Spannungen ("Tensions" or "Voltages") is an annual summer festival for chamber

music in Heimbach, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, founded by pianist Lars Vogt in

1998. It is subtitled Musik im Kraftwerk Heimbach (Music in the Heimbach power
plant). Performances take place over one week in the power station Kraftwerk
Heimbach. Many of the concerts with friends and colleagues were recorded live,
broadcast by Deutschlandfunk and recorded for label Avi.

Lars Vogt, who appeared internationally as a soloist with renowned orchestras, was
a dedicated chamber musician, focused on the repertoire of music from the classical
period and the romantic era. He founded the festival Spannungen for chamber music
in Heimbach in 1998, to perform annually with friends and colleagues in a historic
power plant built in 1905.[1][2][3] The festival is held in June for one week.[4]
The location, Kraftwerk Heimbach, is a hydro-electric power station in Jugendstil,
with old turbines, brass features and Art Deco lamps. The festival is subtitled for
its location: Musik im Kraftwerk Heimbach.[4]

Artists of the first festival in 1998 included, besides Vogt, hornist Marie Luise
Neunecker, clarinetist Michael Collins, violinists Christian Tetzlaff and Antje
Weithaas, violists Tatjana Masurenko and Tabea Zimmermann, cellists Truls Mørk and
Boris Pergamenschikow, and pianist Alexei Lubimov.[5]

The festival held world premieres such as Volker David Kirchner's Il Canto della
Notte as a commission in the first season,[5] Jörg Widmann's Octet in 2004,[6] and
in the 20th season in 2017 Erkki-Sven Tüür's Lichttürme, a piano trio commissioned
for the festival.[7]

Many of the concerts were recorded live. Reviewer Jan Brachmann from the FAZ noted
that Dvořák's Dumky Trio was played by violinist Christian Tetzlaff, cellist Tanja
Tetzlaff and Vogt, as if the players took time for sinking together into moods
("für das gemeinsame Versinken in Stimmungen").[8]

Final concert of Lars Vogt on 26 June 2022

In 2020 and 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the performances were played,
broadcast and recorded without audience.[9] The festival returned to performances
with audience in 2022,[10] with the motto Liebe (love).[11] Vogt gave his last
concert at the festival, playing in the final concert on 26 June 2022 with
Christian Tetzlaff, Barbara Buntrock and Tanja Tetzlaff[12] the Piano Quartet No. 3
by Johannes Brahms.[13]