Wolfgang Florey, born in Salzburg in 1945, studied at the conservatories in Salzburg, Vienna and Hamburg. After completing his studies, he received a teaching assignment in the subject of violoncello, and didactics of instrumental teaching, as well as in the subject of practical music-making in schools. With composers Jens Peter Ostendorf and Thomas Jahn, Florey founded the group Hinz&Kunst in 1968, which initially dealt with forms of free improvisation, but soon began to explore the possibilities of collective composing. The group received important impulses through its collaboration with Hans Werner Henze, in whose Cantiere internazionale d'arte the group participated. From 1980 Florey worked continuously as a composer of music for stage and radio plays for theatres and broadcasting in German-speaking countries. In addition, he wrote chamber music, orchestral works and works for the music theatre. Among his most important works are two complexes of works on Hölderlin's late poem "Mnemosyne" and Dürer's "Melencolia I". The composer's artistic personality developed, as with many of his generation, in the field of tension between music and politics. In his musical work, therefore, he feels committed to the spoken word and the performing arts. His aesthetic considerations are influenced not least by his experience as an instrumentalist and the insight that the musical work of art is only fulfilled in its performative sound form.

www.florey.de

Prärie (1993)

Libretto by Bertold Brecht after Hamsun
Chamber Opera for six singers and small orchestra

World premiere: 21 November 1993, Volkstheater Rostock 

Perusal score

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