WDR Sinfonieorchester / Arabella Steinbacher / Ryan Bancroft

• Concerts

»I was an outsider and never quite fitted in with my Austrian surroundings,« revealed the grandfather of Graz composer Olga Neuwirth to her in a dream. »Listen to these songs, this is my story« – she starts in a town by the sea and ushers it into the Danube basin between Croatia and Hungary where various cultural identities and traditions come together. Song fragments of these regions sound like a series of musical postcards in Neuwirth’s 2014 accomplished orchestral work »Masaot / Clocks Without Hands«, which combines sharply shifting soundscapes on a »search for location and identity«.

Luxemburg composer Georges Lentz, conversely, wanted to express a spiritual journey with his violin concerto »…To Beam in Distant Heavens…« on which the WDR Sinfonieorchester is accompanied by Munich-based violinist Arabella Steinbacher under the leadership of young star conductor Ryan Bancroft: Lentz explores the dual nature of angels, who are capable of both good and evil – just like people. The idea that Steinbacher plays like an angel gave him the decisive force for this work. This, however, also led him to the fallen angel Lucifer and the famous painting of the devilish fiddler. This is why not only lyrical expression, but also breakneck virtuosity is demanded from the interpreter.

PERFORMERS

WDR Sinfonieorchester orchestra

Arabella Steinbacher violin

Ryan Bancroft conductor

PROGRAM

Olga Neuwirth
Masaot / Clocks Without Hands

Georges Lentz
… To Beam in Distant Heavens …