Fanny Mendelssohn Förderpreis 2025

On this evening, the Fanny Mendelssohn Artists will be exploring the possibilities of AI in music under the thematic heading of Four Seasons. With his work 4 Seasons for Hasty People, Mathias Rehfeldt turns classical programme music on its head - and focuses on the question of creativity in times of artificial intelligence.

While Vivaldi’s famous cycle of the seasons lasts around 45 minutes, Rehfeldt goes through spring, summer, autumn and winter in just a few minutes – condensed, sharpened and with a wink at a present in which everything has to go faster and faster.


The special thing about it: The work is in direct comparison to a composition that was not written by a human, but by an artificial intelligence. Both works are presented anonymously by the same ensemble – the audience listens and decides: Who is human? Who is machine?

Rehfeldt uses this setting not only for a musical experiment, but also for an examination of the artistic reality of the very latest present: What is originality? What is emotion? And how does our image of creativity change when machines begin to produce art?

The Fanny Mendelssohn Prize has been honouring young classical artists since 2015 – the internationally renowned prize not only evaluates the technical virtuosity of the applicants, but also places particular value on innovative concepts and visionary design. The young talents are given absolute freedom in their musical projects. The »Festival der Preisträger«, which is now taking place for the seventh time in the Elbphilharmonie’s Recital Halll, showcases the artistic creativity and extraordinary talent of the Fanny Mendelssohn Artists.

PERFORMERS

Matthias Well violin

Dorothea Schupelius violin

Sào Soulez Larivière viola

Dominik Wagner double bass

Emanuel Blumin-Sint bassoon

Tamás Pálfalvi trumpet

Sarah Luisa Wurmer zither

Elisaveta Vassiljeva piano

PROGRAM

Astor Piazzolla
Las cuatro estaciones porteñas (Four Seasons of Buenos Aires)

Tru Takemitsu
A Bird Came Down the Walk

- Interval -

Mathias Rehfeldt
Four Seasons for Hasty People I

Fanny Hensel
Arrangement für Klavier und Violine aus »Das Jahr«

Mathias Rehfeldt
Four Seasons for Hasty People II