con slancio Heinz Holliger & Marie-Lise Schüpbach

• Heinz Holliger (b. 1939): con slancio:
• 1 Holliger: con slancio 02:28
• Toshio Hosokawa (b. 1955): Musubi:
• 2 Hosokawa: Musubi 10:09
• Heinz Holliger: Ständchen für Rosemarie:
• 3 Holliger: Ständchen für Rosemarie 01:56
• Jürg Wyttenbach (1935 - 2021): Sonata für Oboe Solo:
• 4 Wyttenbach: Sonata für Oboe Solo: I. Langsam – Beschleunigend 03:46
• 5 Wyttenbach: Sonata für Oboe Solo: II. Ruhig 02:57
• 6 Wyttenbach: Sonata für Oboe Solo: III. Divertissement. Äusserst rasch 02:37
• 7 Wyttenbach: Sonata für Oboe Solo: IV. Epilog. Sehr langsam 01:56
• Heinz Holliger: Spiegel LIED (à deux):
• 8 Holliger: Spiegel LIED (à deux) 01:50
• LIED mit Gegenüber (contr'air):
• 9 Holliger: LIED mit Gegenüber (contr'air) 02:05
• Jacques Wildberger (1922 - 2006): Rondeau für Oboe Solo:
• 10 Wildberger: Rondeau für Oboe Solo 09:39
• Heinz Holliger: Fangis (fang mich):
• 11 Holliger: Fangis (fang mich) 01:22
• à deux – Adieu:
• 12 Holliger: à deux – Adieu 05:32
• György Kurtág (b. 1926) con slancio, largamente:
• 13 Kurtág: con slancio, largamente 01:39
• Rudolf Kelterborn (1931 - 2021): Duett für Oboe und Englisch Horn:
• 14 Kelterborn: Duett für Oboe und Englisch Horn 10:08
• Robert Suter (1919 - 2008): Oh Boe für Oboe Solo:
• 15 Suter: Oh Boe für Oboe Solo 06:51
• Total Runtime 01:04:55

Info for con slancio

The release of con slancio, with premier recordings of music written by Swiss composer and nonpareil oboist Heinz Holliger, marks 40 years of collaboration with ECM New Series. Threaded throughout the album are strongly contrasting pieces dedicated to Holliger over the years by fellow composers. A spirit of vigor and enthusiasm animates both new pieces and tributes.

The Holliger compositions, written between 2018 and 2020, are con slancio for oboe solo, Ständchen für Rosemarie for English horn, and several duets for oboe and English horn: Spiegel – LIED, Lied mit Gegenüber (contr’air), Gangis (fang mich), and à deux – Adieu.

“Since I began playing in duo with Marie-Lise Schüpbach, I’ve been fascinated by the way our two instruments expand each other’s range and palette of tone colours,” says Heinz Holliger. “New sound paths have opened up for me.” He adds that the newest compositions almost completely forego the use of idiosyncratic “extended techniques” of which he has been a pioneer. The freshness of the Holliger/Schüpbach duo sound has been noted in reviews of their earlier release Zwiegesprespäche (2019) where Holliger’s music was interspersed with pieces by his friend and contemporary György Kurtág. “These performances, by Heinz Holliger and Marie-Lise Schüpbach, are simply astonishing in their fluency,” declared UK magazine Gramophone.

In an interview in the booklet Holliger suggests that while the oboe cannot ‘vocalize’ in ways that the flute can, the sound of the instrument can – as in Bach’s arias – be a substitute for the male voice that breaks in adolescence. “In my own case, too, since I had sung as a solo soprano before my voice changed.” In these late works, the oboe is singing more purely than ever.

Of the pieces written for Holliger here, the earliest are Jürg Wyttenbach’s Sonate (1961) and Jacques Wildberger’s Rondeau (1962), and the most recent are György Kurtág’s aphoristic con slancio, largamente and Toshio Hosokawa’s evocative Musubi (Knots), both written to celebrate Holliger’s 80th birthday in 2019.

Hosokawa says that the title of his piece, “was inspired by the Yin and Yang principle, the central concept of the creation of the universe in the East. Polar opposite elements such as man and woman, high and low, light and shadow coexist and complement each other, becoming intertwined without eradicating each other, whilst gradually shaping the harmony of the universe. In this music, the oboe and the English horn, both of which have a distinctive characteristic tone, become entwined and gradually knotted together through arabesque-like appoggiaturas.”

Rudolf Kelterborn’s Duett für Oboe and Englishhorn (2017) was one of the last pieces written by the Basel-born composer, who died in 2021. Holliger: “What impressed about Kelterborn is how much more daring he became in old age.” The piece poses some challenges: “At the opening, the English horn intones a deeply pathos-laden recitative, while the oboe responds with a plaintive lament in its most extreme register.”

The album closes with Robert Suter’s Oh Boe (1999) which calls for Sprechstimme as well as oboe, juxtaposing vocal and instrumental utterances. “The text is really sharply phrased. It captures me quite well. The oboe attempts to declaim the same words…”

Heinz Holliger, oboe, English horn, spoken voice
Marie-Lise Schüpbach, English horn, oboe

Heinz Holliger
is among the most versatile and most extraordinary musical personalities of our time.

After taking first prizes in the international competitions in Genf and Munich, Mr. Holliger began an incomparable international career that has taken him to the great musical centers on five continents. Exploring both composition and performance, he has extended the technical possibilities of his instrument while deeply committing himself to contemporary music. Some of the most important composers of the present day have dedicated works to Mr. Holliger, who also advocates certain lesser-known works and composers.

Recent North American performances include a tour with the Juilliard String Quartet with dates at the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, San Francisco Performances, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pro Musica Society of Montreal, as well as chamber concerts at Da Camera of Houston and the 92nd Street Y.

Heinz Holliger’s many honors and prizes include the Composer’s Prize from the Swiss Musician’s Association, the City of Copenhagen’s Léonie Sonning Prize for Music, Art Prize of the City of Basel, the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, the City of Frankfurt’s Music Prize, the Abbiati Prize at the Venice Biennale, an honorary doctorate from the University of Zürich, and a Zürich Festival Prize, among others, as well as awards for recordings – the Diapason d’Or, Midem Classical Award, the Edison Award, the Grand Prix du Disque, and others.

As a conductor, Heinz Holliger has worked for many years together with leading orchestras and ensembles worldwide, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, the London Philharmonia Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden/Freiburg and Stuttgart, the WDR Symphony Orchestra of Cologne, the Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra, the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Lyon, and the Strasbourg Philharmonic, as well as his long standing collaboration with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

In high demand as a composer, Heinz Holliger’s works are published exclusively by Schott Music International. His opera on Robert Walser’s “Schneewittchen” at the Zürich Opera House received great international attention. Other major works are the Scardanelli Cycle and the Violin Concerto.

Heinz Holliger’s recordings as an oboist, conductor, and composer are available on Teldec, Philips and ECM. He is currently recording the works of Charles Koechlin in a series of releases for the SWR/Hänssler label. Of the five recordings currently released, a double CD with soprano Juliane Banse was awarded the Midem Classical 2006 Award and the 2006 Prize from Echo Classics.

Marie-Lise Schüpbach
was born in Zurich. She studied oboe with Heinz Holliger in Freiburg im Breisgau, where she graduated with honor. Her orchestral career began at the Cologne Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester. From 1979 to 2017, she held the position of solo English horn at the BR symphony orchestra in Munich.

Never out of touch with her home country, Marie-Lise Schüpbach was a member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra for many years. In 2008, together with colleagues of the BR-Symphony Orchestra, she founded the chamber music festival „erstKlassik am Sarnersee“.

The artist regularly performs chamber concerts with Heinz Holliger and Andrea Bischoff. She has toured Switzerland several times with the Swiss Chamber Soloists.

Marie-Lise Schüpbach is featured on the album “Zwiegespräche” (“Dialogues”), recently released by ECM.

Booklet for con slancio