Philipp Maintz, born in Aachen, returns to his native city as “Composer in Focus” in a season for the anniversary of the Symphony Orchestra. The high point will be the world premiere of his orchestral work “approximate sonata”.

The composer Giselher Klebe was born in Mannheim on 28 June 1925. His 100th anniversary offers an opportunity to re-examine his extensive output.

Lisa Illean (b.1983) invites listeners “to immerse themselves in a world where near silence and stillness shape the very fabric of its sounds” (Gramophone).

Bruno Mantovani’s opera “Voyage d’automne” receives its premiere in Toulouse  In his third opera, Bruno Mantovani tackles a controversial theme with a highly-developed feeling for drama and hypnotic intensity: the collaboration of French intellectuals with the National Socialists.

Hardly any other contemporary composer has developed such an unmistakable personal style as Beat Furrer. In his 70th year is he reaping the fruits of his artistic consistency.

Leonore is no longer a victim. In “Fidelio schweigt” for the Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen the character who was merely a lover becomes an active subject and in so doing, emancipates herself from the well-known, all-too-familiar subject matter.

“Der Zerfall einer Illusion in farbige Scherben” [The disintegration of an illusion into coloured shards] is the title of a 2021 painting by the young Leipzig painter Gustav Sonntag, in which abrupt contrasts collide. Sonntag observes the present with an unsparing and socially critical eye, and aims to reinterpret the traditions of the Leipzig School with his painting in the figurative style. Philipp Maintz discovered the painter and his work by chance. The gritty, yet poetic title evoked memories for Maintz and inspired him to compose his new orchestral work.