GRETE VON ZIERITZ (1899-2001):   Japanische Lieder fiir Sopran und Kammerorchester (1919) (Japanese Songs for soprano and chamber orchestra); Le Violon de la Mort (Danses macabres), Duo concertante fiir Violine, Klavier und groBes Orchester (1953/57) (Le Violon de la Mort (Danses macabres), Duo concertante for violin, piano and large orchestra) - Entrée. Mit rhythmischer Vehemenz, Marche des Ombres. Nicht zu schnell, Valse. Langsam, etwas gravitatisch abgezirkeltbeginnen....., Lamentation. Langsam und trauri, Cancan phantastique. Allegro. Doppelkonzert fiir zwei Trompeten und Orchester (1975) (Double Concerto for two trumpets and orchestra) Sophie Klussmann, Sopran / soprano;   Nina Karmon, Violine / violin;   Oliver Triendl, Klavier / piano;   Jeroen Berwaerts + Andre Schoch, Trompeten / trumpets; Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie; Jakob Brenner, Dirigent / conductor.   20.98

Description: This CD - significantly only the second dedicated exclusively to von Zieritz - presents a longitudinal section of her oeuvre. It begins with the Japanese Songs, written in 1919, here in the version for soprano and chamber orchestra from the 1980s. The centrepiece is Le Violon de la Mort, composed in 1953 for violin and piano and arranged for violin, piano and orchestra in 1957, as well as the trumpet double concerto of 1975, the final piece and, as it were, a satyr play. Like Hans Bethge's collection Die chinesische Flöte (The Chinese Flute) from 1907, the poetic model of the Japanese Songs belongs to the context of interest in exotic art of the fin de siècle. Gustav Mahler made Bethge's poems the basis for a large symphonic work; Grete von Zieritz took the opposite approach with the Japanese Songs. These are a kaleidoscopic sequence of the briefest miniatures. It would hardly be possible to do otherwise, since the Japanese models are not song texts in the European sense, but poetically condensed sayings that defy conventional song settings. Aphoristic brevity was the order of the day.