ZYKAN, Otto Mattäus, 1935-2006: "Das mit der Stimme" for solo violin.

The short piece for Solo-violin "Das mit der Stimme" (="with voice") was written for Patricia Kopatchinskaja as an encore for her debut with Vienna Philharmonic at the Lucerne Festival in 2002. Since then its her most-played encore. It is a virtuoso combination of instrumental, pantomimic and vocal elements and very typical of Zykans style in general.

Zykan was born in Vienna. After early successes as pianist he became an avantgarde composer. He used surprising combinations of verbal and musical elements in an often surrealistic or dadaistic manner. He liked provocation. His opera "Staatsoperette" (1977) caused a scandal, protests by the Roman-catholic clergy and a parliamentary debate. His production includes some operas, music for theatre and TV-Spots, piano and chamber music. But many of his works are lost. He considered a work as completed after the first performance and was not interested in further performances. He also did not agree to commercial exploitation of his works. Often he destroyed the material himself after the premiere. Recently he wrote a string quintet and a violin concerto for Patricia Kopatchinskaja and also a cello concerto for Heinrich Schiff. Fortunately he did not destroy the scores of these works.