Friedrich Cerha Boulanger Trio

• Friedrich Cerha (1926): Fünf Säˆtze für Klaviertrio / Five Movements for Piano Trio:
• 1 Cerha: 5 Movements for Piano Trio: No. 1, Parabola 02:50
• 2 Cerha: 5 Movements for Piano Trio: No. 2, Malinconia enigmatica 03:58
• 3 Cerha: 5 Movements for Piano Trio: No. 3, Scherzo spettrale 03:46
• 4 Cerha: 5 Movements for Piano Trio: No. 4, Elegie 05:26
• 5 Cerha: 5 Movements for Piano Trio: No. 5, Stretta 03:04
• Rhapsodie pour Violon et Piano / Rhapsody for Violin and Piano:
• 6 Cerha: Rhapsody 08:26
• Drei Stücke für Violoncello und Klavier / Three Pieces for Cello and Piano:
• 7 Cerha: 3 Pieces for Cello and Piano: No. 1, Crotchet 03:06
• 8 Cerha: 3 Pieces for Cello and Piano: No. 2, Exact / Fastidious 02:42
• 9 Cerha: 3 Pieces for Cello and Piano: No. 3, Rushed / Hurried 02:00
• Sechs Inventionen für Violine und Violoncello / Six Inventions for Violin and Cello:
• 10 Cerha: 6 Inventions for Violin and Cello: No. 1, getragen 04:11
• 11 Cerha: 6 Inventions for Violin and Cello: No. 2, Energico - ma pocco leggero - non troppo marcato 01:14
• 12 Cerha: 6 Inventions for Violin and Cello: No. 3, Zart 02:28
• 13 Cerha: 6 Inventions for Violin and Cello: No. 4, Gespentisch huschend 03:43
• 14 Cerha: 6 Inventions for Violin and Cello: No. 5 05:15
• 15 Cerha: 6 Inventions for Violin and Cello: No. 6 01:49
• Nachtstück, aus / from:
• 16 Cerha: Nachtstück 05:01
• Total Runtime 58:59

Info for Friedrich Cerha

Friedrich Cerha’s output has solid roots in an extended musical tradition, while spanning a wide arc from the beginnings of new music all the way to the present. This is not only due to the composer’s respectable age, but primarily to the great number of activities he has pursued in the course of his long life, along with the great variety of influences he has incorporated into his work. At the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music in 1956, he attended seminars given by violinist Rudolf Kolisch and pianist Eduard Steuermann, who had prepared performances of works by Schoenberg, Berg and Webern in collaboration with the composers themselves. Cerha passed on this firsthand knowledge to the next generations in his numerous articles, in his post as Professor for Composition, Notation and Interpretation of New Music at the Musikakademie (which became the Vienna Conservatory of Music), in his performances as a violinist, and last not least as a conductor of ensembles, orchestras and operas, much in demand on the international new music scene.

Cerha then opened up his music to influences from other continents, such as polyrhythm and microtonality. In maqam (1989), the first of four string quartets, he used Arabian scales with quarter-tones and corresponding complex rhythms. Starting with Catalogue des objets trouvés (1969) and fully with the composition of the Brecht-based opera Baal (1974–80), Cerha’s style started featuring direct links with traditional expression, melodiousness, harmony and structures ranging from the Baroque Age to the early 20th century. His most recent duo and trio pieces pay homage to Bach, Berg, Schoenberg and to his own previous works, including a series of direct quotes. Rooted in tradition yet entirely at home in the present, Friedrich Cerha’s music certainly builds new kinds of bridges. Yet these are no flimsy constructions dangerously suspended over a yawning chasm; instead, his pieces are like sturdy viaducts with several arches firmly planted in different varieties of soil.

Boulanger Trio:
Karla Haltenwanger, piano
Birgit Erz, violin
Ilona Kindt, cello

Boulanger Trio
The German newspaper Die Welt described a performance of the Boulanger Trio as “irresistible”, while Wolfgang Rihm wrote in a letter: “To be interpreted in this way is surely the great dream of every composer.”

Formed in Hamburg in 2006 by Karla Haltenwanger (piano), Birgit Erz (violin) and Ilona Kindt (cello), the trio is now based in Berlin. Already in 2007 the ensemble won the 4th Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition in Norway, followed by the Rauhe Prize for Modern Chamber Music in 2008. The ensemble has received crucial musical guidance from Hatto Beyerle, Menahem Pressler and Alfred Brendel.

In the past years, the trio has gained an excellent reputation in the world of chamber music, and it was invited to prestigious venues such as Konzerthaus Berlin, Festspielhaus Baden‐Baden, Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels, Wigmore Hall London and Philharmonie Berlin. The musicians also regularly appear at festivals like the Schleswig‐Holstein Musik Festival, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Dialoge at Mozarteum Salzburg, Ultraschall in Berlin and the Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker.

In addition to works of the classical and romantic period, the commitment to contemporary music is an important focus within the trio’s repertoire. The ensemble is collaborating with some of today’s foremost composers including Wolfgang Rihm, Johannes Maria Staud, Friedrich Cerha, Toshio Hosokawa and Matthias Pintscher. They also regularly appear with chamber music partners like Nils Mönkemeyer, viola and Sebastian Manz, clarinet. In 2011, the trio started its own concert series, the Boulangerie, in Hamburg and Berlin. At every one of these concerts, a classical composition is performed alongside a piece of contemporary music. The composer of the contemporary work is always present at the concert and talks with the three musicians about his or her oeuvre.

The range of the Boulanger Trio’s wide repertoire has been documented on five CDs: their latest recording of works by Ludwig van Beethoven was released in July 2014 on Hänssler Profil and has already won Pizzicato magazine’sSupersonic Award. It features alongside the Trios in G major Op. 121a, “Kakadu Variations” and B-flat major Op. 97 “Erzherzog”, the Trio Movement in B-flat major WOO 39. Also released on Hänssler Profil were the 2012 CD with compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich and Peteris Vasks, which was also awarded a Supersonic, and the 2011 recording of works by Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt and Arnold Schoenberg, which won the Excellentia Award in Luxembourg. Two earlier recordings featuring works by Robert and Clara Schumann, Camille Saint‐Saëns, Gabriel Fauré, Wolfgang Rihm and the German first recording of Lili Boulanger’s works appeared on the label ARS Produktion.

The ensemble is named after the sisters Nadia and Lili Boulanger, whose exceptional personalities and uncompromising devotion to music continue to be a great source of inspiration to the trio.

Booklet for Friedrich Cerha