Vox Humana Isang Enders

• Marin Marais (1656 - 1728): Pièces de Viole, livre III:
• 1Pièces de Viole, livre III: No. 13 Grand ballet (Arr. for two cellos)04:15
• Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918): Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano, L. 135:
• 2Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano, L. 135: I. Prologue: Lent, sostenuto e molto risoluto04:39
• 3Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano, L. 135: II. Sérénade: Modérément animé03:27
• 4Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano, L. 135: III. Final: Animé, léger et nerveux03:53
• Nadia Boulanger (1887 - 1979): Trois Pièces pour Violoncelle et Piano:
• 5Trois Pièces pour Violoncelle et Piano: No. 1 Moderato03:11
• 6Trois Pièces pour Violoncelle et Piano: No. 2 Sans vitesse et à l'aise02:08
• 7Trois Pièces pour Violoncelle et Piano: No. 3 Vite et nerveusement rythmé02:36
• Lili Boulanger (1893 - 1918): Deux Pièces pour Violon et Piano:
• 8Deux Pièces pour Violon et Piano: No. 1 Nocturne (Arr. for Cello and Piano)04:11
• Igor Stravinsky (1882 - 1971):
• 9Elegy (1944) (Arr. for Cello solo)05:24
• Marin Marais: Pièces de Viole, Livre II, No. 63:
• 10Pièces de Viole, Livre II, No. 63: No. 63 Les Voix humaines (Arr. for two Cellos)04:45
• Claude Debussy:
• 11Intermezzo, L. 26, No. 105:14
• 12Suite Bergamasque, L. 75: No. 3 Clair de lune (Arr. for Cello and Guitar)05:01
• 13Pantomime, L. 31 (Arr. for Cello and Piano)02:46
• 14Les Angélus, L. 76 (Arr. for Cello and Guitar)03:25
• Olivier Messiaen (1908 - 1992): "Fête des Belles eaux" (1937):
• 15"Fête des Belles eaux" (1937): No. 2 L'eau (Arr. for Cello and Harmonium)10:49
• Claude Debussy:
• 16Beau Soir, L. 6 (Arr. for Cello and Piano)02:44
• Total Runtime01:08:28

Info for Vox Humana

With his carefully crafted concept album entitled Vox Humana cellist Isang Enders presents a study in sound and the portrayal of a musical network of contacts. For his third release on the Berlin Classics label he has painstakingly chosen French works from four centuries and approached each of them in a very individual manner, setting himself and his audience the challenge of not simply listening, but of perceiving.

Isang Enders sees Claude Debussy as the starting point for his approach. "The first time I played Debussy, my teacher at the time told me: 'use a lot of bow, minimum pressure, lots of air'. Yet Debussy gives precise instructions above each note as to how to play it. Creating one's own individual interpretation within such strict lines has to be based on timing and nuance. You have to open up your wardrobe, so to speak, seek out every colour and structure available. It's a laborious process." From Debussy and his nuances, Isang Enders then casts his gaze into the past and into the future.

He views Marin Marais as a musical forefather of Debussy, whose music is "unbelievably vocal, much more so than one might think." After the Baroque pioneer Enders turns his sights deep into the 20th century – via Stravinsky, the Boulanger sisters Lili and Nadia to Messiaen, "the logical successor to Debussy." The heart of the matter for Enders is always the question: How do the individual composers' sound concepts differ and how do they transpose them to the cello with its tone that is close to the human voice? Most of the works on the Vox Humana album were not originally written for cello; Enders had to arrange them, which allowed him to concentrate more closely on each work. He arranged Debussy for example for cello and guitar; he plays the Marais with two cellos and Messiaen with the harmonium, organ and the rare theremin, "in essence an electric vox humana. I follow the spirit that emanates from the work in question: the sacred, choral tonal language of Clair de lune, the pert last movement by Nadia Boulanger, the fire and imagination to be found in the Intermezzo and the Pantomime. And then back to Marais with Les Voix humaines, where one really has the impression of hearing a person singing."

Isang Enders speaks of Baroque and Impressionist legato slurs, of the aesthetics of precision, of nuance and contrasting structures, thereby creating a huge arc between various eras and gathering all of the works closer together, while allowing them each individually to expand their richness of detail. His musical partners on Vox Humana are also his personal companions: he knows pianist Sunwook Kim, Scottish guitarist Sean Shibe and his cello colleague Mischa Meyer through his active concert schedule in all parts of the world, from his student days or in his position as leader of the cello section with the Saxon Staatskapelle of Dresden, which he achieved at the age of 20. He first met the famous theremin player Carolina Eyck, who tours the world with her special instrument, in a youth orchestra and last but not least, his father is featured on the album too, playing harmonium and organ.

Isang Enders, cello

Isang Enders
born in Frankfurt/Main in 1988, is the son of a German-Korean family with both parents being musicians. At the age of nine years he got the first time into touch with a cello and only a short time later he began his early studies in the class of Prof. Michael Sanderling at the Frankfurt Music Academy. Six years later he became a student of Prof. Gustav Rivinius at the University of Music Saar. Taking part in numerous master classes being held by professors like David Geringas, Janos Starker, Steven Isserlis as well as by the composer Krzysztof Penderecki enabled Isang Enders to improve his skills in playing the cello. The longlasting close personal contact with the American cellist Lynn Harrell advancing him intensely, too was of great importance for the young artist.

As a Stipendiat der Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and the German Foundation Musikleben the young artist enjoyed an intense promotion. As a prize winner of the Deutscher Musikinstrumentenfonds he was given as a loan in trust a „Joseph Gagliano Neapoli 1720” violoncello owned by a Hamburg family.

Awarded with the Darmstädter Musikpreis 2007 and the Lichtenberger Musikpreis 2008 of the Land Hessen, Isang Enders – with only 20 years of age - was engaged to the Semper Opera House, to the more than one decade vacant position of the lead concertmaster of the violoncelli of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden in June 2008.

As a soloist Isang Enders has already performed with orchestras like the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Philharmonic Orchestras in Kiel, Erfurt and Darmstadt, he gave concerts in Innsbruck, Krakow, Belgrade, Seoul, Giessen, Berlin, at the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as with the Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie going on tour with them under the baton of Michael Sanderling in 2010. In addition he gave concerts with the Junge Kammerphilharmonie Hessen in Cyprus and Israel in October 2010.

Isang Enders also well known as a chamber musician is a welcome guest at prestigious national and international festivals.

In this field, Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps with the conductor and pianist Myung-Whun Chung in 2008, the advancement in Seiji Ozawa's IMAS project in summer 2010 as well as a chamber concert with Christoph Eschenbach in the framework of the Piano-Festival Ruhr 2010 are especially worth mentioning. Concerts with the pianist Kit Armstrong at Dresden Semper Opera and Leipzig Gewandhaus followed in Spring 2011.

As highlight of an acclaimed concert evening of the Staatskapelle Dresden on February 17, 2010 Isang Enders performed under the baton of Pablo Heras Casado the cello concerto (chamber music No. 3 op. 36 No. 2) by Paul Hindemith which was recorded by MDR Figaro.

In the framework of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival 2010 Isang Enders performed Schumann Cello Concerto under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach. On the occasion of the Internationale Schostakowitsch Tage Gohrisch, taken place for the first time in 2010 and in the future annually as the only regular Shostakovich Festival in the sphere of international festivals Isang Enders performed Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 in E flat with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under the baton of Rudolf Barschai on September 11, 2010 and Shostakovich Cello Sonata as well as Piano Trio No. 2 in the framework of a chamber music evening on September 12, 2010.

In the season 2012/13 Isang Enders will give concerts – among others – with Zubin Mehta, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Stuttgart Philharmonics, the Prague Philharmonics. He will be a guest at the Music Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Internationale Schostakowitsch Tage in Gohrisch, The Dvorak Festival in Prague and the Rheingau-Musikfestival.

This album contains no booklet.