Schönberg Ensemble - Nederlands Kamerkoor - Reinbert de Leeuw

'Jetzt immer Schnee', a commission of the Schönberg Ensemble, saw its première in 1993. The work is based on the poetry of Gennadi Ajgi, a poet and a friend of Gubaidulina, when she studied in Moscow. Not until 1972, did she set his verses to the characteristic score. 'Jetzt immer Schnee' is a one and all evocation, with spatial range as a parameter for sound. Just as many of his contemporaries, Pierre Boulez was infused with modern literature. Authors like Artaud, Michaux, and Char were among his favourites, as well as the poet E. E. Cummings. The latter he met in 1952 in New York, while tagging along to a book dealer with John Cage. Notwithstanding the short duration of 'Cummings ist der Dichter', the composition is undoubtedly one of the most unusual of Boulez' works, due to its investigation of timbre. Ton de Leeuw (1926-1996) was one of the influential composers who stood at the crossroads between Eastern philosophy and Western technique. Once he remarked: "What I miss in Western music life is what still does exist in the East. There the musical performance is part of the whole personality. You are involved in it for such a long time and with such an intensity that it goes much deeper than in the Western system of production, where a good musician is defined in his ability to perform in a whisk of time without interruptions."