Also the Sept Variations by Alois Bröder come into play in a double sense: Seven "sound windows" are opened each of which presents seven variations of given musical material (from Schubert to Mahler). Bröder's approach – musical development should not be an evaluation in above and below but be understood as a network or as entangled roots – was clearly communicated in the composition.
A frame by Schumann (material from the "Nachtlied" and the "Liederkreis") holds together the seven parts; asking questions ("Impromptu op 90/1" by Schubert) the composer awakens the "originals" to new life in a new context. Christian Rudolf Riedel elicited exquisite timbre from the Kammerphilharmonie that played with full-sounding committment; the ending ("Und keiner kennt mich mehr hier" from Schumann´s first Eichendorff setting in the "Liederkreis") was something like the motto of the evening – music in estranged context.
Michael Neuner
(from: Frankfurter Rundschau, 20.11.2000)
translation: Gunilda Wörner
Here, "variation" stands for "alteration" in the original sense: The seven variations contrast in a constructive way elements, moments and material of seven composers of the past: Schumann, Schubert, Mahler and again Schumann. By employing different techniques of composition – such as the stretching of temporal processes, the conversion of musical sequences into simultaneous sounds, harmonies that contrast each other or comment in estrangement, exact observation of musical phenomena as if surveyed under an oversized magnifying glass – the original parts are hardly recognizable. Among the surroundings full of surprises and novel ideas they shine up shortly from time to time. Here, an interesting work full of excitment and surprise succeeded, also in regard to the effective scoring for the orchestra instruments.
Joachim Wormsbächer
(from: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 24.11.2000)
translation: Gunilda Wörner