The spark has been ignited: when Alejo Pérez speaks of his new position as music director of the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, a role he will step into from the 2019/2020 season onwards, he stresses the great affinity he has for the orchestra and the entire team. “The challenge should not be underestimated. The chemistry has to be right; that‘s essential for any artistic project. I’m looking forward to breathing this atmosphere of passion for music in this house – this is something that makes me feel at home,” says the conductor. He shone in his debut in Flanders last year with Pelléas et Mélisande, staged by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet and Marina Abramovic....

24 July 2019 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of composer Friedrich Goldmann. On this occasion, Enno Poppe has kindly given us the text of his speech he gave at the memorial ceremony....

One of the reasons György Ligeti’s music continues to fascinate audiences is that the composer constantly reinvented his musical style and was always searching for something new; a consequence of his incredible openness to a wide range of musical styles across different genres and cultures. His son Lukas Ligeti has inherited this curiosity and has devoted a large part of his career to crossing the boundaries between different musical traditions, both as a composer and percussionist and in his role as a Professor at the University of California. Christoph Wagner met him to talk about his development as a musician, his fascination for African music and his relationship to his father. Here we reproduce excerpts from their conversation with the kind permission of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, where the full-length interview was originally published (02/2019)....

The postponement of a premiere is an everyday occurrence in the music world. That the reason is not an unfinished piece, but rather an unfinished instrument is somewhat exceptional. In the case of Mark Andre’s iv15 Himmelfahrt, written for the inauguration of the 1886 Strobel organ in Bad Frankenhausen in Thüringen, the craftsmanship was behind the delay. The restoration of such a complex historical instrument is no easier to plan than the composition of a piece of music, meaning that Stephan Heuberger’s performance of the work last October at St. Ludwig’s in Munich was just a sneak preview, played with electronic organ stops....

In May, Wergo will release a portrait CD including Anssi Karttunen’s recordings of Hans Werner Henze’s English Love Songs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Oliver Knussen. It is not only the three artists who shared a long-lasting friendship and working relationship; Hans Werner Henze and Anssi Karttunen were and are long-lasting companions for us, too. In 2004, Anssi Karttunen was one of our first artists, impressing us with his insatiable musical curiosity, which most recently has led to a collaboration with Led Zeppelin legend John Paul Jones. We had the pleasure of working with Hans Werner Henze in the preparations for the concerts in celebration of his 80th birthday in 2006, and continued our relationship until his death in 2012. He was one of the first composers for whom we worked, laying the foundation for a particularly important focus of our activities. For our magazine, Anssi Karttunen reminisces on his encounter with Hans Werner Henze and Oliver Knussen, and on the special rehearsal work for the English Love Songs....

This year we are celebrating 15 years of karsten witt musik management. To mark the occasion, we have published a one-off magazine with articles, interviews and news with and about our artists, as well as reflections on a decade-and-a-half full of music. A PDF of the magazine is available here. ...