Search - Espen Fegran, Johannes Kalitzke, Musikfabrik Nordrhein-Westfalen :: Johannes Kalitzke: Bericht über den Tod des Musikers Jack Tiergarten

A chilling opera, but with vital, dazzling music.

Karl Henzy | 12/10/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Kalitzke is an example of a young composer who hasn't retreated on the musical advances of his modernist predecessors. The story itself, of the exploitation of an artist, is chilling. This kind of plot can easily be sentimentalized (especially by an artist), but it isn't here. The music snaps, thrusts, comes down in percussive slaps, then shoots off in unexpected directions. Rhythmically, Kalitzke seems influenced by Stravinsky. There are powerful beats but they always come when you're not expecting them. Texturally, he seems closer to the "complexity school," with lots of different things happening, from different instruments, all at once. All these techniques are put to the service of an extremely visceral sense of life and society. This work will make an impression on you."