Bernd Alois Zimmermann believed that the electronic medium revitalises ancient connections between music and space. And so we awaken the magnificent architecture of the Berner Münster to wide sound space.

In his final years, Bernd Alois Zimmermann worked on a new time concept. Time is no longer compressed into a spherical shape, but rather stretched out in time. He tried to give a special articulation to the «presence of time». For the second opera planned, «Medea», he created two first electronic compositions, both entitled «Tratto». For this, he used sinus tones that were almost «antiquated» at the time, but for him somehow had a «spatial and time-opening character». «It should not be a coincidence that the age-old connections of music and space should’ve been raised to consciousness through the first electronic compositions», Zimmermann writes. And so the two compositions are an ideal start for an evening where the opening of space and the extension of time come into play in a fascinating way. A famous twelfth century couple, Heloïse and Abélard, make an appearance between Tratto I and II. They speak to us over centuries of time. The composer Gerald Bennett dedicated his final soprano and audiotape piece to them.