Philipp Maintz has focussed more intensively on the organ in his output in recent years. In a conversation, reproduced here in excerpts, he answered questions from his editor Robert Krampe.

More than half of the “Mahler/Scartazzini Cycle” has already been performed in Jena: Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 and Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini’s “Einklang” as well as the premiere of “Omen” and No. 6 can be heard in Jena on 23 March 2023; on 12 May 2023 part 7 of the cycle will have its first performance. The project which was initiated by Simon Gaudenz and the Jenaer Philharmonie began in 2018 and will be completed in 2025. Gustav Mahler and his works are, in Scartazzini’s words, “a counterpart that speaks to me even over a distance of more than 100 years … their world of thought, their construction, a certain movement; all these are impulses that in the end lead me to my own musical work.” The result is a colourful cycle of quite differing compositions. The Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Michael Sanderling will premiere yet another commissioned work by Scartazzini, “WUNDE(R)” für Orchester in Lucerne on 12 April 2023 and then take it on tour to Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover and Cologne. (photo: LA Consulting)

Miroslav Srnka’s orchestral work “Superorganisms” will be premiered by the NHK Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Ryan Wigglesworth in Tokyo on 27 June 2023 after the scheduled premiere in Berlin had to be postponed due to illness. Superorganisms are forms of existence in which kindred beings work together synergistically and in a self-organized manner. An example for superorganisms in human culture are symphony orchestras – and this is where Miroslav Srnka’s new work comes in.

Miroslav Srnka has composed a concerto for the harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani and the Gürzenich-Orchester Cologne. François-Xavier Roth conducts the world premiere of "Standstill" on 11 September in Cologne. Three questions on his new work to the composer.

A commission from the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Cologne “Eight Bridges” Festival offers a glimpse into the world of the complete “other”: in Beat Furrer’s “VI Gesänge für Vokalensemble und Orchester” to texts by the Argentinian writer Sara Gallardo someone speaks who is at a crossroads, who knows about a secret life of things. Its songs are entreaties, they call to the different woods, the animals, the messengers “of the one who just is, who was never born and will never die”.

For each of the ten Mahler symphonies, Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini has composed a short orchestral work which contemplates the music and intellectual world of Mahler’s great works. A chance coincidence now brings three world premieres in quick succession. “Incantesimo”, the fourth work in the cycle commissioned by the Jena Philharmonic and its Music Director Simon Gaudenz, precedes Mahler’s 4th Symphony with a setting of Joseph von Eichendorff’s “Abendständchen”. Sounding as if from a bygone age, “Incantesimo” begins in the related key of E minor and extends its harmonic range from verse to verse. “Einklang” for orchestra precedes Mahler’s 5th Symphony. These two works receive their world premieres on 28 April and 19 May 2022 in the Volkshaus Jena.

Charlotte Seiter has composed “zu welcher stunde” [“at which hour”] for orchestra for a musical journey through time by the Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilharmonie. The title of the concert in Stendal on 28 April 2022 is “1831 – Die Abschiedsstunde” [“The parting hour”], and combines the Seither premiere with works by Haydn, Krommer and Pleyel. “Paintings” for five-part chamber choir is a commission for the anniversary concert of the LandesJugendChor Rheinland-Pfalz, and receives its world premiere on 23 April in the Christuskirche Mainz conducted by Jan Schumacher.