Vocal Music

Concert de midi et demi avec Anastasia OCHANINA, Olha KREPS et Rémi GENIET

Concert de midi et demi avec Fachu LUO et Shengxin CHENG

Speak Low. Songs about masculinity and queer utopias

The art song – a mirror of a bygone era and yet surprisingly contemporary. Johannes Worms and Nasti invite you to an evening that looks at familiar and new works from an unusual perspective.

Guest performance

Mahler's monumental Symphony No. 2

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor Berlin

Really old and extremely lively: For many seasons now, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin has been demonstrating how thrilling music from the 17th to the early 19th century can sound in its own series at the Konzerthaus Berlin.Bach's „St Matthew Passion“ was premiered for the second time in 1829 - in the Singakademie building in Berlin, which is now home to the Maxim Gorki Theatre. The conductor was Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who was only twenty years old. He paved the way for a Bach renaissance with the version he arranged and shortened. In the era of Viennese Classicism, Bach's music had simply hardly ever been performed. The Passion, however, which was first presented to the congregation of St Thomas' Church in Leipzig in 1727, is one of the most haunting musical depictions of the story of the crucifixion.

St Matthew Passion

Every year, for more than a century, we have been performing one of Bach’s most popular works: the St Matthew Passion. This year, the prominent German conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann is leading our ensemble.Bach’s masterly music keeps moving us“Betrayal, condemnation and death, but above all – love. Although the words of the St Matthew Passion are age-old, the story and the message are still relevant today. And every year, Bach’s masterly music moves us once again. Bach’s masterpiece is in good hands with Rademann. In every St Matthew Passion he performs, this real Bach man – founder of the Dresdner Kammerchor, artistic director of the Bachakademie Stuttgart and regular name at the international music festival Bachfest – seeks out a new contemporary approach, always keeping a careful eye on the monumental character of the work. For decades, he has been one of the most successful choral conductors in Germany. Plenty of reason, therefore, to invite Rademann as the guest conductor for our traditional Passion concerts.

Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment: St Matthew Passion

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!

Guest performance

Derek Jarman: MODERN NATURE

Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature is adapted by Living Productions & Bold Tendencies in a unique tribute to the iconic artist, author & activist, combining readings, music & footage from his Super 8 Films.

Johann Sebastian Bach / Messe en si

Powerful, syncretic if we take the Credo in its most universal sense, the Mass in B minor is one of the most profound and hermetic monuments in the history of music. As Cioran once cheekily opined, “If anyone owes everything to Bach, it's God!”

Concert de midi et demi avec Anastasia OCHANINA, Olha KREPS et Rémi GENIET

St Matthew Passion

Every year, for more than a century, we have been performing one of Bach’s most popular works: the St Matthew Passion. This year, the prominent German conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann is leading our ensemble.Bach’s masterly music keeps moving us“Betrayal, condemnation and death, but above all – love. Although the words of the St Matthew Passion are age-old, the story and the message are still relevant today. And every year, Bach’s masterly music moves us once again. Bach’s masterpiece is in good hands with Rademann. In every St Matthew Passion he performs, this real Bach man – founder of the Dresdner Kammerchor, artistic director of the Bachakademie Stuttgart and regular name at the international music festival Bachfest – seeks out a new contemporary approach, always keeping a careful eye on the monumental character of the work. For decades, he has been one of the most successful choral conductors in Germany. Plenty of reason, therefore, to invite Rademann as the guest conductor for our traditional Passion concerts.

The Bach Choir & Orchestra of the Netherlands: St Matthew Passion

The Concertgebouw’s famous Main Hall is one of the best concert halls in the world, well-known for its exceptional acoustics and special atmosphere. In the Main Hall, you will feel history. Here, Gustav Mahler conducted his own compositions, as did Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Sergei Rachmaninoff played his own piano concertos in the Main Hall. This is also where musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Yehudi Menuhin gave legendary performances. Right up to now, the Main Hall offers a stage to the world’s best orchestras and musicians. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Main Hall for yourself!

Guest performance

Utopia / Alexandre Kantorow / Teodor Currentzis

Few conductors of our time exude such charisma on stage as Teodor Currentzis. The Greek-Russian conductor lives and breathes music with every fibre of his sometimes eccentrically dressed body, regularly spurring his musicians on to outstanding performances. After his Russian-based ensemble MusicAeterna, Currentzis founded the project orchestra »Utopia« in 2022, made up of more than 100 musicians from 30 nations who otherwise play in European orchestras. An international all-star team, brought together by Currentzis himself and moulded into a musical unit. Even at the first performance at Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle, the cheers from the audience knew no bounds – »a little moment of magic«, NDR enthused. Now the ensemble returns to Hamburg for the third time, accompanied by French shooting-star pianist Alexandre Kantorow.

90 Jahre Erstes Kölner Akkordeon-Orchester

The First Cologne Accordion Orchestra celebrates its 90th anniversary with a captivating evening of top-level music at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall. Joined by "Mr. Good Life" Tom Gaebel and the Cologne choir "Die Erben," the orchestra promises a dazzling celebration of its unique sound, showcasing the artistry that has taken them to stages worldwide.

Johann Sebastian Bach / Messe en si

Powerful, syncretic if we take the Credo in its most universal sense, the Mass in B minor is one of the most profound and hermetic monuments in the history of music. As Cioran once cheekily opined, “If anyone owes everything to Bach, it's God!”

Richard Wagner: Siegfried

Now he sets out into the world: Siegfried, the free hero, is to set right what Wotan, the father of the gods, messed up at the beginning of the story. Finally, part three of Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung" can be experienced in Kent Nagano's original sound project. Siegfried grows up in the forest, reforges the sword Nothung, slays the dragon Fafner, wins from him the "Ring of the Nibelung", breaks Wotan's spear and lovingly awakens the Valkyrie Brünnhilde.

St Matthew Passion

Every year, for more than a century, we have been performing one of Bach’s most popular works: the St Matthew Passion. This year, the prominent German conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann is leading our ensemble.Bach’s masterly music keeps moving us“Betrayal, condemnation and death, but above all – love. Although the words of the St Matthew Passion are age-old, the story and the message are still relevant today. And every year, Bach’s masterly music moves us once again. Bach’s masterpiece is in good hands with Rademann. In every St Matthew Passion he performs, this real Bach man – founder of the Dresdner Kammerchor, artistic director of the Bachakademie Stuttgart and regular name at the international music festival Bachfest – seeks out a new contemporary approach, always keeping a careful eye on the monumental character of the work. For decades, he has been one of the most successful choral conductors in Germany. Plenty of reason, therefore, to invite Rademann as the guest conductor for our traditional Passion concerts.

CLASH!?

We open the stage for wishes, dreams, feelings, and misunderstandings. Workshops, a competition, and a concert revolve around topics relevant to young people today. We want to promote diverse voices and lively, controversial exchange. CLASH!? describes the encounter of different perspectives. Students contribute texts, songs, podcasts, and more. The most compelling entries will be presented and awarded at the concert.

Wiener Klassik

Haydn's "Missa in angustiis," his only mass in a minor key, reflects the turbulent times of the Napoleonic Wars. Beethoven's Symphony No. 2, written as his deafness began, is surprisingly playful and full of contrast. Mozart's Symphony No. 1, composed at the age of eight, reveals a composer brimming with energy, imagination, and original ideas.

NOSPR / Zagrosek / Mahler’s happiest symphony

The most joyous one among Gustav Mahler’s symphonies does not, by any means, renounce either the grotesque irony that is so typical for the composer or eschatological threads. Yet again, it deals with the subject of death. This time, however, it is first represented by the grotesque Ländler played by the violin in the scherzo, later to introduce us to the realm of paradise in the finale. But is this true paradise, or rather an image, ironical in its effect, that arises from the naive folk poetry of The Boy’s Magic Horn collection, which the composer uses in his symphonies for the last time?Jakub PuchalskiConcert duration: approximately 70 minutes

29th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival

29th Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival - Beethoven and great poetry 6-18 April 2025 More information: www.beethoven.org.pl Organiser: Ludwig van Beethoven Association General Director of the Festival: Elżbieta Penderecka The Festival, co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the City of Warsaw, is held under the honorary patronage of President Andrzej Duda.

Guest performance

Hana Blažíková / Bruce Dickey / The Breathtaking Collective Ensemble

Angels playing music were an extremely popular motif in the Renaissance – often, the heavenly figures sing accompanied by the cornet, an early brass instrument. Cornet virtuoso Bruce Dickey and soprano Hana Blažíková now trace the celestial tonal affinity of voice and instrument, accompanied by the Breathtaking Collective, with such enchantingly beautiful and highly virtuoso music of the 17th century. Bruce Dickey has completely dedicated himself to rediscovering the cornet. Today, largely disappeared from concert life, the wooden, in most cases crescent-shaped, instrument with a mouthpiece similar to those on trumpets was incredibly popular in the 16th and 17th century, especially in combination with singing. Like a second voice, the cornet ornaments the clear soprano of early music star Hana Blažíková, gets into sensitive dialogue and vies for the most splendid coloraturas and flourishes. The singer and cornetist, both of whom are regularly on stage with the greats of historical performance practice, such as Sir John Elliot Gardiner, Ton Koopman and Jordi Savall, have put together a fascinating selection of secular and sacred pieces for »On the Breath of Angels«. Accompanied by strings, theorbo, organ and harpsichord, dramatic operatic arias and intimate movements from motets sound. »Breathtaking listening experiences!« enthuses a reviewer of the related album. After this concert, one wonders how and why the cornet could have fallen so much out of fashion.

Hania Rani & Ensemble

Hania Rani is an award-winning pianist, composer and singer. Her debut album “Esja”, a beguiling collection of solo piano pieces on Gondwana Records was released to international acclaim in 2019, earning Rani four prestigious Fryderyk Awards including “Best Debut Album”, “Best Alternative Album” and “Best New Arrangement”, in recognition from the Polish music industries very own Grammys.Her follow-up sophomore album, the expansive, cinematic, “Home”, was released in 2020 on Gondwana Records and finds Rani expanding her palate: adding vocals and subtle electronics to her music as well as being accompanied by bassist Ziemowit Klimek and drummer Wojtek Warmijak. The album earned Rani another notable accolade of “Best Composer”, a further acknowledgement from Fryderyk and with Rough Trade including it in their essential “Albums of the Year”.When Hania reintroduced herself this spring with “Hello”, the preliminary taster for her new album, “Ghosts”, it most likely startled many who’ve come to love her work. Otherworldly yet upbeat, its mischievous melody, eloquent Rhodes piano, sparkling synths and nimble rhythms offered little indication of the New Classical style with which her acclaimed solo debut, 2019’s Esja, is sometimes associated. Both a welcome to Ghosts’ universe and a farewell of sorts to the past, “Hello” is a siren’s call, and, just as the album’s title suggests, over the album’s 13 tracks and 67 minutes Rani passes repeatedly and gracefully between worlds, joined sometimes by bassist and Moog player Ziemowit Klimek and Patrick Watson who breathes unearthly life into the ethereal “Dancing with Ghosts”.Rani, who grew up in Gdansk, Poland and currently divides her time between Warsaw and Berlin, is probably still best known for Esja, its instrumental piano pieces swiftly and widely embraced during the pandemic for a palliative beauty which BBC Radio 4’s Mark Coles described as “sublime and minimalist”. Her Covid era “Live from Studio S2″ performance video has now clocked up almost 6 million views. Nonetheless, she’s always embraced broad horizons, far broader than her strict, two-decade training as a pianist might initially suggest. Alongside her classical activities, most notably award-winning collaborations with cellist Dobrawa Czocher (released via Deutsche Grammophon), not to mention her first piano concerto, “For Josima”, premiered this spring, she was for a while one half of Poland’s respected alternative pop duo Tęskno. She’s also worked with other media, releasing a ‘highlights’ reel, “Music for Film and Theatre”, in 2021, and her scores include Piotr Domalewski’s “I Never Cry”, winner of the 2020 Polish Film Festival’s Best Score award, last year’s “Venice – Infinitely Avantgarde” and, coming later this year, Amazon’s “The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart”. In 2022, Hania was asked by director Susanna Fanzun to score the documentary about the artist Alberto Giacometti. Released by Gondwana Records, the soundtrack was recorded in the Swiss mountains with Hania being surrounded by snow and ice which is reflected in the delicate recordings.Her interests extend, too, into the realms of art: last summer, for instance, visitors to Zodiak, the Warsaw Architecture Pavilion, are encouraged to enjoy “Room for Listening”, a sound and spatial art installation, designed with architecture studio Zmir, in which an hour-long composition is looped and streamed through 25 speakers.Presented by Ambitus

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Iván Fischer

Our honorary conductor Iván Fischer is a guarantee for unusual programmes. This time, he and the Konzerthausorchester will perform works by four composers who were ostracised and persecuted by the National Socialists and whose works shaped the avant-garde of the interwar period. Paul Hindemith, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler found their way to the United States via detours, but Erwin Schulhoff was interned in Prague, deported and died of tuberculosis in a camp in Bavaria.

St Matthew Passion

Every year, for more than a century, we have been performing one of Bach’s most popular works: the St Matthew Passion. This year, the prominent German conductor Hans-Christoph Rademann is leading our ensemble.Bach’s masterly music keeps moving us“Betrayal, condemnation and death, but above all – love. Although the words of the St Matthew Passion are age-old, the story and the message are still relevant today. And every year, Bach’s masterly music moves us once again. Bach’s masterpiece is in good hands with Rademann. In every St Matthew Passion he performs, this real Bach man – founder of the Dresdner Kammerchor, artistic director of the Bachakademie Stuttgart and regular name at the international music festival Bachfest – seeks out a new contemporary approach, always keeping a careful eye on the monumental character of the work. For decades, he has been one of the most successful choral conductors in Germany. Plenty of reason, therefore, to invite Rademann as the guest conductor for our traditional Passion concerts.

Concertgebouw Orchestra: Bach's St Matthew Passion

The week before Easter wouldn’t be complete without Bach’s always overwhelming St Matthew Passion, which for decades has been one of the most popular works among classical music lovers in the Netherlands. Bach composed the Passion nearly 300 years ago in such an emotional, compelling way that it leaves few listeners unmoved.The Concertgebouw Orchestra first performed the work in January 1891, and eight years later, the annual Passion tradition was officially established. This year’s Passion performance features Riccardo Minasi, one of the most interesting conductors to rise to fame in recent years, and a specialist in eighteenth-century music. Originally scheduled for 2020, his first appearance with the Concertgebouw Orchestra was postponed owing to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s high time he came to share his vision of Bach’s immortal masterpiece with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Wiener Klassik

Haydn's "Missa in angustiis," his only mass in a minor key, reflects the turbulent times of the Napoleonic Wars. Beethoven's Symphony No. 2, written as his deafness began, is surprisingly playful and full of contrast. Mozart's Symphony No. 1, composed at the age of eight, reveals a composer brimming with energy, imagination, and original ideas.