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Despite being reviled as a "Romantic" during his first years as a composer, Ebenhöh determinedly continued to develop his style until it became what it is today characterised by extensive solutions of established harmonic components. His sense of treating instruments in a technical, as well as sound-related way enables him to incorporate even the most subtle sounds into his compositions, in addition to the clearly audible, rhythmical, powerful outbreaks. A great number of his pieces for percussion instruments benefit from the vast spectrum of sounds he is using: in 1988, his "Konzert für doppeltes Schlagzeug und Orchester" (concert for two drums and orchestra) was selected for the 3rd international festival in the former City of Leningrad (today St. Petersburg) as the only Austrian orchestral piece. Its success earned the composer the orchestra piece commission for the festival in Moscow, which was scheduled to follow. However, economic and political events prevented the Moscow Festival from taking place (and thus the composition's world premiere there; the piece then premiered in Vienna, in 1993), but some of his compositions were performed in other parts of the former USSR. In 1998, the "New York Times" praised the world premiere of Ebenhöh's trombone concert as "the event of the day".
Horst Ebenhöh 1994