Concerts with works by

Igor Stravinsky

Ravel's Bolero and Stravinsky's Firebird

The Sunday Morning Concert brings you wonderful and much-loved compositions, performed by top musicians from the Netherlands and abroad. Enjoy the most beautiful music in the morning! You can make your Sunday complete by enjoying a delicious post-concert lunch in restaurant LIER.The Royal Concertgebouw is one of the best concert halls in the world, famous for its exceptional acoustics and varied programme. Attend a concert and have an experience you will never forget. Come and enjoy inspiring music in the beautiful surroundings of the Main Hall or the intimate Recital Hall.

Best of Classics: The Rite of Spring

In the concerts of the series "Best of Classical Music," you will hear the most famous works of classical music. A brief introduction by a moderator at the beginning will provide insights into the piece and offer listening tips. Following this, the entire work will be performed. Afterwards, we would be happy to welcome you to our bar on the 1st floor, where our moderator will engage in an artist talk with the conductor. This conversation is not strictly academic - rather, we aim to take you into the personal world of our guests. About the concert: Twenty woodwinds, eight horns, five trumpets, three trombones, two tubas, five timpani, and a large percussion section alone would be enough to fill an entire football stadium with sound! In Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring," the strings are added to the mix. However, they are not there to make noise but to play one of the most famous ballet scores of the 20th century. During its premiere in 1913, the audience was outraged and left the hall with boos. Once a scandal, this piece is now indispensable in the concert hall.

NDR Jugendsinfonieorchester / Stefan Geiger

Johannes Brahms’ Fourth Symphony and Stravinsky’s suite from »The Firebird« are among the masterpieces of the orchestral literature – and also among the favourites of the members of the NDR Jugendsinfonieorchester (NDR Youth Symphony Orchestra). The enchanting story of »The Firebird« utilises all of the orchestra’s sound-painting possibilities; Brahms’ Fourth Symphony sank »deeper and deeper into the soul« of the orchestra at the Berlin premiere, as the violinist Joseph Joachim wrote to his musician friend Johannes Brahms. We cordially invite you to an encounter with these two »orchestra favourites«.

Guildhall School Chamber Music Festival: Finale

For the finale of Guildhall School’s 2025 Chamber Music Festival, Guildhall performers and professors present a rich programme of music by Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Stamitz and Fauré.

Best of Classics: The Rite of Spring

In the concerts of the series "Best of Classical Music," you will hear the most famous works of classical music. A brief introduction by a moderator at the beginning will provide insights into the piece and offer listening tips. Following this, the entire work will be performed. Afterwards, we would be happy to welcome you to our bar on the 1st floor, where our moderator will engage in an artist talk with the conductor. This conversation is not strictly academic - rather, we aim to take you into the personal world of our guests. About the concert: Twenty woodwinds, eight horns, five trumpets, three trombones, two tubas, five timpani, and a large percussion section alone would be enough to fill an entire football stadium with sound! In Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring," the strings are added to the mix. However, they are not there to make noise but to play one of the most famous ballet scores of the 20th century. During its premiere in 1913, the audience was outraged and left the hall with boos. Once a scandal, this piece is now indispensable in the concert hall.

Debussy and Strawinski

Composed in 1913, "Le Sacre du Printemps" (The Rite of Spring) is considered one of the key works of the 20th century. The premiere of the ballet in Paris caused a scandal. Only with great effort and by ignoring the boos from the audience, the music was able to be played to the end. The ballet music, which is mostly performed in concert today, shines with almost acrobatic rhythms and sonically exciting combinations of various instruments in a very large and elaborate orchestra. Alone, 20 woodwinds, eight horns, several trumpets and trombones, numerous percussion instruments, and a large string section create a tremendous sound impression. In contrast, Ligeti's "Lux Aeterna" seems to transport the choir alone to distant realms with its soundscapes. It is no wonder that Stanley Kubrick used this music in his monumental film "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Rituel

Benjamin Millepied and his company L.A. Dance Project combine the classicism of ballet with contemporary dance to celebrate a “ritual” with the orchestra based on three seminal scores of musical modernity. Benjamin Millepied's choreography for Rituel is commissioned by Orchestre de Paris - Philharmonie, Los Angeles Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic.

Rituel

Benjamin Millepied and his company L.A. Dance Project combine the classicism of ballet with contemporary dance to celebrate a “ritual” with the orchestra based on three seminal scores of musical modernity. Benjamin Millepied's choreography for Rituel is commissioned by Orchestre de Paris - Philharmonie, Los Angeles Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic.

Prokofiev and Stravinsky

The award-winning Norwegian-Swedish cellist Amalie Stalheim has an international career at the highest level. She has been a soloist with a range of top orchestras and has played chamber music with stars such as Janine Jansen, Yo-Yo Ma, and Leif Ove Andsnes.Together with the visiting Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, she is the soloist in Prokofiev's magnificent Sinfonia concertante for cello and orchestra. In an almost magical way, the cello's lyrical qualities are exploited, and the music is also charged with power and drama. The orchestra is led by the young French conductor Maxime Pascal, who has conducted a great deal of opera throughout Europe, including at La Scala in Milan.Like Prokofiev, we consider Stravinsky to be one of the giants of the 20th century. Symphony in C was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and completed shortly after his escape to the USA in 1940. It was a difficult time. In addition to being in exile, Stravinsky had recently lost his first wife, and he himself had been treated for tuberculosis. However, the music sounds like an antidote: classically pure, playful, and rhythmically swinging.Equally captivating rhythmically is the French composer Camille Pépin's evocative Laniakea, which opens the concert. Laniakea means "immense heaven" in Hawaiian and is the name of a gigantic star cluster that includes the Milky Way and our solar system. Pépin (born in 1990) has received considerable attention in recent years from a range of top European orchestras.

Frank-Michael Erben & Charlotte Steppes

Gabriela Montero Charlie Chaplins „The Immigrant“

Im Jahr 2018 erhielt Gabriela Montero den Heidelberger Frühling Musikpreis für ihren leidenschaftlichen Einsatz als Musikvermittlerin, gesellschaftliche Brückenbauerin und für ihre großartigen Improvisationen. Als Gastkünstlerin beim „Frühling“ wird sie stets warmherzig von ihrem Publikum empfangen. Doch die Venezolanerin, die seit vielen Jahren fernab ihrer von Krisen erschütterten Heimat lebt, kennt das Fremdsein nur zu gut und hat diesem Gefühl ein Rezital gewidmet. Zu hören sind die Werke von drei Russen, deren Biografien ebenfalls durch ein Leben im Exil geprägt waren: das groteske Lachen Prokofjews, die nüchterne Tonsprache Strawinskys und die Musik des missverstandenen Rachmaninow, dessen Melodien nur allzu oft verramscht wurden. Sie münden in den Chaplin-Stummfilm „The Immigrant“, zu dem Montero live improvisieren wird.Das Konzert endet mit einer Live-Improvisation zum Stummfilm „The Immigrant“ von Charlie Chaplin.Im Anschluss findet ein Künstlergespräch mit Anselm Cybinski im Festivalzentrum statt.*Restored by Lobster Films and Cineteca di Bologna under the aegis of Association Chaplin © Film Preservation Associates Inc., 2012, © Lobster Films

The Junge Deutsche Philharmonie turns 50!

Happy Birthday, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie! Germany’s best music students have been playing together in this orchestra for 50 years – in preparation for a career in a professional orchestra. What characterises its members? A high level of technical proficiency, an irrepressible desire to make music together, and a passion for the music of our time. These qualities are also reflected in this programme – with the spherical tones of Missy Mazzoli’s Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres), the labyrinthine sound structures of Luciano Berio's Sinfonia for eight voices and orchestra and the rhythmic energy of Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps. Roderick Cox conducts.

Junge Deutsche Philharmonie / RIAS Kammerchor / Roderick Cox

The premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s ballet »Le sacre du printemps« in Paris in 1913 was one of the biggest scandals in music history: the radically modern choreography and music prompted the audience to heckle, whistle and even start scuffles. But today, »The Rite of Spring« regularly receives standing ovations for its gripping rhythms and dramatic intensity. As Germany’s national orchestra of music college students, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie under the baton of Roderick Cox has the talent and youthful vigour to perform Stravinsky’s masterpiece to perfection. »Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)« by US composer Missy Mazzoli orbits like a planet in the solar system. Compound rhythms and stylised Baroque ornaments become intertwining passages. »The piece is stirring and agitated at the same time,« says the composer. While »Sinfonia« in Mazolli’s title refers to the Baroque elements in the score, for Luciano Berio, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2025, it refers to the origin of the word – harmony. In Berio’s »Sinfonia« for orchestra and eight voices, the orchestra joins forces with the renowned voices of the RIAS Kammerchor to present exciting music full of quotes from Samuel Beckett to Gustav Mahler.

Amaryllis Quartett / Sebastian Manz

The sounds of nature and the voices of birds have inspired many composers. The musical journey of this concert ranges from classical to impressionistic and romantic sounds. In the clarinet quintet, the Amaryllis Quartet and the solo clarinettist of the SWR Symphony Orchestra, Sebastian Manz, embark together on the already transcendent sounds of Brahms’ late work.

Chamber concert: Between East and West

Geister Duo / Piano Recital

The turning point from the 19th to the 20th century is one of the most exciting moments in the history of music – especially in France, where late-Romantic offshoots combined with the new sounds of impressionism and expressionism into a scintillating mix. At the end of the »Pianomania« series, where in this season everything revolves around the theme of »Transcriptions«, Geister Duo, consisting of the two pianists David Salmon and Manuel Vieillard, takes us along on a journey into precisely this period and demonstrates that large orchestral works can also display their appeal on 176 keys. The two of them got to know each other while studying in Paris and have formed a steadfast duo ever since. In 2021, they scooped up big at the ARD International Music Competition and, besides winning First Prize, they also won five special prizes. Alongside Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, one of the most important protagonists in turn-of-the-century France was also the Russian Igor Stravinsky, whose ground-breaking ballet music – including the infamous scandalous ballet »The Rite of Spring« – premiered in Paris. Geister Duo now opens its concert in Hamburg with a four-handed version of Stravinsky’s ballet »Petrushka«, in which three puppets of a charlatan come alive at a fair in Saint Petersburg. It proceeds no less figuratively on two pianos after the interval – with Paul Dukas’ setting of Goethe’s »The Sorcerer’s Apprentice« to music. This primarily became world famous thanks to Walt Disney’s film »Fantasia« with Mickey Mouse as the clumsy sorcerer’s pupil. The programme is rounded off with a selection from Debussy’s atmospherically dense »Trois Nocturnes« and the orchestral hit »Boléro«, which Ravel arranged for two pianos.

Concertgebouw Orchestra with Jean-Yves Thibaudet

The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi is in his element with repertoire from Northern and Eastern Europe, and this programme features three such works. Vesper (Poem) by his compatriot Ester Mägi (b. 1922, d. 2021), ‘the first lady of Estonian music’, is a poetic work for strings inspired by St John’s Church in Tallinn.The Khachaturian Piano Concerto is proof that colourful, vibrant music was indeed written in the Soviet era. The work is imbued with the influence of Armenian folk music. And to add to the exotic atmosphere, the piano is accompanied by a musical saw in the middle movement! The work is grist to Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s mill, a pianist who for decades has excelled in original repertoire.Stravinsky’s PetrushkaFinally, there’s Petrushka, Stravinsky’s exuberant ballet music about a marionette who comes to life, falls in love and wreaks havoc on a Russian carnival. Listeners need no sets or dancers to see the story unfold before them, and the colourful music lets all the members of the orchestra shine.

Concertgebouw Orchestra with Jean-Yves Thibaudet

The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi is in his element with repertoire from Northern and Eastern Europe, and this programme features three such works. Vesper (Poem) by his compatriot Ester Mägi (b. 1922, d. 2021), ‘the first lady of Estonian music’, is a poetic work for strings inspired by St John’s Church in Tallinn.The Khachaturian Piano Concerto is proof that colourful, vibrant music was indeed written in the Soviet era. The work is imbued with the influence of Armenian folk music. And to add to the exotic atmosphere, the piano is accompanied by a musical saw in the middle movement! The work is grist to Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s mill, a pianist who for decades has excelled in original repertoire.Stravinsky’s PetrushkaFinally, there’s Petrushka, Stravinsky’s exuberant ballet music about a marionette who comes to life, falls in love and wreaks havoc on a Russian carnival. Listeners need no sets or dancers to see the story unfold before them, and the colourful music lets all the members of the orchestra shine.

Concertgebouw Orchestra with Jean-Yves Thibaudet

The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi is in his element with repertoire from Northern and Eastern Europe, and this programme features three such works. Vesper (Poem) by his compatriot Ester Mägi (b. 1922, d. 2021), ‘the first lady of Estonian music’, is a poetic work for strings inspired by St John’s Church in Tallinn.The Khachaturian Piano Concerto is proof that colourful, vibrant music was indeed written in the Soviet era. The work is imbued with the influence of Armenian folk music. And to add to the exotic atmosphere, the piano is accompanied by a musical saw in the middle movement! The work is grist to Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s mill, a pianist who for decades has excelled in original repertoire.Stravinsky’s PetrushkaFinally, there’s Petrushka, Stravinsky’s exuberant ballet music about a marionette who comes to life, falls in love and wreaks havoc on a Russian carnival. Listeners need no sets or dancers to see the story unfold before them, and the colourful music lets all the members of the orchestra shine.

The Swiss Connection: Stravinsky & Martin

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!

Karneval des Glücks

This event features Katja Riemann, Franziska Hölscher, and Marianna Shirinyan performing Camille Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals with Roger Willemsen's rhymes. The performance explores themes of life, happiness, and community. It also includes Willemsen's version of the biblical Job story. The second part, Ver-FÜHRUNG, examines the consequences of extremist ideologies with texts about the Hanau and Bataclan attacks, alongside music by Mozart, Schnittke, Elgar, Prokofjew, Strawinsky, and Mahler. The program premieres in Schwetzingen.

Concertgebouw Orchestra Essentials: Stravinsky

The Essentials series introduces you to the masterpieces you will be happy to know, performed by the world-famous Concertgebouw Orchestra and complete with a lively introduction by the incomparable Thomas Vanderveken. At Essentials we welcome a new generation of music lovers, and the concerts typically have a pleasant informal atmosphere.Inventive, lively, colourful and always with an irresistible swing: with Stravinsky’s ballet music, like the irresistible carnival spectacle Petrushka, you don’t need dancers or sets to see the story unfold before you. Petrushka, the Russian version of Punch, falls in love with a ballerina. But she has eyes only for the Moor. Petrushka causes chaos at the carnival and is eventually stabbed. Now Petrushka is dead. Or is he? Who rears his head there? Just as the magician in the story brings his wooden puppets to life, so Stravinsky the musical wizard conjures up images in the mind. The music lets every member of the orchestra shine.Essentials starts at 9 p.m. with an imaginative introduction to the programme (in Dutch).

Chamber Music in the Brahms-Saal

Mahler Festival: Song recital Alma Mahler and friends

For four days, the Recital Hall is dedicated to Mahler's most beautiful songs. A special recital is dedicated to his wife Alma, combining pieces by her with those by friends. Perhaps today's most important Lieder accompanist, pianist Julius Drake, flanks his favourite vocalists during all these concerts. Today you will hear French soprano Axelle Fanyo, a 'true storyteller' according to Forum Opéra. She shares the stage with one of the greatest Dutch talents, baritone Raoul Steffani.Austrian Alma Maria Schindler was introduced to her future husband, Gustav Mahler, by her composition teacher Zemlinsky. Under Mahler's name, she would become known - but never primarily as a composer. Mahler did not want his wife to write any more music, and Alma herself also had doubts about her work. Although most of it has been lost, her late-romantic, often melancholic songs are still widely performed. Here today in the Recital Hall, they alternate with pieces by friends and acquaintances. Axelle Fanyo and Raoul Steffani perform songs by Ernst Krenek, Mahler's son-in-law. You will also hear works by Berg, Korngold and Stravinsky.

Symphoniker Hamburg / David Orlowsky / Paweł Kapuła

Stravinsky's "Jeu de cartes" ballet was inspired by a Parisian taxi ride and his love for card games. The music incorporates various quotes, including Rossini, Strauss, Ravel, and Beethoven. The text also discusses Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major, written for his friend Anton Stadler and his basset clarinet, and Schubert's Symphony No. 4, nicknamed "Tragic," reflecting the composer's personal struggles and triumphs.

London Symphony Orchestra/Susanna Mälkki

Showpieces for the orchestra meet a dazzling concerto, brimming with characteristic Stravinsky flair and melody.

Organ and dance

There are organ concerts, and then there are very special organ concerts. When palace organist Olivier Latry joins forces with Shin-Young Lee on the keys, the magnificent sound of the concert hall organ becomes an even more impressive musical event. This time, the program includes works that were not originally written for the organ, but their polyphony and orchestral colors create a unique effect on this instrument. "Le sacre du printemps" by Igor Stravinsky is one of these works. And even the famous "Sunrise" from Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloé" gains a special colorfulness on the organ. By invitation of the Dresden Philharmonic Concert as part of the Dresden Music Festival

Klaus Mäkelä Claude Debussy Igor Stravinsky Christian Sinding Edvard Grieg

Claude Debussy (1862–1918) write the tone poem Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, in English, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, in 1894, inspired by Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem The Afternoon of a Faun. The work would become one of his most famous and a milestone in music history.In 1909, the impresario Serge de Diaghilev founded the ballet company Ballets Russes. In the years before, Diaghilev had created great interest in Russian culture in Paris, and the ballet company became a sensation. The young Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was central to the success.In his fire ballet, The Firebird, offered sounds and rhythms the audience had never heard the likes of. It was a huge success at the premiere in 1910 and a breakthrough for the composer. The action is a combination of different stories from Russian folk poetry. Debussy also wrote music for the 1912 ballet Jeux (Games) for Ballets Russes. The action is set on a tennis court, and when the ball disappears in the twilight, a young man and two young women follow. The games continue outside of the court, with hide-and-seek, fights and embrace.Christian Sinding (1856–1941) got his big international breakthrough with the piano piece Frühlingsrauschen in 1897. Danse Orientale is from a collection of piano pieces from the year before, and the orchestral version, arranged by the brit Charlie Piper in 2010, is performed at this concert.Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) released in total 66 piano works under the title Lyric Pieces. Conductor Anton Seidl orchestrated four of the pieces in the fifth volume from 1891, and Grieg revised them before his death - including the terrific piece March of the Trolls.

MDR-Rundfunkchor & Philipp Ahmann

Lukas Geniušas / Piano Recital

Machines, speed and progress promised a glorious future in the early 20th century. The general buzz around technology soon spilled over into art as the movement of the Futurists. They explored new topics and forms of expression – for instance, in Russia, which was also on the verge of political upheaval. Russian-Lithuanian pianist Lukas Geniušas, who was most recently celebrated in the »Pianomania« series at the Elbphilharmonie, presents important representatives of this brief, but all the more exciting, period. Alexander Scriabin was a musical forerunner to the Russian Futurists with his groundbreaking piano works, such as his 5 Preludes. Arthur Lourié ultimately became the musical spokesperson of the movement and sought the »autonomy of tempi and rhythms«. In his »Eight Scenes of Russian Childhood«, he sets the movements of children, footballs or contemporary dances to music. The huge impact Futurism had on Russian music is clear in the early works of three of the most important composers of the 20th century: both Shostakovich and Prokofiev as well as Stravinsky got enthusiastic about the new spirit of the age. While Stravinsky was already living in Paris and by turns outraging and delighting audiences with his works, his two colleagues experienced their artistic breakthrough shortly thereafter.

FUNharmonics: Petrushka

Roll up, roll up! Explore the heady sights and sounds of the fair where we meet Petrushka, the playful star of the puppet show, and the other characters in his magical world.Follow Petrushka as he falls in love with the talented ballerina, and tries to fend off his rival, the Pirate. The story is told by presenter Rachel Leach, through dazzling music by Igor Stravinsky, and vivid animations on the big screen created especially for the LPO by YeastCulture. A classic story, mindblowing music and audience interaction throughout – what better way to spend a family Saturday?Suitable for ages 6 and above.