In an interview with the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper, Karsten Witt talks about the aftermath of the corona pandemic in the classical music business, the unbroken enthusiasm for making music and our new concert series hiddenCLSX (in German).
Together with the Mozarteum Orchestra, Lin Liao has recorded three works by Hans Werner Henze that are closely related to Mozart and Salzburg.
Are you interested in getting to know the classical music market in a one-year traineeship and in getting a 360-degree view of the music scene?
Tenor on the podium: Christoph Prégardien conducts the baroque ensemble Vespres d'Arnadí and the chamber choir of the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona with Bach's St Matthew Passion on 25 March.
On 22 March, Valentin Uryupin will make his debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra with Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.
Role debut as Sieglinde: Sarah Wegener will perform Wagner's Walküre under the baton of Kent Nagano in six major European concert halls from March 2024. In the run-up, she talks about her path to the new role and other vocal milestones of recent years.
Symphony, orchestral song, chamber opera: from 19 to 22 March, Jenny Daviet will be performing works by George Benjamin and Oliver Knussen in Caen.
karsten witt musik management is launching a new and practice-oriented range of courses: In our kwmm Academy we provide musicians with the tools for successful self-management. Registration is now open for three course programmes tailored to different needs.
Johannes Klumpp will conduct Carl Maria von Weber's Freischütz from 17 March at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, where the romantic opera is staged in a new production by Clemens Bechtel.
From 16 March, Caroline Melzer can be seen at the Freiburg Theatre in an unusual new production of Verdi's opera Don Carlos, in which she makes her role debut as Elisabetta.
In 1975, Les Percussions de Strasbourg premiered Karlheinz Stockhausen's scenic composition Musik im Bauch. At the Berlin festival Maerz Musik, the ensemble will present the work on 19 March in a visually and musically impressive new production by Simon Steen-Andersen.
In June, Mariam Batsashvili will once again be a guest at the Klavier Festival Ruhr. In a very personal interview with festival director Katrin Zagrosek in the run-up to the festival, she spoke about what composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Liszt mean to her.
Roland Kluttig will conduct six performances of Richard Wagner's opera Die Walküre at the Greek National Opera from 10 to 31 March.
We have moved! You can now find us in our new office rooms in Berlin-Schöneberg.
At the memorial concert for Kaija Saariaho, who passed away last year, Anssi Karttunen performed the cello concerto Notes on Light with the Orchestre de Paris under Esa-Pekka Salonen on 15 February - the concert recording is available as a video on the Philharmonie de Paris website until August.
"Don't touch" was what Carlotta Dalia heard as a child when it came to guitars. Luckily, she revolted against this order and now delights audiences with her playing on historical and modern guitars, even outside of sworn guitar circles.
With a record release concert on 15 February at the Roulette in New York, the JACK Quartet presented the first album with compositions by its violinist Austin Wulliman.
Outstanding reviews for the Armida Quartet's recording of works by Max Reger and Johanna Senfter.
"Impulsive and rich in contrast - simply fantastic": The second part of Antje Weithaas' recording of all of Beethoven's violin sonatas is just as enthusiastically received by critics as her debut in Berlin's Pierre Boulez Saal.
The multifaceted exhibition Ligeti Labyrinth, which was conceived by the Budapest Institute of Musicology and the Paul Sacher Foundation, can be seen at the Basel Historical Museum until April 2024.
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.
Olli Mustonen's recording of the two 3rd piano concertos by Rautavaara and Martinů with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Dalia Stasevska was honoured with the German Record Critics' Award.
In 2026, the music world will celebrate Friedrich Cerha's 100th birthday. In view of this occasion, we would like to draw your attention to a selection of the most important works by the composer, who died in February 2023 - and to the new website friedrich-cerha.com.
Lukas Ligeti is the artistic director of the World New Music Days, which took place in Africa for the first time in its centenary year from 24 November to 3 December - a unique opportunity for creative exchange: both the African audience and the guests from all over the world heard music they had never come into contact with before.
Congratulations to Mahan Esfahani: His recording of 20th century Czech harpsichord concertos with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Liebreich was awarded an Opus Klassik.
Roland Kluttig is directing the new production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at Heidelberg Theatre until April - the premiere on 23 September was enthusiastically received by audiences and critics.
World premiere of the year: Vito Žuraj's first full-length opera Blühen came to the stage in Frankfurt in early 2023 under the musical direction of Michael Wendeberg and has now been named premiere of the year by Opernwelt magazine. In our interview, Vito Žuraj talks about his collaboration with librettist Händl Klaus, director Brigitte Fassbaender and the Ensemble Modern.
Trio Mediaeval's new album presents the music of the Old Hall Manuscript, a long-lost collection of English motets and masses of the Middle Ages, together with works composed especially for the trio.
Newborns as music critics: With Liszt's Liebestraum No. 2, Mariam Batsashvili starts a series of recordings of "baby-friendly" works from the piano repertoire.
Numerous obituaries, some of them very personal, pay tribute to the life and work of Friedrich Cerha, who died in February 2023.
On François-Frédéric Guy's first Chopin album Secret Garden, the pianist lets a cross-section of Chopin's works blossom on two CDs.
The GrauSchumacher Piano Duo inspires with their recording of Brigitta Muntendorf's Trilogy for two pianos and as performers in her Theater des Nachhalls (Theatre of Echo) included on Blue-ray.
The PluralEnsemble has recorded important works by Fabián Panisello for a recently released portrait CD.
In addition to having recorded all of György Ligeti's works for choir a cappella, the SWR Vokalensemble is offering workshops on the composer's work as part of a major school project and is also touring his music in Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, France and Italy in May and June.
Composers of various generations talk about their personal encounters with Friedrich Cerha’s monumental Spiegel cycle.
Congratulations to Daishin Kashimoto: his CD with chamber music by Nino Rota received a Diapason d'or award of the year!
On 2 February 2023, Samir Odeh-Tamimi's music theatre work Philoktet, based on the dramas by Sophocles, Heiner Müller and André Gide, was premiered at the Eclat Festival Stuttgart with the Neue Vocalsolisten and the Zafraan Ensemble.
In the first edition of our new kwmm podcast series "Encore," violinist Johanna Staemmler chats about the Armida Quartet's complete Mozart recordings while we listen to the interpretations together (in German).
Ming Tsao's Triode Variations, premiered in May by Ensemble Musikfabrik under Emilio Pomàrico, have now been released on CD; the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart and the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin have also recorded works by the composer for the album.
Composer and painter: Friedrich Cerha (1926-2023) was both. Karsten Witt on his encounters with the artist since the 1980s.
In May 2022, Ensemble Musikfabrik premiered Ming Tsao's Triode Variations in Cologne. We caught up with the composer during a visit to his Berlin flat in the run-up to the performance.
Friedrich Cerha died on the morning of February 14, just a few days before his 97th birthday. We mourn the loss of a great artist, one of the most important composers of our time and an ever-attentive, critical contemporary.
Congratulations to the Armida Quartet: the final CD of the complete Mozart recordings is currently receiving critical acclaim, and the previously released Volume 4 even receives an Opus Klassik award.
"Outstanding through and through": On 26 August, Miriam Batsashvili's second album was released on the Warner Classics label, centred on Liszt's piano transcriptions from the opera, lied, and organ repertoire.
The Armida Quartet has put together a comprehensive Mozart package in recent years: a concert series, a complete recording, and even an app - all with surprising perspectives on the composer.
The new CD by the Gringolts Quartet received outstanding reviews and was awarded a Diapason d'or.
The Armida Quartet becomes musical ambassador of the climate initiative Orchestras of Change.
In the November issue of the journal MusikTexte, Ming Tsao outlines ways towards a materialistic musical expression.
Premio Abbiati del Disco: The recording of Ondřej Adámek's compositions Where are you? and Follow me with Magdalena Kožená, Isabelle Faust and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Rundel and Sir Simon Rattle has received the prestigious Italian critics' award.
The Castalian String Quartet's debut CD, released at the end of April, has received rave reviews.
Originally recorded for a film, this masterful interpretation of Mahler's Wunderhorn Lieder with baritone Dietrich Henschel and the Bochumer Symphoniker under Steven Sloane has now been released on CD.
In the FAZ, Ilya Gringolts is portrayed as a musician with enormous stylistic range and unwavering integrity.
Maximilian Hornung becomes artistic director of the Traunstein Summer Concerts
Just before Bas Wiegers conducted his first concerts in front of a live audience in May, he sat down for an interview to reflect on the preceding Corona year.
As music director of the Folkoperan Stockholm, Henrik Schaefer started the season 2021/22 by bringing the house fresh ideas – and not just through the original romantic sound.
A Mozart with character, played to perfection: Rave reviews for the Armida Quartet's new CD.
Congratulations to Titus Engel on his appointment as the new Principal Conductor of the Basel Sinfonietta!
The first international orchestra to guest in two wonderful new halls: karsten witt musik management brought the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Robin Ticciati to Ankara and Istanbul.
We congratulate the new Chevalière des Arts et des Lettres! Isabella Vasilotta will receive the medal awarded by the French Ministry of Culture.
The season brochure for 2022/23