Since 2018, Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini has been Composer-in-Residence with the Jena Philharmonic. Scartazzini has been writing a new companion piece to each of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies, which are being performed in Jena as a cycle in chronological order. This collaboration over a period of seven years is remarkable in many respects. At the end of the cycle there will be 10 new works, each of which can be performed individually or in groups before the Mahler symphonies, but also as full-length concert works. Andrea Scartazzini has been passionately committed to the task from the beginning, especially as Mahler’s music is particularly close to his heart: “I have a deep love for the work of Gustav Mahler; his symphonies have been my musical companions for many years, and every time I hear them again I am moved by the sheer abundance of inspiration and emotionality,” he wrote at the start of the cycle. “I will react with pleasure to this illustrious proximity, distancing myself or coming closer to create an overriding dramaturgy. In this way, both approaches should succeed: creating one’s own work and building bridges.” Now, halfway through the premieres, he speaks of how the renewed engagement with Mahler’s work has influenced his own language and compositional style, for never before, he says, has he composed so close to tonality.
