This disc is a sonic “experience”, and on that basis it deserves respect as a serious and wholly successful realization of Zimmermann’s hot mess of a work for soloists, speakers, three choirs, organ, taped sounds, jazz quintet, and orchestra. It comes with an extensive, multi-lingual booklet discussing both the work itself as well as the performance layout, and heard in surround-sound it really does convey an excellent sense of “you are there” realism. The performance, to the extent one can tell, is a loving one: well played, well sung (and spoken), and clearly the result of much care in preparation. Of course, whether or not you would have wanted to be there is another matter entirely.
Requiem for a Young Poet is a “collage” piece, an “everything including the kitchen sink” mishmash of texts, languages, quotations, music, and noise so desperately trying to be relevant (for the 1960s) that it seems rather sad, and not in the way that Zimmermann probably intended. Indeed, heard in context now, when the best of such pieces by composers as diverse as Ives, Schnittke, and Berio have already entered the repertoire, you can’t help but feel that it’s all been done so much better. Still, I can recommend this to adventurous audiophiles, fans of suicidal German composers (Zimmermann checked out in 1970), and collectors of 1960s radical chic memorabilia. [2/3/2009]
