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con slancio
HEINZ HOLLIGER & MARIE-LISE SCHÜPBACH
Released 6 February 2026
ECM
****-
A disciplined, unsentimental exploration of two double-reed instruments, in a unique pairing that sits squarely within ECM’s modernist chamber lineage - precise, probing and quietly authoritative.
Heinz Holliger hardly needs introduction in ECM circles. Since the 1970s, he has been both a defining interpreter and composer for the label’s New Series, recording landmark readings of Berio, Carter, Kurtág and his own uncompromising works. A virtuoso who redefined the technical and expressive limits of the oboe, Holliger has long balanced the roles of performer and composer with unusual authority.
His partner here, Marie-Lise Schüpbach, is a distinguished English horn player best known for her tenure with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Their pairing is a meeting of two artists deeply versed in contemporary chamber language.
on slancio belongs to a recognisable ECM tradition: austere modern chamber music captured with forensic clarity, where timbre and space carry structural weight.
The oboe and English horn- close relatives sharing fingering systems but diverging in tonal profile- form a compelling axis.
Holliger’s oboe retains its characteristic incisiveness, capable of cutting articulation and extreme dynamic control, while Schüpbach’s English horn supplies darker grain and sustained resonance.
The contrast is structural rather than decorative and the programme reinforces Holliger’s long association with composers of concentrated expression - Wyttenbach, Wildberger, Kurtág, Kelterborn, Suter and Hosokawa - who sit comfortably within a narrative established by some of Holliger’s own late works.
These pieces avoid virtuoso display in favour of intervallic tension, breath-phrased architecture and carefully weighted silences. This is not “serene” music so much as music under disciplined pressure.
ECM’s renowned recording aesthetic, close-miked and unvarnished, amplifies the physicality and attack of the reed-air-instrument interface.
For listeners familiar with the label’s classic modernist catalogue, con slancio is a reaffirmation of its integrity: engaging chamber music, executed by two players who understand precisely how much is enough.
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