Various Artists - Musica viva, Vol. 42 (2023) Hi-Res

The new musica viva CD vol. 42 by BR-KLASSIK is dedicated to the composer Klaus Ospald and his works "Más raíz, menos criatura" (from Remote Fields III) and "Quintet from Remote Fields". "Más raíz, menos criatura" is the live recording of a concert from November 2019 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz, the recording of the "Quintet from the remote fields" was made in May 2019 in the laboratory for fluid mechanics and hydraulic machines at the Coburg University.

Born in Münster/Westphalia in 1956, Klaus Ospald is one of the most renowned German composers of contemporary music. He studied composition in Detmold and Würzburg, also as a master student with Helmut Lachenmann. His works are performed by internationally renowned performers and orchestras. Important organizers and festivals of contemporary music organize world premieres of his works. Klaus Ospald has received numerous awards, most recently the International Hanns Eisler Scholarship from the City of Leipzig 2022.

The ten-part composition "Más raíz, menos criatura" (German: "More roots than man") ("Remote Fields III") for orchestra, piano and eight-part chamber choir based on the poem "El niño yuntero" (German: "The child as Zugtier”) by Miguel Hernández was created in 2014/15 and revised in 2017. Ospald created it as a commission from SWR for the ECLAT Festival 2017. It had its world premiere at the ECLAT Festival on February 5, 2017 in the Theaterhaus Stuttgart, with Yukiko Sugawara (piano), the SWR Vocal Ensemble and the SWR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Rundel . The composition is part of a triad of works that Ospald wrote between 2012 and 2016 and summarized under the title "Distant Fields".

The bundling of works of different physiognomy is a basic feature of Ospald's work: musical content is more important to him than practical performance standards or genre conventions. They determine the form and structure of the works. They reflect the awareness of a critical contemporary who has retained his independence as an artist and as a person and who uncompromisingly defends the rights of the individual.

The eight-part "Quintet from the remote fields" for string trio, clarinet, piano and live electronics was commissioned by the SWR Experimentalstudio in 2012/13 and revised in 2014. It had its premiere (without live electronics) on May 31, 2014 in the SWR Studio Freiburg, Schlossbergsaal with the Ensemble Experimental and its premiere with live electronics on October 3, 2015 at the same place by the same ensemble, with live electronic realization the SWR experimental studio. It was important to Ospald that extended sounds become an integral part of the composition and have their space. This type of live electronics requires a sound director during the performance who – like the musicians – “plays” this live electronics from the score.