Kelterborn live

Rudolf Kelterborn (*1931) is one of the most influential musical personalities in Switzerland. Whether as a composer, lecturer, university director, radio personality or editor of the Schweizerische Musikzeitung, he was always at the forefront of events and is still active today: in 2017, Heinz Holliger conducted the world premiere of Kelterborn's Musica profanaa work commissioned for the 150th anniversary of the Basel Music Academy, which Kelterborn had headed for over ten years. The NZZ described it as a "compositional masterpiece".

The Musikkollegium Winterthur and the Ensemble Phoenix Basel have also recently given tribute concerts for him; Jürg Henneberger, for example, conceived an original program with music by Kelterborn and his students. And the Musikkollegium Winterthur performed the world premiere of his Music with 5 trios (2016/17), which it is now also presenting as its first recording on CD. This trio concept was new to him, Kelterborn said in an interview. The 88-year-old still enjoys such dramaturgical "puzzles". Five groups of instruments are distributed around the stage: three high and three low strings, woodwinds and brass, as well as a trio of harp, piano and percussion. The way Kelterborn deals with this unusual constellation is astonishing: he does not aim for spatial sound effects, but plays with pairings and contrasts, subtly and highly expressively.

Under the direction of the accomplished conductor Pierre-Alain Monot, to whom the work is dedicated, a multi-layered coexistence and interaction unfolds. The third part is gripping, Remember, in which Kelterborn quotes himself and glides into the mysterious with noisy whispers. One listens spellbound, above all because the Musikkollegium plays very attentively and with poetic intensity.

This new piece is accompanied by two older masterpieces: the Ensemble Book I (1990) for baritone and instruments and the Songs for the night (1978) for soprano and chamber orchestra. Kelterborn's music demands a high level of musicality from the performers, who intuitively sense the shimmering atmosphere of light and dark. Sarah Wegener's soprano is made for this, she sings the Songs for the night with a charmingly changing timbre, while the baritone Robert Koller makes particularly effective use of the changes in the top voice.