These recordings offer an impressive panorama of Daniel Glaus's compositional work, which explores the interplay between sound, structure, and spirituality. They bring together three string quartets from over four decades, as well as the moving cantata Chammawet Ahawah for soprano, harp, and string quartet.
Glaus' approach to the string quartet is characterized by continuous experimentation with playing techniques, timbres, and compositional models. Even his String Quartet 1980, written during his student days, reveals a search for the original, an acoustic self-questioning, in its contrasting four movements – from the almost silent beginning to the Webern-inspired fugue to the fragile, mystical chorale.
In his Third Quartet, “Naezach,” Glaus takes up themes of Jewish mysticism: in the tension between structure and sound, a musical web of articulations unfolds, opening up a whole cosmos of expressive possibilities through precisely staggered formal elements, percussive effects, and microtonal nuances.
The Fourth String Quartet, premiered by the Arditti Quartet in 2023, breaks new ground: in a continuous stream of sound, a widely ramified monody cosmos develops, oscillating between Gregorian-like chants, sonic surges, and quiet microintervals—a work of intense density and touching transparency.
The recording is rounded off by Chammawet Ahawah (1988–2023), a work of profound poetic power. Based on texts from the Song of Songs, it blends language, singing, harp colors, and string textures into a musical reflection on love, closeness, and longing. Glaus uses synaesthetic color harmonies and microtonal melodies to create a sensually charged, contemplative sound space.
Programme
Daniel Glaus (*1957)
Works for and with String Quartet
[01–04] String Quartet 1980 (First String Quartet)
[05] Third String Quartet “Naezach” (2001)
For Barbara on 21 March 2001
[06] Fourth String Quartet (2023)
Commissioned by Musikfestival bern
Dedicated to the Arditti Quartet
[07] Chammawet Ahawah (1988/89, rev. 1991/2023)
Cantata for soprano, harp and string quartet, based on the Song of Solomon
Commissioned by the City of Zurich
Total playing time: 56:19
Arditti Quartet
Irvine Arditti, violin
Ashot Sarkissjan, violin
Ralf Ehlers, viola
Lucas Fels, cello
Christina Daletska, soprano
Consuelo Giulianelli, harp
World premiere recordings
Biographies
Daniel Glaus (born 1957) developed his multifaceted career as a composer, performer, improviser, educator, curator/organizer, and researcher at an early age. He was influenced by memorable encounters with Klaus Huber, Luigi Nono, Gérard Grisey, Tristan Murail, Brian Ferneyhough, Yannis Xenakis, György Ligeti, Heinz
Holliger, Pierre Boulez, but also with Heraclitus, Plato, Augustine, the Book of Zohar, Meister Eckhart, Maimonides, Keppler, Swedenborg, Maeterlinck, Mallarmé, Ungaretti, Friedrich Weinreb, Rilke, Ernst Bindel, Massimo Cacciari, Manès Sperber, Robert Walser, Munch, Mondrian, Giacometti, with numbers, spaces, times, sounds, with mountains, trees, butterflies, waters, wastelands, and with many fellow human beings.
His work was always based on listening intently to the unheard, the unknown, the incomprehensible, the silent, the fragile, the other, the interpersonal, the searching, the questioning, the boundary-crossing—whether as a composer searching for sounds, structures, and forms, whether as a concert organist with “composed” concert programs from a broad repertoire ranging from the late Middle Ages to the latest music and improvisation, or as a titular organist with “composed” concert programs from a broad repertoire ranging from the late Middle Ages to the latest music and improvisation.
search for sounds, structures, and forms, as a concert organist with “composed” concert programs from a broad repertoire ranging from the late Middle Ages to the latest music and improvisation, or as titular organist and person responsible for church music at Bern Minster, designing liturgies and evening music in collaboration with theologians, as a professor of both composition and organ at the Zurich and Bern art academies, where he brought his students from both disciplines together to benefit from each other, in his sensational research project “Innov-organ-um” with the invention of the wind-dynamic organ, or as the initiator and organizer of numerous congresses, academies, festivals, and courses.
His compositional oeuvre includes solo and chamber music, works for unusual instrumentations (e.g., Omnia tempus habent for oboe, alto, dancer, preacher, and vocal ensemble), organ works, vocal music, six oratorios, several cantatas, motets, various compositions for solo voice, concertante orchestral works (including a concerto for two organs with improvising clarinetist and three orchestral groups, a cello concerto, a violin concerto, and the orchestral songs Von der Zukunft kommend), orchestral works, four Sephiroth symphonies
and two chamber operas (Zerstreute Wege 1981–83, Die hellen Nächte 1987–97). For his vocal compositions, he worked closely with authors such as Kathy Zarnegyn, Andreas Urweider, Dorothee Sölle, Kurt Marti, Adolf Muschg, Balthasar Kübler, Jürg Welter, and others.
He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Canton of Bern's Paris studio scholarship in 1988–89, the City of Zurich's Werkjahr in 1990–91, an honorary doctorate from the University of Bern in 2006, the Grand Music Prize of the Canton of Bern in 2009, and in 2016/17 with the London studio scholarship from the Landis & Gyr Foundation.
https://neo.mx3.ch/danielglaus
The Arditti Quartet enjoys an outstanding reputation worldwide for its lively and nuanced interpretations of contemporary and 20th-century compositions. Since its founding in 1974 by violinist Irvine Arditti, several hundred string quartets have been composed for the ensemble. Many of these works have become an integral part of the contemporary music repertoire and have secured the Arditti Quartet a firm place in music history.
The breadth of its repertoire is demonstrated by world premieres by composers such as Thomas Adès, Georges Aperghis, Harrison Birtwistle, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Hugues Dufourt, Pascal Dusapin, Brian Ferneyhough, Luca Francesconi, Ashley Fure, Sofia Gubaidulina, Jonathan Harvey, Toshio Hosokawa, Mauricio Kagel, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, György Ligeti, Conlon Nancarrow, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Wolfgang Rihm, Giacinto
Scelsi, Salvatore Sciarrino, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Jennifer Walshe, and Iannis Xenakis.
When preparing works, the ensemble seeks close collaboration with the composers, as it believes this is essential for the interpretation of modern music. The four players are also involved in masterclasses for young performers and composers worldwide.
The Arditti Quartet's discography comprises over 200 CDs. Montaigne Naïve alone has released more than 40 recordings, profiling numerous contemporary composers and presenting the string quartets of the Second Viennese School in their entirety for the first time. Many works were recorded in the presence of the composers, such as Luciano Berio's quartets. Legendary events in recent music history, such as Stockhausen's spectacular Helicopter Quartet, were also recorded on CD by the ensemble.
Over the past 50 years, the Arditti Quartet has received numerous awards, including several German Record Prizes. In 1999, it was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize for its musical life's work. In 2004, the Académie Charles Cros awarded it the Coup de Cœur for its “contribution to the dissemination of the music of our time.” It has won the Gramophone Award for “Best Contemporary Music Recording” three times for its recordings of works by Elliot Carter (1999), Harrison Birtwistle (2002), and Pascal Dusapin (2018). The Arditti Quartet's archive is housed at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel.
www.ardittiquartet.com
Christina Daletska was born in Lviv (Ukraine). The press describes the artist as “phenomenal” and “irresistible.” Her vocal range spans over three octaves. Daletska was initially taught the violin by her mother, performed as a soloist at London's Royal College of Music at the age of ten, and interpreted violin concertos by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Sibelius while still a teenager. In 2006, she began studying singing with Ruth Rohner in Zurich and made her stage debut at the age of 23 as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Teatro Real in Madrid. The following year, she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival and has since performed on the most prestigious concert and opera stages in Europe.
Christina Daletska is a human rights activist and official ambassador for Amnesty International Switzerland and Art for Human Rights. She speaks seven languages and is committed to fighting food waste. Since the beginning of the Russian war against Ukraine, she has been working tirelessly, including as a volunteer, both abroad and locally in the war zones.
www.daletska.net
Harpist Consuelo Giulianelli is an honorary member of Swiss Harp and has performed at major European music festivals and in the USA under conductors such as Alan Gilbert, Pierre Bleuse, Luciano Berio, and Pierre Boulez. As a chamber musician, she has performed with Julian Prégardien, Jürg Wyttenbach, and Heinz Holliger, among others. Until 2016, she was principal harpist with the Musikkollegium Winterthur, and since 2017 she has held the same position with the Basel Chamber Orchestra.
Among her numerous CD releases is the solo album Saeya saeya, on which she performs as a harpist and singer. In addition, her CD for flute and harp, Lake reflections, was released by Sony Classical in 2016 and has received over five million clicks on Spotify. In 2024, Consuelo released the CD Miroirs d'Espagne with guitarist Maurizio Grandinetti, featuring music by Claude Debussy, Manuel de Falla, and Maurice Ravel for the Solo Musica label.
Consuelo Giulianelli completed her studies in Verona (Professor Mirella Vita) and Basel (Professor Ursula Holliger) with honors and received important inspiration from Marielle Nordmann and Pierre Jamet.
www.consuelogiulianelli.net
