The present recording documents the solo performance of Wolfgang Stryi at the Frankfurt Pol-Festival in 2000. It was one of those events where his special talent - to shape musical time and to take a public on his risky and uncertain tonal hike - was most beautifully evident. Who wasn't there ans is dependent upon the reproduction can comprehend the process: Stryi already begins playing while the public enters the room. And one can hear very well how he transforms the initial discomposure in the room into spellbound attention through his work with the contrabass clarinet. At some point, player and public seem to be on a trip together, to discover unknown paths in the varied tonal landscape of the instrument.
Stryi's mastery lies in the way he connects the aesthetic demands of both his inspirations: Into his own musical cosmos he is able to integrate and unify the dissimilarit of the sounds he hears so precisely with the openness for the moment, the carefree composure, and the unexpected stem.
Now this document, which is already a historical document due to Wolfgang Stryi's untimely death in February 2005, remains for us to take the impuls and carry on - happily and unrelenting, composed and loaded with energy he was.

Linernotes by Reinhard Karger

Wolfgang Stryi

  back to GROB catalog

GROB859 Steamboat Switzerland - Zone 2