The fourth episode of Darmstadt On Air is hosted by Lucas Fels, cellist of the Arditti Quartet and Darmstadt cello tutor. Lucas visited Ellen Fallowfield in Basel in July 2020. Like Lucas, Ellen has a particular focus on contemporary music as a cellist. She is also a researcher and the creator of cellomap.com, an online resource for modern cello techniques.

They talked about legendary cellists like Siegfried Palm and Anner Bylsma, about Helmut Lachenmann’s groundbreaking solo cello piece „Pression“, about extended techniques and multiphonics on the cello and about questions like: How to write it down? How to bring the instrumentalists' experiences back into scores? How can we describe and refine the interplay of research on the instrument and the composers' imagination?

Many thanks to Ellen Fallowfield and Lucas Fels, to Hochschule für Musik Basel for providing room and equipment, to Omri Abram for recording, to Stefan Prins for the jingle, and to Olaf Mielke!