Bizarre fights

Indeed, one thinks of battles when listening to this powerful and often brutal music. The CD released by Neos offers two major works: the ensemble piece with the same title Combat actions/trauma actions op. 11 (1995/98) and a Chamber symphony "A végső Tavasz" op. 23 (2009/2011). Both can hardly be reduced to a common denominator. A ritually serious tone is always present, but Jorge E. López cultivates an incredibly flexible compositional style.

The Chamber Symphony underlines López's aesthetic attitude: "I have never identified with the term 'new music'. Rather, from the very beginning I was driven by the idea of making the ancient present. I'm not looking for the new, but rather for the repressed." There are ludicrous references to Gustav Mahler, Beethoven and Gustav Holst. With mannerist artistry, López achieves a bizarre, even fantastic feat.

The Collegium Novum Zürich under the direction of Jonathan Stockhammer plays very accurately, with great attention to detail and at the same time powerfully in the right places. Leslie Leon sings the lines by the Hungarian poet Endre Ady in the Chamber Symphony expressive, but is also able to switch to an ironically distanced tone. A furious recording quality by Swiss radio SRF and an informative, easy-to-read booklet text by Jens Schubbe round off the outstanding impression.