Helmut Lachenmann, who celebrates his 90th birthday in the music year of 2025, has composed several milestones in contemporary classical music. Sir Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra are dedicating themselves to some of these exceptional works. In his tuba concerto Harmonica, Helmut Lachenmann explores the limits of sound - with music that oscillates between eruption and silence, by means of "strictly constructed denial" (Lachenmann) and by deliberately disrupting the familiar, and eludes socially preformed listening expectations. This appeal to the audience's self-awareness remains as relevant as ever. The soloist is Stefan Tischler, principal tuba player of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the live recording with the BRSO conducted by Sir Simon Rattle was made on March 22, 2025. Klangschatten - mein Saitenspiel by Helmut Lachenmann deals with the "verso" of sound, it's suppressed and "unwelcome" components. The spectrum here ranges from toneless or muffled sounds to differently coloured noise and clear tones. Lachenmann himself described the piece as " an offer of expressive intensity that reflects the bourgeois longing for beauty and seeks to fulfil it, that is, to overcome it." The work was performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Matthias Herrmann on May 23, 2025 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. Helmut Lachenmann, born in Stuttgart in 1935, is one of the most renowned German composers of contemporary music. He studied piano, music theory and counterpoint in Stuttgart and composition with Luigi Nono in Venice. The first public performances of his works took place in 1962 at the Venice Biennale and at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music. He taught composition in Hanover (1976-1981) and in Stuttgart (1981-1999), and has given numerous master classes in Germany and abroad. His works are performed by internationally renowned players and orchestras all over the world. Helmut Lachenmann has received numerous awards, including the German Music Authors' Prize of GEMA (2015) for his lifetime achievements and, most recently, for his compositional work, the 'President of the French Republic Prize' from the Academie Charles Cros (2025).

"The hours I spent learning Beethoven‘s last three sonatas were among the most cherished of my life. They were filled with the exhilaration of being in the presence of something magnificent, something truly meaningful. Over the years, these sonatas have become my intimate companions – a continuous source of learning and an always sympathetic yet mercilessly honest corrective for me…

"I learned Helmut Lachenmann‘s Wiegenmusik (Cradle Music) as a teenager, around the same time I actually met him at my grandfather‘s home. As a young man, Helmut had been a member of my grandfather‘s choir. I will never forget the impression his warm and friendly manner had on me...Much later, in preparation for a joint concert in which I played solo four of his works for piano, Helmut, in his unique way, introduced me to his works and invited me to “listen” – to listen to everything that is acoustically perceptible, to hear the attack of the key and its consequence, and to open up myself more to the beauty of tones, beyond the so-called limits; and ultimately not just with his music, but with all music.

"This juxtaposition of Beethoven and Lachenmann explores the interaction between the works – the field of tension opened up by their proximity. Without alienating the individual masterpiece, a new listening context emerges. The symbiosis of their auras allows us to experience anew what we have become accustomed to. I dedicate this album to my grandfather Gerhard Wilhelm, who dreamed of living life as a pianist like I do now – as a child of a generation that, unlike his, did not have to experience war. Let us hope that this does not change. Both Beethoven and Lachenmann will help in this endeavor." -Soloist Moritz Winkelmann

The French pianist Jean-Pierre Collot presents a highly interesting and, at first glance, unusual juxtaposition of the music of Lachenmann (born 1935) with that of Ludwig van Beethoven. Here, Franz Liszt's piano transcription of Beethoven's Symphony no. 6 "Pastoral" is in dialogue with Serynade and Marche fatale by Lachenmann. In this WDR production, Collot comes across as a contemporary painter and creates fascinating timbres and shades of these highly virtuosic masterpieces. This album was created in collaboration with Lachenmann, whose tonal and highly melodic "fatal march" arrived as a shock after his decades of experimentation with extremes of musical possibility. Serynade, the title of his great piano work, is intentionally misspelled, with a y; the shift references the first letter of its dedicatee's name: Yukiko Sugawara, a pianist and Lachenmann's wife.

Quatuor Diotima presents Lachenmann: String Quartets, a powerful testament to their 25-year collaboration with visionary composer Helmut Lachenmann. Known for pioneering "instrumental musique concrete," Lachenmann redefined the sonic possibilities of the string quartet. Their first meeting in 1998, originally just a one-week workshop, sparked a deep artistic bond and a shared fascination with his radical approach to sound and listening. This album is the result of hundreds of hours spent in rehearsal, performance, and conversation - a tribute to a composer who has become a central figure in contemporary music. Lachenmann: String Quartets captures not only the evolution of a musical language, but also the story of a transformative and enduring partnership. The quartet returns to PENTATONE following their acclaimed releases Metamorphosis Ligeti (2023), Bruckner & Klose: String Quartets (2024), and Boulez: Livre pour Quatuor (2025).

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in 2024, the BR-KLASSIK label is now making previously unreleased recordings of concerts available on CD and as a stream. The six-part composition My Melodies for eight horns and orchestra was composed between 2016 and 2018, revised for the first time in 2019, and then again in 2023 as the musica viva Munich version. It was commissioned by Bavarian Radio’s musica viva with the support of the Friends of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra e.V. This is a live recording of the premiere of the Munich 2023 version on June 23, 2023, from the Herkulessaal, again as part of BR's musica viva concert series, with the horn section and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Matthias Hermann.

Helmut Lachenmann, born in Stuttgart in 1935, is one of the most renowned German composers of contemporary music. He studied piano, music theory, and counterpoint in Stuttgart and composition with Luigi Nono in Venice. The first public performances of his works took place in 1962 at the Venice Biennale and at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music. He taught composition in Hanover (1976-1981) and in Stuttgart (1981-1999), and gave numerous master classes in Germany and abroad. His works are performed by internationally renowned players and orchestras all over the world. Helmut Lachenmann has received numerous awards, most recently the GEMA German Music Authors' Prize for his life's work (2015).

The phenomenon of melody has long preoccupied Helmut Lachenmann. He went to study in Venice at the end of the 1950s with Luigi Nono, a teacher who strictly insisted on a critically reflective approach to musical material. Nono had objected to any trace of linear progression in Lachenmann's compositional sketches as a "tonal cell" – a melodic object that was seen as a recourse to a romanticizing tonal language that had to be overcome. The impetus for the scoring of My Melodies came from a rehearsal of Lachenmann's opera The Little Match Girl in Madrid in 2008: eight horns forming a homogeneous yet at the same time complex instrument. The premiere took place ten years later. In 2023, My Melodies was extended by 77 additional bars since that first performance, with Lachenmann drawing on further sketch material. It is rare for the composer to alter his own works after their premiere - but the sound ideas for the eight horns seem to have retained a special fascination for him. The bonus tracks offer short excerpts from this concert recording of My Melodies. They present characteristic passages of the work, inviting listeners to detect specific noises or sequences and to familiarize themselves with Lachenmann's world of sound.

Lars Vogt (1970-2022) early recordings collected here provide a document of an artist who always remained authentic, both to himself and to music. Lars Vogt never sought absolute truth, but truthfulness instead meant all the more to him. The man and the artist were always very close, never currying favour and never detached from the world. He was, instead, open and natural. "It's incredibly gratifying when you notice that you can perhaps light a little spark, a little flame for music in people, and when music helps you to find the path to your own soul."