Leipzig born composer Reinhard Wolschina is a graduate in composition and piano from the Franz List Music Academy in Weimar and the Academy of Arts in Berlin.
In 1990 Wolschina established the Institute for New Music at the Franz List Music Academy in Weimar, where he serves as a professor of composition since 1991.
Wolschina’s trio, pianOVo (comprised of piano, oboe and cello) is in demand for live performances and radio concerts throughout Europe; a US tour was given in 1999 and a further one is planned for 2005.
For tonight’s performance, Vision- Aktion was traced via an online search through the German Society of Bassists website.
The first part of the piece, Vision, is dreamy and elegiac in its Eusebius- like character.
It is contrasted by the Floristanian, energetic and vigorous second part, Action.[1]
Within the unusual combination of oboe, cello and bass, the instruments play both soloistic, independent lines as well as textures of fugati, imitations and homophony.
The opening rhythmic motive reappears throughout the piece, becoming more dissonant in the Aktion section.
Vision- Aktion was commissioned in 1982 by the Department of Medicine at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, German Democratic Republic, as a part of a chamber concerts series. Three musicians from the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Uwe Kleinsorge (Oboe), Burkhard Schmidt (cello) and Rainer Hucke (bass), premiered the piece on 17 September 1983. In 1984, Vision- Aktion was submitted to the composition contest of the International Society of Bassists biannual convention in Evanston, Illinois. However, tonight’s performance is the first ever outside Germany.
Reinhard Wolschina’s Waldszenen 1986 (1986) for solo double bass contains references to Schumann and Brahms. Another piece by Wolschina that features the bass in a leading roll is Double Concerto (1996) for bass, marimba, 18 wind instruments and two harps.
Mr. Wolschina has sent his best regards from Weimar for this U.S. premiere of Vision- Aktion.
[1] The two parts are played successively, with an attacca between them.
Aaron Hill – Oboe, Nathan Jasinski – Cello, Ron Merhavi – Double Bass
Ron Merhavi's Second Dissertation Recital; McIntosh Theater, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 17.3.2004