‘Ultraschall Berlin’ festival opening & festival closing with the DSO

The DSO will also close the festival on Sunday 19 January, this time under the baton of Markus Poschner. The focus here will be on Philipp Maintz's cello concerto with Johannes Moser on the one hand, and on the other, the examination of time, death and farewell in compositions by Charlotte Seither and Sarah Nemtsov.

At the festival opening of ‘Ultraschall Berlin’ on Wednesday 15 January, the DSO will be conducted by Anna Skryleva, a conductor with a special ability to inspire audiences with unusual formats and new music. She was awarded the Orchestra Innovation Prize together with the Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted the ‘Symphonic Mob’ at the DSO in 2024. At Haus des Rundfunks, Skryleva will lead through a programme whose works are largely inspired by religious and mythical stories and customs. South Korean composer Younghi Pagh-Paan takes up the resurrection of Jesus, Olga Neuwirth uses a Yiddish children's play as a model and Konstantia Gourzi's ‘Mycenae’ refers to the ancient myth of Clytemnestra. The centrepiece of the evening is the violin concerto ‘distancing ...’ by Robert HP Platz, which deals with the distancing rules imposed during the pandemic. Carolin Widmann will perform it for the first time as a soloist.

A few days later, on Sunday 19 January, the DSO will bring this year's festival to a close. The multi-award-winning cellist Johannes Moser, known for his commitment to new music, will perform ‘upon a moment's shallow rim’, a tribute to the solo instrument by Philipp Maintz. Under the musical direction of Markus Poschner, the programme will also include works by the composers Charlotte Seither and Sarah Nemtsov. Seither's chamber orchestra composition ‘zu welcher stunde’ revolves around questions of mourning, lamentation, redemption and longing and invites us to pause and reflect. Meanwhile, Sarah Nemtsov's ‘black trees’ draws on influences from Sylvia Plath and Beethoven.

‘Ultraschall Berlin’ stands for musical discoveries and new sounds. Every year, the festival organised by Deutschlandfunk Kultur and radio3 vom rbb presents world premieres, works from the recent past and avant-garde classics at the Haus des Rundfunks. The DSO will open and close the festival in 2025, continuing its long-standing ‘Musik der Gegenwart’ series, which has been bringing contemporary music to the Berlin stage since the 1950s. Since 1999, ‘Ultraschall Berlin’ has marked the start of the festival season for new music in Germany and is an absolute must for lovers of unconventional sounds.