MARTIN Ein Totentanz zu Basel im Jahre 1943
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Frank Martin
Genre:
Vocal
Label: CPO
Magazine Review Date: 10/2016
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 66
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CPO777 997-2
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Ein Totentanz zu Basel im Jahre 1943 |
Frank Martin, Composer
ARMAB Orchestra Bastiaan Blomhert, Conductor Breda Sacraments Choir Christine von Arx, Percussion Edith Habraken, Percussion Eduard Grass-Hass , Percussion Frank Martin, Composer Geoffrey Douglas Madge, Piano Hineni String Orchestra |
Author: Peter Quantrill
The Totentanz frescoes across Europe showed a grim processional in which Death came serially to people without regard to age or state of life. Thomas Adès drew on the most famous set, in Lübeck, to fashion a song-cycle (2013) for soprano, baritone and huge orchestra. Martin’s form and forces are more disparate. A youth chorus intones Lutheran chorales over a lugubrious string accompaniment. A trio of Basel drums make periodic interruptions. When Death meets the Athlete, the Suicide, the Mother and so on, a jazz band strikes up, of clarinets, saxophones, brass and piano playing neo-classical dances and off beat marches.
There is a promisingly black humour to the premise of such a Mortality Revue – and a rueful glance back towards the Weimar Republic and more carefree times – but the reality is disappointingly prosaic. A solo trombone attempts a brief elegy over a Young Girl but the melodies are largely short and undistinguished, the counterpoint grey and effortful. Full justice is done to the notes by mixed ensembles from Portugal, the Netherlands and the composer’s native Basel but the experience on CD, unsupported by staging, is too piecemeal to satisfy an audience wider than Martin devotees.
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