Contemporary Music
New sounds, new formats, new experiences: There is much to discover in contemporary works.
A symphony orchestra is both an attractive and complex challenge for today's composers. This also applies to our Creative Chair, the Icelander Anna Thorvaldsdottir, who will be performing several of her works. To kick off the season, Paavo Järvi will conduct a work by her for the first time with "Archora". He finds it "very interesting that she achieves a sound that sometimes seems like an electronic sound," he says. "But she doesn't use it, she really just uses the instruments of the orchestra, and she has these moments where you're not quite sure how it works, how it's done. Fascinating!"
André de Ridder also conducts a work by Anna Thorvaldsdottir in his debut with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, as well as compositions by the American Nico Muhly and the Icelander Daníel Bjarnason. And our focus artist Víkingur Ólafsson will perform the Swiss premiere of John Adams' piano concerto "After the Fall", which was written especially for him.
