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.

What happens when there is too much of an expanding energy? Miroslav Srnka seeks to reflect musically on a physical process.

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.