Thank you, je-b, for bringing Reinhold Friedrich to my attention not too long ago. I've been listening to his recording of the B.A. Zimmermann trumpet concerto "Nobody Knows..." ever since, totally engrossed and internally moved (Capriccio 10 482). What a player he is. I am hearing this stupendous work as it were for the first time. A complete, possibly peerless virtuoso who has internalized the music he playes to an unparallelled degree! Next, I must seek him out in the Rihm piece you recommended.
Now, the rest of the disc is equally good, performancewise, but the Zimmermann work is very special indeed, in its preternaturally effective and organic combination of layers of music history, separate styles, and mixed musical materials into a coherent, most striking and memorable whole that lingers on in your mind long after listening through it. Where Zimmermann in my mind succeeds (and many other "modernists" don't in the same way) is in coming across as something very meaningful and moving precisely to you personally while elevating the virtuoso element almost trivialized by the post-War generation to a fresh status seemingly so noble and bold. He wasn't afraid of quoting or otherwise incorportating also materials considered "vulgar" and non-canonical in the annals of Western art music (here, for instance, big-band jazz that really swings, too, and, as the title tells, fragments of a negro spiritual).
Thinking about this work in particular made me feel that this indeed could have been the kind of music Mahler had made had he lived past the two great wars. So I'm half-ready to declare Zimmermann (who similarly lived with his share of personal tragedies, even that of the ultimate kind)
the Gustav Mahler of our time ("our" just in the sense of more or less, given that BAZ died already back in 1970, even if he foreshadowed many currents of music prevalent in the patterns we see in compositions today; indeed, in his music there is a unique simultaneity of past, present, and future). What I have in mind, however, is not just the concrete content of his music, its topology or physiognomy, but also the tenor of his projects and the tendencies of his artistic personality, or his psychological temperament and even aura as an artist, should I say. (Of course, there are many differences, too.)
Or can you think of someone else more deserving of this denomination?
PT
