Teich und Quelle

Like his Bavarian composer colleague Johannes X. Schachtner, Austrian composer Gerald Resch also has a very close relationship with the music of past eras. He created so-called travelling operas for the Vienna State Opera, based on Mozart's Die Entführung ins Zauberreich (The Abduction to the Magic Kingdom) and Wagner's Das verfluchte Geisterschiff (The Cursed Ghost Ship). In his contribution to the collaborative composition Trout, he had the clever idea of transforming Schubert's music into a waltz based on a theme derived from Schubert's initials, F.SCH., which establishes a connection to Vienna, where Schubert and Resch himself worked and still work. The fact that this virtuoso piece is also inspired by Béla Bartók gives his music a further special touch.

In 2017, pianist Silke Avenhaus collaborated with five contemporary composers – Johannes X. Schachtner (Germany), Ferran Cruixent (Spain), Gerald Resch (Austria), Osmo Tapio Räihälä (Finland) and Dejan Lazic (Croatia) to engage with Franz Schubert's famous Trout Quintet. The piano quintet, consisting of individual contributions from these composers, premiered on 2 October 2018. It is a stroke of luck that the new variations complement each other in the most exciting way – without any mutual consultation – from the ironic Trout Waltz to the setting of Schubert's initials F. SCH. in the virtuoso Bartókian 5/8 frenzy to the cyber variation, which, with the addition of a mobile app to be played, is reminiscent of the sound of a warped LP, the palette of these short new compositions, which can be performed following the Trout Quintet or as a stand-alone work, is wide-ranging.