Concert Pulse
This season
In Hamburg
In Hamburg
Concertgebouworkest Young / Julia Hagen / Elim Chan
Elbphilharmonie, Großer Saal (Hamburg)
In 2022, the Hamburger Abendblatt called the Concertgebouworkest Young a »five-star orchestra for young talent« after their successful debut in the Elbphilharmonie. Every summer, young talents from all over Europe form the youth orchestra and work together with top stars. This year they will play Edward Elgar’s famous cello concerto with the celebrated cellist Julia Hagen. Conducting is shooting star Elim Chan, who opened the BBC Proms in 2024 and is winning over more and more orchestras around the world with her irrepressible vigour. Elgar composed his cello concerto in the picturesque Sussex countryside. The Briton, who often represented his country with pomp and splendour, reveals his state of mind in the melancholy melodies of the cello, characterised by his wife’s serious illness and his grief for the victims of the First World War. At the same time, his last orchestral work is a grandiose farewell to the great composer’s stage. The orchestra has also selected Shostakovich’s energetic Fifth Symphony. It is an emotional work, as Shostakovich wrote it in constant fear of repression by the Stalin regime in the Soviet Union. At first glance – or first hearing – the music is stirring, the slow movement incredibly beautiful. But its double bottom made the work famous: anger and despair seethe beneath the final triumphal march, while sarcasm resonates in the ballet-like third movement.