A disc of Songs and Variations for violin, violoncello and piano on motifs from the Book of Job.

The music of Alexander Asteriades moves “out of the cul-de-sac of atonality.” And so it is not without good reason that the composition of songs with piano accompaniment, very much in the tradition of the nineteenth century, accounts for a significant part of his oeuvre.

As in the songs of his great models, Goethe, Eichendorff, and Möricke are encountered among the poets of his texts – but he has also set Georg Trakl and Nikos Kazantzakis.

Although Asteriades’ songs are tonal, they pose supreme challenges to the interpreters; their grand leaps, extreme registers, and long melodic lines require a singer of superb skill and a pianist who supplies a finely felt and multifaceted accompaniment.

Asteriades draws on Martin Buber’s translation of the Book of Job as his source of inspiration in this five-part work. Buber’s text endeavors to reproduce the verbal rhythm of the Hebrew original and as a result assumes a very unique musicality. It is from a little seed that the composer develops the musical material evoking the moods of this famous sapiential work in a finely crafted setting.