ECM New Series: Christoph Poppen, Münchener Kammerorchester & The Hilliard Ensemble — Bach / Webern: Ricercar — Audio CD

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Product Details:

• Product Type: Audio CD
• Brand / Label: ECM New Series
• Artists: Christoph Poppen (conductor), Münchener Kammerorchester, The Hilliard Ensemble
• Composers: Johann Sebastian Bach, Anton Webern
• Release Year: 2001
• Catalog Number: ECM New Series 1774 / 461 912-2
• UPC: 028946191224
• Label Code: LC 02516
• Producer: Manfred Eicher
• Genre: Classical
• Style: Baroque, Second Viennese School

Product Features

• Format: CD
• Discs: 1
• Total runtime: approx. 69:08
• Ensembles: Münchener Kammerorchester (chamber orchestra), The Hilliard Ensemble (vocal)
• Made in: Germany
• Condition: Brand New, Factory Sealed

Overview

Ricercar is built around a single act of homage: Anton Webern's 1935 orchestration of the six-voice fugue from Bach's Musical Offering. Webern broke Bach's line into shifting instrumental colors — a technique he called Klangfarbenmelodie — and the result became one of the 20th century's most famous reimaginings of the Baroque master.

Christoph Poppen frames it cleverly. The disc opens and closes with that same Webern-orchestrated Ricercar, bookending a program that moves between centuries. In between sit Webern's early, late-Romantic String Quartet of 1905 (here in Poppen's own orchestration), his sharp-edged Five Movements Op. 5 for string orchestra, and Bach's Cantata No. 4, "Christ lag in Todesbanden," sung by the Hilliard Ensemble.

The pairing makes the case that Bach and Webern belong in the same conversation — counterpoint heard across 200 years, the fugal "search" that gives the disc its title.

This is the sealed ECM New Series edition, produced by Manfred Eicher with the label's signature space and detail, drawing on a long-running ECM partnership with the Hilliard Ensemble and Münchener Kammerorchester.

Interesting Facts

• The title "Ricercar" refers both to Bach's six-voice fugue from the Musical Offering and to the old contrapuntal form whose name means "to search."
• Webern's 1935 orchestration applies Klangfarbenmelodie — distributing a single melodic line across changing instruments — to Bach's fugue.
• Webern's String Quartet (1905) is an early, still late-Romantic work, here heard in an orchestration by Christoph Poppen.
• The disc deliberately opens and closes with the same Bach/Webern Ricercar, framing the whole program.
• The Hilliard Ensemble recorded extensively for ECM, including the international hit "Officium" with saxophonist Jan Garbarek.
• Bach's Cantata No. 4 is one of his earliest surviving cantatas, built entirely on Luther's Easter chorale.

Track Listing

• Johann Sebastian Bach — Fuga (Ricercata) a 6 voci (orchestrated by Anton Webern)
• Anton Webern — String Quartet (1905) (orchestrated by Christoph Poppen)
• Johann Sebastian Bach — Cantata No. 4, "Christ lag in Todesbanden"
• Anton Webern — Five Movements, Op. 5 (version for string orchestra)
• Johann Sebastian Bach — Fuga (Ricercata) a 6 voci (orchestrated by Anton Webern)

Publishers

Released by ECM Records GmbH (Munich) under the ECM New Series imprint, catalog 1774 / 461 912-2. Produced by Manfred Eicher. Printed in Germany.

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