Lera Auerbach: Galgenlieder | Jan Müller-Wieland: Lianen | Mark Alan Taggart: Sorrow

Together with the renowned Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, the Hanover Girls’ Choir is exploring new sounds: On the one hand, there is the first recording of Christian Morgenstern’s “Galgenlieder”, set to music by Lera Auerbach. While the choir skilfully elevates sighing and breathing to musical means in addition to classical singing, the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet “growls” to it, plays pizzicati, glissandi and sometimes even flutters. This inspires amazement at the diverse sound possibilities, sometimes a smile or reflection on the texts set to music, but always an intense listening experience.
The saxophone ensemble shows its full potential with the first recording of Mark Alan Taggert’s melancholy “Sorrow” and an arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Fugue in B major from the second part of the Well-Tempered Clavier.
Jan Müller-Wieland’s “Lianen”, a commissioned work for the Mädchenchor Hannover, also recorded for the first time on this album, combines choir, piano and live electronics to create an extremely colourful sound. Sounding and swinging vines develop from an initial “Pssst”.