Musica dal Cielo – Music from Heaven | Vilde Frang III

Vilde Frang, an artist-in-residence, is distinguished in her music-making by an almost ethereal, fragile sensuality. The otherworldly in music combines in a special way with the reality of the finite. For his extravagant program of celestial music, Vilde Frang has invited a selection of the most interesting artistic personalities to Ascona.

Vilde Frang, Artist in Residence of classicAscona 2026, is distinguished by a fragile, almost ethereal way of making music with rare sensitivity. In her, what seems beyond the world is uniquely intertwined with an awareness of the limit. For her program of “music from the sky” she has invited some of the most interesting personalities of our time to Ascona.

The program’s arc ranges from archaic rhythms to profound reflections on life and transience. It begins with Gérard Grisey’s “Stèle.” Two drums create an unforgettable sound experience, as if time stood still. In “Reminiscence,” Toshio Hosokawa builds an atmosphere on the marimba that, according to a Zen-inspired principle, arises between silence and sound. Hosokawa weaves subtle, oriental timbral threads that continue to vibrate in stillness.

In “…oder soll es Tod bedeuten,” Mendelssohn’s Lieder on texts by Heinrich Heine blend with instrumental interludes by Aribert Reimann in a new, delicate ensemble. Šostakovič’s 1971 Symphony No. 15 resonates in an adaptation for piano trio and percussion duo. This late symphonic work is full of quotations, from Rossini to Wagner, and also includes references to Šostakovič’s earlier works. The result is a memory play, with parodistic features and a continuous transition between irony and dismissal.