Concerts with works by

György Kurtág

STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN & FINNEGAN DOWNIE DEAR

From January 2025, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden will present György Kurtág’s only opera Fin de partie, based on Samuel Beckett’s Endgame. During the run of performances, the Staatskapelle and a group of vocal soloists bring Kurtág’s 1990 Beckett homage What Is the Word to the Pierre Boulez Saal, continuing the annual tradition of the orchestra’s guest concerts. Kurtág’s fascinating score is framed by works of Béla Bartók and Franz Schubert. Young British conductor Finnegan Downie Dear, who led the Staatskapelle’s previous Pierre Boulez Saal appearance, returns to the podium. Presented by the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in cooperation with the Pierre Boulez Saal. Tickets are available exclusively from the Staatsoper Unter den Linden: staatsoper-berlin.de

Hadelich / Piemontesi / Music of the masters from the banks of the Seine

Stars up close! Today, Augustin Hadelich is a world-leading violinist who conquers the world's stages and performs with the best orchestras, including the NOSPR. He returns with a chamber programme, in duo with the versatile piano virtuoso Francesco Piemontesi. Their concert, which will be dominated by French music, is designed in a modern way. There is no shortage of the canon of violin music, represented by Franck's striking, emotional, late Romantic sonata and Debussy's subtle, intimate sonata. They are accompanied by a third, wonderfully melodic sonata by Francis Poulenc. Both predecessors will shine through, as Poulenc's sounds focus their qualities like a lens because our perception changes with the context. Old French music (by de Grigny and Rameau) will indicate the roots of the work of the masters from the Seine banks mentioned above. György Kurtág's handful of short musical gestures, meanwhile, will allow us to pause for a moment to take a fresh look at what we already know. Adam Suprynowicz Concert duration (intermission included): approximately 90 minutes

JULIA HAMOS

Last season, Julia Hamos made a highly successful debut performing Ligeti’s virtuosic Piano Concerto with the Boulez Ensemble. For her first solo recital, the young Hungarian­-American pianist, who studied with Sir András Schiff at the Barenboim­-Said Akademie, has chosen rarely heard pieces by Kurtág and Janáček, in a program bookended by Mozart’s A­-minor Sonata K. 310 and Schumann’s monumental C-­major Fantasy.

KIRILL GERSTEIN

Many composers in history have found inspiration in the fragile and mysterious world of plants and flowers. For his solo recital, Kirill Gerstein presents a diverse selection of piano works from three centuries by com­ posers ranging from Robert Schumann to Thomas Adès. Percy Grainger’s paraphrase of Tchaikovsky’s famous “Waltz of the Flowers” provides the link to Maurice Ravel’s La Valse and the Waltzes Toward Civilization by the young Spanish composer Francisco Coll.

Wiener Philharmoniker / Igor Levit / Thomas Adès

The classical prelude is a symphony by Joseph Haydn, followed by Thomas Adès’ piano concerto, which has already been performed around 60 times since its premiere in 2019 – a remarkable amount for a contemporary work. Given the fame that the multi-talented British composer enjoys, this success is hardly surprising. A New York Times critic wrote about the premiere of the concerto: »As ever, the craft is astounding, the orchestration ceaselessly brilliant. The voice is wholly his own — dissonant, offbeat, whiplash, wry — even as it whispers to musics past. This breathless concerto comes across as zesty and accessible. But don’t be fooled. Just below the surface, the music sizzles. I can’t wait to hear it again.« The classical prelude is a symphony by Joseph Haydn, followed by Thomas Adès’ piano concerto, which has already been performed around 60 times since its premiere in 2019 – a remarkable amount for a contemporary work. Given the fame that the multi-talented British composer enjoys, this success is hardly surprising. A New York Times critic wrote about the premiere of the concerto: »As ever, the craft is astounding, the orchestration ceaselessly brilliant. The voice is wholly his own — dissonant, offbeat, whiplash, wry — even as it whispers to musics past. This breathless concerto comes across as zesty and accessible. But don’t be fooled. Just below the surface, the music sizzles. I can’t wait to hear it again.« Adès, whose music is full of musical echoes from baroque to jazz yet refuses to follow any dogmas, sets the tone for the second half of the concert featuring Leoš Janácek, whose musical language around a century ago was equally undogmatic. His rhapsody »Taras Bulba« sets Nikolai Gogol’s tragic tale of the same name about a father and his two sons to music. So vividly that a film inevitably unfolds in the mind’s eye of the listener. By way of a prelude, two miniatures pay tribute to Pierre Boulez as the spotlighted composer of the International Music Festival.

7th Soirée