Lieder der Vergänglichkeit

1’21
4’51
4’01
4’14

Alois and Veronika Lageder

Katrien Baerts and Het Collectief, .

1 October 2022, Paradeis, Magreid, Italy.

The song cycle was commissioned by winery Alois Lageder for the vin-o-ton concert series that takes place annually at their vineyard in Italy. Part of the assignment was to first visit the vineyard and find inspiration there, amid the mountains in the beautiful South Tyrol (no punishment!). What impressed me most as a delegate from perhaps the most flat and raked country in the world were the pristine and rugged beauty of nature and the overwhelming, sublime mountains, which make a person feel small and insignificant. At the same time, I also felt secure in the lovely valley among the vineyards, embraced by those same mountains. A more idyllic spot than Paradeis, the beating heart of the winery and the location where the play will be premiered, is almost impossible to imagine. Alois Lageder's wine is biodynamic, which in practice means that the entire production process is in harmony with nature as much as possible. In autumn, oxen walk among the old vines, with bells around their necks that chime gently at night. The process of winemaking is centuries old, but it is dwarfed by the rhythm of the mountains, their millennia of rising and weathering. All this filled me with joy and sadness at the same time. An awareness of the cyclicality of nature and impermanence permeated me, both the beautiful and the sad side of it, that everything passes and at the same time is part of everlasting beauty and that nothing is permanent yet everything repeats itself. In that atmosphere, I chose some German-language poems for the song cycle 'Lieder der Vergänglichkeit'. I hesitated about the idea for a while, as the famous composer Penderecki had already written his Symphony No. 8 with the same title and direction, but decided not to let this deter me because the idea didn't leave me, the scoring is quite different and, moreover, the subject and the texts are rich enough for different musical interpretations.