Lucerne Festival Academy 3

“Open End”: The Festival’s theme describes Dieter Ammann’s creative process with astonishing accuracy. In his works, Ammann doesn’t simply “fill out” a pre-fixed formal plan but feels his way forward bar by bar, listening to the sounds and trusting his “inner ear.” So No templates is the name he’s chosen for his new viola concerto, which will be performed only for the second time after its world premiere in January — by “artiste étoile” Tabea Zimmermann. The title signals a curious openness in dealing with the traditional genre of the solo concerto, but also with regard to stylistic means: “The tonal aspect is given more weight,” explains Ammann. The Festival theme also applies to the two world premieres: within the framework of the “Roche Young Commissions” series, the Spaniard Guillem Palomar and the German Jakob Raab have been creating their new orchestral pieces for over two years, receiving valuable feedback from Wolfgang Rihm and Dieter Ammann. However, they won’t complete their respective works until the spring: so exactly what awaits us is still excitingly open.