Artist(s)

Welcome to the Heimbach Hydroelectric Power Station!

This impressive building, built in the Art Nouveau style in 1905 and located in the beautiful Eifel region,

is serving as a spectacular venue for the remarkable chamber music festival "Spannungen/Tensions:

Music in Heimbach's Hydropower station" since 1998, in June of each year.

This musical event, where musicians of the highest caliber come together for a week of chamber music

rehearsals and concerts, bears a title that truly reflects its underlying concept: "Tensions” is not only an

allusion to the electric current normally produced in this hydroelectric installation, but also to the underlying

musical tensions and contrasts in the festival’s music program. The artists and their audience embark

on a musical journey ranking from the Baroque era to contemporary music: each year we also première a

new work. Surprising parallels often emerge in such programs, along with exciting musical contrasts and

thrilling interplay between the hydropower station’s architecture, the picturesque surroundings and the

music itself. In Heimbach, it is always exciting to adapt to one’s musical partners, of which each one is a

soloist and chamber musician of the highest rank. Yet the most important thing is to remain fundamentally

and constantly open to one’s partners’ musical suggestions and leanings. This excellent working environment

is capable of producing concerts and recordings of which all participants can be proud of. It is our

wish and our desire that, listening to these CD’s, you will be able to relive the special atmosphere.

Norbert Ely, former music editor at the Deutschlandfunk, once called our undertaking a true "grass roots

initiative for chamber music”. In fact, this festival owes its very existence to the selfless dedication of quite

a number of music and art lovers who are active members of the Association for the Promotion of the Arts

in the County of Düren: from the very beginning, they enthusiastically continue to make this wonderful event

possible. Without wide-ranging, varied engagement on the part of our sponsors – particularly on the part

of our main sponsor and event partner RWE POWER AG (also our host at the Hydro-power Station), and on

the part of our media partner, DEUTSCHLANDFUNK (which has supported this festival since its inception) –

a chamber music event such as this one could not even be possible. My heartfelt thanks to everyone

who has supported us!

Lars Vogt (Artistic Director of "Spannungen/Tensions: Music in Heimbach's Hydropower Station”)

Composer(s)

Press

The CD thus presents two live recordings deprived of the visual setting.
The Rehearsal Studio, 19-11-2016