With the Eight Fragments Bertold Hummel has successfully created a most impressive work. Uncommonly concentrated in the evoking of atmosphere and reflecting the texts strongly, these "dark grey songs" - to quote Ludwig Hirsch - develop a sadly expressive, almost somnambulant charm. These songs seem to have become Bertold Hummel's completely inwardly turned "Winterreise", the epigram of a psychosis, full of concealed suggestion and dark references, but always more full of hope. The "sun" becomes the constantly invoked bearer of hope. The music is highly expressive, exploiting the various performing and bowing possibilities of the stringed instruments and their capacity for nuances to the limits; occasionally oppressive visions in sound appear. It is music in danger, of a most fragile balance. Nor are subtle musical references missing. With only one note, following the word "music", harmony and tonality are conjured up.
- ISMN: 9790001148887 (M001148887)
