Fortmann: Song Cycles

Contemporary Swiss composer Thomas Fortmann presents his new album, "Lieder Zyklen" (Song Cycles). These works, which include settings of poems and texts by authors such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Christian Haller, Prolitheus Pfenninger, and Fortmann himself for voice and piano trio, testify to the composer's versatile and unusual style, which blends postmodern music, serial techniques, rock, and jazz. Swiss tenor Tino Brütsch and Swiss soprano Nuria Richner perform alongside the Trio Accademia Amiata and a soloist trio consisting of Malwina Sosnowski (violin), Donitille Jordan (cello), and Talvi Hunt (piano). The album also features Fortmann's tribute to Schubert's "Winterreise," and his arrangement of this iconic song cycle for baritone and string quartet is powerfully interpreted by Florian Prey, son of the great German baritone Hermann Prey, together with the Amar Quartett. Fortmann's setting of the fascinating poem "Am Ende des Flurs, 4. Stock" ("At the End of the Hall, 4th Floor") by his close friend, the Swiss literary prize winner Christian Haller, is followed by "Hofmannsthal Verse." Fortmann set these poems to music in his 20s as rock songs, as he was moved by their linguistic power and their social and political statements. "Geschichten" ("Stories") are concise, short songs that intertwine the timeline of a love affair with that of human history and the dimensions of the cosmos. The "Prolitheus Lieder" ("Prolitheus Songs") are based on emails from the extraordinary visual artist Prolitheus Pfenninger. Schubert was the favorite composer of Fortmann's mother, a well-known soprano – she often sang his lieder to him and his sisters, and the empathetic emotions of the music find a deep resonance. The tribute to Schubert's "Winterreise," "Der Süsse Ton" ("The Sweet Tone"), is Fortmann's setting of a text collage by Joachim Ringelnatz, who often referred to Schubert in his poetry, text passages by Eduard von Bauernfeld about Schubert's funeral, and excerpts from poems by Schubert himself.