Philipp Maintz Trawl portrait du compositeur Ensemble Alternance - STR37080 - Contemporain

“Since Philipp Maintz is dealing with texts as the Lied form, musical theatre well as by using literary fragments as highlight of a work, we can feel a powerful emotion as they are always characterized by signs of darkness, cruelty and morbid oddities. Maintz's music recovers often these texts in a bloody way of which the intensity is limited by a poetical expression. At first sight the title of the work, “ trawl ”, for flute, clarinet, violin, clarinet, violin, violoncello and piano (2010/13) seems to refer less to the darkness, but the music is still febrile and disturbing; at the beginning the short occurings of the piano seem more juxtaposed than connected. Then the architecture of the process becomes more and more clear by the progressive addition of the other instruments. In the same way in “ NAHT ” (1999/2000), a duo for violin and violoncello, undertitled “ yo no pido a la noche explicaciones ” referring to Pablo Neruda, these sharp layers are worked with the same energy and expressivity. This work testifies of the interest of Philipp Maintz in linearity and polyphony. The listener is caught up by the abysses of the night and its echoe Philipp Maintz constanly and again develops. A lot of works by Philipp Maintz are characterized by a night inquiringly ambivalence, may be that described by Novalis in his hymns to the night: “ Do you like us, dark night? What are you holding under your coat which invisibly affects strongly my soul? ”