SCHUBERT – SCHWANENGESÄNGE / SWAN SONGS
„Every period in history has its own tendencies and points of reference. A musical interpretation should always strive to breathe new life into a composer’s legacy by making it audible and understandable in accordance with the here and now. Artists should certainly render the score as authentically as possible; however, thanks to a choice of responsibly assumed liberties and of self-imposed limits in performance practice, they can give their interpretation a highly individual profile.
In this new recording we have once again dared to open up our performance experimentally to the sort of effects that emerge from spontaneous improvisation. We have never ceased to ask ourselves (not only in this context): at what point does subjectivity turn into mannerism? How much freedom can, may, and should a recorded interpretation contain?
As historically informed practitioners of music, we see ourselves as mediators. Faithfulness to the original begins with a willingness to decode, decipher, and interpret the score; it is not achieved by staring fearfully in awe at the manuscript. To the contrary: we are fully aware that any confrontation with a masterpiece of the past can only be justified if we recreate it anew while maintaining a fragile balance between faithfulness to the musical work and faithfulness to the “text”. We are also well aware that the two latter concepts should not be equated.
In this recording we confront the listener with a number of notes that are not in the manuscript, along with a series of unfamiliar phrasings, and several changes we have made in the score..……. (Excerpt from the booklet notes by Tobias Koch/Markus Schäfer).
To trace the essence of sound with the joy of discovery and open-minded versatility – that is the musical credo of Tobias Koch, one of the most fascinating current performers in the area of historical keyboard instruments. Koch never ceases to surprise his audiences with a series of exceptional projects, featuring an extensive variety of repertoire and a pronounced curiosity for discovering rare historical instruments and unknown musical gems.
A comprehensive musical career as soloist, chamber musician, and vocal accompanist has led him to tour throughout Europe. He appears as a guest artist in leading festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein, Ludwigsburg, Verbier, and the Warsaw Chopin Festival.
Important musical partners include Andreas Staier, Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis, Concerto Köln, Collegium 1704 Prag, Hofkapelle München, Frieder Bernius with Hofkapelle Stuttgart, the choirs of the broadcasting entities WDR (Cologne) and BR (Munich), and singers such as Dorothee Mields, Jan Kobow, Thomas E. Bauer, and Markus Schäfer, with whom he has been collaborating for many years. Tobias Koch works in tandem with instrument makers and restorers, as well as with some of the most important musical instrument museums;
He is on the faculty of the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf and imparts masterclasses on an international level. A wide range of publications and a great number of broadcast productions for radio and television round out his work in the field of music, along with over 40 CD releases of works ranging from Mozart to Brahms.
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