Soaring highs and pinpoint landings

"The final chord is literally a perfect landing: To the powerful, space-spanning orchestral sounds, Apollo 11 touches down on the lunar surface. 'We choose to go to the moon' by Lars Straehler-Pohl, born in Berlin in 1981, is a sonic version of the moon landing on July 21, 1969. The expertly orchestrated score begins in the lower registers, as it were, on the ground: heavy brass and double basses, the woodwinds in a chorale-like manner."

Then the music soars to a hymnal height. Embedded in the orchestral waves like a solo instrument is a space exploration speech by US President John F. Kennedy from 1962, recited with straightforward clarity by Derrick Jenkins. Visionary words, carried by the heroically ascending orchestra as if by film music, a moment of humanity celebrated in sound. At the world premiere of the nearly ten-minute tone poem on Saturday in the university's main hall – the winning piece of the student philharmonic's biannual composition competition – Straehler-Pohl himself conducted.

(Schwäbisches Tagblatt, Achim Stricker, 27.01.25)