ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Cornelius Meister – Henze: Das Floß der Medusa (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Cornelius Meister – Henze: Das Floß der Medusa (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:13:58 minutes | 718 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CapriccioNR

The shipwreck of the “Medusa” was a symbolic testimony for many artists: for the painter Théodore Géricault, who captured the rescue of a handful of survivors on a monumental painting; for the writer Peter Weiss, who described his encounter with Géricault’s painting in the novel “The Aesthetics of Resistance”; for the Austrian Franzobel, who published a “Medusa” novel in 2017; and for the composer Hans Werner Henze, who dramatized in an oratorio in 1967/68.

The “Medusa” was the flagship of a French squadron that set sail from La Rochelle in 1816 to take back French possession of the English colony of Senegal. Shortly before the finish, the “Medusa” suffered shipwreck. The lifeboats were quickly manned by high-ranking crew members and officials of the Grande Nation; for the majority of sailors and passengers, only one raft remained. 154 crowded on it when they left the ship. At first they wanted to take the raft ashore with them in tow, but since it proved to be unmanageable, the officers cut the ropes and left the shipwrecked to the open sea. The officers reached the saving land after one day, but did not initiate the search for the raft there; when it was sighted by mere chance 13 days later, only 15 of the shipwrecked were still alive. Two of the survivors described their martyrdom in a disturbing diary. Historians assume that the hair-raising narrative of the selfish and irresponsible behavior of the commanders contributed to the fueling of the July Revolution, which in 1830 laid the Bourbon dynasty in ruins. Hans Werner Henze immortalized the scandal surrounding the “Medusa” in a full-length and moving oratorio. The composer and his librettist Ernst Schnabel interpreted the incident as a parable on the social gap between the winners and losers of capitalism. “The Raft of the Medusa” met with such a politically heated atmosphere at the planned premiere in Hamburg in 1968 that it led to a scandal: for two hours, the audience, choir members and composer fought screaming duels until the police came. The world premiere in the concert hall took place only on January 29, 1971 at the Vienna Musikverein by the ORF Symphony Orchestra of that time.

Tracklist:
1-1. Sven-Eric Bechtolf – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 1: No. 1, Prolog des Charon (Live) (02:32)
1-2. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 1: No. 2, Vom Hafen aus lässt sich urteilen über die (Live) (04:05)
1-3. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 1: No. 3, Vive le roi! (Live) (01:19)
1-4. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 1: No. 4, Die See war still, der Wind aus Norden wehte angenehm (Live) (05:59)
1-5. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 1: No. 5, Den Bänken von Arguin (Live) (01:39)
1-6. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 1: No. 6, Drei Tage Kampf um das Schiff (Live) (03:48)
1-7. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 1: No. 7, Wir standen an der Reling, sah’n ihm zu (Live) (02:22)
1-8. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 1: No. 8, Wir schauten auf (Live) (04:09)
1-9. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 1: No. 9, Per correr migliori acque alza le vele (Live) (07:22)
1-10. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 1: No. 10, Es kam der zweite Tag (Live) (07:16)
1-11. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 2: No. 11, Acht Nächte haben den Mond wachsen (Live) (03:10)
1-12. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 2: No. 12, Wie viele Königreiche wissen nichts von uns? (Live) (02:21)
1-13. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 2: No. 13, La luna, quasi a mezza notte tarda (Live) (07:23)
1-14. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 2: No. 14, Mitternacht (Live) (02:30)
1-15. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 2: No. 15, Da ging ein Mann über das Floß (Live) (06:49)
1-16. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 2: No. 16, Wir haben kein Gesetz (Live) (03:46)
1-17. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra – Das Floß der Medusa, Pt. 2: No. 17, Schau auf! (Live) (07:19)

Download: