Zimmermann and music from eastern spheres

A brilliant orchestral dance between East and West. That is the exciting programme led by former chief conductor Markus Stenz.

Interweaving of traditions
In this concert, a new composition by the Chinese composer Huang Ruo will be juxtaposed with works by the Korean composer Unsuk Chin, who lives in Berlin, her compatriot Isang Yun and Bernd Alois Zimmermann. Huang Ruo and Chin combine elements from the eastern and western tradition in their work. In that sense, they continue along the path taken by Yun, who died in 1995. He was the first great composer from the East to combine his own background with the achievements of the Western avant-garde.

Spectacular Photoptosis
That same avant-garde is also evident in Zimmermann's at times spectacular collage work Photoptosis. At the same time, it is as if he wants to represent the entire history of Western music on his own. For instance, fragments from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Wagner's Parsifal, Veni Creator Spiritus and works by Skrjabin, Bach and Tchaikovsky play an important guest role in this 1968 masterpiece.