Heinz Holliger’s lifelong fascination with the music of Robert Schumann finds further expression on this newest release: on Aschenmusik, a new interpretation of the Swiss oboist-composer’s “Romancendres” is framed by Schumann’s own works.

 “Romancendres” refers to the lost “Cello Romances” which Clara Schumann burned on Brahms’s advice, an act of destruction which outraged Holliger and fuelled the composition of this “music from the ashes” in 2003. It’s a portrait of Schumann, packed with quotations, projected like a lifetime passing through the mind of a dying man. “Romancendres” is prefaced by Schuman’s “Romances” for oboe and piano, masterpieces which have been part of Holliger’s repertoire for 60 years, and by the rarely-played “Studies in Canon Form” which find Holliger on the oboe d’amore. The album closes with Schumann’s first sonata for violin and piano, with cello substituting for violin. Holliger: “Schumann himself thought it could also be played on a cello. I find it grandiose with this combination of instruments.” Strong performances by Holliger himself and by Anita Leuzinger, solo cellist from the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, and by Austrian pianist Anton Kernjak make this album another important addition to Heinz Holliger’s ECM discography. 

Heinz Holliger, one of the great oboists of our time, was born in Langenthal in the Swiss canton of Berne in 1939. He has made authoritative recordings of the standard repertoire (some with ECM, including a benchmark album of Zelenka's trio sonatas) and considerably enlarged the technical range of his instrument. Many leading composers from Luciano Berio to Isang Yun have written works for him. His conducting career began in 1977 with the Basel Chamber Orchestra. Since then he has stood at the head of all the major orchestras, including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics. He studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez. His recordings for ECM include Scardanelli Cycle, his Robert Walser cycle Beiseit, Lieder ohne Worte, the opera Schneewittchen and the Violin Concerto. An earlier version of Romancendres (recorded in 2008) with Christoph Richter and Dénes Várjon, can be heard on the album of the same name.

Anita Leuzinger was born in 1982 near Zurich. She studied cello with Thomas Grossenbacher and Thomas Demenga. During her studies she received important input from György Kurtág, Miklós Perényi and Steven Isserlis, among others. She was influenced most by the Hungarian pianist Ferenc Rados. In 2008, Leuzinger won first prize at the Naumburg Competition in New York. This led to her debut recital at Carnegie Hall in 2009. At age 23, while still a student, she won the position of principal cellist with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. She works often with Heinz Holliger, and plays regularly in duo with Anton Kernjak.