In their motivation the jury wrote:
“To create something new, which really renews and opens our ears and eyes to new timbres and relations, is granted only to few. The curiosity of this year’s Carl Prisen-recipient gives us answers to questions we never knew we should ask and makes us want to experience more. His Piano Concerto for piano, sampler, destroyed piano, video and orchestra is essentially an examination of timbres. Not just the pretty ones, but also them in between: the interrupted, the tiny, the coarse and the delicate ones. The piano concerto is original in all the best meanings of the word.”
The spectacular piece evolves around a video recording of a grand piano falling from 8 meters onto a concrete floor. It was given its world premiere at the music festival Donaeschinger Musiktage in the fall of 2014 where it received rave reviews along with winning the festival’s special orchestra prize.
Visit SWR’s multimedia website about the piece here: http://multimedia.swr.de/steen-andersen-piano-concerto#393
Congratulations to Simon!