Programme

Nina Šenk
Concerto for orchestra (2019) [commissioned by musica viva, kindly supported by the friends of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra e.V., world premiere]

Matthias Pintscher
SHIRIM. For baritone, choir and orchestra (2019) [commissioned by Tonhalle Zürich, Los Angeles Philharmonic and musica viva, world premiere]

Matthias Pintscher, Conductor

Georg Nigl, Baritone

Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Although there has been no shortage of attempts, love has never been sung more beautifully than in the Song of Songs, the Old Testament book that unites earthly fulfilment with a deep yearning for the divine. Composer Matthias Pintscher, too, finds these songs “the most beautiful love poems ever written”. The Song of Songs has left traces in his music that run all the deeper for being set the original Hebrew. “Everything in Hebrew seems so compressed”, he explains. “Each and every word is so rich in meaning, so full of radiance.” His cycle Shirim thus attempts to develop a sonic universe from this language, a universe that seeks to be much more than an accompaniment. Under his baton, this triptych for baritone, chorus and orchestra will be heard complete for the first time at musica viva. Joining it is a newly commissioned piece by the Slovenian composer Nina Šenk, who completed her studies with Pintscher. Over the last two decades Šenk has produced a host of orchestral works that combine her vivid imagination with a special love for the symphony orchestra.