Berlin Confidential returns this autumn with its third concert evening, presenting the world premiere of What the Thunder Said, a new large-scale work for six cellos and double bass by Berlin-based composer Arash Safaian.
Safaians music occupies a singular place between contemporary composition, film music, and crossover projects that resonate far beyond the classical sphere. Born in Tehran and raised in Bayreuth, Safaian studied fine art before devoting himself fully to composition. His catalogue spans orchestral works, chamber music, stage works and film scores, and has earned him numerous distinctions: the International Günter Bialas Composition Prize, the Composition Prize of the Reinl Foundation in Vienna, the Bavarian Arts Promotion Prize, and the EON Cultural Prize. He was a fellow of the Villa Concordia in Bamberg and the Cité des Arts in Paris. In 2017 he received the Echo Klassik award, followed in 2020 by the Bavarian Film Prize. His albums have repeatedly entered the German classical charts and reached the US Billboard charts.
What the Thunder Said takes its title and inspiration from the final section of T. S. Eliot’s monumental 1922 poem The Waste Land. Written in the aftermath of the First World War, the Spanish flu, and Eliot’s personal crises, the poem became a defining modernist response to a shattered civilisation, with broken language and ruptured traditions. Safaian translates this atmosphere into sound, creating a multi-movement work for six cellos and double bass, optionally enhanced through guitar amplifiers.
Alongside this premiere, Berlin Confidential offers a rare opportunity to hear cello ensemble interpretations of major 20th-century works by Arvo Pärt, Alfred Schnittke, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Giovanni Sollima. Together they form a kaleidoscope of European music after 1945: from Pärt’s spiritual minimalism to Schnittke’s polystylism, Penderecki’s searing modernism, and Sollima’s unrestrained energy.
An outstanding roster of soloists brings this programme to life: Alexey Stadler, Claudio Bohorquez, Ivan Skanavi, Lena von Almen, Maciek Kulakowski, Oliwia Meiser, and Dusan Kostic (double bass). Each of them is an established performer in their own right, appearing here as a collective force.
The concert takes place in the unique setting of Berlin’s Musikbrauerei, a 19th-century brewery hall turned performance space in Prenzlauer Berg, whose raw architecture has made it one of the city’s most atmospheric venues.
