Ingo Metzmacher conducts Zimmermann's swan song

Zimmermann specialist Ingo Metzmacher pays a grand tribute to the composer who died fifty years ago.

Apocalyptic

On 5 August 1970 Bernd Alois Zimmermann completed his Ekklesiastische Aktion Ich wandte mich. A dark, almost apocalyptic work about the worst in man, on texts from Ecclesiastes and fragments from "The Grand Inquisitor of Seville" (Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov). It turned out to be his last musical act before his death, five days later. The cross between opera and oratorio was premiered during the 1972 Olympic Games. A little later, the murder of eleven members of the Israeli sports team would underline what Zimmermann was talking about.

Zimmermann specialist Ingo Metzmacher

With his Viola Concerto written for Tabea Zimmermann, Zimmermann's pupil York Höller commemorated the 100th birthday of his composition teacher in 2018. Both composers found much inspiration in the work of Anton Webern. Webern showed off his orchestral and analytical talents in his arrangement of the Ricercata by the same Bach whose chorale Ich habe genug sounds painfully beautiful at the end of Zimmermann's Ekklesiastische Aktion. Interesting detail: Zimmermann specialist Ingo Metzmacher conducts.