Stille Sprache “opened up mightily impressive vistas. At times quite breathtaking in its scope, it was sometimes difficult to accept that such an expansive musical canvas was peopled by just three performers.”
[Marc Rochester, The Straits Times, 18 April 2011]
Stille Sprache (Language of Silence), Opus 81 by Andrew Schultz is a setting of three poems from the first part of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Die Sonette an Orpheus (The Sonnets of Orpheus) for soprano, violin and piano. Felicitas Fuchs (soprano), Qian Zhou (violin) and Bernard Lanskey (piano) recorded the work at the Studios of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore in 2013 (Zhou Xiaodong, audio engineer). The work was composed by Andrew Schultz in Sydney, Australia, in 2009 for the wonderful young German soprano Felicitas Fuchs who gave the work its premiere with French violinist Aki Saulière, and Australian pianist Bernard Lanskey at La Loingtaine in Paris in 2010. Felicitas has since performed it in England, Australia and Singapore and now presents it on this digital-only recording release with Bernard Lanskey and the brilliant Chinese violinist, Qian Zhou.
Stille Sprache has three movements:
1. Da stieg ein Baum, duration: 6 minutes 55 seconds
2. Nur wer die Leier schon hob, duration: 7 minutes 19 seconds
3. Ein Gott vermags, duration: 5 minutes 45 seconds
Click to download the recording booklet: Stille Sprache CD Text and Note
Purchase on i-Tunes, Amazon and other digital platforms
Release date: 10 March 2014
Catalogue number: AW5016356
Hear and see a performance of the third movement of Stille Sprache on YouTube
Image above: detail from ‘Orpheus’ by Odilon Redon circa 1903