Sperrfrist 27

Press Release, April 2017

räsonanz – Donors’ Concert 2017 in Lucerne Swiss Premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s Requiem-Strophen

As part of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation’s initiative räsonanz – Donors’ Concerts, the Symphony Orchestra and Choir of Bavarian Radio, under the baton of Mariss Jansons, will guest at the Easter Festival of the Lucerne Festival with the Swiss premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s Requiem-Strophen.

After a successful räsonanz – Donors’ Concert 2017 in Munich with Teodor Currentzis, the MusicAeterna Choir from Perm and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, coming Saturday will see a further räsonanz – Donors’ Concert in Lucerne too. ‘Nearly 20 years ago, Pierre Boulez himself – as a member of the advisory board – expressed his wish for the foundation to participate more actively in the contemporary music scene and launch initiatives of its own. This aspect of the foundation’s work, initiated by the great composer, has certainly reached its provisional culmination with räsonanz’, states Michael Rossnagl, Managing Director of the EvS Music Foundation. The goal of the initiative is for leading international orchestras to present performances of contemporary works for large forces in Munich and Lucerne.

Mariss Jansons with the Symphony Orchestra and Choir of Bavarian Radio at the Lucerne Festival On 8 April 2017, Wolfgang Rihm’s Requiem-Strophen for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra will be heard in Switzerland for the first time. The former Ernst von Siemens Music Prize laureate Mariss Jansons will conduct the Symphony Orchestra and Choir of Bavarian Radio. The solo parts will be sung by the sopranos Anna Prohaska and Mojca Erdmann, as well as the baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann. The work, commissioned by musica viva, was premiered in Munich on 30 March 2017 and was lauded by audience and press alike. With texts by Hans Sahl, Johannes Bobrowski, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Rainer Maria Rilke and a psalm, Wolfgang Rihm compiled an unusual and highly personal selection for his new evening-length choral work. In an interview with Max Nyffeler, Rihm said of his new work: ‘Here the concern was to create an awareness of an individual problem: the case of homo reus, the guilty human. But it’s not about eschatological excitations, some visions of horror from the Final Judgement. I tried to write a form of requiem without this apocalyptic threat in the background.’ Directly before the concert, Mark Sattler, Dramaturge for Contemporary Music at the Lucerne Festival, will offer an introduction to the programme in the auditorium of the KKL.

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Contact: Nina Steinhart | +41 / (0) 41 226 44 – 43 | [email protected] Imke List and Dr Tanja Pröbstl | +49 / (0)89 / 6 36 3 29 – 07 | [email protected]