Hyperklavier is the latest album realized by Zahir Ensemble under the baton of its conductor Juan García Rodríguez. Pianist Óscar Martín overtakes with brilliance the solo parts contained in three unique works by Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) and Reinhard Febel (1952). The fil rouge of this album reveals itself in the mere choice of the pieces: all of them are compositions for piano and ensemble which try to construct the literal Hyperklavier Febel mentions in his title, a sound conglomerate that extends the semantic possibilities of a solo piano through the employment of different instruments. Many more, however, are the common points that bind the contemporary Febel to the historic Janáček.

A first, maybe even obvious parallelism is of geographical nature: both composers originate from central Europe: Hukvaldy, Janáček’s natal village in the Czech Republic is less than 900 kilometres away from Metzingen, the German city where Febel was born in. This implies inevitably a confrontation with the Mitteleuropean culture of their respective times: if both Janáček and Febel take their first moves from it, they succeed in developing a more subjective language, which is deliberately free from clichés. Moreover, as many other composers of the last century, they both share the destiny of the traveller: both of them lived in Vienna; Berlin, where Janáček became a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts, has been Febel’s hometown for many years.

Zahir Ensemble
Óscar Martín, Piano
Juan García Rodríguez, Conductor