German premiere.A summary from original text in German | Read the original
| Arabella Steinbacher | Violin |
| WDR Sinfonieorchester | Orchestra |
| Ryan Bancroft | Conductor |
| …to beam in distant heavens... | Georges Lentz |
| Masaot/Clocks without Hands | Olga Neuwirth |
These events are similar in terms of concept, place, musicians or the program.
Johannes Maria Staud's drum concerto for Christoph Sietzen, portrait artist of the 2024/2025 season, captures the shimmer of reality. A highly virtuosic pleasure on sought-after and found instruments, from drums to flowerpots. The protagonists in Gordon Kampe's "Lyrical Symphony" are "delighted to devour": inhumanly heightened desire dominates the music. Nicolas A. Huber devotes himself to the perfection of the number 4.
Exceptional violinist Arabella Steinbacher inspired Luxembourgish composer Georges Lentz to create an ethereal violin concerto. Its sound expands through the Philharmonie like starlight under the Australian Outback sky, Lentz's composing location. Olga Neuwirth's "Masaot" delves into a river of memories and associations, music as both home and foreign land. Georges Aperghis' eighth Etude ignites a new celebration of orchestral virtuosity.
German premiere.
When the significant French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez passed away in 2016, Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth recalled her mentor in an obituary, remembering his way of "looking at music in a completely different way". Neuwirth composed a new piece for orchestra and electronics, electro-acoustic sounds that also repeatedly interested Boulez. The WDR Symphony Orchestra, conducted by guest conductor Jonathan Nott, performs Boulez's shimmering and floating sound portrait of the great symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé, "Pli selon pli".
Writer Händl Klaus and composer Hèctor Parra present "A Song of the Earth" for our time. Olivia and Bruno trudge through a glowing, dead landscape, their sung and spoken words forming an impossible dialogue. Kaija Saariaho's clarinet concerto, inspired by medieval tapestries, features a soloist who seems to "wander" through the concert hall.
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