The Romanian writer and composer Sânziana-Cristina Dobrovicescu combines theatrical and musical traditions. In Rite of Margins II, the foundations of the classical performance ceremony are questioned: the music already begins while the audience, with the house lights still on, is still entering the hall. As a figure of authority, the conductor gradually brings order to the chaos before the concert – leading from the everyday into the ritual of the concert situation.

Daniel Oliver Moser’s musical language is shaped by microtonal harmony. His new work draws on the genre of the piano concerto, deliberately exploiting the “rigid” tuning of the piano against the more flexible ensemble to use psychoacoustic phenomena to call the perceived stability of piano tuning into question.

Klaus Lang’s Риза (Riza) takes its orientation from the intricately decorated metal covers of Orthodox icons. Music by Johannes Ockeghem takes the place of the icon, over which Lang layers a new sonic stratum.

Clemens Nachtmann’s Essence/Déroute sets poems by Michel Houellebecq on flight, love, and loss, conceived simultaneously as a homage to Pierre Boulez.

Conductor: Edo Micic