Beschreibung

The CD “Anima mundi” brings together works that explore expression, memory and musical identity in Central Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, whilst also building a bridge to the present day. A field of tension emerges between late Romanticism, the experience of emigration in the 1930s and contemporary reflection, within which individual voices, literary references and musical traditions enter into dialogue with one another.

These recordings are live performances from the most recent opening concerts of the Allegro Vivo Festival. Alongside Gustav Mahler’s ‘Songs of a Wayfarer’, performed by baritone Manuel Walser, Walter Kaufmann’s ‘Fantasy for Violin and String Orchestra’ and Miklós Rózsa’s ‘Concerto for String Orchestra, Op. 17’, the recording also documents the world premiere from the 2025 opening concert: In the single-movement double concerto ‘Ein wilder Apfelbaum will ich werden’ by Philipp Manuel Gutmann, passages from poems by the poet Attila József were used as starting points for musical moods and contrasting fragments which, despite their contrasts, form a coherent, organically flowing work. The different ‘temperaments’ unfold in a multi-hued dialogue between the two solo instruments – the violin and the cimbalom – and the string orchestra.