On 22 October Manfred Trojahn celebrates his 70th birthday. Although is too early for an assessment of his life and work, Gerhard R. Koch traces some of the directions and milestones in the composer’s work.

„In mia vita da vuolp“ for soprano and saxophone and a new ensemble piece with clarinet for Donaueschingen

It might seem audacious to venture to place any piece of music alongside the gigantic symphonic creations of Gustav Mahler. And yet this is the essence of the commission from the Jena Philharmonic and its Music Director Simon Gaudenz for the composer Andrea Scartazzini. A short, self-contained orchestral work has been composed to complement each of the Mahler symphonies, each relating to Mahler’s music and intellectual world.

Ľubica Čekovská has composed “Liberte” for mezzo-soprano, chorus and orchestra for the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution on 17 November 1989 in Bratislava. Recollections of the largely peaceful transition from socialism to democracy in Czechoslovakia thirty years ago are full of ambivalence for the Slovak composer.

Dieter Ammann’s „Piano Concerto“ receives its premiere in August in London. The initiative for the work came from the pianist Andreas Haefliger. In working on the piece the composer pushed forward into the open bar by bar.