involuntary

SKU: HL.48024665

ISBN 9781540058003. UPC: 888680951535.

Jacques Offenbach's more than 100 stage works are an endless treasure trove of vocal highlights with highly different musical moods and lyrical themes. To mark the 200th birthday of the great composer in 2019, which is at the same time the year of the 20th anniversary of the Offenbach Edition Keck OEK, the editor and Offenbach expert Jean-Christophe Keck has assembled a selection of arias. The four-part collection arranged according to voice category shows a rather unknown, romantic side of Offenbach. Apart from rediscovered works and first editions, however, the collection is not complete without some of his unrivalled hits. This volume shows that the composer especially liked to entrust the tenors with tender, sentimental numbers. But the melancholy is not always as genuine as that of the involuntary jester from the opera comique of the same name (here represented by the well-known Ballad to the Moon): Characters like Pluto, Paris or Robinson Crusoe know how to use their melodious voices with quite some ulteriormotive to achieve their goal. The character Frantz, traumatized by war, from the grand opera Les Fees du Rhin, however, is one of Offenbach's few deeply tragic figures. Romantic Offenbach is aimed at fully trained and budding professionals as well as at Offenbach fans of every shade and colour, providing repertoire pieces for recitals, studies or private music-making.

SKU: BT.GOB-000963-010

This composition was based on the world-famous novel by the French author Jules Verne. This novel describes the attempt to reach the centre of the earth. The descent of the crater of the volcano called Snaeffels, situated in Iceland, marks thebeginning of this voyage to the sublunary world.
The German geologist, professor Lidenbrock, is accompanied on this trip by his nephew Axel and an Icelandic guide named Hans. The last mentioned will be helpful in many occasions.

Dark colors & mist

The composer tried in this single work to give a musical expression to various significant moments from this novel. In the introduction he sketches an image of the dismal ambience on the island by using dark colors. Risingfragments of mist reveal the flanks of the monumental mountain Scataris. The composer tries to catch this image in a majestic and broad chorale.

Away from Iceland

Subsequently the ostinato rhythmicity and virtuosity representthe hectic descent of the crater of the volcano. The party descends ever more and more and travels south, away from Iceland. On the way, they see all kinds of rock formations, fossils and minerals. At a depth of thirty hours walking distance, atabout 150 kilometers below the surface, they reach a sub terrestrial sea which is called the Lidenbrock sea.

Genuine eruption of sounds

Strange electric manifestations and unpredictable weather conditions accompany thissingular phenomenon. An orchestral tutti-episode expresses this impression musically. On a make-shift raft, the party continues its voyage, heading to the south coast of this huge sea. Once ashore, an enormous rock obstructs the passage. The blowingup of this obstacle unleashes a genuine eruption of sounds in the orchestration.

Spat out by the volcano

But the explosion has an unforeseen side effect. The sea - travelers and raft included - is sucked upwards into a dark hole.Again, our heroes are accompanied on their involuntary voyage, while left to fend for themselves, by an ever increasing ostinato rhythmicity.

Before an irruption can destroy the raft, the threesome manages to escape and climb up through acave towards the daylight. They seem to be spat out by the Stromboli volcano on the island of Sicily, far from home.
The composition ends with triumphant sounds that represent the scientific triumph of these adventurers.

De compositie 'Voyage au centre de la terre ....' is gebaseerd op de wereldberoemde roman van de Franse schrijver Jules Verne. Het boek beschrijft de poging het middelpunt van de aarde te bereiken. Een afdaling van de op IJslandgesitueerde vulkaankrater 'de Sneffels', markeert het begin van deze reis in het ondermaanse. De Duitse geoloog professor Lidenbrock wordt hierbij vergezeld door zijn neefje Axel en een IJslandse gids genaamd Hans. Laatstgenoemdezal in menig netelige situatie nog van pas komen.

De componist heeft getracht in dit eendelige werk een aantal significante momenten uit deze roman te verklanken.
In de inleiding wordt door middel van donkere kleureneen beeld geschetst van de desolate sfeer op het eiland. Optrekkende flarden nevel onthullen de flanken van de monumentale berg 'de Scartaris'. De componist tracht dit beeld te vangen in een majestueus, breed opgezet koraal.
Vervolgens staan ostinate ritmiek en virtuositeit voor de hectische afdaling in de vulkaankrater.
De groep daalt dieper en dieper af, en reist daarbij zuidwaards, weg van IJsland. Onderweg komen ze allerlei rotsformaties,fossielen en mineralen tegen. Op een diepte van 'dertig uur gaans', op ca. 150 km. diepte, bereikt het gezelschap een onderaardse zee die 'de Lidenbrockzee' genoemd wordt.
Vreemd aandoende electrische verschijnselen enonvoorspelbare weersomstandigheden vergezellen dit zonderlinge fenomeen. In een orkestrale tutti-episode wordt deze indruk verklankt.
Op een provisorisch gebouwd vlot vervolgt het groepje hun reis, daarbij koersend naar dezuidkust van deze enorme zee. Eenmaal aan wal gekomen verspert een enorm rotsblok verdere doorgang.
Het opblazen van dit obstakel ontketent een ware klankeruptie in het orkest. Echter, de ontploffing heeft een onvoorzien neveneffect.