Poetry from the Middle East is mirrored in the music by Klaus Hinrich Stahmer: The "speech music" of this artistic union of poet and composer was written by the Lebanese lyricist, philosopher and translator Fuad Rifka. The Arabian recitations of this year's winner of the Goethe Medal Rifka are complemented by the sounds of the Arabian zither qanun, frame drum and piano.

Rifka's poems evoke memories of the time before the great exodus, they speak of the pain of the lonely old man who stayed. Stahmer's compositions incorporated between the recitations are as hard and relentless as the poem's message; the lines and chords of the musical pieces superbly recreated by Gilbert Yammine (qanun), Murat Çoskun (frame drum) and Pi-Hsien Chen (piano) are as rich as the phonetic material of the Lebanese. The work is completed by the German translations of the texts which are brilliantly read by Horst Mendroch. A production characterized by magical Oriental sounds and a natural joy of playing.

 

„Gesänge eines Holzsammlers“ is a release of artist.cd, the label for artists of all genres of contemporary music which is open to artists of avant-garde music. artist.cd unites artistic audio and video productions (CD and DVD) of all technical platforms currently available and is open to further technical developments of the formats. Further information at: www.artistcd.de