Three masterpieces of "absolute music" that do not tell a "programme" story and yet appear highly exciting and emotional: they express pain, conflict, grief as well as the longing for reconciliation. Each work represents a cosmos of its own, particularly evident in Friedrich Cerha's music, which spreads out a soundscape on over 300 percussion instruments. The energetic young exceptional virtuoso Vivi Vassileva [...]

The MDR Symphony Orchestra has a new chief conductor: the American Dennis Russell Davies, who enjoys an excellent reputation as a Haydn and Bruckner conductor. He has also worked as an advocate of contemporary music with important [...]

Although Henri Dutilleux was a contemporary and colleague of the avant-garde composer Pierre Boulez, he always found Boulez's musical language too dogmatic. Instead, Dutilleux loved the musical "fragrance" and richness of timbre that made him [...]