7th International Provinzlärm Festival 2019

Provinzlärm e. V., Eckernförde, Germany


Provinzlärm is a young and ambitious international festival of contemporary music. It is held every two years in the Baltic seaside resort of Eckernförde in Schleswig-Holstein and focuses specifically on the countries of Northern Europe and the Baltic States as well as on historical references. In 2019 a musical light will be shone on the focal country Sweden and the musical lines connecting the beginning / the middle of the 20th century and today. The aspect of “sound extension” and its development since the beginning of the 20th century play an important role here. The program includes purely instrumental compositions and works involving electronic and visual media. Invited alongside the ensembles Reflexion K and Norddeutsche Sinfonietta is the Swedish ensemble Lipparella.

The unanswered question by Charles Ives already opens the door to the 20th century in the opening concert. The spatial possibilities of the St Nicolai-Kirche provide an ideal setting for this piece dating from 1908 – the poetics of the solo trumpet and the layering of the four flutes and the string section, which is completely aligned to the sound surface. As a contrast to this within the same concert are works by Nicolaus A. Huber, Georg Friedrich Haas and Gerald Eckert (premiere). In his new piece Eckert will also use the possibilities offered by the church space and place ensemble groups and string orchestras at different locations within it. The second event combines the format of the Saturday “market-day mass” with a concert. During the festival, Ensemble Lipparella will present works by the Swedish composers Lisa Streich, Chrichan Larson and Kent Olofsson. The five musicians, a countertenor, recorder, baroque violin, viola da gamba and theorbo, will perform their historical instruments presenting, almost exclusively, works that have been composed for this special instrumentation in the last ten years. Reflexion K draws an imaginary line from Nono’s pupil Nicolaus A. Huber to his former pupil Gerald Eckert and on to compositional approaches of the younger generation. The concert will conclude with a piece by Madeleine Isaksson featuring texts by Tomas Tranströmer alongside Abîme des oiseaux for clarinet solo from the Quartet for the End of the Time by Olivier Messiaen and Fourteen by John Cage.


February 15–17, 2019
St. Nicolai-Kirche, Eckernförde, Germany



Further Information:
provinzlaerm-festival.de