Dear friends,

We are genuinely delighted to share with you our emotions, experiences and musical ideas that inspired us to compose the music of the album ‘Magie’ rendering our sincere homage to the poetic genius of Rainer Maria Rilke.

In the summer of 2017 our lovely friend Anna Wallner presented us with a truly fascinating anthology – “Die schönsten Gedichte von R.M.Rilke“, edited by Marcel Reich-Ranicki (Insel Verlag, Berlin, 2016). During the lonely and silent springtime of 2020 this small book impelled us to elaborate and follow a new creative tendency that turned out to be very exciting for us therefore we want to express our cordial gratitude to Anna.

The main ambition of this album is to prove to ourselves and to the most respected audience as well that the supreme Rilke’s lyricism could be: reborn in musical tones; sung and emphasized with clearly expressed, rhythmical/metrical poetic word groups; reiterated in accented words intensifying the musical gradation and paralleling

ancient Greek theatre (“Ich fürchte mich so vor der Menschen Wort”); submitted effectively in a strongly and tenderly emotional recitative (“Ich hielt mich überoffen...”, “Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen” – Part 1 & Part 2); as well as performed in a musical-theatrical style (“Schlußstück”).

The principal roles in this rebirth of text to melody play: the astounding countertenor timbre of the magnificent singer Andreas Scholl; the beautiful angelic voices of the children’s chorus and soloists of the Children’s Choir; the enchanting and deep-felt performance of “Liebeslied” by Krassimira Stoyanova whom we dedicate the same song with joy and appreciation; the charming, slightly eccentric narrator and voice equilibrist Christian Rainer; the rich timbres and beautiful interpretations of both soprano singers Sarah Traubel and Theodora Nestorova; the particularly selected musical instruments and the expressivities of the guest-musicians; the magic affectionate sound of the strings – violin, violoncello and double bass, played by the refined musicians of Vienna Morphing Soloists, together with their artistic director Tomasz Wabnic; the bass clarinet, the celesta and the wind brass instruments – trumpet, flugelhorn, horn – Laurids Wetter, the trombone – Alois Eberl; the characteristic coloured timbre of the bandoneon –

Miloś Todorovski; the vibraphone played by the wonderful soloist of Wr.Symphoniker – Flip Philipp; and last but not least – the heart-felt dramatic rendering of the actor Robert Rainagl from the Viennese Burgtheater.

We created this album in esteem with the loving memory of our dear teacher and unforgettable friend Tryphon (“Phoncho”) Silyanovski, with deep respect to the extraordinary musical and philosophical spirit of this extremely gifted disciple and follower of our grandfather Pancho Wladigeroff.

We chose to include in this album two songs after Rilke’s poems (Pietá & Der Abschied) composed by Phoncho in 1953 as an early and rare Bulgarian example of the aleatoric style. Stepping lightly on the ethereal bridges towards his profound spiritual world we aspired after whetting our sensibility to be able to interweave Rilke’s mystic poetry in an innermost contact with the classical choral sounding of a wide unfolded harmony which would unite the old and the new world at the field of imagination. We express our special thankfulness to

our mother and sister for their generous encouragement and endless love!

We owe also a debt of gratitude to all friends who assisted us in the birth of this general rejoicing named “Magie”: Tomasz Wabnic, Georg O. Luksch, Lukas Turnovsky, Plamen Hadjiyski, Xenia Vargova (graphic designer), Helge Hinteregger.

Our sincere appreciation to the great inspiring guest-musicians Jimmy Chiang (Choir Conductor), Paul Schinkovitz, Raphael Chiang, Gabriel Chiang, Robin Mohr, Adrian Bruckner Gomez, Julian Vanicek, Tomasz Wabnic, Matyas Andras, Ilija Marinkovic, Lukas Medlam, Attila Pasztor, Felipe Medina, Emily Stewart, Melissa Coleman, Moritz Ebert and Roman Britschgi.

Many thanks to ÖMF & SKE for the financial support.

Alexander & Konstantin Wladigeroff