With Helmut Lachenmann and Peter Eötvös, we can welcome two of the most incisive composers who have cruciallly shapened the music history of the 20th and 21st century. Lachenmann set very individual impulses, especially through systematic exploration of the instruments and innovative expansion of their playing techniques. In this way, the way music is created is included as well as, for example, timbre and volume. “TemA” – created in 1968 – is probably one of the first compositions in which breathing as an acoustically mediated, energetic process was a central theme. Entirely in the spirit of Karl Amadeus Hartmann, music here claims a socio-critical potential: „Schönheit als verweigerte Gewohnheit.“ [“Beauty as a denied habit”] (Helmut Lachenmann)
In his works “Psy” for flute, violoncello and piano and “Two poems to Polly” (text by Lady Sarashina from the 11th century) for a “speaking cellist”, Peter Eötvös also explores the field of tension between sound and language. His music has a language-analogue structure and draws from a rich fund of colours and moods. It is a special pleasure to meet Peter Eötvös – one of the most renowned conductors and pianists – also as interpreter of his own compositions “Erdenklavier – Himmelklavier” and “Un taxi l’attend, mais Tchékhov préfère aller à pied”.
With our new own ensemble hartmann21, we continue to feel committed to Hartmann’s intention to promote young, highly talented composers and performers. In this singularly composed programme we would like to introduce the Hungarian Máté Balogh and the Munich-based Swede Henrik Ajax, who in their newly created works refer to the two “light figures” of contemporary music, Lachenmann and Eötvös, trace content-related references and reflect and condense the theme of “music and language” in their respective individual ways.

An event of the © Karl Amadeus Hartmann-Gesellschaft e. V., sponsored by Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München, LfA Förderbank Bayern and Bezirk Oberbayern.