Premiere of Oehring's Das BLAUMEER in Munich
(July 2003)
Composer Helmut Oehring achieved a notable success with the world première of his most recent work, Das BLAUMEER (aus: Einkehrtag) for soli, full orchestra and live-electronics. The performance was part of Bavarian Radio’s "Musica Viva" concert series and took place in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz on 11 July. Oehring’s composition, which is his largest symphonic work to date, was performed by soloists Arno Raunig, Bill Forman and Jörg Wilkendorf and by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Martyn Brabbins.
In Das BLAUMEER, Helmut Oehring again treats the subjects at the centre of most of his works: the impossibility of communicating, violation through speech, and the loss of security and identity. With his preferred perspective, half-documentary and half-narrative ("my wish is to compose a kind of melodramatic docu-drama"), Oehring here focuses on the widely unknown suffering of missing children, thousands of whom are currently reported in Germany alone. The score’s preface lists the names of about 80 children and youngsters, aged from two to 32, who are missing without any trace. Furthermore, the composition, lasting approximately half an hour, refers musically to Franz Schubert’s setting of Schmidt von Lübeck’s poem Der Wanderer.
"How exciting and comforting at the same time: in spite of all festival highlights and Star appearances, concerts like this still fill the concert houses. On a lucky evening, one can be part of truly astonishing musical experiences thanks to the Munich avant-garde series of Musica Viva with the Bavarian Radio Symphony. Such was the case with the season’s finale, with conductor Martyn Brabbins and sparkling musical surprises, including a first performance by Helmut Oehring...
"Das BLAUMEER was the title of the work commissioned from Oehring, and it seems to be among the German composer's most captivating pieces. A muted trumpet, often whispering in a jazzy manner, a flickering and subtly murmuring guitar, a vast orchestra, becoming an ocean of sounds above which a rude thunder of percussion can suddenly burst out, and from which, progressively winding its way, emerges a delicate male soprano voice (Arno Raunig), finally citing Schubert’s Wanderer. A fascinating kaleidoscope of memories and free associations, highly complex and sensual."
Abendzeitung München
"With the sound effects in this piece, Oehring offers a level of invention matched by few other composers. The work was rough, unprotected, painfully delivering itself into our hands..." Süddeutsche Zeitung
Helmut Oehring’s complete music theatre output is surveyed in a new eight-page brochure, including detailed information on the works as well as press clippings, text excerpts, production photos and CD recommendations.
Either download the brochure, or contact the Promotion Department for a copy.
> Further information on Work: Das BLAUMEER (aus: Einkehrtag)
Oehring photo: © Ali Kepenek
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