in the realms of the unreal

A programme note by Stefan Drees is available on request at [email protected]

“Olga Neuwirth’s in the realms of the unreal – a homage to the American artist Henry Darger – ventures out of the academic cover: with a score of highlighted contrasts and unhoped-for turns, just as one has come to expect from the Austrian composer; with a density and keenness and also a depth of sharpness that always lay and conceive several layers of tonal fabric on top of one another. Especially touching are its threadbare, or rather transparent passages that, now in clear-as-glass sequences, now in sensual kinetic motion, let one sense something of the beauty and fragility, of the inner song that once inspired the genre.” (Christine Lemke-Matwey, Der Tagesspiegel, 25 Mar 2010)