Turbulent and wild..... but a creative summer 2017

A life on the limit! ... Opera for China - CD „Mystic Landscapes“ - Concerts nonstop

A chaotic time is coming to an end! The resignation as "GEMA boss (PRS for Music)" in May, that caused standing ovations of the General Assembly, should actually allow time and space for carefree creativity. Also my resignation from the presidium of the German Music Council. Wrong conclusion! The carousel of time pressure, composition commissions and concerts became more and more turbulent. The focus was on the Herculean day and night work, writing a 150-minute monumental opera "MARCO POLO" for the Guangzhou Opera House in China in only 10 weeks, from August to October: commission and prestigious project of the Chinese government, completely composed and sung in Chinese language (!), World Premiere Guangzhou on May 8, 2018, enacted by Kasper Holten, conducted by Muhai Tang.

Two CD recordings were also intense:... the CD recording of the Symphonies No. 5 "Black Forest" and No. 6 "The Rhine" with the choir and orchestra of the Janacek Theatre Brno/ Czech Republic with Julia Sophie Wagner/ soprano and Hansjörg Albrecht (conductor) in June. ... in October with the Siberian State Symphony Orchestra in Krasnoyarsk/Siberia, conducted by Vladimir Lande with excellent soloists during two double concerts: the two trumpet players Sergei Nakariakov and Otto Sauter as well as the Chinese erhu soloist Jjemin Yan and the cellist Wen-Sinn Yang.

In addition, also many world premieres of new works: In May, the "Luther Kaleidoscope" for soprano, tenor and orchestra during the Black Forest Music Festival with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Mark Mast); in June the drums concert "Secret of the Trees" with the soloist David Panzl and the Philharmonic Orchestra Bad Reichenhall (conducted by Wolfgang Lischke); in July the Open Air "Water Music" for soprano (Eval Lind) and 100 brass instruments during the Maggio Musicale in Florence on the Arno River under the Ponte Vecchio (in co-production with the Florence Opera); in August "The Stones of Newgrange", composed for the guitar player Stefan Barcsay, a spiral music for guitar and organ, in Munich; in September the world premiere of "Yin&Yang" for sheng and orchestra with WuWei (sheng) and the Festival Orchestra (conducted by Simon Gaudenz) during the "China-Siberia-Europe" Festival in Krasnoyarsk/ Russia; also in September the premiere of "Dances from the Land of Trolls" for string orchestra in the fascinating rock church in Helsinki; in October the electronic composition of "Quasi crystals" for dancers and a 3D installation by the Swiss multimedia artist Beat Toniolo in the Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig. These world premieres were accompanied by many repeated performances of existing works: The Organ Symphony No. 16, for example, was played by the organists Hansjörg Albrecht, Johannes Quack and Georg Wendt more than 20 times across Germany, and by Thorsten Maeder even as Peruvian premiere in Lima. Also many international performances: Taiwan on June 18th, "Earth & Fire" for sheng and Chinese orchestra with the soloist WuWei, on July 2nd, the "Bernardus Frescos" for flute (Lukasz Dlugosz), organ (Roman Perucki) and Orchestra in the Cathedral Frombork/ Poland, on August 20th the double concert "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde“ for 2 cellos and orchestra at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland.

Luckily, it all makes me happy and content... otherwise, I would have to decelerate and get out of the repressive hamster wheel!