PHACE | SOLSTICES

PROGRAM

Georg Friedrich Haas
Solstices for ten instruments, to be performend in complete darkness, 2018

Enveloped in absolute darkness, the sounds in Solstices by Georg Friedrich Haas emerge with unexpected intensity and brilliance. The musical events unfold as if in slow motion, drawing the listener into a meditative vortex of long-term undulating movements and developmental processes. The idiosyncratic interplay of the instruments, the tuning, the microtonal shifts – which often seem so imprecise in the usual, tempered context – emerge here with absolute clarity as sonic entities with a completely independent character and reveal rarely heard harmonies.
The complete darkness is a challenge not only for the musicians, who must learn the entire piece by heart. The listeners should also prepare themselves for an intense, demanding listening experience in which attention wanders and thoughts perhaps travel to surprising realms, only to return with the dawn. The solstice in the title probably only partially refers to the darkness in the concert hall, which Haas has long explored in his works. The composer described the work as a love song, dedicated to his wife Mollena, whom he met at the winter solstice and married at the summer solstice.