The Music of Dieter Ammann

Born 1962, Swiss composer Dieter Ammann's star has yet to shine brightly in the UK, but he has certainly gained traction on the Continent. This appears to be a recording of the composer's 60th birthday concert ,on May 26, 2022.

Ammann's unbalanced instability (2013) is a "concerto for violin and chamber orchestra: Simon Zgaggen is the valiant solos, asked to move between ferocity and crystalline, high-lying lyricism. The music is broadly Modernist, but there ae traditional harmonic stuccoes which are occasionally used as referands.

I'm not sure Naxos' boomlet noes (credited as by "Ophelias Culture PR) help very much; stock phrases about modern music and not a few meaningless statements prevail. Yes, the relaitonship been violin and orchestra varies in unbalanced instability (and indeed the violin is deliberately overpowered a parts), and yes, the piece is sectional, so there is no grand overall plan (as befits the title). But there is a narrative thread, often led by the solo violin; and Zgraggen's cadenza is magical, as is the quiet end, as if the music melts into its own dusk.

Here's the Naxos:

... and here's a perfomance by the dedicatee, Carolin Widmann, with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra und Pablo Heras-Cassado:

Over a decade, Amman wrote this triptych of independent orchestral works, Core, Turn, Boost. The elemental sounds of Core (2002, Lucerne commission) seem overwhelming before softening into more glistening light. The piece is based on improvisations by the Koch-Schütz-Stude Trio, shaped into what feels like an organic mass of sound. The Basel Sinfonietta - the diminutive "sinfonietta" seems not to do the depth of sound justice - is superb under Baldur Brönimann: Listen to how the music sparkles gloriously towards the end:

The second piece of the triptych is Turn (2010), another Lucerne commission (for Pierre Boulez). Her'e s the compose on this piece (the "slow movement" of the cycle):

I created a formal design that exposes an intentional overloading of the orchestral movement in order to create a musical aura, which is then subjected to a fundamental change or even entirely fractured. At the same time, I attached a strong significance on the vertical

Some gestures (slowly decelerating low wind/bass chords) seem to be influenced by gesstures fom electronic music. Above all though it is the freize-like Modernisr beauty of the score the impresses.

The third piece was actually composed first: Boost, of 2000/01 (commissioned Lucerne/Jonahan Nott). A celebration of unstoppable energy, it is far from monochrome: Amman's cohesion is itself the work of a master. It is, pardon the pun, underscored by the laser-like focus of the live Basel performance. The final gesture seems very final, even traditional: and yet silence is held for an extended time (I did wonder if applause had been retained: it is).

The confidence and accuracy of execution of all pieces could be of a studio production. Remarkable,

I have come across one other piece by Ammann previously: his Piano Concerto as recorded by Andreas Haefliger (for whom it was written) on BIS. It is good to have.whole disc of his music now, especially in such committed performances and ins such fine sound. And there's also his string quartets: the single movement first, Geborstene Satz, has been available a couple of times: on Solo Musica by the Casal Quartet (sometimes given as "casalQuartett") coupled with Beethoven Op. 95 and Janáček 2, a disc I find hard to locate; thee's also an all-Amman chamber disc that holds String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2, plus Gehörte Form (Heard Form) and Après le silence (After the silence) for string trio, also the Casal Quartet/casalQuartett. There is definite wit to the first quartet (not really there in the orchestral disc). Both show Ammann's tremndous appetite for textural and timbal variety identified in the Naxos pieces.

Here's a live performance of the casalQuartett in Geborstene Satz, taken at Festival Basel Museiques in 2009:

This Naxos disc was available at Amazon here; iDagio here, iDagio for the all-Ammann string disc here. The BIS piano concerto disc is here, while the chamber disc is here, but at a rather pricey £24,71.