Vol. 2 - Job

Gert Westphal, narrator / Gunther Rost at the Kleuker-Steinmeyer organ in Zurich Tonhalle
(Motette 2002)

Job, the great cycle for organ and reciter by Petr Eben, is based on the book of Job from the Old Testament. The present recording was made in 2002 with Gunther Rost in the Zurich Tonhalle, Switzerland, on the Steinmeyer-Kleuker organ. The reciter, Gert Westphal, gives the biblical words special emphasis. Incidentally, the recording was made shortly before Westphal died in 2002.

- Comprehensive booklet with commentary on the works and music examples,
in German and English -

organ         review        tracklist

Job

Job for organ and speaker, which was finished in 1987, is the second great philosophical cycle of Petr Eben's organ works, following the Faust (composed in 1979/80). Like the Two Chorale Fantasies and Lanscapes of Patmos this cycle was developed from the composer's concert improvisations.

In eight organ movements Eben sets the biblical story of Job to music. He interweaves words and music by alternatively presenting organ passages and spoken excerpts from the book of Job.

In his comment on the composition Petr Eben points out the inner relationship of the Job - and the Faust - subjects: both stories deal with a contest of Satan with God for the human lot. While Faust is doomed because he relies on his own powers, Job eventually wins because he humbly accepts his sufferings and relies on God.

Gert Westphal (1920-2002)

Actor and stage director Gert Westphal was born in Dresden and is regarded as Germany's most important contemporary reciter. Working for the Deutsche Grammophon and other labels, he recorded more than 100 titles, amongst which are the unabridged versions of the great novels by Goethe, Theodor Fontane, Thomas Mann, Oscar Wilde, and Gustave Flaubert.

For twenty years, he was a member of the then highly renowned Zurich Schauspielhaus. It was during this time that he had guest performances at the theatres of Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, and all of Europe's German language radio stations. He directed operas by Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Henze and Reimann in the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, the State Theatre in Brunswick, in Mannheim, in the Hessian State Theatre in Darmstadt, in Berlin, and in Nuremberg.

Gert Westphal was a member of Hamburg's Free Academy of Arts and received numerous awards, like the Literature Prize of the City of Zurich in 1975, which was the first time that it was awarded to an actor, the Federal Republic of Germany's Cross of Merit, 1st class, in 1982, and, in 1988, the German Record Prize, which was then for the first time awarded for a non-musical production. In 1995, the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft awarded him with the Golden Grammophone, praising him as a "great shaper of great literature". In 2001, he was allowed to sign his name into the Golden Book of the Hanseatic City of Bremen, and the Senate of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg awarded him with the Senator-Biermann-Ratjen Medal in recognition of his cultural merits.

Gert Westphal, Sprecher / speaker
Gunther Rost, Orgel / organ
(Zürich, Tonhalle)

PETR EBEN: DAS ORGELWERK II / ORGAN WORKS VOL. 2