Sofia Gubaidulina: Sonnengesang (Live) Christian Schmitt

• 1 Jauchzt vor Gott 08:45
• 2 Light and Darkness (Hell und Dunkel): Hell und Dunkel 11:00
• 3 Sonnengesang (The Canticle of the Sun by St. Francis of Assisi) 41:06
• Total Runtime 01:00:51

Info for Sofia Gubaidulina: Sonnengesang (Live)

A profoundly spiritual composer, Sofia Gubaidulina has said that ‘True art for me is always religious, it will always involve collaborating with God.’ As the present release demonstrates, it is therefore less than fruitful to try to divide her music into sacred and secular compositions. Jauchzt vor Gott, the opening work, is here being released for the first time. The nine-minute piece for choir and organ sets three verses from Psalm 66, and opens with a long cappella section on the word jauchzt, ‘rejoice.’ At this point, the organ enters with an extensive solo involving a massive dynamic intensification, after which choir and organ continue together in music which makes the concept of contrast a determining element. As the title signals, the organ work Hell und dunkel (Light and Darkness) also explores contrasts, especially in terms of color and brightness. Composed in 1976, the work is the earliest on the disc, and it is followed by the large-scale Sonnengesang, written some twenty years later and dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich. The choir sings the words of St. Francis of Assisi’s celebrated Canticle of the sun, but it is the solo cello that is responsible for interpreting the meaning of the text. The important solo part is performed here by Ivan Monighetti, in dialogue with the eminent NDR Chor of the North German Radio, and with the support of percussionists from Elbtonal Percussion. Philipp Ahmann conducts this work as well as Jauchzt vor Gott, with Christian Schmitt performing the organ parts.

Christian Schmitt, organ
Ivan Monighetti, cello
Elbtonal Percussion
NDR Chor
Philipp Ahmann, direction

Christian Schmitt
Following invitations from the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation, Lucerne Festival, Salzburg Festival, and Cologne’s Philharmonic Hall, ECHO winner Christian Schmitt (b. 1976) has gone on to become one of the most sought-after concert organists of his generation. He studied church music (»A-Examen«) and concert performance (with distinction) in Saarbrücken and organ with James David Christie (Boston) and Daniel Roth (Paris). He received scholarships from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and won more than ten national and international organ and music competitions held in Atlanta, Bruges, Calgary, Philadelphia, Tokyo, and elsewhere as well as the German Music Competition in 2001. In 2003 he was awarded the »Pro Europa« soloist’s prize of the European Cultural Foundation.

Christian Schmitt concertizes around the globe – with European performances at venues such as the KKL in Lucerne, Tonhalle in Zurich, Philharmonic Hall and Konzerthaus in Berlin, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and Konzerthaus in Vienna. He performs with orchestras such as the Bamberg Symphony – Bavarian State Philharmonic and the Beethoven Hall Orchestra of Bonn and with leading radio orchestras (BR, NDR, MDR, SR, and RSB). The artists with whom he has performed include Juiane Banse, Sibylla Rubens, Martin Grubinger, Michael Gielen, Wen-Sinn Yang, Reinhard Goebel, Roy Goodman, Christoph Poppen, Sir Roger Norrington, and Marek Janowksi.

During the 2012 season Schmitt will make his debut at the Salzburg Festival (duo with Magdalena Kozená). Further highlights during this season will include his appearance as a soloist with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra at a concert celebrating its hundredth anniversary and a solo matinee with a premiere (Martin Herchenröder, b. 1961) at the Konzerthaus in Berlin. While holding an interim professorship at the Stuttgart College of Music, Schmitt taught Prof. Jürgen Essl’s organ class during the summer academic term in 2011. Furthermore, he is an instructor at the Bach International Academy in Stuttgart and teaches at the Saar College of Music. He regularly serves as a visiting instructor at music schools in Boston, Cremona, Oslo, Mexico, Moscow, Seoul, Tashkent, and (repeatedly) Bogotá. He is a member of the juries of the »Jugend musiziert« national youth competition, the »Soli Deo Gloria« competition in Moscow, and the German Music Competition.

Schmitt’s discography comprises more than thirty-five CD recordings featuring solo performances and live recordings for all the member radio stations of the German ARD network. With his recordings of modern, scientific complete editions of the works of G. F. Handel (ed. T. Koopman) and F. X. Brixi (Butz-Verlag) he encourages the development of organ playing combining the findings of musicological research and musical practice. Most recently, he recorded a number of works by Charles-Marie Widor for organ and orchestra with the Bamberg Symphony– Bavarian State Philharmonic. He is working on complete recordings of Koechlin, Widor, Gubaidulina, and Pachelbel (ed. M. Belotti) for the cpo label. He performed several works by Liszt and the members of his circle with the soprano Juliane Banse and the cellist Wen-Sinn Yang for a music film presented on ARTE in 2011 on the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Since 2011 Christian Schmitt has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation, serving as its organ consultant.

This album contains no booklet.