„How to respond to Clara Schumann?“ That is the question for fellow composer Charlotte Seither, 146 years younger than Schumann. There’s no question of looking backwards for her.

In the few months since its first performance at the BBC Proms in London, Dieter Ammann’s “Piano Concerto (Gran Toccata)” has already been performed several times – in Taipei, Boston and Helsinki – each time to astonished and enthusiastic audiences. The pianist Andreas Haefliger is soloist and initiator of the concerto. With stupendous virtuosity, he is central to the series of performances of the work. Following the American and Finnish premieres, conductor Susanna Mälkki now conducts the German premiere on 9, 10 and 12 January 2020 with the Munich Philharmonic. (photo: Dieter Ammann and Andreas Haefliger after the world premiere in August in the Royal Albert Hall, London; photo: Chris Christodoulou)

Following the success of his new opera “Violetter Schnee” at the Berlin Staatsoper, Beat Furrer has new projects in sight.

Over several years the Swiss composer has complemented the Jena Philharmonic’s Mahler cycle with his own companion pieces. For each concert Scartazzini has written a symphonic movement, and with each Mahler performance these new movements join together to form a large-scale orchestral work. The beginning was Torso in October 2018. Like this, Epitaph also draws on a lyric text by Rainer Maria Rilke.

As the first work of serialism in the 1950s Jean Barraqué’s „Sonate pour piano“ combines the new idiom with the idea of the grand form. Heribert Henrich’s edition is a truly pioneering piece of work. For the very first time, the musical text of a piece of serial music has been edited based on a critical evaluation of the primary sources and is now made available to performers.

Schnee, kosmische Kälte: In Beat Furrers neuer Oper „Violetter Schnee“ sind fünf Menschen in einem Haus auf dem Weg in unbekanntes Terrain. Am 13. Januar 2019 wird sie an der Berliner Staatsoper uraufgeführt.

Contrasts between the metallic sound of the piano and the ensemble define Matthias Pintscher’s work for the Barenboim-Said Akademie and its founder.