“While the list of pieces that appear in cello-piano recitals is incredibly short – the same ten pieces keep circulating in different order – we cellists actually have a very large repertoire”, he says. “Orchestras don't program much more than ten concertos and apart the Bach Suites there are maybe five pieces that make their way to concert programs.”
Anssi Karttunen is against monotony. On his Instead List for Cello, he pairs a rarely played work worth listening to with every well know piece.
In the summer of 2023, Titus Engel conducted Olivier Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise, an opera that not only goes beyond the usual dimensions of the orchestra, but in Anna-Sophie Mahler's Stuttgart production also incorporated the urban space and nature as a kind of pilgrimage. A documentary about the production is now available online in the ARD media library.