The cycle of Water, Fire, Air and Earth from the Ensemble Bona Nox is now finally complete. And yet it turns out that the happiness is somewhat muted.
Until recently, the Ensemble Bona Nox was made up of 3 members, now there are only two. Matthias Horn (vocals) and Christoph Ullrich (piano) are missing Peter Heusch (narrator). He died of a stroke shortly after the text recording.
The three of them set out with the idea, just for fun, of summing up the whole world artistically from the perspective of the four elements. What an audacious and yet terrific idea!
It's strange how the cycle ends with "Earth", as that's exactly where Peter Heusch lies now. Is that a coincidence? Hardly. He saw this performance as his artistic legacy and insisted on bringing forward the recording date for the texts. Now we know that he was right. That way he could still narrate the texts himself. On the other hand, is it really possible to plan everything like that?
Yet by no means is everything sad. The cycle contains many themes: actually, it contains everything! It takes us on a foray through the entire world! A great many things cavort in and on the earth, for example the onions of Pablo Neruda (Ode to an Onion) or a walk, as unsuccessful as it is amusing, of a certain Tiberius, by Adalbert Stifter. Not to mention the other CDs about Water, Fire and Air. Knowing that someone rounded off his life with this work has all the ingredients for something ranging from humorous or nasty to something rich in ideas or revealing a more intense, mysterious light. But it is not so much elevated as just genuine. To laugh about the curiosities and absurdities of life: that's something that Peter Heusch was able to do, and we laugh and cry with him.