Mahler’s symphonies are “musical travelling companions” for him. Now Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini has composed introductory pieces to the monumental works of Mahler for the Jena Philharmonic.

Ľubica Čekovská has composed “Three fragments from Stabat mater” for the Bavarian Radio Chorus. This receives its premiere at a performance of the original version of Antonín Dvořák’s setting of the “Stabat mater” for soloists, chorus and piano op. 58 on 2 March 2019 in Munich. Three unaccompanied compositions complement Dvořák’s seven-movement original version with the verses which he did not set from the medieval poem of sorrow, forming a kind of lingering echo to Dvořák’s composition. The conductor is Howard Arman.
The idea for the title for Ľubica Čekovská’s new orchestral composition is a singing orchestral line which she has composed as a homage to her native land, eastern Slovakia. “Cantus Simplicissimus” was commissioned by the Slovak State Philharmonic in Košice, the capital of eastern Slovakia, the region where Humenné, the composer’s birthplace, also lies. The premiere will be conducted by Michael Zlabinger on 21 February 2019 in Košice.

Composer, conductor, music manager, educator: in Oliver Knussen, who died on 8 July 2018, the music world has lost one of its giants.

For the Beethoven anniversary year 2020 Charlotte Seither has been commissioned to write a composition for chamber orchestra for the German Orchestra Competition. It is called “Ferne Begegnung”.

After the milestone of his opera “South Pole” for Munich, Miroslav Srnka is in demand as never before. A major portrait at the “Dialogues” Festival in Salzburg followed the première of his string quartet “future family”. New orchestral and music theatre compositions are on the horizon.

“nero su nero” (black on black), the latest orchestral composition by Siemens prizewinner Beat Furrer premiered in June in Vienna, is concerned with the nuancing of light: a continuum of sound from darkness to light builds up an immense tension by the most subtly differentiated means. The Swiss premiere takes place in Basel on 16 September 2018 conducted by Baldur Brönnimann with the Basel Sinfonietta, and the German premiere on 27 October 2018 with the Essen Philharmonic under the baton of Johannes Kalitzke.

Beat Furrer is to be awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 2018 for his life’s work. The award ceremony takes place on 3 May 2018 in the Prinzregententheater Munich.