KLANGFORUM WIEN II.

The highpoint of the concert will be the Czech premiere of a composition by Rebecca Saunders titled Nether for soprano, 19 instrumental soloists, and conductor. The work is an independent, expanded “module” of the vast spatial performance Yes, which was premiered in 2017 at the Berliner Philharmonie and drew the attention of the contemporary music world to the composer. According to Saunders, “Yes refers to Molly Bloom’s monologue, the final chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses. This monologue can be regarded as a kind of literary collage, a web woven from the innumerable paths traced by stories, thoughts, associations, and moments in a continuous, unrelenting high-energy stream: a snapshot, a state of being before and during the act of falling asleep, amid glimmerings of the subconscious.” At first hearing, it might seem that in the composition, Saunders treats the human voice like an instrument. The virtuosic part makes extraordinary demands on the soloist, and the emitted sounds combine with the actions of the instruments. However, we could just as easily say that Saunders treats the musical instruments like voices; not like a singing voice, but instead like a voice that articulates a broad spectrum of sounds. This is just what connects her music with the writings of James Joyce, who was fascinated by the sonic quality of speech. Hearing the work performed by Juliet Fraser, who gave its premiere, promises to be an extraordinary experience.