Michael Mantler - Songs And One Symphony (2000)

“One Symphony”, commissioned by German Radio and conducted with sensitivity by Peter Rundel, is contrasted here with settings of Ernst Meister texts performed by the Chamber Music and Songs Ensemble which Michael Mantler formed soon after relocating to Copenhagen in the early 1990s. The Ensemble features singer Mona Larsen and guitarist Bjarne Roupé, best known for his contribution to Miles Davis’s “Aura”. The stark and impressive “One symphony” is modestly described by its composer: “The basic concept was ‘symphony’ in its most elementary form – simply the utilisation of a relatively large number and variety of instruments to perform musical materials organised to create a larger whole with a logical continuity. There is no programmatic content or message. It should exist as a piece of pure music, leaving the listeners to arrive at their own emotional interpretations. The neutral title was chosen for that reason as well as to suggest it being one of many possible symphonies.”