ISIS

with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Peter Ruzicka conductor

2 December 2022

s a conductor, Peter Ruzicka often champions the work of George Enescu, especially the Fourth Symphony, orchestrated only posthumously by Pascal Bentoiu, which the self-critical Romanian composer had left lying around.

The composition ISIS is a mysterious, impressionistic sound work in which the female voices nevertheless blend beautifully with the orchestral sounds. Isis, by the way, was also Enescu's pet name for his lover and later wife!

And what can one expect from a work with the title FURIOSO? Lisztian impetus, energetic sound cascades, firecracker sounds? Bingo! Peter Ruzicka wrote the timpani-heavy orchestral piece as a tribute to his late fatherly Zurich friend Rolf Liebermann especially as a crisp concert opening. On the other hand, the viola concerto DEPART, written for Nils Mönkemeyer during the Corona crisis and commissioned by the Tonhalle Society Zurich, shows Ruzicka as a mourner for one of the defining voices of the 20th century: "My empathy for Celan not infrequently leads to moments of rebellion, of outburst - but then also of epic withdrawal into the dark, indeterminate, into silence and extinction".

Performers

NILS MÖNKEMEYER Viola

DAMEN DER ZÜRCHER SING-AKADEMIE

FLORIAN HELGATH Chorus Master

TONHALLE-ORCHESTER ZÜRICH

PETER RUZICKA Conductor

Programme

PETER RUZICKA:

FURIOSO for Orchestra – Schweizer Erstaufführung

DEPART Concert for Viola and Orchestra – Uraufführung

GEORGE ENESCU:

ISIS for Female Choir and Orchestre – Schweizer Erstaufführung
SINFONIE NR. IN 4 E-MOLL – Schweizer Erstaufführung