J�rg Gottschick, Nicola Birkhan,Verena Obermayer, Paul Rivin - Alexander Asteriades: Klaviertrio, Lieder

A disc of Songs and Variations for violin, violoncello andpiano on motifs from the Book of Job.The music of Alexander Asteriades moves �out of the cul-de-sac of atonality.� And so it is not without good reason that the composition of songs with piano accompaniment, very much in the tradition of the nineteenth century, accounts for a significant part of his oeuvre.As in the songs of his great models, Goethe, Eichendorff, and M�ricke are encountered among the poets of his texts � but he has also set Georg Trakl and Nikos Kazantzakis.Although Asteriades� songs are tonal, they pose supreme challenges to the interpreters; their grand leaps, extreme registers, and long melodic lines require a singer of superbskill and a pianist who supplies a finely felt and multifaceted accompaniment.Asteriades draws on Martin Buber�s translation of the Book of Job as his source of inspiration in this five-part work. Buber�stext endeavors to reproduce the verbal rhythm of the Hebrew original and as a result assumes a very unique musicality. It is from a little seed that the composer develops the musical material evoking the moods of this famous sapiential work in a finely crafted setting.