In February 2025, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg's VISIONS Festival and the ECLAT Festival in Stuttgart host a series of exciting world- and national premieres by prominent contemporary composers, including recent prize-winners Alex Paxton and Sarah Nemtsov, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Francesca Verunelli, Dai Fujikura, Olga Neuwirth and Alberto Posadas.
Elbphilharmonie VISIONS
British composer Alex Paxton takes center stage at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg's VISIONS Festival. As this year's portrait composer, Alex’s new work
World Builder, Creature received its much anticipated world premiere with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under the baton of Alan Gilbert on 7 February. The commission is part of the Claussen-Simon Composition Prize, that Alex was awarded in 2023. The festival also features works of Alberto Posadas, Olga Neuwirth, Francesca Verunelli and Dai Fujikura.
World premiere of World Builder, Creature at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
Concert stream
The world premiere live stream is available on NDR.
Go to stream
Score of World Builder, Creature
Performances
7 February
Alex Paxton:
World Builder, Creature
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester,
Alan Gilbert (cond.)
8 February
Alberto Posadas:
Königsberger Klavierkonzert
Florian Hölscher (piano),
SWR Symphonieorchester,
Emilio Pomàrico (cond.)
9 February
Olga Neuwirth:
Masaot/Clocks without Hands
WDR Sinfonieorchester,
Ryan Bancroft (cond.)
13 February
Francesca Verunelli:
From Scratch
ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien,
Bas Wiegers (cond.)
16 February
Dai Fujikura:
Tocar y Luchar
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester,
Alan Gilbert (cond.)
Find out more at
elbphilharmonie.de
Sarah Nemtsov in Heidelberg
Sarah Nemtsov: Heidelberg Women Artists' Prize
On 5 February, Sarah Nemtsov was honored with the Heidelberg Women Artists' Prize, a special award created to recognize female artists. During the
ceremony concert, her new work
Schatten zu for six-part choir, based on the poem of the same name by Heidelberg poet Rainer René Mueller, had its world premiere, performed by the SCHOLA HEIDELBERG, conducted by Walter Nußbaum.
The award ceremony also included Nemtsov's piece
Tikkun presented by Ensemble NIKEL, the Philharmonisches Orchester Heidelberg and conductor Mino Marani.
ECLAT Festival
Both composers were also featured with world premieres at this year’s ECLAT Festival in Stuttgart:
Paxton’s three-part cycle
How to eat your sexuality, for voices, ensemble, and electronics, was performed for the first time by Neue Vocalsolisten and Klangforum Wien, conducted by Vimbay Kazibony, on the festival's opening night of 5 February. On 6 February, Ensemble Musikfabrik with guitarist Yaron Deutsch, performed several new additions to Sarah Nemtsov’s
SEPHIROT cycle. Furthermore, on 7 February, Younghi Pagh-Paan’s
Wintersonne received its world premiere by SWR Vokalensemble under the direction of Susanne Blumenthal.
All three concerts were streamed live and will be available on SWR Kultur.
Concert streams
The live stream of Younghi Pagh-Paan's
Wintersonne is available on SWR Kultur.
Go to stream
Photos: Daniel Dittus (Paxton), Sophie Wolter (Paxton), Susanne Reichard (Nemtsov)