Mark Andre, Nikolaus Brass, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Frank Reinecke

Volume 52 of the musica viva series is a solo album by the Munich double bassist Frank Reinecke, a member of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 2024. It brings together three pieces for the instrument alone, two of which he premièred: iv 18 by Mark Andre, Flucht by Nikolaus Brass, and In Freundschaft by Karlheinz Stockhausen in a version playable on double bass.

iv 18, subtitled Sie fürchteten sich nämlich (For they were afraid), was commissioned between 2018 and 2021 by Bavarian Radio's musica viva and the Berliner Festspiele, and first played at Musikfest Berlin in September 2021. Andre wrote it over several years in close work with Reinecke, exploring the light, fragile side of the instrument. Its eleven untitled sections last about 43 minutes, recorded in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz on 7-9 November 2023. Brass calls the three movements of Flucht (2009) studies for the instrument. The first works through gestures of the line, the central one goes to its core, and the last narrows everything to the glissando. It was recorded in the Himmelfahrtskirche in Munich-Sendling in June 2012. Stockhausen wrote In Freundschaft in 1977 as a birthday present for the clarinettist Suzanne Stephens, then made versions for almost every orchestral instrument. A cello version of 1981 can also be played on double bass, and Reinecke's performance was recorded live at a musica viva concert on 6 November 2020. Its eleven sections move from the opening formula through stages on the pitches F sharp, F, E, D sharp, D, C sharp and C, with two cadenzas, to a final union on B. Reinecke and Helmut Rohm wrote the booklet notes.

BR-Klassik CD 900652, released in September 2026.