One of the pieces to look forward to at the next Donaueschinger Musiktage will certainly be Stefan Prins‘s “Madness Machines.” The piece will be premiered on October 16th as part of the festival’s events, featuring the SWR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Brad Lubman, with an electronic part developed by the composer in collaboration with SWR Experimentalstudio. The piece reflects on the central principle that governs the twenty-first century, which is found in the word “madness,” in keeping with the festival’s central theme, which revolves around the question “How can we musically understand the experience of our shaken world?” Well, there’s no one better qualified to answer this question than Prins, who has always filtered through music an ambiguous message of our times: the shock our society is experiencing due to new technologies and corrupt lifestyles. In the liner notes for Madness Machines, Prins lists several causes of “madness,”
