(SW 1032)
If one takes the title of the work programmatic, then the composer has surely primarily used the 130th Psalm of the same name, the statement of which in this case is implemented purely instrumentally.
The full string orchestra is accompanied by an extensive set of percussion instruments that are still supplemented by 3 timpani, but only operated by one player, as an equal partner who is corresponding motivic and thematic to the strings.
The musical course of the work is divided into several, especially rhythmically finely structured tempo sections, whose motivic-thematic offset pieces, such as fragments from the chorale “Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir”, clarify one thing above all: one both in detail and also as a whole, there is always a visible and audible musical upward movement from low to high, so that the underlying idea from the depth of need for salvation by the Highest, or “Per aspera ad astra”, is not only illustrated in the individual motifs and topics, but rather the entire musical progression tends continuously from the “lowest" to the "highest” notes.
Martin Schmeck