Das Augenlicht

Das Augenlicht, for mixed chorus and orchestra, op. 26 Christiane Oelze - Soprano Gerald Finley - Bass BBC Singers Berliner Philharmoniker Pierre Boulez *From the Deutsche Grammophon CD "Boulez conducts Webern III" (1996) "This work, a setting of the poetry of Hildegard Jone, is a very powerful cantata for mixed chorus and small orchestra. The tone is awestruck and nervous at the beginning, eventually working its way to a serene ending. The makeup of the orchestra is very finely chosen, including such exotic instruments as the saxophone and mandolin along with small complements of most of the usual strings, winds, and percussion.The harmonic idiom is that of tone-row atonality. Throughout this work the composer gets optimal expressivity out of interlocking two- and three-note gestures and frequent, finely wrought changes of instrumentation. Quiet passages are prone to sudden, sharp intrusions. On one level the chorus declaims the text sensitively and dramatically, with music that is appropriate to its expressivity. On another level the music seems to ignore the words, as there is no word-painting anywhere." (From Allmusic.)