Details: As Janacek can be considered the most important Czech operatic composers of his time, Febel represents without doubt one of the most influential contemporary opera composers in the German-speaking countries. The fil rouge of this CD reveals itself in the mere choice of the pieces: all of them are compositions for piano and ensemble which try to construct the literal Hyperklavier Febel mentions in his title, a sound conglomerate that extends the semantic possibilities of a solo piano through the employment of different instruments. Many more, however, are the common points that bind the contemporary Febel to the historic Janacek. A further, more interesting parallelism, however, has to do with stylistic coordinates: as Janacek can be considered the most important Czech operatic composers of his time (we will just remember the titles Jenufa, Kata Kabanova and Vec Makropulos), Febel represents without doubt one of the most influential contemporary opera composers in the German-speaking countries. With performances at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Oper Bonn, Landestheater Linz (among others), he has confronted himself with the most various themes and figures, so for example Euridice, Frida (Kahlo) and Benjamin Button. This interest in opera could be a subterrain reason for their similar rethinking of piano solo with instrumental ensemble: by avoiding the classical, dualistic "question-answer" rhetoric, they are able to carve an all-round figure - in other words a character - out of the piano. Through a particular employment of the ensemble, the keyboard gathers a new three-dimensional plasticity, like a singer immersed in a scenography and illuminated by multicoloured reflectors.

Zahir Ensemble - Hyperklavier (CD)