1. Preludio      
2. Act I            
3. Act II           
4. Act III    
5. Act IV    

Wesener, ein Galanteriehändler: Frode Olsen (bs)
Marie, seine Tochter: Claudia Barainsky (s)
Charlotte, seine Tochter: Lani Poulson (mz)
Weseners alte Mutter: Hebe Dijkstra (a)
Stolzius, Tuchhändler: Michael Kraus (br)
Stolzius’ Mutter: Kathryn Harries (a)
Obrist, Graf von Spannheim: Marek Gasztecki (bs)
Desportes, ein Edelmann: Tom Randle (t)
Pirzel, ein Hauptmann: Alexander Kravets (t)
Eisenhardt, ein Feldprediger: Urban Malmberg (bs)
Haudy, Offizier: Adrian Clarke (br)
Mary, Offizier: Kay Stiefermann (bs)
Drei junge Offiziere: Jeroen de Vaal (t), Brian Galliford (t), Pascal Pittie (t)
Die Gräfin de la Roche: Helen Field (s)
Der junge Graf, ihr Sohn: Christian Baumgärtel (t)
Der Bediente der Gräfin: Brian Galliford (t)
Der junge Fähnrich: Niklaus Kost (bs)
Der betrunkene Offizier: Erik Slik (t)

Vocaal Ensemble & Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest
Hartmut Haenchen – conductor

De Nederlandse Opera, Muziektheater Amsterdam 20.XI.2010
Direct FM-broadcast Radio 4 (NL)

The tragic drama of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's first and only opera, Die Soldaten (The Soldiers) (1957-1960), is undoubtedly linked to the time he spent in military service, which interrupted his studies at the Cologne Musikhochschule and the universities of Cologne and Bonn. This work has been proclaimed the most significant German opera since Berg's Lulu, and is ranked as one of the musical landmarks of the twentieth century. When Zimmermann began the piece in 1957, he had just started as professor of composition and as chair of the department of radio, film, and stage music at the Cologne Musikhochschule. The following year Die Soldaten was formally commissioned by the Cologne Opera, where it eventually had its premiere nearly ten years later.

Conceptually, Die Soldaten was born in the middle of the 1950s, when Zimmerman was considering writing an opera setting of Ben Jonson's Volpone; however, this text was discarded and attention was given to J.M.R. Lenz's Soldaten, which Manfred Gurlitt had explored in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Zimmermann found himself respectfully drawn to the way the text explored how fundamentally honest, ordinary people could be destroyed by certain situations and the strength of others. Essentially, it was a drama of social criticism and class conflict, which made a disturbing statement about the entire postwar generation, while offering a metaphor for the modern world. In his own libretto, Zimmermann condensed the lengthy text into four acts and poured in his hatred of the culture of militarism as he depicted the atrocities of the Second World War. In this well planned, formally structured, pluralist "collage," scenes are staged at different levels or angles simultaneously; the original concept had involved 12 acting areas, each with its own instrumental ensemble. In addition, several layers of multi-media, including video and electronic tape, merged together at once, within a combination of jazz, music, language, dance, pantomime, and circus. The work incorporates 40 roles, but the focus is on Marie, a young girl who is degraded in the hands of a corrupt and egotistical military aristocracy. It reflects the influence of Berg, Bach, Mozart, Debussy, Dante, Dostoevsky, Aeschylus, Joyce, Pound, Mayakovsky, and the medieval Catholic philosophy.

Despite its title, Zimmermann's Die Soldaten centers not around the soldiers in the story, but the young woman, Marie. Over the course of four acts -- deployed, after the manner of Berg's Wozzeck, as a series of traditional instrumental forms (ciacona, ricercare, toccata, etc.) -- Marie transforms from a lovestruck girl to a woman of tarnished reputation, to a prostitute, and, finally, a beggar.

When Zimmerman first presented Die Soldaten to the Cologne Opera, it was rejected as technically impossible. Between 1963 and 1964, the composer reduced the dramatic dimensions and trimmed the forces to create an acceptable simplified version. The first appearance of the opera took place in Cologne on February 15, 1965, conducted by Michael Gielen and directed by Hans Neugebauer. It was performed for the first time in America, in Boston, in 1982, where it was conducted by Sarah Caldwell, and in 1991 it was staged by the New York City Opera under Christopher Keene and Rhoda Levine. In Die Soldaten, Zimmermann succeeded in showing how separate and synchronous dramatic strands could effectively portray the monstrous dehumanizing effects of war. --- Meredith Gailey, Rovi

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1.  Concerto Pour Violoncelle Et Orchestre En Forme De "Pas De Trois"
     Introductione-Allegro-Adagio-Tempo di Marcia-Blues e Coda
2.  Photoptosis - Prélude Für Großes Orchester
3.  Tratto II

Siegfried Palm - cello
Sinfonieorchester Des Südwestfunks, Baden-Baden
Ernest Bour – conductor

Radio-Symphonie-Orchester, Berlin
Hans Zender – conductor (2)

With studio reihe neuer musik , WERGO created a trademark of advanced contemporary music in the 1960s. Some of these important recordings have not been available on CD until now. On the occasion of its anniversary, the label now releases gems from the early days of its 50-year history: highlights of 20th-century music history which have lost nothing of their topicality and liveliness, in standard-setting recordings of great performers and audiophile sound quality. This series starts with a CD of works by Bernd Alois Zimmermann. His complex pluralistic style fuses past, present and future into a musical unit of the highest order. The Concerto pour violoncelle et orchestre en forme de Pas de trios created in the late 1960s develops its binding power from a single musical nucleus; Tratto II and Photoptosis represent Zimmermann's compositional opening of time and space. The recordings were originally published on LP in 1972 (WERGO, WER 60062) and have been awarded the Grand Prix du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros. ---amazon.com

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