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Metier

Zwischen Leben und Tod (Between Life and Death) - Twenty-two

$18.99

Details

Composer
Michael Hersch
Artist
Peter Sheppard Skaerved, Roderick Chadwick
Format
CD
Label
Metier
Released
May 15, 2026
Catalog #
MEX 77213
UPC
809730721328

About

In May 2026 Metier Records is proud to present Michael Hersch's monumental chamber work Zwischen Leben und Tod (Between Life and Death) performed by violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved and pianist Roderick Chadwick, marking the label debut of one of the most gifted composers of his generation. Hersch's music has been described by The New York Times as "viscerally gripping and emotionally transformative music.claustrophobic and exhilarating at once, with moments of sublime beauty nestled inside thickets of dark virtuosity". In January this year he was selected as the inaugural recipient of the John Hopkins University Affiliated Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. Zwischen Leben und Tod is a startling yet moving 22-movement cycle for violin and piano written in inspiration of paintings by the surrealist German artist, writer and filmmaker Peter Weiss, each movement corresponding to a particular image. It's duration of 100 minutes makes it one of the longest works for violin and piano. Peter Weiss was best known as a playwright of searing and often disturbing stage dramas, including Marat/Sade which features the assassination of French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat in an asylum-set play by the Marquis de Sade. Weiss's little-known paintings and drawings share many of the same characteristics, featuring loneliness, violence and grief (themes of asylums, war, prisons, cannibalism) but also deeply meditative imagery (a string quartet, a garden concert, a boy in the grounds of a country house). Hersch found Weiss's spectrum of colour and motion, of proportion and spacing, particularly musical, and Zwischen Leben und Tod makes a deep and visceral engagement with these same explorations. The result is a complex, rich and multi-layered work featuring extremes of tempi, dynamics and technique making enormous physical demands on the performers, while being hugely rewarding. Much of the music is disturbing and raw, but the overall effect is affecting, offering the listener moments of solace. In David Hackbridge Johnson's fabulous booklet notes he says "The little modal chord figures, the open strings that plaintively grate over them, the wisps of folk song, the lullaby figures - all these are a welcome balm to sooth the sores of an atrocity exhibition. What tenderness amid the haunted landscapes!.. Despite these scenes of peril, after over 90 minutes between living and dying in Hersch and Weiss's world, a curiously cathartic sense is achieved; a procession of bleak images in sound that somehow resist despair."  Violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved has known and collaborated closely with Michael Hersch for over twenty years, and this is their first recording together. His performance here alongside that of pianist Roderick Chadwick is hugely expressive, displaying extraordinary virtuosity. Michael Hersch is professor of composition at the Peabody Institute and is a composer of "uncompromising brilliance" (The Washington Post). His output includes opera, theatre, chamber, vocal and orchestral works, performed across Europe and the US, including UK premieres at the Aldeburgh Festival and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He is the recipient of many prizes and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition, both the Berlin Prize and Rome Prize, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and the President's Frontier Award from the John Hopkins University.

Tracklist 22 tracks

  1. Disc 1
  2. 1 No. 1. — 07:08
    Track
    1
    Title
    No. 1. —
    Duration
    07:08
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  3. 2 No. 2. — 07:09
    Track
    2
    Title
    No. 2. —
    Duration
    07:09
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  4. 3 No. 3. — 10:30
    Track
    3
    Title
    No. 3. —
    Duration
    10:30
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  5. 4 No. 4. — 01:17
    Track
    4
    Title
    No. 4. —
    Duration
    01:17
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  6. 5 No. 5. — 07:35
    Track
    5
    Title
    No. 5. —
    Duration
    07:35
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  7. 6 No. 6. — 03:14
    Track
    6
    Title
    No. 6. —
    Duration
    03:14
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  8. 7 No. 7. — 02:17
    Track
    7
    Title
    No. 7. —
    Duration
    02:17
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  9. 8 No. 8. — 05:28
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 8. —
    Duration
    05:28
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  10. Disc 2
  11. 1 No. 9. — 04:41
    Track
    1
    Title
    No. 9. —
    Duration
    04:41
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  12. 2 No. 10. — 03:05
    Track
    2
    Title
    No. 10. —
    Duration
    03:05
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  13. 3 No. 11. — 03:28
    Track
    3
    Title
    No. 11. —
    Duration
    03:28
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  14. 4 No. 12. — 07:04
    Track
    4
    Title
    No. 12. —
    Duration
    07:04
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  15. 5 No. 13. — 03:50
    Track
    5
    Title
    No. 13. —
    Duration
    03:50
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  16. 6 No. 14. — 03:03
    Track
    6
    Title
    No. 14. —
    Duration
    03:03
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  17. 7 No. 15. — 06:28
    Track
    7
    Title
    No. 15. —
    Duration
    06:28
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  18. 8 No. 16. — 02:45
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 16. —
    Duration
    02:45
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  19. 9 No. 17. — 02:42
    Track
    9
    Title
    No. 17. —
    Duration
    02:42
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  20. 10 No. 18. — 02:14
    Track
    10
    Title
    No. 18. —
    Duration
    02:14
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  21. 11 No. 19. — 04:09
    Track
    11
    Title
    No. 19. —
    Duration
    04:09
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  22. 12 No. 20. — 02:08
    Track
    12
    Title
    No. 20. —
    Duration
    02:08
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  23. 13 No. 21. — 05:08
    Track
    13
    Title
    No. 21. —
    Duration
    05:08
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick
  24. 14 No. 22. — 06:18
    Track
    14
    Title
    No. 22. —
    Duration
    06:18
    Composer
    Michael Hersch
    Performer
    Peter Sheppard Skærved, Roderick Chadwick