Press
Nach-Fragen (2009)
In 2009, Mr Beaudoin fulfilled a commission from the Konzerthaus Dortmund for the renowned German soprano Annette Dasch (Elsa at Bayreuth 2010). The work, entitled Nach-Fragen, is a 30-minute song cycle that sets prose passages adapted by the composer from Christa Wolf’s 1968 novel Nachdenken über Christa T. The 17-song cycle is organized into three sections, and is punctuated by three settings of the epigraph of Wolf’s novel: “Was ist das: Dieses Zu-sich-selber-Kommen des Menschen?” (What is it: this coming-to-oneself?). The work is dedicated to Ms Dasch, who has performed it at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wiener Konzerthaus, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Slovenska Filharmonija, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Brucknerhaus Linz and most recently at the SWR Festspiele in Schwetzingen.
[Photograph of Annette Dasch by Thilo Beu]
*All English translations by Christian Rogowski, Professor of German, Amherst College. Original German reviews below.
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"Historical occasions make concert life exciting. On Wednesday, there were two of them: Annette Dasch’s premiere of Richard Beaudoin’s song cycle “Nach-Fragen” and the handing over of the baton to the second roster of “Junge Wilde.”
One knows American composer Beaudoin less than the texts that he set to music for the cycle he created for Annette Dasch. They are taken from the book “Nachdenken über Christa T.” by Christa Wolf, who celebrated her 80th birthday on the day of the premiere. It is a book of philosophical and existential questions, of women’s- and GDR-dreams.
Beaudoin, a composer with a highly developed sense of the aesthetics of sound, has in fifteen songs with two piano intermezzi (with the fantastic pianist Wolfram Rieger) dressed these questions in sounds that are almost still late romantic, and whenever the answers are missing, he emphasized them with Sprechgesang. Annette Dasch bestowed concentrated tension to the songs, interpreted the deeply probing texts with intensity, drew a grand arc of tension across the cycle. – An impressive work and a moving interpretation."
Julia Gaß, Ruhr Nachrichten, "Nach-Fragen" at the Konzerthaus: Annette Dasch sings Première in Dortmund, 19 March 2009
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"New music has a hard time on our concert circuit. The avant-garde is often marginalized into special series or festivals, where afficionados are among themselves. So it is something special that in the same week Dortmund had one world premiere and two German premieres on its program. Yet these new works were far removed from the pleasure in experimentation of the avant-garde...
...Of a different caliber is Richard Beaudoin’s song cycle “Nach-Fragen,” written for the fabulous soprano Annette Dasch, on the basis of Christa Wolf’s novel “Nachdenken über Christa T.” The American composer makes the expressionist melodrama come alive with such refinement and consistency that the work becomes an engaging listening experience.
On a par the interpretation of Dasch and pianist Wolfram Rieger, who celebrate this inquiry into the foundations of our existence without any sentimentality or didacticism."
Martin Schrahn, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, "New Music: Inquiries into our Existence", 19 March 2009
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"Can one sing prose like the lyricism of a Lied? Annette Dasch can, and indeed, in a most expressive manner. With the song cycle, “Nach-Fragen,” Richard Beaudoin has set a passage to music for her from the novel “Nachdenken über Christa T.” with which Christa Wolf critically examined life in the GDR. It was flattering for the Ruhr metropolis that the premiere, held on the 80th birthday of the great author, preceded performances at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Vienna Konzerthaus.
With academic references to Schubert, Bach, and Janacék, the Harvard Lecturer created a highly expressive dramatic miniature that approaches Sprechgesang, with artful symmetry and a transparent piano part. As interpreters, Annette Dasch and Wolfram Rieger, as outstanding partner, proved to be fully up to the challenge of this impressive work."
Bernd Aulich, Recklinghäuser Zeitung, "Poised for a World Career: Annette Dasch excels at the Konzerthaus", 20 March 2009
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"...moreover, she brought a premiere along. American composer Richard Beaudoin wrote a song cycle ‘Nach-Fragen” especially for her, based on texts by Christa Wolf (from the novel, “Nachdenken über Christa T.”).
It revolves around the question, “What is it: this coming-to-oneself?” and is a reflection on time and on being human. In the three-part piece, Beaudoin’s composes with great attention to the text, he juxtaposes Lieder with recitative-like passages, and occasionally makes reference to existing musical material. He calls this “After-Images” of earlier works (Bach, Schubert, Janacek), transposed into his own musical language.
Annette Dasch has a voice of enchanting timbre. She handles it with great care, placing it in the service of intense expression. She thus managed to open up the new work to the listeners, to get them interested in this musical rendering of existential thoughts.
Sonja Müller Eisold, Westfälische Rundschau, "How to Sing Existential Thoughts", 20 March 2009
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"The second half was opened by the song cycle “Nach-Fragen” by Briton [sic] Richard Beaudoin after texts by Christa Wolf, which saw its first Austrian performance. Its sonic language and gestures were reminiscent of atonal Schönberg."
Stefan Beig, Wiener Zeitung, "Celebrated Intensity", 22 March 2009
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"It was the originality in putting together a diverse program of Lieder that was the evening’s actual strength; with the indispensable foundation provided by Wolfram Rieger, this excellent and sensitive pianist. Little known things by Beethoven, for instance the complex “An die Hoffnung”, structured like a multi-part operatic scene; among the songs by Joseph Haydn, mostly providing charming entertainment, there was also “Spirit Song”, which spreads a mysterious somber atmosphere – veritable discoveries, which Dasch combined with a cycle that was composed especially for her: “Nach-Fragen” by Briton [sic] Richard Beaudoin , set after Christa Wolf and warmly received, a freely atonal song-cycle that operates with sophisticated homages to the past and that probes the text in a poetic manner."
Walter Weidringer, Die Presse, "Konzerthaus [Vienna]: No Fear of the Sea Monster", 22 March 2009
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"And the lady from Berlin – witness her music talk show – is a committed mediator of her art: so it is quite natural that a cycle of topical music, with Richard Beaudoin’s “Nach-Fragen”, stands between Brahms and Korngold. She first tells how she was personally responsible for its creation. During a celebratory summer night at the Salzburg Festival, the young American composer promised several singers to compose songs “into their throats”, if they delivered texts of their choice to him.
Annette Dasch was then just reading Christa Wolf’s novel “Nachdenken über Christa T.” and suggested passages from it whose prose style is of such poetry and rhythmic refinement that they indeed inspired the composer to set them into sounds. Hovering between romantic gesture, imaginative color play, melodramatic phrases and a handful of avant-garde brutalisms, Beaudoin translates Wolf’s existential questions with sensitive thoughtfulness, to which Dasch’s especially fine piano partner Ulrich Naudé also gives eloquent expression."
Peter Krause, Die Welt, “Clever advocate of the art of the lied. Soprano Annette Dasch in the series “Vocal World” of the Elbphilharmonie concerts”, 27 January 2011
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"And the heart of the evening was the cycle “Nach-Fragen” by Richard Beaudoin, composed in 2008 for the singer and based on excerpts from Christa Wolf’s novel “Nachdenken über Christa T.” This is when the singer spoke, sang staccato, and paused in awe. Thus Beaudoin’s rich sound language combined itself with the prose passages into a manifesto of the essential. Culminating in the question: “Are you really alive, now?”
Hamburger Abendblatt, "Laeiszhalle: Annette Dasch", 27 January 2011
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"In Schwetzingen [Dasch] introduces a new festival series, “Women Power – Power Women.” The title alone sanctions in advance the expressive, space-exploding force she injects into musical settings of Beethoven, Brahms, and Korngold as well as into the pensive song cycle “Nachfragen” that provides the orientation for much of the program selection.
“Nachfragen” contains sequences from Christa Wolf’s “Nachdenken über Christa T.” Canadian [sic!] Richard Beaudoin set these to music upon Dasch’s suggestion, music that allows her vocal prowess to unfold every expressive mode, from speach to the combative scream. The composer leaves it entirely to the interpreter to work through Christa Wolf’s probing observations, as timeless as they are full of topical criticism.
These “inquiries” concern questions like how one can “actualize oneself in art?” “Are you really alive, now?” Or “How to respond adequately to experiences of death?” These themes sketched out in image-rich prose place upon all participants the highest demands in terms of concentration and analytic insight. The result of the Dasch analysis: doubt and perplexity, this unsparing perspective upon human inadequacy hit deeply right to the bone. And much more painful than the songs by Beethoven or Brahms."
M. L., Mannheimer Morgen, "Probing Questions”, 2 May 2011
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"...many singers take the easy route and put complete cycles on their programs. Works that promise success and that don’t require extensive processes of thought in putting together. Yet it was not only the rarities that distinguished this recital but also the combination of pieces perfectly geared toward her voice that has turned more dramatic, emphasizing the middle range with its wonderfully warm sound and avoiding the occasionally harsh upper register. “Nach-Fragen,” a song-cycle based on texts by Christa Wolf by American composer Richard Beaudoin, then, was almost geared towards a mezzo-soprano. On a whim, a song emerged from a text from Wolf’s novel, Nachdenken über Christa T., that harmonized so perfectly that it gave rise to a three-part song-cycle with a total of 15 songs and two instrumental intermezzi.Beaudoin speaks a clipped language, very much aimed at the essential, that blossoms forth every now and then, capturing very well in musical sounds Christa Wolf’s sparse poetic prose. Here we have a two-fold coming-to-oneself that on the one hand cites the text and on the other really sharpens the focus on one’s own self. A magnificent work – magnificently sung."
Michael Wruss, Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, “Rare Sonic Pearls with ‘La Dasch’”, 10 February 2011
back to topThe After-Image (2010)
In 2010, Mr Beaudoin fulfilled a commission from Boston Lyric Opera [BLO] for a chamber opera to be paired with Victor Ullmann’s The Emperor of Atlantis. BLO commissioned the work so that companies could more readily produce Ullmann’s short one-act opera, composed in the Terezín concentration camp in 1943, with a fitting companion piece. Mr Beaudoin’s work, called The After-Image, is based on texts by two poets, Rainer Maria Rilke and Friedrich Rückert, and William Henry Fox Talbot, one of the pioneers of photography. The première performances took place at Boston’s Calderwood Pavilion on 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 February 2011. The work was directed by David Schweizer.
The After-Image records a moment of interaction between a woman (The Daughter, sung by mezzo-soprano Jamie Van Eyck) and a photograph of her late father (The Photograph of the Father, sung by bass Kevin Burdette). The instrumentation—clarinet, violin, violoncello and piano—was chosen to match that of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941).
[Photograph of Kevin Burdette and Jamie van Eyck in The After-Image by Jeffrey Dunn.]
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"One reason opera houses have resisted "Emperor" [Ullmann's “Der Kaiser von Atlantis”] is its brevity. At less than an hour it makes up only part of an evening, but finding the right piece to pair it with is a challenge. The Boston Lyric Opera’s solution was to commission Richard Beaudoin, a composer on the Harvard faculty, to write a short, independent work that could be used as a prologue. His “After-Image,” a 20-minute reflection on how photographs shape our memories of war (and those who live through them), uses texts by Rilke, Friedrich Rückert and William Henry Fox Talbot, the 19th-century British pioneer of photography.
Mr. Beaudoin’s gently wistful piece, scored for the same instrumentation as Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” — another work composed in a Nazi camp, where was a prisoner of war — makes no allusions to “Emperor,” or to World War II specifically. Instead it traces the emotional arc of a young woman musing over a photograph of her father as a young soldier and lets us hear the father’s reminiscences, sung from the grave, of that distant time. The Daughter was largely a spoken part, but the mezzo-soprano Jamie Van Eyck sang the role’s few arias affectingly, and the bass-baritone Kevin Burdette put across the Father’s music with a sharply focused clarity and power."
Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, "Oppressor's Tale, Written in Oppression", 2 February 2011
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"Tuesday night opened with the premiere of Richard Beaudoin’s evocative if elusive work “The After-Image,’’ cast as a lyrical exchange between a daughter and a photograph of her late father. Scored for two vocal soloists and the instrumental forces (clarinet, violin, cello, piano) of Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time,’’ the piece uses text by Rilke, Ruckert, and William Henry Fox Talbot to dramatize the intergenerational dialog and to ruminate on how photographs mediate our relationship to the past."
Jeremy Eichler, The Boston Globe, "Antiwar opera rises from darkness", 3 February 2011
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"Beaudoin’s The After-Image is a tableau for soprano and bass with the same instrumentation as Messian’s Quartet for the End of Time: violin, clarinet, cello and piano. With a libretto assembled by the composer from poetry and writings by Rilke, Rückert and William [Henry Fox] Talbot, the work provided an appealing opening to the evening. The tableau intimately portrays a young woman’s fleeting memory of her deceased soldier/father as manifest in an old, decaying photograph of the man in his youth. As the daughter, mezzo-soprano Jamie Van Eyck gracefully supplied an excellent contrast to the other-worldly bass of Kevin Burdette, the Father’s spirit. Perhaps as an expression of the distance between the two characters, one in life, the other in death, Beaudoin never permits the two characters to sing a due. While the opportunity for an operatic double-soliloquy is lost, what the audience gains is an unremitting velvet tension appropriate to the unresolved distance between these characters. This tension is complemented by David Schweizer’s staging of the piece as a “pseudo concert” in a setting somewhat reminiscent of a Biedermeyer living room."
Joseph E. Morgan, The Boston Music Intelligencer, "Redemption, even in the darkest of places", 3 February 2011
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"To complete the evening, the BLO commissioned Richard Beaudoin’s “The After-Image” as a linked companion piece. As the audience entered the theater, ushers spouted vaguely threatening non sequiturs while security cameras played footage of guests entering the hall. Beaudoin’s song cycle, revolving around the photo of a dead soldier lovingly memorialized by his daughter, was beautifully acted and sung by mezzo Jamie van Eyck and bass Kevin Burdette. The instrumentation was unobtrusive but alluring, and the vocal settings, especially those for van Eyck, powerful. “After-Image” segued into “Emperor,” as if one sprang from the other."
Keith Powers, The Boston Herald, "In 'Emperor of Atlantis', the human spirit reigns", 3 February 2011
back to topÉtudes d'un prélude (2009-2010)
"But for most of the afternoon I was upstairs for a quite extraordinary cutting edge presentation of "microtiming" research addressing Martha Argerich's recorded performance of a Chopin prelude, analysed with the newest technology, to perhaps reach a deeper understanding of rubato...
Curated by Neil Heyde, the discussions were wide ranging and fascinating, and performances by Mark Knoop and the Kreutzer Quartet of excerpts from resulting compositions by Richard Beaudoin were enthralling; slowed down recompositions Chopin desséché and Flutter echoes were beautiful and moving, bringing to mind such heterogeneous musics as the Goldberg 25th Variation, Beethoven's Op 132 molto adagio and Feldman, to suggest a few."
Peter Grahame Woolf, Musicalpointers.co.uk, 19 March 2010
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"Chopin bicentenary just got real. Mark Knoop playing Beaudoin's inversions, slo mos, flip volume to rhythm, reworked étude at Kings Place."
@Kevindaveykdk, Twitter, 12:42pm, 17 May 2010
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"From the one-minute, 51 seconds of Argerich’s recording, Beaudoin extrapolates a 38-minute quartet by exploding the time-axis. The first movement, “Flutter echoes,” combines natural and harmonic notes on all four instruments to produce a continuous and growing sound punctuated by a repeated rhythmic cell. From the beginning, the Chiara achieved a wonderfully singing tone and perfectly matched tonal color, so the floating tones passed between instruments were seamless. The second movement, “The Real Thing,” combines a meandering theme in the violins with incisive pizzicati from viola and cello. The third movement, “Kertész Distortion,” combines a ground of rhythmic pulsing (reminiscent of the first movement) with skittering cascades of notes curling in arabesques above the ground. The whole builds in intensity throughout the movement. The fourth movement, “28four”, is marked by a shimmeringly diaphanous soundscape pierced at times by foghorn-like tones, first on viola, later on other instruments singly or in combination. The work builds to a final intensity, the end feeling like a prelude to something yet to come."
Cashman Kerr Prince, The Boston Music Intelligencer, "Indebted Music from Chiara Quartet", 2 October 2011
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"Nor could one have asked for a more committed and polished performance of Beaudoin’s daunting Second String Quartet - even if one was left wondering if the work justified the effort. The 10th in an ongoing series inspired by Martha Argerich’s recording of Chopin’s beloved Prelude in E minor, Op. 28, No.4, this hyper-intellectual “etude’’ devises minute mathematical and sonic puzzles upon the surface of this tiny jewel. Of the four movements, the first (“Flutter echoes’’) was the most accessible, overlaying the Prelude’s exquisite melody and harmony with echo patterns created by bowing over the fingerboard and other unusual techniques. But at nearly 40 minutes, the piece is too long by half. The Chiara players seemed no less surprised and relieved than the audience when it came to a sudden end."
Harlow Robinson, The Boston Globe, "Chiara Quartet brings romantic radiance to traditional strings", 3 October 2011
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"What was outstanding about the Beaudoin work was its penchant for establishing an otherworldly mood. The first movement, full of echo patterns among the quartet, kept me in a state of anticipation throughout. At any moment, the question “where do we go from here?” was a legitimate response to the layering of sounds, and whether it was a matter of a hundredth of a second or a millisecond seemed not to matter. Music is subjective; music is participatory. Don’t clutter my mind with esoterica while I’m fully engaged emotionally.
The next three movements were likewise marked by the Chopin hovering in the background, though only by dint of forcing a recall of the original prelude heard hundreds of times before. Each movement took additional cues from external sources: a Glenn Brown painting for the second movement, a distorted photo by Kertész for the third movement, and a reorganization of the Chopin prelude, none of which truly mattered. The final question is whether 38 minutes of an outstanding performance from the Chiara Quartet was enough to keep the mind and spirit engaged. For me, it was."
Editor, Artsfuse.com, "Chiara Quartet—An Adventurous Musical Journey", 6 October 2011
Original German reviews of Nach-Fragen
*Complete English translations listed above.
Historische Momente machen das Konzertleben spannend. Davon gab es am Mittwoch im Dortmunder Konzerthaus zwei: Annette Daschs Uraufführung von Richard Beaudoins Liederzyklus "Nach-Fragen" und die Staffelübergabe an die zweite Riege "Junge Wilde".
Den amerikanischen Komponisten Beaudoin kennt man weniger als die Texte, die er in dem für Annette Dasch komponierten Zyklus vertont hat. Die stammen aus dem Buch "Nachdenken über Christa T." von Christa Wolf, die am Tag der Uraufführung 80. Geburtstag feierte. Ein Buch der philosophischen und existentiellen Fragen, der Frauen- und DDR-Träume, ist das Buch.
Beaudoin, ein Komponist mit großem Sinn für Klangästhetik, hat in 15 Liedern mit zwei Klavier-Intermezzi (großartig: Pianist Wolfram Rieger) diese Fragen in fast noch spätromantische Klänge gekleidet und sie meist dann, wenn die Antworten fehlen, mit Sprechgesang hervorgehoben. Konzentrierte Spannung gab Annette Dasch den Liedern, deutete die tiefgründigen Texte intensiv, zog einen großen Spannungsbogen über den Zyklus. - Ein eindrucksvolles Werk und eine berührende Interpretation.
"Nach-Fragen" im Konzerthaus: Annette Dasch sang Uraufführung in Dortmund, Von Julia Gaß, Ruhr Nachrichten, 19.03.2009
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Neue Musik hat es schwer im Konzertbetrieb. Die Avantgarde wird oft in spezielle Reihen oder Festivals abgedrängt, wo Liebhaber unter sich sind - eine Ur- und zwei Erstaufführungen im Konzerthaus Dortmund. Es ist etwas Besonderes, dass in Dortmund jetzt eine Uraufführung und zwei Deutsche Erstaufführungen in einer Woche im Programm waren. Doch das Neue war weit weg von der Experimentierfreude der Avantgarde. In Fabian Müllers Orchesterstück „Taranis“, geschrieben für den Dirigenten Andrey Boreyko, wurde das besonders deutlich...
...Von anderem Kaliber ist Richard Beaudoins Liedzyklus „Nach-Fragen”, geschrieben für die famose Sopranistin Annette Dasch, auf der Grundlage von Christa Wolfs Roman „Nachdenken über Christa T.“. Der amerikanische Komponist lässt das expressionistische Melodram mit solcher Raffinesse und Konsequenz aufleben, dass das Werk zum spannenden Hörerlebnis wird.
Kongenial die Interpretation von Dasch und dem Pianisten Wolfram Rieger, die das Nach-Fragen nach den Grundlagen unserer Existenz ohne Larmoyanz oder erhobenen Zeigefinger zelebrieren.
Neue Musik: Nach-Fragen zu unserer Existenz, Martin Schrahn. Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 19.03.2009
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[...] Kann man Prosa singen wie die Lyrik eines Lieds? Annette Dasch kann es, und sogar höchst expressiv. Richard Beaudoin hat für sie mit dem Gesangszyklus “Nach-Fragen” eine Passage aus dem Roman “Nachdenken über Christa T.” vertont, mit dem Christa Wolf in der DDR eine kritische Lebensbilanz vollzog. Dass die Uraufführung am Tage des 80. Geburtstags der großen Autorin Aufführungen im Concertgebouw in Amsterdam und im Wiener Konzerthaus vorausging, schmeichelt der Metropole Ruhr.
Mit akademischen Verweisen auf Schubert, Bach und Janacék hat der Harvard-Lehrbeauftragte eine dem Sprechgesang angenäherte, kunstvoll symmetrische, hochexpressive dramatische Miniatur mit durchsichtigem Klaviersatz geschaffen. Annette Dasch und Wolfram Rieger als überragender Partner erwiesen sich als Interpreten auf der Höhe dieses eindrucksvollen Werkes.
Auf dem Sprung zur Weltkarriere: Annette Dasch brilliert im Konzerthaus, Bernd Aulich, Recklinghäuser Zeitung, Nr. 67, 20.03.2009
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[...] und hatte zudem eine Uraufführung im Gepäck. Der amerikanische Komponist Richard Beaudoin schrieb eigens für sie den Gesangszyklus “Nach-Fragen” auf Texte von Christa Wolf (aus dem Roman “Nachdenken über Christa T.”).
Er kreist um die Frage “Was ist das: dieses Zu-sich-selber-Kommen des Menschen?” und ist eine Reflexion über die Zeit und das Menschsein. In dem dreiteiligen Stück komponiert Beaudoin dicht aus dem Text heraus, stellt Lieder neben Rezitativisches und bezieht sich bisweilen auf Bestehendes. Er nennt es “Nach-Bilder früherer Werke (Bach, Schubert, Janacek), in seine eigene Sprache übertragen.
Annette Dasch hat eine Stimme von bezauberndem Timbre. Sie geht mit ihr sorgsam um, stellt sie in den Dienst innigen Ausdrucks. So vermochte sie das neue Werk den Zuhörern nahezubringen, sie zu interessieren für diese musikalische Umsetzung existenzieller Gedanken.
Wie man existenzielle Gedanken singt, Sonja Müller Eisold, Westfälische Rundschau, Nr. 67, 20.03.2009
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[...] Die zweite Hälfte eröffnete der in Österreich erstmals aufgeführte Gesangszyklus "Nach-Fragen" des Briten Richard Beaudoin nach Texten Christa Wolfs, der in Klangsprache und Gestik an den atonalen Schönberg gemahnte.
Gefeierte Eindringlichkeit, Stefan Beig, Wiener Zeitung, 22.03.2009
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[...] Die Originalität der Liedzusammenstellung war die eigentliche Stärke des Abends, dem Wolfram Rieger, dieser hervorragende und einfühlsame Pianist, seine unverzichtbare Grundlage gab. Kaum Bekanntes von Beethoven, etwa das komplexe, wie eine mehrgliedrige Opernszene aufgebaute „An die Hoffnung“, unter den zumeist reizende Unterhaltung bietenden englischen Liedern von Joseph Haydn auch der geheimnisvoll-düstere Stimmung verbreitende „Spirit's Song“ – veritable Entdeckungen, denen Dasch einen eigens für sie komponierten Zyklus zur Seite stellte: die freundlich aufgenommene Christa-Wolf-Vertonung „Nach-Fragen“, eine freitonale und mit kultivierten Vergangenheits-Hommagen operierende, den Texten poetisch nachspürende Liederkette des Briten Richard Beaudoin.
Konzerthaus: Keine Angst vor dem Klabautermann, Walter Wiedringer, Die Presse, 22.03.2009
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Und die Berlinerin, nicht zuletzt ihre Musik-Talkshow zeugt davon, ist engagierte Vermittlerin ihrer Kunst: Mit Richard Beaudoins "Nach-Fragen" steht also ein Zyklus aktueller Musik selbstverständlich zwischen Brahms und Korngold. Zuvor berichtet sie, an dessen Entstehung persönlich Schuld zu sein. In einer durchfeierten Sommernacht bei den Salzburger Festspielen habe der junge amerikanische Komponist mehreren Sängern versprochen, ihnen Lieder in die Kehle zu komponieren, wenn sie ihm denn Texte ihrer Wahl liefern würden.
Annette Dasch las gerade Christa Wolfs Roman "Nachdenken über Christa T." und schlug daraus Passagen vor, deren Prosastil so voller Poesie und rhythmischer Finesse ist, dass sie den Komponisten tatsächlich anregten, sie in Töne zu setzen. Zwischen romantischem Gestus, imaginativem Farbenspiel, melodramatischen Phrasen und nur wenigen Avantgarde-Bruitismen übersetzt Beaudoin Wolfs existenzielle Fragen mit einfühlsamer Nachdenklichkeit, denen auch Daschs extra feiner Klavierpartner Ulrich Naudé beredten Ausdruck verleiht.
Gewitzte Anwältin der Liedkunst. Sopranistin Annette Dasch in der "Stimmwelten"-Reihe der Elbphilharmonie Konzerte, Peter Krause, Die Welt, 27.01.2011
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Größere Bögen zogen Dasch und ihr diskret-aufmerksamer Begleiter Ulrich Naudé im zweiten Teil bei Erich Korngold. Da wirkte Dasch mehr bei sich und zeigte ihre volle, tragende Tiefe. Und das Herz des Abends war der Zyklus "Nach-Fragen" von Richard Beaudoin, 2008 komponiert für die Sängerin auf Auszüge aus Christa Wolfs Roman "Nachdenken über Christa T.". Da sprach die Sängerin, sang staccato oder hielt erstarrt inne. So verband sich Beaudoins reiche Tonsprache mit den Prosapassagen zu einem Manifest des Wesentlichen. Gipfelnd in der Frage: "Lebst du jetzt, wirklich?"
Laeiszhalle: Annette Dasch, Hamburger Abendblatt, 27.01.2011
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In Schwetzingen führt sie die neue Festspiel-Reihe "Frauenpower - Powerfrauen" ein. Der Titel segnet schon im Vorhinein ihre raumsprengende Ausdruckskraft ab, die sie in Vertonungen von Beethoven, Brahms und Korngold investiert und auch in den grüblerischen Liederzyklus "Nachfragen", an dem sich die Programmauswahl weitgehend orientiert.
"Nachfragen" enthält Passagen aus Christa Wolfs Roman "Nachdenken über Christa T.". Der Kanadier Richard Beaudoin hat dazu auf Daschs Anregung hin Musik geschrieben, die der großmächtigen Stimme jeden Entfaltungsgrad erlaubt - vom Sprechen bis zum kämpferischen Aufschrei. Der Komponist überlässt es allein der Interpretin, diese bohrenden, ebenso zeitkritischen wie zeitlosen Betrachtungen der Christa Wolf singend auszuarbeiten.
Die "Nachfragen" lauten: Wie kann man sich "in der Kunst selbst verwirklichen"? "Lebst du jetzt, wirklich?" oder "Wie aber soll man angemessen auf Todeserfahrungen reagieren?". Diese in bilderreicher Prosa umrissenen Themen verlangen allen Beteiligten ein Höchstmaß an Konzentration und Durchleuchtung ab. Das Ergebnis der Dasch-Analyse: Zweifel und Ratlosigkeit, diese Klarsicht auf menschliches Unvermögen treffen tief bis ins Mark. Und wesentlich schmerzhafter als die Lieder von Beethoven oder Brahms.
Bohrende Fragen, M.L., Mannheimer Morgen, 02.05.2011
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Das passiert auch deshalb, da viele Sänger den einfachen Weg gehen und fertige Zyklen aufs Programm setzen, Werke, die Erfolg versprechen und keinen langwierigen Denkprozess des Zusammenstellens erfordern. Aber es waren nicht nur die Raritäten, die diesen Abend auszeichneten, sondern auch die perfekt auf ihre dramatischer gewordene Stimme zugeschnittene Auswahl, die gerade die wunderbar warmtönende Mittellage betonte und die bisweilen scharfe Höhe mied. Fast auf einen Mezzosopran zugeschnitten waren auch die „Nach-Fragen“, ein Gesangszyklus nach Texten von Christa Wolf des amerikanischen Komponisten Richard Beaudoin. Aus einer Laune entstand auf einen Text aus Wolfs Roman „Nachdenken über Christa T.“ ein Lied, das so perfekt harmonierte, dass daraus ein dreiteiliger Liederzyklus mit insgesamt 15 Gesängen und zwei instrumentalen Intermezzi entstand. Beaudoin spricht eine sehr aufs Wesentliche verknappte Sprache, die hin und wieder aufblüht, aber so die ebenso karge poetische Prosa Christa Wolfs sehr gut in Klänge fasst. Ein doppeltes Zu-sich-selber-Kommen, das einerseits Textzitat ist und andererseits tatsächlich den Fokus auf das eigene Ich schärft. Ein großartiges Werk – großartig gesungen.
Seltene Klang-Perlen mit „der Dasch“, Michael Wruss, Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, 10.02.2011
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