The Cold Trip

Bernhard Lang’s The Cold Trip is a meta-work based on Schubert’s Winterreise, scored for soprano and a microtonally tuned guitar quartet. We are delighted to welcome the outstanding German soprano Johanna Zimmer to Porvoo. During her years as a member of Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Zimmer demonstrated an extraordinary ability to sing virtually anything with effortless command. At Suvisoitto, she is joined by the Kekkonen Quartet, an ensemble comprising some of Finland’s leading guitarists.

Among contemporary European composers, Eric Wubbels may be the one whose musical aesthetics come closest to those of Bernhard Lang. His duo for violin and piano, the children of fire come looking for the fire, is quite possibly the most compelling work written for this combination in the twenty-first century, and it forms a fascinating pairing with Lang’s piece.

Wubbels’ work draws its source material from Brahms’s piano piece Op. 10 No. 4. Both works on the programme are thus rooted in the pitch material and compositional choices of iconic figures of the Western art music tradition. Yet what drives them forward on the surface are powerful influences from the pop, rock, and jazz music of our own time.