"Leihgabe (“On Loan”) of 2007, for cello and mixing desk, is a composition about paying farewell. In this case the farewell applies to habitual perception, to “knowing what comes next.” In keeping with this scheme, Seidl incorporates musical quotations, brief passages from two works that toy with undermining our expectations: Helmut Lachenmann’s Pression for unaccompanied cello (1970) and Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 45, the so- called “Farewell Symphony.” Both pieces deal with modes of coming to an end. Haydn ironically stages an orchestra in the process of disintegration, while Lachenmann tries to establish new ways of playing the cello: a pragmatic request for holiday time vs. an emotional demand to change our auditory habits. These two stances are integrated in a musical context that in turn toys with the renunciation of expectations. On the surface, Leihgabe consists of a descending melodic line that successively traverses the tonal space. However, this gesture is constantly interrupted, e.g. by microtonal “mistunings,” a rhythm pattern that contradicts the descending line, or an “inorganic” assignment of volumes, accentuated by the use of the mixing desk." Michael Rebhahn