likes to deal with words, thoughtfully and carefully, without haste. She subtly begins to sing from time to time, with romantic sentiment, even subtle, yearning devotion. And in ... like a waltz on glass ... the cello dances "intricately simple" in the harmonics, as Roman Brotbeck writes in his beautiful booklet text. Other pieces lead onto the borderline paths of microtones.
As short as most of the pieces are, each has its own character. Only one composition from 1998 is given greater weight here, which can be heard in two versions: first in the newer version for violin and cello, and at the end in the original version with oboe d'amore and cello. ... e torna l'aria della sera... is based on an inaudible ballata by Pier Paolo Pasolini and also changes character slightly with the instrumentation. Sometimes this evening song sounds Arcadian, sometimes almost Tristan-like. It moves freely and persistently, yet without stubbornness, and in doing so it escapes any all-too-common pressure to innovate. The music breathes naturally in these interpretations.
Roland Moser: Violoncello solo e in duo. Käthi Gohl Moser, cello; Anton Kernjak, piano; Helena Winkelman, violin; Conrad Steinmann, flute, aulos; Matthias Arter, oboe d'amore. Olinard Records
