In issuing the CD Elysion the Cragg Foundation has created a portrait of the composer Detlev Glanert (b. 1960) in the context of his chamber music. With his acclaimed works for the stage Glanert has become the most frequently performed living composer of opera in Germany, thus rendering a compact compilation of his major works for chamber music all the more interesting.

Most of the compositions on this CD have been recorded for the very first time. The piano quartet Elysion was commissioned by the Cragg Foundation and received its first performance in the glass pavilion at the Waldfrieden Sculpture Park in Wuppertal. In addition to the piano quartet there is the sextet Noctambule (The Somnambulist) which describes human obsession rather than any nocturnal activities, followed by the virtuoso and technically sophisticated Three Pieces for Clarinet and Piano as well as the string quartet Pas de Quatre which was composed for the occasion of Hans Werner Henze’s 80th birthday. Finally there are the two piano duos (Enigmatic Landscape and Dancing Landscape) performed by the Berlin pianists Holger Groschopp and Majella Stockhausen. All the other artists on this CD are members of the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra or lecturers at the Wuppertal faculty of the Music Academy of Cologne. Detlev Glanert personally supervised the recording of this CD.

The chamber music presented here reveals Glanert’s keen sense of a uniquely lyrical musical language and his connection to a romantic tradition which is nevertheless viewed in a new light from a contemporary standpoint. The production was recorded together with recording engineer Ingo Schmidt-Lucas of Cybele-Records.