Michael Hersch: "along the ravines" for piano and orchestra (2010)
ten movements after texts of Zbigniew Herbert
Shai Wosner, piano
Deutsche Radio Philharmonie
Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern

along the ravines

" ... to tremble in the air
blow in the ashes stir the ether
gnaw our fingers seek vain words
drag off the fallen shades behind us ..." 
- Zbigniew Herbert

along the ravines - I

"They walked along ravines ...
They breathed on the frozen dawn ..."
- Zbigniew Herbert

along the ravines - II

"Cup your hands to scoop up sleep
and the forest will come: a green cloud
a birch trunk like a chord of light
and a thousand eyelids fluttering
with forgotten leafy speech
then you will recall the white morning
when you waited for the opening of the gates ..."
-Zbigniew Herbert

along the ravines - III

"I shall be moved neither by the postman's bell
nor by the shouting of angels

I shall sit
immobile
my eyes fixed
upon the heart of things

a dead star

a black drop of infinity"

-Zbigniew Herbert

along the ravines - IV

"The earth's axis screeches and comes to 
a stop.
Everything stands still then: storms, ships and clouds ...
Everything.

And after a while the world moves on.
The ocean swallows and regurgitates, valleys send off steam ...

... the resounding clash of air against air."

-Zbigniew Herbert

along the ravines - V

"... circlings in the darkness
crawling in dust"
-Zbigniew Herbert

along the ravines - VI

"they appear
a moment before
the final division
of those gnashing their teeth
from those singing psalms"
-Zbigniew Herbert

along the ravines - VII

along the ravines - VIII

"... the world's four walls go down"
- Zbigniew Herbert

along the ravines - IX

"... again the forest: a charred cloud
forehead branded by black light
and a thousand eyelids pressed
tightly on motionless eyeballs
a tree and the air broken ..."
-Zbigniew Herbert

along the ravines - X

The work of composer Michael Hersch has been described by The New York Times as “viscerally gripping and emotionally transformative music ... claustrophobic and exhilarating at once, with moments of sublime beauty nestled inside thickets of dark virtuosity,” The Baltimore Sun as “work of great originality, daring, and disturbing power,” and The Washington Post as "spare, intense, fiercely inward-turning." Recent performances include those at the Aldeburgh Festival, Ojai Festival,  Lucerne Festival, and Avanti Festival; the New York City premiere of Zwischen Leben und Tod at the newly established National Sawdust, and new productions in Chicago (Ensemble Dal Niente) and Salt Lake City (NOVA Chamber Music Series) of his monodrama, On the Threshold of Winter. Over the past several years, Hersch has written works for Ensemble Klang, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Alban Berg Ensemble Wien, and the Library of Congress. Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja commissioned both his Violin Concerto, which premiered in 2015, and his chamber work ... das Rückgrat berstend, which premiered in 2017. She recently recorded the concerto with the International Contemporary Ensemble (I.C.E.), and the duo with cellist Jay Campbell. Other recent recordings include his Images from a Closed Ward with the FLUX Quartet on New Focus, and Black Untitled on Ensemble Klang Records. In 2019/20, Mr. Hersch will be  Composer-in-Residence with the Camerata Bern in Switzerland.