»Personally, I don’t conduct because I feel the need to make a piece more popular. I do it primarily out of love for music,« confesses Sir George Benjamin, adding, »and out of love for the work of studying and performing this music with colleagues.« This year’s Elbphilharmonie Artist in Residence takes to the conductor’s stand more than once as part of his »Multiverse«, conducting his own works and those of a number of other composers.His »colleagues« from Ensemble Modern – which, with around 100 concerts and 20 premieres a year, is one of the most important collectives in the contemporary music scene – give two performances.On two consecutive evenings, Benjamin and the ensemble musicians offer a broad panorama of modern music, ranging from works by the belligerent Pierre Boulez and the versatile György Ligeti to a new piece by Australian composer Cathy Milliken. read less