Introducing Enno Poppe! Combining the roles of composer and conductor, this year’s composer-in-residence will make his first bow to the Festival audience with a brand-new score he has written for the Paris-based Ensemble intercontemporain, one of the world’s finest formations for contemporary music, and with a work particularly close to his heart. Prozession was written during the first COVID lockdown in 2020 in a “creative frenzy,” according to Poppe. Originally planned to last 15 minutes, it became nearly 60 minutes long. “I’d never written like this before, but something happened.” In each of the work’s nine sections, Poppe has two solo instruments intertwine with microtonally tinged melodies. This parade of instrumental duets is underscored by the irregular pulsation of the four percussionists. Beginning quietly and mysteriously, the music develops an enormous power, with the tiniest cells and motifs burgeoning into infinity and delicate arabesques gathering into ecstatic outbursts. The determination with which Poppe observes his musical material grow has a spiritual dimension.