© Wolfgang Suppan / Peter Hallekallek & Platypus Ensemble / Maria Frodl
Archive: Walking in the Limits
Krems Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche Klangraum Krems Minoritenkirche
Musical Borderline Experiences
Wolfgang Suppan (festival composer): “Welten... auseinander” (“Worlds… apart”) for ensemble & electronics (2021)
world premiere
Heinz Reber, "Walking in the Limits" for string trio (2007) world premiere
The project Walking in the Limits is inspired by the ambivalence of border-crossing experiences. For his piece “Welten... auseinander” for ensemble & electronics, commissioned by the Imago Dei Festival, composer Wolfgang Suppan (*1966) was guided by the idea of looking into the distance, which in the end always directs the view back to one’s self. Suppan calls upon two exemplary historical texts whose reference system is the world of science: “Sidereus Nuncius” Galileo Galilei’s 1610 treatise of the first Moon observations through a telescope, and the reports of the Moon by Apollo 8 pilot Jim Lovell.
With their poetic style and emotional content, both texts transcend the sober and precise level of the scientific context and access the realm of fantasy. Suppan docks onto both dimensions at once and concocts thought processes transformed into sound. Expeditions to distant landscapes are ultimately also about the discovery of one’s self and own limits. Precisely this aspect is captured in the eponymous work of the evening, “Walking in the Limits”, a piece for a string trio with electronics by composer Heinz Reber, who died in 2007. Reber’s concept of a string trio also contains a quantum physical aspect: The universe consists of strings, a fact that manifests during the course of its translation into sound. In essence, Reber’s music is always about expressions of freedom.
Composition commission by the Imago Dei Festival with the kind support of the “Association of Friends of the Imago Dei Festival”
