commission: Daniel Coulet, artist
first performances:
parts I - III: 2.10.1993 in Toulouse, la Chapelle des Carmélites
Aino Lund, Marion Kilscher, Diane Schmela, Ladislav Szadhmary
parts I - IV: 15.11.1993 at Festival d' Automne, Paris
Les Jeunes Solistes: Donatienne Michel-Dansac, Sophie Dumonthier, Jean-Louis Georgel, Christophe Gaugée, Véronique Marin, conductor: Rachid Safir
complete work I - VII: 4.12.1999 at Musikmuséet, Stockholm
Aino Lund, Katarina Böhm, Ulf Lundmark, Jonas Lindgård, Chrichan Larson conductor: Kjell-Inge Stevenson
publisher: Svensk Musik
Å svävare (Oh Hoverer) was composed on a commission from the artist Daniel Coulet and inspired by his fragile, high, and flora-like sculptures, especially two tall "tree sculptures" made of fiber: one, light and down-to-earth, like a huge mushroom with a massive, bent stem; the other, dark, slender, high, and "watching from a far", both installed at the subway station Mirail, in Toulouse.
The work, written for soprano, mezzo, baritone, viola, and cello, is in seven parts, which together form an upwards-striving bow, tense from the height and the fall from this height. The texts, certain parts of which have been combined, consist of poems from different historical time periods: Wir sehen dich by Paul Celan, Llama de amor viva by Juan de la Cruz, Liebes-Lied by Rainer Maria Rilke, Entlich by Susanne Marten and Taktavla by Katarina Frostenson out of which the title is taken: "o Hoverer, / the fall is an embrace"
Madeleine Isaksson