3.10.2025
What does it mean to compose for an orchestra? Which rules hold, and which can be broken? Three new works for the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (ORF RSO Wien) answer these questions in their own individual ways.
Sara Stevanović, finalist for the Ö1 Talentebörse Composition Prize, fixes her view on social dimensions and considers the orchestra as a “speaking body.” Just months before his death in April 2025, Peter Ablinger composed his last orchestral work for the ORF musikprotokoll: Die Wendel—the spiral, as in spiral staircase—electronically doubles the orchestra and relies on the tension between sounds played live and manipulated sounds that slowly turn away.
Being a deaf / hard of hearing composer like Ailís Ní Ríain is in itself a breach of the rules. The Irish composer creates an almost tangible world of sound for the RSO Vienna under the direction of Zimbabwe-born conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni. Her piece invites the audience to perceive music visually and through gesture.
Georg Nussbaumer contributes an acoustic portrait of the RSO — a sonorous group photo.
RSO Wien
Conductor: Vimbayi Kaziboni
I thought god can be found in the Danube
The composition by Peter Ablinger is a commission of Radio Österreich 1 in cooperation with ORF musikprotokoll. The compositions by Ailís Ní Ríain and Sara Stefanović are commissions of ORF musikprotokoll. With the support of VGR – Verwertungsgesellschaft Rundfunk. The Peter Ablinger focus at musikprotokoll 2025 was curated by Christian Scheib and Elke Tschaikner.