Jürg Frey @ 70: EXAUDI

Tickets £21 // Concession £17 // Under 30 £5
Advance booking required

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EXAUDI
James Weeks conductor

Stéphanie Bozzini viola

Jürg Frey (Switzerland, 1953)
Polyphonie der Wörter (1998) 11’ UK Premiere
[Text by Robert Walser, Franz Kafka, Fernando Pessoa]

Jürg Frey (Switzerland, 1953)
Mit Schweigen wird’s gesprochen I, II (1993) 9’

Jürg Frey (Switzerland, 1953)
Landscape of Echoes (2019) 10’30”
[Text by Jürg Frey]

Jürg Frey (Switzerland, 1953)
Mit Schweigen wird’s gesprochen III, IV (1993) 8’

Jürg Frey (Switzerland, 1953)
Because I Could Not Stop for Death (2022) 17’30” World Premiere
[Text by Emily Dickinson, Bai Juyi (722-846)]

Since 2016, Jürg Frey has written four pieces for the singers of EXAUDI: a ravishing new body of work that shows his softly expansive idiom in a new light. This programme brings together an earlier vocal piece, Polyphonie der Wörter, with two more recent ones including a moving setting of Emily Dickinson and Bai Juyi, Because I Could Not Stop for Death, and music for solo viola performed by Stéphanie Bozzini.

The nuances of sound, silence and their relationship form the basis of several of Frey’s compositions, represented in this programme by Mit Schweigen wird’s gesprochen and Polyphonie der Wörter. In the latter work, text is provided by way of Kafka, Walser and Pessoa, filtered through the composer and EXAUDI’s eight singers. Landscape of Echoes, meanwhile, features text provided by Frey: selections from his own curated archive of words and word sequences.

Produced by hcmf// supported by Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia

Stéphanie Bozzini acknowledges financial support from Canada Council for the Arts and Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec

Photo © Jon Cartwright