Gellért Szabó is a composer, conductor (and electric guitarist and former student of Frank Möbus) based in Leipzig, who cares for the rough truthfulness. He is deeply rooted in Leipzig and German contemporary music and leads the local, experimental contemporary, 20-musician Ideal Orchestra, which he describes as «a journey that is never the same thing twice. But it has nothing to do with Plato; if there was an ancient philosopher whose spirit it embodies, it would be Heraclitus, the ambiguous ‘weeping philosopher’ who once said that nobody ever steps in the same river twice because everything flows».
This orchestra began as an improvisation-focused chamber ensemble employing a unique toolset of hand-sign language, but quickly evolved into a platform for avant-garde orchestral music, using a synergy of conducted improvisations and meticulously crafted compositions.
Vom Willen und Tod (Of Will and Death) is Gellért Szabó’s Ideal Orchestra’s fifth album since its foundation in 2021, pushing itself even further into existential weight and musical scale after Live at Berghain (Boomslang, 2025). The Ideal Orchestra secluded itself in a church, where they captured four compositions by Szabó alongside two newly reworked excerpts from Johannes Brahms’ Requiem.
The dramatic, epic, and often intense music reflects a sense of inner struggle, aimed toward transcendence in the shadow of mortality, and the pull back toward one’s own origins after the death of the father. The music evokes emotions of fear of death, love, and grand aspiration, and explores the tension between belonging and the abyss that leads to the birth of something deeply personal.
Szabó and the Ideal Orchestra play with massive walls of sound and eruptive dissonances that trigger dark, cinematic images, using layered, orchestral passages and choirs (this version of the orchestra features five wordless vocalists) that emphasize the moving, fragile songs of mourning. At times, Szabó’s music feels like the grand finales of all Gustav Mahler’s symphonies heard at once, reaching its monumental, emotional climax at the 19-minute experimental, orchestral soundscape, «Wille», sounding as if driven to the very edge of what can still be heard.
Eyal Hareuveni
Gellért Szabó (conducting), Myrsini Bekakou (violin), Ronja Sophie Putz (violin), Alejandro Barria (cello), Stephan Deller (double bass), Maximilian Bischofberger (vocals), Nora Benamara (vocals), Rebecca Chammas (vocals), Madeline Cain (vocals), Friederike Bartel (saxophones), Gustav Geissler (saxophones), Lorenz Bergler (bass clarinet), Alma Trunk (trombone), Gregor Littke (trombone), Philipp Reinsch (tuba), Valle Döring (organ), Susanne Stock (accordion), Johannes Bode (drums), Johannes von Buttlar (drums), Felix Kothe (drums)
