Kurtag: Kafka Fragments for Soprano & Violin Op.24

シフとのドビュッシー＆モーツァルト：歌曲集(4618992)でECMデビューを果たし、大絶賛を浴びたユリアーネ・バンゼ。少々時間があきましたが、二作目が届きました。今回は前作とは対極とも言えるクルターク作品。幻想的でいて不安と絶対的孤独感に満ちた作風で知られるカフカの詞に、音数が非常に少ないクルタークが音楽をつけたというだけで、大宇宙の真ん中にひとり浮遊しているような世界を思い起こさせます。これを、絶大な表現力とネイティヴであるドイツ語歌唱ができるバンゼがどう表現するか、大変楽しみなアルバムです。もちろん、クルタークの直弟子として知られるケラーのヴァイオリンも必聴！ケラーSQにおいて、数々の名演名盤を世に送り出してきた名手による“音”にご注目下さい。

Anyone familiar with Gyorgy Kurtag's practices will probably expect his Kafka-Fragmente, Op. 24 (1985-1986), to be another of his open-ended works, pieces that exist in a state of potential revision that are intermittently subjected to changes. Yet for all its looseness of design and apparent mutability -- one can easily imagine these extremely short movements rearranged in several different orders and for various instruments -- this setting for soprano and violin of phrases from Franz Kafka's letters and diaries is complete and unlikely to be configured in any other version. Kurtag himself was surprised to find that his initial sketches for the work were appropriately gnomic in expression and economical in instrumentation, and he decided that he needed nothing more than the sparsest materials to communicate the essence of these fragile, epigrammatic texts. Soprano Juliane Banse and violinist Andras Keller are fully attuned to Kurtag's miniaturist language and exacting techniques, and their delivery of Kafka-Fragmente is meticulous and convincing under the composer's close supervision. Not that this is easy music to penetrate, least of all in one sitting: the combination of Kafka's melancholy visions and Kurtag's terse, gestural style can be daunting for the uninitiated, if not depressing; and the extended vocal and instrumental effects are occasionally harsh and irritating. This moody piece is recommended for Kurtag's fervent admirers and adventurous listeners with a liking for expressionist monodramas, but not for a much wider audience. ECM's reproduction is splendid, so Banse and Keller are clearly heard in all details, with a resonance that adds a spectral sheen to their eerie sonorities.