Five orchestral works by the Austrian composer Herbert Willi, born in Bludenz, Vorarlberg, on 7 January 1956, including two concertos from his cycle Montafon. Willi's credo is a music of silence: "Composition has to do with trust. Allowing the sounds to happen in silence and lack of intentionality is one of the most beautiful things I can imagine."
The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken plays under three conductors: Günther Herbig in the two concertos, Petri Sakari in Räume and the Rondino, and Michael Stern in Begegnung. The soloists are Reinhold Friedrich on trumpet, with Wolfgang Schulz on flute and Hansjörg Schellenberger on oboe. The recordings were made between September 1999 and May 2004 in the large broadcasting hall of the Funkhaus Halberg, in coproduction with Saarländischer Rundfunk.
Eirene (Peace, written in Greek on the cover) is a concerto for trumpet and orchestra in three movements. … geraume Zeit … is a concerto for flute, oboe and orchestra in four movements, the longest work at nineteen minutes. Räume and Begegnung are single-movement pieces for orchestra. Willi wrote Begegnung in 1997/98 as a commission from the Vienna Philharmonic for the orchestra's 150th anniversary. The Rondino in four parts is drawn from Willi's opera Schlafes Bruder, on a libretto by Robert Schneider, commissioned by the Opernhaus Zürich for the 1000 years of Austria celebrations and premiered in 1996.
In the Schott text, Willi's music prefers fulfilled calm to the virtuoso gesture and delicately shaded images to sensational effect, and its most stimulating journey is a journey inward. Willi studied composition at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Helmut Eder, and lives and works as a freelance composer in St. Anton im Montafon, the valley that gives the cycle its name. The Montafon cycle, completed in 2007, later grew to include a clarinet concerto, ego eimi, and a horn concerto, Äon. The booklet holds liner notes by Walter Dobler in German and English.
CD with a 24-page booklet, Wergo WER 6673 2, released in 2005, 78 minutes.
