The cultivation of contemporary music has enjoyed a long tradition with the hr Symphony Orchestra, beginning with the exceptional early work with Schönberg in the...

The cultivation of contemporary music has enjoyed a long tradition with the hr Symphony Orchestra, beginning with the exceptional early work with Schönberg in the early 1930s by its legendary first conductor, Hans Rosbaud, and continuing to the present day with the new Biennale for Modern Music Frankfurt Rhein Main. This CD presents six works realised by the hr Symphony Orchestra during the recent years with its latest principal conductor, Paavo Järvi, at concerts that were recorded live - including two world premieres of compositions commissioned by the Hessian Broadcasting Company. Jörg Widmann (*1973) is one of Germany's leading composers and the main focus of this programme, represented by three orchestral works. In his work Armonica, which also gave this CD its title, Widmann was inspired by the sound of the glass harmonica and traveled to Vienna just to have this instrument and its sonic characteristics demonstrated to him. 'The principle is to transfer this gentle swelling up out of nothing, characteristic of the glass harmonica's sound, to the orchestra. All structures arise out of oblivion, swell up and recede again.' Beat Furrer, Peter Ruzicka and Maurizio Kagel are the other important composers of contemporary modernism represented on this CD.