Say & Kerschek: Trumpet Double Concertos Matthias Höfs & Christian Schmitt & Tillmann Höfs & Münchner Rundfunkorchester & Christoph Altstaed

With “Trumpet Double Concertos”, Matthias Höfs once again breaks new musical ground. The new album by the exceptional Hamburg-based trumpeter is due to be released on 22 May 2026 on Berlin Classics and is the impressive result of his pioneering artistic spirit and his deep curiosity for the unheard. Anyone who follows Höfs’ career knows that he is never in search of mere virtuosity, but rather of dialogue, of encounter – with instruments, people and timbres.

The two concertos on this recording are a perfect illustration of this. They were composed during his artist-in-residence with the Munich Radio Orchestra and both were written specifically for him: by the internationally acclaimed pianist and composer Fazıl Say and the Hamburg-based sound visionary Wolf Kerschek. Two personalities who could scarcely be more different in their thinking – and yet united in their openness to new worlds of trumpet music.

Fazıl Say, whose music has long since found a firm place in concert life for many, opens up his sound world to something hitherto unfamiliar: together with Christian Schmitt on the organ and the inspiring driving force Mustafa Aykut Köselerli on percussion, a breathing, rhythmically pulsating soundscape emerges. Even typically Eastern instruments find their place, breaking up the organ’s sacred solemnity and setting it free in the concert hall – full of colour, humour and seriousness all at once. The work – written in 2020 during the world’s moments of silence – is a dialogue with and about the instrument, but also a departure beyond familiar boundaries.

The second work on the album, Wolf Kerschek’s double concerto ‘Die vier Elemente’ (The Four Elements), is a world premiere and is musically and emotionally imbued with a special warmth. It is music born of a long friendship with Matthias Höfs, full of mutual trust and playful wit. What father and son – Matthias and Tillmann Höfs – unfold here in the interplay of trumpet and horn ranges from a dark earthiness to glowing fire and airy clarity. Kerschek creates luminous sonic spaces in which every pulse, every line breathes palpably; he writes music for a connection between two soloists who appear ‘like a single body with two souls’. State-of-the-art instrument technology – from the double-bell trumpet to the descant horn – gives rise to unimagined sound spectra.

It is this curiosity that pervades both works and their creation. The dialogue with the composers, the refinement of details, the artistic partnership on equal terms – all of this can be felt in every bar. Supported by the Munich Radio Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Altstaedt, these two very different concertos, each opening up its own world, were recorded for the first time in Studio 1 of Bayerischer Rundfunk between July 2024 and January 2025.

“Trumpet Double Concertos” is a musical plea for artistic curiosity, for collaborative exchange and for the ceaseless search for new horizons.