The Awakening Heart

On March 27th, 2013 we experienced the world premiere in Hamburg of Markus Stockhausen’s latest orchestral work, “The Awakening Heart” for 3 soloists, jazz drums and symphony orchestra, performed by the Hamburger Symphoniker under the direction of Prof. Wolf Kerschek. Markus Stockhausen and his brother Simon Stockhausen both had been invited as guest artists for one concert season with a dozen concerts.

The Awakening Heart is a kind of symphonic fantasy with a duration of about one hour. Markus Stockhausen had long intended to write a larger work for orchestra. His immediate idea was to write music that would touch the listener’s heart through its beauty and intimacy, and less his cognitive mind.

This music contains stylistic elements from classical, jazz and world music, the latter thanks to the brilliant collaboration with the lebanese singer Rabih Lahoud. The other soloists were Tara Bouman on clarinet and bass clarinet and Markus Stockhausen himself on trumpet and flugelhorn. Both have a long standing musical relationship and certainly add a very special element to the work.

Markus Stockhausen is known to transcend stylistic boundaries. In “The Awakening Heart” he tries a new way of blending written and improvised music. The composition starts with a hymn-like opening, and then, like hills unfolding before a mountainous landscape, the work unfolds increasingly until in the last section a real climax is reached with strong rhythmic elements and joyous themes.

The composer is grateful to the Hamburger Symphoniker who commissioned the work.
A complete audio track with a recording of the premiere can be sent upon request. Please write to music.