Concerts with works by

Richard Strauss

Karina Canellakis conducts Strauss’ Heldenleben and Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody

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.

Salome

Under the face of the wandering moon, spirit and body quarrel in all their greatness and wretchedness until the blood of two bodies flows. Strauss remains close to Wilde's re-creation of the biblical material, which leads Salome from her mother's tool to autonomy. It is she who, in her unfulfilled desire for the liberatingly different, the body of the prophet Jochanaan, seeks revenge and demands his head - a price the male-dominated society around Herod is willing to pay for their dance. Now that Salome holds his severed head in her hands, she can kiss Jochanaan, possess him if not alive, then dead. As if under a burning glass, Strauss pours Oscar Wilde's demonic dramaturgy into sound like an eruption of the psyche, accompanying his protagonist from her failed escape from the decadence of her existence to her death. Production: Dmitri Tcherniakov Costumes: Elena Zaytseva Lighting: Gleb Filshtinsky Dramaturgy: Tatiana Verestchagina, Janina Zell

7th Subscription Concert

7th Subscription Concert

5th Soirée

Concert of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna

Chamber concert: Violin Piano

»A very nice change!« This is how our concertmaster Bart Vandenbogaerde describes his performances as a soloist or in small ensembles. The Belgian showed an enormous musical talent from an early age and quickly fell in love with the violin. He has been playing in our orchestra since 2013 and, according to him, feels »very much at home« in Bamberg. In this chamber concert, he and pianist Margarita Höhenrieder will perform inspiring works that embody the spirit of late Romanticism and the fin de siècle. The outstanding Munich pianist is highly regarded in professional circles and has already performed with conductors such as Kirill Petrenko and Claudio Abbado and with orchestras like the BRSO, the New York Philharmonic and the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig. She won the first prize of the BUSONI competition and teaches as a professor at the Munich University of Music.The concert begins with a stroke of genius by 23-year-old Richard Strauss: his only violin sonata was composed in 1887 and is a milestone full of sparkling tonal colours, which the Munich-born composer mastered so congenially. Gabriel Fauré was living in vibrant Paris at the time, where his opus 13 was premièred in 1877: The composition impresses with an energetic opening movement with original themes, a fantastic Andante in a swinging barcarole rhythm, an ethereal Scherzo and a whirling finale. The concluding pieces, which originate from the homeland of our concertmaster, are characterised by equally virtuoso upswings: Eugène Ysaÿe was a legendary violinist for whom a number of composers wrote pieces - and about whom it was said: »The birds sing, he plays the violin!« But the Belgian musician wrote impressive music himself, including the Mazurkas published in 1884: In these brilliant pieces, intimate music-making alternates with passionate eruptions. This will be an enchanting chamber concert, not least because Bart Vandenbogaerde plays the music on a very special instrument - a violin made by the famous Italian violin maker Guarneri del Gesù in 1742.

Concert in the Wiener Konzerthaus

SALOME

Premiered in 1905, "Salome" marked the beginning of Richard Strauss' great opera successes. Based on Oscar Wilde's sensational tragedy, he composed a music drama of unleashed passion, whose global success even censorship couldn't stop. Strauss transformed this scandalous story, based on the New Testament, into a musical portrait of the unconscious, exploring sensuality versus asceticism, intoxication versus loneliness, power versus eros. Salome, a Judean princess, desires the imprisoned prophet Jochanaan. Rejected, she uses her charms to obtain his severed head. Her final monologue, a dialogue with the head, is an ecstatic and tragic love song. Strauss masterfully portrays desire and revenge through innovative sounds, capturing Salome's erotic dance and Jochanaan's pathos.

Angel Blue | Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest | Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Soprano Angel Blue, known for her clear, warm, and radiant lyrical timbre, has graced opera houses from New York to Vienna and London. In Cologne, she presents Richard Strauss's melancholic and indulgent "Four Last Songs." She's accompanied by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who combines Strauss's poignant song cycle with Bruckner's yearning Third Symphony.

Mendelssohn Oktett

Alexander Krichel / Sabin Tambrea

On this concert evening, pianist Alexander Krichel and actor and narrator Sabin Tambrea bring a forgotten genre back to the stage: melodrama. This unique form of art combines spoken text with music in a dramatic performance. In works by Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss and Max von Schillings, the two artists present both mystical, dark encounters and romantic, dramatic love scenes.

Britten Sinfonia: 1945 – A Kind of Haunting

80 years after the end of WWII, we hear musical responses from then and now.

Ein Liederabend mit Diana Damrau und Jonas Kaufmann

Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss, two great late-Romantic composers, met in their mid-twenties and remained lifelong friends. Despite their differences, which Mahler compared to miners digging from opposite sides of a mountain, they admired each other. This concert features songs from Mahler's "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" and Strauss's love songs, highlighting their closeness in this genre.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Emanuel Ax / Alan Gilbert

Since Alan Gilbert has been chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the American grand seigneur of the keyboard Emanuel Ax has returned to Hamburg with regularity. Together, the two take on one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most famous piano concertos: the one in D minor, K. 466. Its dark key and correspondingly dramatic gesture alone make it stand out from the composer’s piano concertos, which are usually in major keys – this is the Mozart of »Don Giovanni« and the Requiem! But the central island of tranquillity of the »Romance« with its catchy melody also enjoyed great popularity early on.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Emanuel Ax / Alan Gilbert

Since Alan Gilbert has been chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the American grand seigneur of the keyboard Emanuel Ax has returned to Hamburg with regularity. Together, the two take on one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most famous piano concertos: the one in D minor, K. 466. Its dark key and correspondingly dramatic gesture alone make it stand out from the composer’s piano concertos, which are usually in major keys – this is the Mozart of »Don Giovanni« and the Requiem! But the central island of tranquillity of the »Romance« with its catchy melody also enjoyed great popularity early on.

On tour with Petr Popelka

Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos

The Hamburg University of Music and Theatre Symphony Orchestra.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Emanuel Ax / Alan Gilbert

Since Alan Gilbert has been chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the American grand seigneur of the keyboard Emanuel Ax has returned to Hamburg with regularity. Together, the two take on one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most famous piano concertos: the one in D minor, K. 466. Its dark key and correspondingly dramatic gesture alone make it stand out from the composer’s piano concertos, which are usually in major keys – this is the Mozart of »Don Giovanni« and the Requiem! But the central island of tranquillity of the »Romance« with its catchy melody also enjoyed great popularity early on.

Marquee TV: An Alpine Symphony

Waterfalls, glaciers, an ear-splitting storm – spectacular isn’t the word for Strauss’s Alpine Symphony.No composer tells a story quite like Richard Strauss – or paints a picture in more fabulous sounds. So when he set out to depict the majesty of the Bavarian Alps, the results are … well, hear for yourself as Edward Gardner and a specially-enlarged LPO conquer the summit of Strauss’s mighty Alpine Symphony. Waterfalls, glaciers, an ear-splitting storm – spectacular isn’t the word. But first, enjoy the fresh Nordic melodies of Grieg’s famous Piano Concerto, beautifully performed by Steven Osborne.*Please note change in soloist from originally advertised.

Benjamin Appl and James Baillieu: Forbidden Fruit

For lovers of chamber music the Recital Hall is the venue of choice. You can hear the musicians breathe and you can practically touch them. This hall is also cherished by musicians for its beautiful acoustics and direct contact with the audience. In the Recital Hall you can hear the best musicians of our time. Buy your tickets now and experience the magic of the Recital Hall for yourself!

CHRISTIANE KARG, MALCOLM MARTINEAU & HELMUT MOOSHAMMER

Mignon, Ophelia, and Mary, Queen of Scots—these three towering figures of literature and history provide the inspiration for an evening of words and music created by Christiane Karg, Malcolm Martineau, and actor Helmut Mooshammer. In addition to Goethe settings by Beethoven, Schubert, Wolf, Duparc, and Josephine Lange and Ophelia songs by Brahms, Strauss, Chausson, and Wolfgang Rihm, the program also includes Robert Schumann’s Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, the composer’s final vocal cycle written in 1852.

La Voix humaine

As usual—yet always exceptional—Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan embodies music through both voice and gesture. Here, she performs with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, with whom she shares strong artistic ties.

Anna El-Khashem. Keval Shah Was blüht denn da?

Anna El-Khashem, who declared her ambition to be an opera singer as early as kindergarten, launched an impressive career, joining the Saint Petersburg Conservatory at 17 and the Bavarian State Opera's studio three years later. In 2018, she won the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg and recently debuted there as Zerlina. Her Heidelberg debut features romantic flower songs and Russian art songs.

SALOME

Premiered in 1905, "Salome" marked the beginning of Richard Strauss' great opera successes. Based on Oscar Wilde's sensational tragedy, he composed a music drama of unleashed passion, whose global success even censorship couldn't stop. Strauss transformed this scandalous story, based on the New Testament, into a musical portrait of the unconscious, exploring sensuality versus asceticism, intoxication versus loneliness, power versus eros. Salome, a Judean princess, desires the imprisoned prophet Jochanaan. Rejected, she uses her charms to obtain his severed head. Her final monologue, a dialogue with the head, is an ecstatic and tragic love song. Strauss masterfully portrays desire and revenge through innovative sounds, capturing Salome's erotic dance and Jochanaan's pathos.

Easter Festival Baden-Baden 2025

Easter Festival Baden-Baden 2025

Orchestre de Paris / Jukka-Pekka Saraste

In response to the Brahmsian drama, marked by mystery and wildness, we have one of Sibelius's most optimistic compositions. And between the two, these last songs, which are not just those of Strauss's, but a “farewell” to Romantic song.

Orchestre de Paris / Jukka-Pekka Saraste

In response to the Brahmsian drama, marked by mystery and wildness, we have one of Sibelius's most optimistic compositions. And between the two, these last songs, which are not just those of Strauss's, but a “farewell” to Romantic song.

An Alpine Symphony

Franz Schubert was only around 17–18 years old when he wrote his second symphony. Yet it is an impressive work in the spirit of Beethoven. In other words, it is music full of contrasts and captivating melodies.The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is led by Franz Welser-Möst, who in 2018 was awarded the title Eric Ericson Honorary Chair. Since 2020, he regularly conducts the orchestra. It is a collaboration that follows the bond that developed between the orchestra and conductor during the initial concerts together, and has deepened over the years.A composer who holds a special place in Welser-Möst's heart is Richard Strauss. Here, he leads the orchestra in An Alpine Symphony, which, despite the title, is not a traditional symphony but a tone poem that depicts a dramatic journey up and down an Alpine mountain, with changing weather and nature immersions. To portray the adventure, Strauss prescribes an enormous orchestra – including cowbells, wind and thunder machines, and an extra-large brass section.

An Alpine Symphony

Franz Schubert was only around 17–18 years old when he wrote his second symphony. Yet it is an impressive work in the spirit of Beethoven. In other words, it is music full of contrasts and captivating melodies.The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is led by Franz Welser-Möst, who in 2018 was awarded the title Eric Ericson Honorary Chair. Since 2020, he regularly conducts the orchestra. It is a collaboration that follows the bond that developed between the orchestra and conductor during the initial concerts together, and has deepened over the years.A composer who holds a special place in Welser-Möst's heart is Richard Strauss. Here, he leads the orchestra in An Alpine Symphony, which, despite the title, is not a traditional symphony but a tone poem that depicts a dramatic journey up and down an Alpine mountain, with changing weather and nature immersions. To portray the adventure, Strauss prescribes an enormous orchestra – including cowbells, wind and thunder machines, and an extra-large brass section.