Performances of David Philip Hefti's Final(ment)e in Stuttgart
On 7 and 8 December 2025, the Stuttgart State Orchestra will perform the work Final(ment)e – Beziehungsweisen für zwei Trompeten und Orchester by David Philip Hefti at the Liederhalle Stuttgart. The concert will be conducted by General Music Director Cornelius Meister.
The two soloists, Alexander Kirn and Lennard Czakaj – the principal trumpeters of the orchestra – will shape, together with the orchestra, a unique interplay of sound and spatial perception. Composed in 2021, this double concerto for trumpets explores themes of encounter, distance, and the search for connection. A continuous accelerando structures the work’s three parts, culminating in an emphatic finale. Through its spatial disposition of players, the piece deliberately embraces a certain degree of acoustic ambiguity – a key element of its dramaturgy and expressive force.
These performances promise an intense live experience in which music is not only heard, but also spatially felt – driven by the energy of the orchestra and the presence of the two soloists.
Further information here. read more less
NAXOS releases world premiere recording of David Philip Hefti’s Songs of Yearning – String Quartet No. 8
The renowned Stradivari Quartet presents the world premiere recording of David Philip Hefti’s eighth string quartet, Songs of Yearning, released by NAXOS. This marks the first collaboration between the composer and the ensemble — a meeting of artistic minds distinguished by sensitivity, clarity of sound, and deep musical understanding.
Hefti’s Songs of Yearning (2024) is silently inspired by Antonín Dvorák’s Cypresses. Through subtle atmospheric, harmonic, motivic, and structural connections, Hefti creates a delicate web of relationships that remains present in the background without ever directly quoting Dvorák. The work may thus be heard both as an independent quartet and as a hidden reflection on Dvorák’s cycle of love songs. The title Songs, unusual for a string quartet, consciously pays homage to Dvorák’s Cypresses — a set of love songs composed when he was 24 and later transformed into twelve lyrical miniatures for string quartet.
With Songs of Yearning, David Philip Hefti remains true to the refined and forward-looking musical language that characterizes his seven previous string quartets.
“Hefti remains faithful to the advanced sound world of his seven earlier quartets. We hear the compositional elements of the avant-garde — not many extended techniques or exotic sounds, but a compact string sonority in dense chords and clusters, few vigorous rhythmic outbursts, and many subtle changes of mood.” — Reinmar Wagner, Musik & Theater
The Stradivari Quartet proves to be the ideal ensemble for this premiere recording. With exceptional transparency, emotional depth, and formal precision, the four musicians illuminate the poetic and expressive nuances of Hefti’s music.
The recording was digitally released worldwide by NAXOS on 7 November 2025 and is available on all major streaming and download platforms.
Further information:
https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=9.70397 read more less
David Philip Hefti @ Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin
On December 6, 2024, the string quartet of the Staatskapelle Berlin will present the sixth string quartet Five Scenes for Gustav by David Philip Hefti at the Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin. The “Five Scenes for Gustav” were composed as preludes to Gustav Mahler's five “Rückert Lieder”, in Hefti's arrangement for high voice and string quartet. In this concert, Hefti's sixth quartet and his Mahler arrangement will be performed alternately, as originally planned. The soloist will be soprano Mojca Erdmann.
Since his collaboration with the Scharoun Ensemble, Hefti has cultivated a young but intensive artistic friendship with Wolfram Brandl, leader of the Staatskapelle Berlin string quartet, which is based on the successful premiere of his octet “Des Zaubers Spuren” at the Zermatt Music Festival and was performed for the first time in Germany on the occasion of the Scharoun Ensemble's 40th anniversary concert at the Berlin Philharmonie in September 2023.
You can find all information here. read more less
David Philip Hefti @ Elbphilharmonie
David Philip Heftis work Fünf Concertini für Streichorchester, composed in 2022, will be performed by the Musikkollegium Winterthur under the baton of Roberto González-Monjas in Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie on February 3, 2024.
Details of the concert can be found here.
The Five Concertini for string orchestra are a tribute to Antonio Vivaldi, who composed over 500 solo concertos. This gave him the idea of composing five micro-concertos for the string orchestra’s five principals.
The world premiere of the work took place on June 30, 2023 as part of the Kammerkonzerte Laufen (CH) with the Berliner Barock Solisten, to whom the work is dedicated, under the baton of David Philip Hefti. read more less
David Philip Hefti @ BerlinPhil’s Digital Concert Hall
On 27 September 2023, the German premiere of David Philip Heftis octet Des Zaubers Spuren took place on the occasion of the Scharoun Ensemble's 40th anniversary concert at the Berlin Philharmonie. The work was recorded and can be viewed and heard at the Berlin Philharmonic's Digital Concert Hall. read more less
