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Andreas Scholl's musical taste ranges widely.
In his own studio, he writes and records his own songs. 

Clip Info: Blue Woman from the live recording of the concert. Lead voice Roland Kunz, harmonies and refrain Andreas Scholl. Track played with permission. You need Flash to use the embedded player on this page. To launch the track in your own player, click here.

BaRock Concert 2003

Andreas Scholl with Orlando und Die Unerlösten

Andreas Scholl	Rick Stengårdsxxxxxxx	Roland Kunz

 

12 December 2003, Saarbrücken, Germany.  Andreas Scholl and Baroque countertenor Roland Kunz, whose stage name in popular music is Orlando, gave a sell-out concert with Kunz's electronic rock band die Unerlösten (the Unredeemed) and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken under Swedish-Australian conductor Rick Stengårds.  The venue was the local radio station's concert hall in Roland Kunz's native Saarbrücken. The event was sponsored by the City of Saarbrücken, Stiftung ME Saar, Deutsche Bank and Thomas Cook Reisebüro Altpeter. The full ensemble was close to 100 strong.  The concert raised €11,000 for the restoration of the old church in nearby Blieskastel. The front line was Roland Kunz (vocals, keyboard, composition)  - Andreas Scholl (vocals, composition) Thomas Schmidt (guitar)  - Christian Konrad (bass guitar) Elmar Federkeil (drums, percussion)  - Bernd Wegener (percussion) Arrangements by Dieter Reith, Craig Leon, Frank Zabel, Chris Walden Roland Kunz writes: What is a countertenor allowed to sing?  Only Handel, Purcell or Bach?  Or is he allowed to go new ways, tread new ground?  The time came for me when it was a 'must' to make music with my voice - the emotional, maybe even mystical power of the countertenor voice - together with the diverse sounds and resourcefulness of our time.  This is exciting and opens new space - within me, in music, and in the listener.

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BaRock in Saarbrücken

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Photo: JG

Andreas Scholl and Roland Kunz had been nursing this project since 1996.  The term ‘pop concert’ does not convey the quality of this intelligent programme which mixed different tempi, styles and moods: loud and soft, fast and slow, mystical and ethereal, lilting and romantic, sexy and dramatic, dreamy and despairing (as in Elizabthan lute songs, for example) and many musical idioms: movie-theme symphonic, Baroque-based, funk, flamenco, big-band jazz and electronic rock.  This was clever, original music for a grown-up musical audience. Think George Gershwin (An American in Paris), Art Garfunkel, Elmer Bernstein, John Williams (ET, Out of Africa), Carlos Santana, Jean-Michel Jarre, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Erik Satie, Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story).  Much of it, though by no means all, was big, big music.  Baroque ideas underpinned the whole programme although it was completely 20/21 century in concept. All but two of the lyrics were Baroque either in fact or in sense. Andreas Scholl and Roland Kunz’s team of five – himself on keyboard, plus guitar, bass and two star percussionists – were backed by a prize-winning orchestra under a conductor widely-respected for his work in a number of genres including Baroque opera. The three arrangers who worked with Scholl and Kunz on this project all have seriously good track records in musicals, big-band jazz, opera, rock and movies.  The arrangements were crisp, economical in the best sense and very rich in invention.  The huge ensemble on stage comprised almost a hundred people: 26 violins, eight violas, six cellos, three double basses, two of everything in woodwind and brass and one tuba; harp, guitar, bass guitar and SIX percussionists: a standard drum kit on one side and a drum pad desk on the other, plus an incredible kitchen department at the back which included everything from a rain-stick to a marimba, a big gong, every kind of bell and box, jugs of water pouring, two amazing amplified percussion-boxes on which the two lead percussionists duetted while sitting on their instruments, an electronic keyboard and a computer.  A wonderful, enormous noise.  Many of the orchestra were grey-beards, and they smiled all day and were buzzing as they left at the end of the night.  Oh – and there were two countertenors.  Apart from a slight worry that the fashion-police might burst in to arrest one of the singers, it was an all-round success and stunningly professional.  It was a serious investment for the sponsors – the cost of the orchestra parts alone had been a major stumbling block in trying to mount this event. Roland Kunz is a clever, serious – and funky – musician, a classically-trained countertenor who has worked with all the leading Baroque conductors.  The timbre of his voice is very much like Andreas Scholl’s and the two men's voices worked very well together.  Seven of the songs in the programme were settings by Kunz of poems by the 16th century English poets Sir Thomas Wyatt and Robert Jones, and three set modern lyrics by Saarland poet Marietta Schröder.  One set a verse by the Roman poet, Horace, to furious orchestral music behind the two voices in unison. Four of the songs in the programme were original compositions by Andreas Scholl and three were traditional folksongs from his CD Wayfaring Stranger. Andreas Scholl has been privately composing songs in this genre for many years in his own studio.  This was the premier outing for four of his songs as fully developed, orchestrated pieces. This eclectic collection seamlessly blended expansive music which used all the skill and experience of this first class symphony orchestra with the esoteric, electronic writing of Kunz and Scholl.  The material allowed all the lead performers to exhibit their considerable expertise, with extended and very well-received solos by guitar and bass and, memorably, by the two leading percussions who played solos and duets. The arrangers deserve particular praise, as do the sound engineers. The mixed audience, including many who did not know the countertenor voice at all, let alone Andreas Scholl, was stunned and delighted, giving the performers a whistling, cheering, standing ovation lasting ten minutes, and demanding and getting three encores.  Some Scholl afficionados who had come from various parts of Europe were a little doubtful about his departure from his familiar core repertoire in Baroque music but pronounced themselves satisfied.  Their judgement after the concert – perhaps not wholly objective  –  was that Andreas Scholl could expect success in this genre should he choose to record it commercially.  His record label should take this accomplished musician's interest in different kinds of music seriously. Jill Gunsell xxx Read the full story of this project as told by Scholl and Kunz (in German)xhere

 

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Programme
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Unredeemed
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Overture by Frank Zabel
Music by Roland Kunz
Lyrics by Marietta Schröder
Vocals: Roland Kunz and Andreas Scholl


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Wild mountain thyme
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Traditional (click on title for source of text)
Arrangement by Craig Leon
Vocals: Andreas Scholl
From CD Wayfaring Stranger
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Forget not this
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Music by Roland Kunz
Lyrics by Sir Thomas Wyatt (click on title for source of text)
Arrangement by Dieter Reith
Vocals: Roland Kunz and Andreas Scholl

How long ago hath been and is
The mind that never meant amiss.
Forget not this...
The weary life ye know since when
The suit, the service, none tell can.
Forget not this...
The cruel wrong, the scornful ways,
The painful patience in delays
How long ago hath been and is
The mind that never meant amiss.
Forget not this...
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Never again
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Music and lyrics by Andreas Scholl
Arrangement by Dieter Reith
Vocals: Andreas Scholl
Lyrics in booklet with CD for the Korean market only, availablexhere
Go here to hear CD version
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The pearl

Sir Thomas Wyatt,  c.1503-1542
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Music by Roland Kunz
Lyrics by Sir Thomas Wyatt  (click on title for source of text)
Arrangement by Dieter Reith
Marimba solo: Michael Gärtner
Vocals: Roland Kunz and Andreas Scholl
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Everything
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Music and lyrics by Andreas Scholl
Arrangement by Frank Zabel
Vocals: Andreas Scholl and Roland Kunz
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Beauty, pleasure
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Music by Roland Kunz
Lyrics by Sir Thomas Wyatt
Arrangement by Frank Zabel
Vocals: Roland Kunz and Andreas Scholl
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My love is like a red, red rose
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Traditional
Arrangement by Craig Leon
Vocals: Andreas Scholl
From CD Wayfaring Stranger
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All beauty must die
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Music and lyrics by Andreas Scholl
Arrangement by Frank Zabel
Vocals: Andreas Scholl and Roland Kunz
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Love winged my hopes
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Music by Roland Kunz
Lyrics by Robert Jones 
Arrangement by Dieter Reith
Vocals: Roland Kunz and Andreas Scholl

Love winged my hopes and taught me how to fly
Far from base earth but not to mount too high;
For true pleasure
Lives in measure
Which if men forsake
Blinded they into folly run and grief for pleasure take.
And none but love their woeful hap did rue,
For love did know
That their desires were true.

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Wayfaring stranger
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Traditional
Arrangement by Craig Leon
Vocals: Andreas Scholl
From CD Wayfaring Stranger
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Blue woman
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Music and Lyrics by Roland Kunz
Arranged by Roland Kunz and die Unerlösten
Vocals: Roland Kunz and Andreas Scholl

The game is over,
The curtain falls.
The bones are lazy,
The darkness falls.

The play is over,
The shine has gone.
No thoughts, no wishes,
And darkness's won.

Blue woman, come again.
Blue woman, turn again.
Don't leave the stage
When lights are low.
Red knight will come.
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His voice
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Music by Roland Kunz
Lyrics by Marietta Schröder
Arranged by Frank Zabel
Vocals: Roland Kunz and Andreas Scholl

His voice offers comfort.
His voice eases pain.
His voice brings consolation.
His voice eases her desolation.

His voice
Is there.
It helps
To bear
The pain.

In those dark nights
With blackened mood
When she sits
And all she does is brood
She seeks the one.
She gets up and takes a step.
She reaches out and turns
The radio on.

It oozes into her brain.
It brings relief for all the pain.
In her heart and in her soul,
A flickering like burning coal.

His voice
Is there.
it helps
To bear
The pain.
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Great storms
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Music by Roland Kunz
Lyrics by Sir Thomas Wyatt (click on title for source of text)
Arrangement by Chris Walden
Vocals: Roland Kunz and Andreas Scholl
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Maybe
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Music by Roland Kunz
Lyrics by Marietta Schröder
Arrangement by Roland Kunz and die Unerlösten
Vocals: Roland Kunz and Andreas Scholl
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Tell me, my love
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Music and lyrics by Andreas Scholl
Arrangement by Frank Zabel
Vocals: Andreas Scholl and Roland Kunz
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Nives

Horace: Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65 BC - 8 AD
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Music by Roland Kunz
Lyrics by Horace (click on title for source of text)
Arrangement by Frank Zabel
Vocals: Roland Kunz and Andreas Scholl

Diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis
arboribusque comae;
mutat terra vices, et decrescentia ripas
flumina praetereunt.
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Farewell
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Music by Roland Kunz
Lyrics by Sir Thomas Wyatt (click on title for source of text)
Vocals: Roland Kunz and Andreas Scholl
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Neue Vergangenheit im Counter-Duett cc Süffig-Schönes, Hurtiges, Balladeskes: Orlando & die Unerlösten begegnen im Funkhaus Halberg Star-Counter Andreas Scholl by Helmut Facklet copyright © 2003 Saarbrücker Zeitung Ausverkaufte Premiere im Funkhaus auf dem Halberg. Die saarländische Gruppe "Orlando & die Unerlösten" traf dort am Freitag im dritten Studiokonzert auf das Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester. Zumindest für die Älteren im Orchester nichts Neues, die populäre Musik. Hatte man doch vor gut 20 Jahren im Großen Unterhaltungsorchester des SR sehr erfolgreich die ganze Bandbreite von Jazz bis Operette produziert. Jetzt gab es farbiges Licht für das übervolle Podium des Sendesaals, Mikrofone allüberall, denn totale Beschallung musste sein.  Für Arrangements, die sinfonische Elemente perfekt mit den fantasievollen Klängen und Rhythmen der Unerlösten kombinierten. Die in einigen Intros die kompositorische Meisterschaft vor allem von Dieter Reith und Frank Zabel aufblitzen ließen und die aktuelle Sounds, bekannt von Funk, Film und Fernsehen, kreierten. Eine aufwändige Kulisse für das eigentlich Neuartige: Countertenor Orlando alias Roland Kunz traf auf Star-Counter Andreas Scholl. Solo und im Duett führten sie ihre hohen Stimmen mit unterschiedlicher Intensität, doch freundschaftlich verbunden, durch schottische Folk-Songs, pop-rockige Balladen, rhythmus-animierte, streicher-flächige Pop-Songs, angejazztes Crossover und Barockisiertes à la Rondo Veneziano.  Natürlich (?) alles in englischer Sprache, auch die eigenen Texte. Dankbar erfuhr man in den Moderationen wenigstens etwas zu den Inhalten. Dass man an diesem Abend vieles hörte, war nicht nur dem geschickt koordinierenden Dirigenten Rick Stengards, sondern auch dem Team am Mixer zu verdanken. Ihm war die schier unlösbare Aufgabe gestellt, die Sounds der dicht gedrängten Musiker adäquat zu veredeln und zu ordnen, als kämen sie von der CD. Doch es gab wirklich Süffig-Schönes zum Einkuscheln fürs Ohr und selbst hurtigere, rhythmische Titel erhielten durch die ruhigen Vocals nach einer gewissen Zeit durchaus etwas Einheitliches, ja Eintöniges. Denn die Modulationsfähigkeit der hohen Männerstimmen scheint, das offenbarte der Saarbrücker Abend, begrenzter als in normaler Lage zu sein. Insoweit war die instrumentale Flamenco- und Percussion-Einlage der Unerlösten ein willkommener Muntermacher. Auch wenn man diesem anspruchsvollen Projekt einen größeren Saal gewünscht hätte, das hingerissene Publikum ließ die Musiker erst nach Begeisterungs-Stürmen und drei Zugaben von der Bühne. Machine-translation engine here

 

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Artwork: Bernd Wegener xxx photos: Orlando / Saarbrüucken Rundfunk except as marked