Composition Commission issued to Manfred Trojahn

Gesellschaft der Freunde der Sommerlichen Musiktage Hitzacker, Germany

The world premiere of Manfred Trojahn’s commissioned work for violin, piano and narrator is intended as the crowning finale of the 75^th Hitzacker Summer Music Festival to commemorate a very special moment in the history of the festival: in 1955 a legendary ensemble led by Fritz Wunderlich, the tenor of the century, staged a performance of Claudio Monteverdi’s epochal opera L'Orfeo in Hitzacker. The vinyl recording at Deutsche Grammophon contributed significantly to the Monteverdi renaissance in the second half of the 20^th century.

The composition Sonette an Orpheus with texts by Cesare Pavese features the typical seminal and yet emotionally powerful musical language of Manfred Trojahn. In his work, the composer recalls the legendary performance and record production in the early phase of Germany’s oldest chamber music festival, but at the same time, based on this memory, he develops completely new and unheard-of ideas around the Orpheus and Eurydice myth.

Further Information:
musiktage-hitzacker.de