ARNULF HERRMANN (b.1968) Drei Gesängen am offenen Fenster (Three Chants at an Open Window), Tour de Trance (Soprano and Piano), Tour de Trance (soprano and orchestra). Anja Petersen (soprano), Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks cond. Stefan Asbury.

Description: Born in Heidelberg in 1968, Arnulf Herrmann studied piano, music theory and composition in Munich, Dresden, Paris and Berlin, where he completed his studies in 2002. In 2003, he took up a teaching position in theory, analysis and aural training at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin; from 2004, he was the main teacher for composition there and, from 2006, also lectured on instrumentation and analysis. Since 2014, he has held the chair of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Saar. Herrmann has composed extensively for ensemble and chamber music, and also works for orchestra and the stage. These impressive works for large orchestra with soprano inhabit a fractured world of tragedy and psychological turmoil, in a powerful neo-expressionistic idiom with its foundations in tonality. The dark, obsessive implications of the texts find voice in relentless ostinati with an almost Petterssonic hectoring insistence, as exhausting as they are disturbing.