Concerts with works by

Alexander Zemlinsky

Clarinet Trio

Jonathan Nott

»Sweet melancholy is the true nature of true love.« This quote by Novalis is an excellent reflection of our relationship with Jonathan Nott: since the turn of the millennium, he held the musical reins together from the podium for 16 years as our Chief Conductor in over 650 always original concerts both in Bamberg and on tour. On his departure, he said somewhat melancholically: »When we all – orchestra and conductor – achieve a result together, then we are influenced by each other. And even if we never see each other again: All the musicians of the Bamberg Symphony are a part of my life.« Fortunately, he has been returning regularly as a guest ever since – and this year’s programme is the start of a concert series with him over the next few seasons, which will also take us to places that were the centres of the chosen musical period. It once again bears his unmistakably individual and highly dedicated handwriting: After all, the English maestro honed our musical profile for musical modernism particularly intensively and lastingly during his time. Now it’s a concentration on two related works that were premiered together in Vienna 120 years ago – with each of the two composers conducting their own piece: Zemlinsky conducted his orchestral fantasy »The Mermaid« based on the well-known fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. His former student, then brother-in-law and friend Schönberg performed his tone poem »Pelléas et Mélisande«, based on Maeterlinck’s wonderful drama – which Jonathan Nott has long held dear to his heart. There is no doubt, therefore, that he will be a safe guide through these two works, revelling in late Romanticism.

Jonathan Nott

»Sweet melancholy is the true nature of true love.« This quote by Novalis is an excellent reflection of our relationship with Jonathan Nott: since the turn of the millennium, he held the musical reins together from the podium for 16 years as our Chief Conductor in over 650 always original concerts both in Bamberg and on tour. On his departure, he said somewhat melancholically: »When we all – orchestra and conductor – achieve a result together, then we are influenced by each other. And even if we never see each other again: All the musicians of the Bamberg Symphony are a part of my life.« Fortunately, he has been returning regularly as a guest ever since – and this year’s programme is the start of a concert series with him over the next few seasons, which will also take us to places that were the centres of the chosen musical period. It once again bears his unmistakably individual and highly dedicated handwriting: After all, the English maestro honed our musical profile for musical modernism particularly intensively and lastingly during his time. Now it’s a concentration on two related works that were premiered together in Vienna 120 years ago – with each of the two composers conducting their own piece: Zemlinsky conducted his orchestral fantasy »The Mermaid« based on the well-known fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. His former student, then brother-in-law and friend Schönberg performed his tone poem »Pelléas et Mélisande«, based on Maeterlinck’s wonderful drama – which Jonathan Nott has long held dear to his heart. There is no doubt, therefore, that he will be a safe guide through these two works, revelling in late Romanticism.

THOMAS HAMPSON & WOLFRAM RIEGER

“No other composer has had a more profound influence on me and taught me more than Gustav Mahler,” says Thomas Hampson. Having won universal acclaim for his performances of Mahler’s songs, the baritone has also immersed himself in the composer’s life more thoroughly than almost any other singer. Joined by his longtime piano partner Wolfram Rieger, he takes the audience on a musical journey to Mahler’s eventful times that also includes works by his contemporaries Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Zemlinsky, Anton Webern, and Richard Strauss, as well as his personal companion and wife Alma Mahler.

Guest performance

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Juraj Valčuha

Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of the Little Mermaid is world-famous: In the depths of the sea, the mermaid swaps her fish tail for legs with the sea witch so that she can emerge into the human world. This costs her her voice. During a storm, she rescues a prince. However, he ends up marrying someone else and she, the creature of nature, has to perish as foam on the waves. Alexander Zemlinsky has captured her tragic fate in impressive, dazzling orchestral colours. Sergei Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 is also a work full of passion and is one of the composer's most popular works. He played the New York premiere in 1909 himself and gave it the nickname ‘Concerto for Elephants’, as elephants are considered to be extremely sensitive animals. It requires both enormous technical skill and a very sensitive interpretation of the lyrical passages. In them, the composer pays homage to his Russian homeland, from which he was to flee eight years later, never to return.

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Juraj Valčuha

Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of the Little Mermaid is world-famous: In the depths of the sea, the mermaid swaps her fish tail for legs with the sea witch so that she can emerge into the human world. This costs her her voice. During a storm, she rescues a prince. However, he ends up marrying someone else and she, the creature of nature, has to perish as foam on the waves. Alexander Zemlinsky has captured her tragic fate in impressive, dazzling orchestral colours. Sergei Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 is also a work full of passion and is one of the composer's most popular works. He played the New York premiere in 1909 himself and gave it the nickname ‘Concerto for Elephants’, as elephants are considered to be extremely sensitive animals. It requires both enormous technical skill and a very sensitive interpretation of the lyrical passages. In them, the composer pays homage to his Russian homeland, from which he was to flee eight years later, never to return.

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Juraj Valčuha

Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of the Little Mermaid is world-famous: In the depths of the sea, the mermaid swaps her fish tail for legs with the sea witch so that she can emerge into the human world. This costs her her voice. During a storm, she rescues a prince. However, he ends up marrying someone else and she, the creature of nature, has to perish as foam on the waves. Alexander Zemlinsky has captured her tragic fate in impressive, dazzling orchestral colours. Sergei Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 is also a work full of passion and one of the composer's most popular works. He played the New York premiere in 1909 himself and gave it the nickname ‘Concerto for Elephants’, as elephants are considered to be extremely sensitive animals. It requires both enormous technical skill and a very sensitive interpretation of the lyrical passages. In them, the composer pays homage to his Russian homeland, from which he was to flee eight years later, never to return.

Kam­mer­kon­zert VIII

For more than six decades, the chamber concerts by musicians from the Staatskapelle have been a constant feature of the Staatsoper programme. This season, ensembles have come together to select music from different periods, styles and cultures under the theme of ‘playing together’. On eleven dates in the Apollosaal, which with its special atmosphere is an ideal venue for chamber music and communicative interaction between players and listeners, works from the Baroque to the present day will be performed in constellations that are both exciting and harmonious, in which tangible contrasts play just as important a role as a common resonance and the balancing of opposites.