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WERGO Releases Chaya Czernowin's The Quiet: Works for Orchestra

Oct. 04, 2016

WERGO Releases Chaya Czernowin's <em>The Quiet: Works for Orchestra</em>

WERGO Records has released a monumental new album—The Quiet—featuring premiere recordings of several major orchestral works by Chaya Czernowin including The Quiet, Zohar Iver and Esh, as well as White Wind Waiting, for guitar and orchestra, and At the fringe of our gaze, for orchestra and concertino group. The album represents Czernowin’s second WERGO portrait recording following Shifting Gravity from 2011.

The Quiet, Zohar Iver, and Esh [the Hebrew word for "fire"] form a group of works which Chaya Czernowin calls "The Crescendo Trilogy". The composer states: "In retrospect, I see all these orchestral works as a kind of corridor through which I arrived at a new path." This "new path" marked Czernowin’s shift toward a musical language in which space and gesture became the focus of compositional interest, as did the discovery of processes for musical movement and an accompanying change in perspective.

At the Fringe of our Gaze, for orchestra and a concertino group, was written in response to a commission from the Lucerne Festival and Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. It is music consisting of highly differentiated layers of sound, which rise from the depths and ascend to the highest heights. The work—with which Czernowin wanted to introduce her music to the orchestra’s young musicians—is intended to focus on border areas of perception. White Wind Waiting, for guitar and orchestra, was also a commission from the Lucerne Festival for Czernowin's festival residency in 2013.

The recordings represent a wide range of orchestras, conductors, and performers including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with conductor Brad Lubman, the Bern Symphony Orchestra with Ensemble Nikel and conductor Mario Venzago, countertenor Kai Wessel with Philharmonisches Orchester des Staatstheaters Cottbus and conductor Evan Christ, guitarist Stephan Schmidt with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg and conductor François-Xavier Roth, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with conductor Daniel Barenboim. 

As diverse as Czernowin’s creative phases are, there has always been in her musical language a distinctive way of working with the characteristics of individual sounds, developed with the most refined rhythmic, coloristic, and sonic nuances; there is also a deliberate search for emotional extremes, which always give the pieces a physical and existential power.

The album will be available on October 28 from amazon.com and other major retailers. 

For more information on Chaya Czernowin, visit schott-music.com. 

Chaya Czernowin
The Quiet (The Crescendo Trilogy Part I) (2010)
for large orchestra divided into three groups
4.4.2.2bcl.2.2cbsn-6.4.2.2btbn.1-3perc-str(14.12.10.8.6)
11’

Zohar Iver (blind radiance) (The Crescendo Trilogy Part II) (2011)
for ensemble and orchestra divided into three groups
ensemble: sax – perc-egtr.pno
group I: 3fl(3.pic.).2ob-2tp-20vn
group II: ca.2cl-2hn.2tbn-8va.8vc
group III: bcl.2bsn.cbsn-2hn.btbn.tba-6db-timp.3perc
16’

Esh (Fire) (The Crescendo Trilogy Part III) (2012)
for orchestra with countertenor
solo group: ca.cl.asax
orchestra: 4(4pic).2.0.bcl.barsax.2.cbsn-1.4wagnertb.4.3.btbn.0-4perc-hp.cemb.harm.pno.org-str
10’

White Wind Waiting (2013)
for guitar and orchestra
2.2.3(3.bcl).2-4.2.3(3.btbn).0-3perc-hp.pno-str(12.10.8.6.4)
19’

At the fringe of our gaze (2012-2013)
for orchestra and concertino group
orchestra: 4.4.4.4(4.cbsn)-4.3.3(3.btbn).1-2perc-str
concertino: cl-1perc-pno-vn.va.vc.
21' 

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