Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
HALL - mit Gegenstimmen, Phantasie für Viola, Violoncello und Klavier (2010)
I. Einstimmung
II. Nachtspaziergang (Hommage à Halldor Laxness)
III. Fünf Steine (mit Nachklängen)
IV. Liedergestrüpp (Hommage à Snorri Sturluson)
V. Ausklang
Petra Ackermann, viola
Karolina Öhman, cello
Tamriko Kordzaia, piano
Since Haydn's masterpieces for piano trio, this genre, despite hundreds of compositions, has hardly lost its appeal for composers. It has always puzzled me why almost no one has felt inclined to try a small (?) variation with viola instead of violin.
In the course of my work, however, I repeatedly encountered situations that drew my attention to some of the possible reasons. The problems lay less with the string instruments themselves than with the overly clear, traditional sounds of the piano, which seemed reluctant to be coaxed into the delicate, shadowy world of the lower strings. Only by bringing out the peripheral piano sounds (resonances, "detuned" overtones on gently prepared lowest strings) did I find points of contact with the strings, which in turn—through the intonation inherent in natural harmonics and with two microtonal string detunings—step outside their usual framework.
Like many of my works, this one also stems from a programmatic background that I don't need to conceal: a powerful experience in Iceland last summer, with its incomparable, fresh landscape, its ancient, legendary history, and its contemporary people who face all difficulties with courage and astonishing directness. Not to be forgotten is the fauna, which—for the first time since I began composing—has directly permeated my music with some stylized bird calls (second section, "Night Walk" ). Furthermore, several three-note melodies, such as those that still live on in old epic "rimur" chants, wander freely through the thicket of songs in the fourth section. --Roland Moser
Art by Irma Blank
HALL - mit Gegenstimmen, Phantasie für Viola, Violoncello und Klavier (2010)
I. Einstimmung
II. Nachtspaziergang (Hommage à Halldor Laxness)
III. Fünf Steine (mit Nachklängen)
IV. Liedergestrüpp (Hommage à Snorri Sturluson)
V. Ausklang
Petra Ackermann, viola
Karolina Öhman, cello
Tamriko Kordzaia, piano
Since Haydn's masterpieces for piano trio, this genre, despite hundreds of compositions, has hardly lost its appeal for composers. It has always puzzled me why almost no one has felt inclined to try a small (?) variation with viola instead of violin.
In the course of my work, however, I repeatedly encountered situations that drew my attention to some of the possible reasons. The problems lay less with the string instruments themselves than with the overly clear, traditional sounds of the piano, which seemed reluctant to be coaxed into the delicate, shadowy world of the lower strings. Only by bringing out the peripheral piano sounds (resonances, "detuned" overtones on gently prepared lowest strings) did I find points of contact with the strings, which in turn—through the intonation inherent in natural harmonics and with two microtonal string detunings—step outside their usual framework.
Like many of my works, this one also stems from a programmatic background that I don't need to conceal: a powerful experience in Iceland last summer, with its incomparable, fresh landscape, its ancient, legendary history, and its contemporary people who face all difficulties with courage and astonishing directness. Not to be forgotten is the fauna, which—for the first time since I began composing—has directly permeated my music with some stylized bird calls (second section, "Night Walk" ). Furthermore, several three-note melodies, such as those that still live on in old epic "rimur" chants, wander freely through the thicket of songs in the fourth section. --Roland Moser
Art by Irma Blank
