Lever-kühn

The renowned Polish composer Ryszard Gabryś is a professor at the Academy of Music in Katowice and the University of Silesia in Cieszyn, as well as director of the Institute for Music Education, which he founded. He is also the author of numerous musicological and journalistic texts, as well as music series for Polish radio and television.
In his new work «Leverkühns letzter Sprechgesang» or baritone and four instruments (world premiere), Gabryś refers to the charismatic figure of Adrian Leverkühn from Thomas Mann's novel «Doctor Faustus», a fictional biography of a composer inspired by contemporary artistic personalities such as Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schönberg and Alban Berg. The title of the new work contains a further reference to Schönberg, the «inventor» of sprechgesang.

His son Aleksander Gabryś has been a double bass player with the Phoenix Ensemble since 2001 and has been active as a composer for many years. The Phoenix Ensemble has commissioned him to write a piece for the next season. He writes about his planned work:
«Rio, mein Rio» is a musical journey – a tribute to the forces that fuel my musical imagination. At its heart is the double bass – my Leviathan, my companion since my youth, both unruly and familiar. It is also a thank you to my Ensemble Phoenix Basel, with whom I have been associated for a quarter of a century and who invited me to write this opus. Like little Mio in Astrid Lindgren's 1954 story, this piece leaves the familiar behind and enters another world – carried by fusion reminiscences, microtonal scales and chamber music dialogues. For me, the character of Mio is also inextricably linked to the as yet unperformed opera Mio, mein Mio (1969–72) by Constantin Regamey (1907–1982) – that fascinating composer, linguistic genius and thinker with whom my father once studied composition. In a cadence that the double bass chews through like an inner cleansing, everything culminates in a cosmic vibration [...] And finally, there is the name Rio, the river that recently entered my life [...]. May my piece sound like this: optimistic, full of movement and quiet hope.» (Aleksander Gabryś – 2025)

In his work «Dispersion» for qānūn and ensemble, Iranian composer Arash Yazdani uses texts from Iranian poetry, Martin Luther and Laozi. These texts are sources of inspiration for the qānūn player, who interprets them on his instrument. The soloist is supposed to meditate on these verses and apply their rhythm and intonation to the musical lines. Some melodic figures are taken from the traditional repertoire of Iranian music (Radif). The term «dispersion» comes from physics and describes the scattering of a wave which, when it encounters a medium, splits into its constituent parts and thus into different phase velocities. The ensemble forms a continuous flow of melodic lines and harmonic structures consisting of pulsating beats and combination tones.

With

Antoin Herrera-López Kessel (baritone solo); Aleksander Gabryś (double bass solo); Ensemble Phoenix Basel; Jürg Henneberger (Musical Director)

Program

Ryszard Gabryś (*1942): «Leverkühns letzter Sprechgesang» (based on texts by Thomas Mann) (2024–25, world premiere, Mission EPhB) for baritone and 4 instruments

Arash Yazdani (*1985): «Dispersion» (2016) for qānūn and ensemble

Aleksander Gabryś (*1974): «Rio, mein Rio» (2025, world premiere, Mission EPhB) for double bass and ensemble

Info

7:00 p.m. Concert introduction with the composers and Jürg Henneberger

Duration

70 minutes, no break

Links

→ ensemble-phoenix.ch