Rudolf Kelterborn: Latest Works

Hommage à FD – Imaginary Scenes for five instruments and female voice

The purely musical (therefore »imaginary«) scenes give the audience plenty of room to develop their own fantasies of association. When listening to this music, one can also imagine scenes that are "populated" with all sorts of characters from Dürrenmatt's plays: an angel, Nebuchadnezzar, Kurrubi, Romulus, Knipperdollinck, Ann, Schwitter, Claire Zachanassian, Excellency, Silvia, etc. There are but no binding »program« for the listeners. I wanted to create a musical portrait of the great writer from my very personal point of view, whose work includes the highest drama, spiritual reflection, sarcasm, delicate poetry, the visionary - but also the vulgar.

The vocal part does not use any coherent texts, but only individual words and a few word combinations, all of which come from Dürrenmatt's stage works, but can also appear in texts by other authors. The composition was created in 2010 on behalf of the Center Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel for its 10th anniversary and is dedicated to the singer Jeannine Hirzel, the conductor Pierre-Alain Monot and the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain NEC.

Words in the order of their first appearance: blind / broken / terror / ephemeral / mankind dying / mangled corpses / executioner / justice / murderer's pit / towers shatter / cold of the sky / astonishment / new wonders / blue / shimmering desert / dazzled / light / stars / Andromeda nebula / Antares / silvery / silence / with you / since I love you / shines / fire / blazing flame / I burn / general / I destroy / a screaming mouth / black shadows / I am / I am not a pawn / laughter / cold

Aus: Meteor / The Deadline / The Visit of the Old Lady / It is Written / The Joiners / Hercules and the Stable of Augeas / An Angel Comes to Babylon / The Physicists / Romulus the Great / The Blind Man

Chamber Symphony 3 for two pianos and three instrumental groups

The Chamber Symphony 3 consists of two sentences: I Atmospheres and II actions. These titles make it clear that these are two parts that are very different in terms of character, expression and dramaturgy. In terms of musical material (motifs, shapes, harmonies, timbres, etc.), however, the two movements are very closely (and audibly!) related to one another, so that despite all their differences, they form a superordinate whole. The instruments are divided into the following groups:

– two pianos used as soloists (individually and as a duo) and in various chamber music combinations
– Trio harp / guitar / drums in lighter colors
– Flute / oboe / trumpet / string quartet
– Clarinet/horn/trombone/double bass/drums in darker colors

The work was commissioned by the »Private Kulturclub Luzern« and is dedicated to the piano duo Adrienne Soós and Ivo Haag. I also wrote the work for the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain NEC and its conductor Pierre-Alain Monot, with whom I have several performances.

»I hear myself« – Rondo for soprano, oboe (English horn), cello and piano
with texts by Ernst Jandl

The work was commissioned by the »Ensemble Aequatuor« in 2006 and premiered in Zurich as part of the »tage für Neue musik« in the same year. "Rondo" is not a reference to the musical form of the nine-part composition, but to the arrangement of the texts: lying, with you – a wonderful love poem – appears a total of four times, but in each case with completely different musical textures (in the last form, No. IX, only as a fragment). In No. IV, seconds radio play, the text is murmured by two musicians in a way that is almost incomprehensible; Poem No. VII is set purely instrumentally – this music without words then triggers a kind of highly dramatic vocal reaction (No. VIII).

Concerto for viola and orchestra

The viola concerto was commissioned by the Bern University of the Arts and is dedicated to the performers of the world premiere – Jessica Rona (viola), Thomas Rösner (conductor) and the Biel Symphony Orchestra. The composition consists of three parts that merge into one another and are not sharply separated from each other. They are entitled »À la recherche«, »Bewegt« and »Adagio«. There are diverse perspectives and spatial effects in the relationship between solo instrument and orchestra: genuine solo passages (e.g. at the beginning), sections of the solo/orchestra confrontation and parts where the viola is integrated into chamber music orchestral groups and does not emerge as a distinctly solo instrument.

Rudolph Kelterborn