Concerts with works by

Sofia Gubaidulina

Musik für Frauenstimmen

Works by Maria Xaveria Perucona, Johann Adolf Hasse, Gustav Holst, and Arvo Pärt, as well as piano music by Sofia Gubaidulina, Lera Auerbach, and Arvo Pärt.

Lukas Sternath, piano

In 2025, giving the closing concert of the Rising Stars Festival and thereby bringing a crowning finale to a whole week of concerts by the most exciting young stars of the classical music world is the task of a young Viennese musician at his peak. Since Lukas Sternath discovered his love of music as a member of the Vienna Boys Choir, he soon arrived at the piano and so on the path to success. At the ARD International Music Competition in 2022, he did not just achieve first prize, but was also awarded with seven special prizes – unique in the history of the prestigious competition! He has since studied with Igor Levit and provides his recital with a challenging programme for the piano. Sternath goes all out and opens the programme with the »Chaconne« by Sofia Gubaidulina – a highly concentrated piece which evokes the spirit of Johann Sebastian Bach in a modern tonal language. Sternath does not seem to want to indulge in breaks and proceeds with the Handel variations by Johannes Brahms. He made a joke out of taking an artlessly dancing topic as the starting point of an absurdly virtuoso work. PatKop, as star violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja calls herself when she composes, writes the work commissioned for Lukas Sternath’s Rising Star concerts. Her works are consequently just as full of surprises as are her unconventional interpretations of other composers. With Franz Liszt’s legendary Sonata in B minor, the evening finds its brilliant end point with another pinnacle of the piano repertoire.

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Joana Mallwitz

Sofia Gubaidulina's ‘Fairytale Poem’ from 1971, with which the Konzerthausorchester and Joana Mallwitz begin their concert, is, according to the composer, about a little piece of chalk with big dreams of marvellous things that it wants to draw. Unfortunately, it is only used as blackboard chalk at school and is eventually thrown away. A boy finds it and begins to draw castles, gardens and sunsets on the street. The chalk is too happy to realize that it is finally disintegrating. Shostakovich's first cello concerto from 1959 shows how the composer was finally able to utilise a wealth of long frowned upon modernist techniques after the death of Stalin. The cellist of the century and dedicatee Mstislav ‘Slava’ Rostropovich became the great midwife. With us, artist in residence Sheku Kanneh-Mason takes on the solo part.Tchaikovsky dedicated the Fourth Symphony, premiered in 1878, to his confidante and patron Nadezhda von Meck. They never met, but exchanged 1200 letters. He wrote to her about the last movement of the Fourth: ‘If you don't have enough reason to find happiness in yourself, mingle with people, see what a good time they are having, how they abandon themselves completely to joyful feelings!’ One can only add to that: Welcome to the Konzerthaus, mingle with our audience!

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Joana Mallwitz

Sofia Gubaidulina's ‘Fairytale Poem’ from 1971, with which the Konzerthausorchester and Joana Mallwitz begin their concert, is, according to the composer, about a little piece of chalk with big dreams of marvellous things that it wants to draw. Unfortunately, it is only used as blackboard chalk at school and is eventually thrown away. A boy finds it and begins to draw castles, gardens and sunsets on the street. The chalk is too happy to realize that it is finally disintegrating. Shostakovich's first cello concerto from 1959 shows how the composer was finally able to utilise a wealth of long frowned upon modernist techniques after the death of Stalin. The cellist of the century and dedicatee Mstislav ‘Slava’ Rostropovich became the great midwife. With us, artist in residence Sheku Kanneh-Mason takes on the solo part.Tchaikovsky dedicated the Fourth Symphony, premiered in 1878, to his confidante and patron Nadezhda von Meck. They never met, but exchanged 1200 letters. He wrote to her about the last movement of the Fourth: ‘If you don't have enough reason to find happiness in yourself, mingle with people, see what a good time they are having, how they abandon themselves completely to joyful feelings!’ One can only add to that: Welcome to the Konzerthaus, mingle with our audience!

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Joana Mallwitz

Sofia Gubaidulina's ‘Fairytale Poem’ from 1971, with which the Konzerthausorchester and Joana Mallwitz begin their concert, is, according to the composer, about a little piece of chalk with big dreams of marvellous things that it wants to draw. Unfortunately, it is only used as blackboard chalk at school and is eventually thrown away. A boy finds it and begins to draw castles, gardens and sunsets on the street. The chalk is too happy to realize that it is finally disintegrating. Shostakovich's first cello concerto from 1959 shows how the composer was finally able to utilise a wealth of long frowned upon modernist techniques after the death of Stalin. The cellist of the century and dedicatee Mstislav ‘Slava’ Rostropovich became the great midwife. With us, artist in residence Sheku Kanneh-Mason takes on the solo part.Tchaikovsky dedicated the Fourth Symphony, premiered in 1878, to his confidante and patron Nadezhda von Meck. They never met, but exchanged 1200 letters. He wrote to her about the last movement of the Fourth: ‘If you don't have enough reason to find happiness in yourself, mingle with people, see what a good time they are having, how they abandon themselves completely to joyful feelings!’ One can only add to that: Welcome to the Konzerthaus, mingle with our audience!

Shostakovich Quartets: Intimate Portraits, Part 2

Sofia Gubaidulina contemplates unfinished J S Bach as the Carduccis survey Shostakovich in triplicate across some two decades.

B'Rock Orchestra "Seraphim"

Experience divine certainty! We can safely assume angels are musical. Earthly conceptions of their music have evolved—sometimes soft with harp, sometimes sung, sometimes festive with winds. Heavenly hosts significantly influenced secular music's development. Had angelic music become human, earthly music would be impoverished. B'Rock Orchestra, Vocal Consort, Andreas Küppers, and Lucile Richardot explore these angelic secrets from late Renaissance to present.

Shostakovich Quartets: Intimate Portraits, Part 3

The multinational young Kyan Quartet joins the Carduccis as Gubaidulina’s compact Quartet No 2 is stitched into a Shostakovich sequence including the penultimate quartet, with its focus on the cello.

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Julian Rachlin / Klaus Mäkelä

Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä doesn’t take up his post as chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra until 2027, but he is already working closely with the orchestra. At this concert, they perform Robert Schumann’s Fourth Symphony and Sofia Gubaidulina’s First Violin Concerto. The concert opens with a new piece by South Korean composer Seung Won-Oh. In 2023 Gubaidulina (*1931) was named the most frequently performed composer in the world by the online magazine Bachtrack. She experienced her international breakthrough in the 1980s with her Violin Concerto No. 1 »Offertorium«, in which she echoes Johann Sebastian Bach’s »Musical Offering«, her choice of title already pointing to a deep religious sense. Once premiered by master violinist Gidon Kremer, the renowned Austrian violinist Julian Rachlin has now been recruited for the solo part. Schumann’s Fourth Symphony was a birthday present for his beloved Clara and an affair of the heart for the composer. The recipient, herself a pianist and composer, was deeply moved by the symphony: »This is another work produced from the depths of the soul«.

Christoph Sietzen & Friends

Christoph Sietzen ist ein preisgekrönter Multipercussionist und ein gefeierter Solist im Dialog mit großen Orchestern. Doch seine Liebe gilt auch der Kammermusik. In Köln konzertiert er mit Tabea Zimmermann, Königin der Bratsche, und mit Cembalokünstler Mahan Esfahani.Tam-Tam, Schellen, Marimba & Co. sind selten in der Kammermusik zu erleben. Wenige Komponisten haben sie in kleinere Besetzungen einbezogen. Eine schöne Ausnahme bilden Luciano Berios experimentelles Stück »Naturale« und das als unspielbar geltende Kuriosum »Oophaa« von Iannis Xenakis. Der Tausendsassa am Schlagwerk, Christoph Sietzen, die brillante Bratschistin Tabea Zimmermann und der Held am Cembalo, Mahan Esfahani, stellen sich gerne solchen Herausforderungen und inspirieren sich gegenseitig. Gefördert vom Kuratorium KölnMusik e.V.

Femmes Fortes

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Antoine Tamestit / Pablo Heras-Casado

Not many conductors manage this: to be as much in demand with the Freiburger Barockorchester as with the Bayreuth Festival or the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; to have the right touch for early music as well as for Romantic and contemporary music, and for concert music as well as for opera. The Spaniard Pablo Heras-Casado is a stylistic all-rounder and presents another »conquest« in his repertoire during his return to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra: Excerpts from Richard Wagner’s »Götterdämmerung«. In addition, the no less versatile star violist and NDR Artist in Residence 2024/25 Antoine Tamestit performs Sofia Gubaidulina’s Viola Concerto, which has more or less become a »modern classic«.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Antoine Tamestit / Pablo Heras-Casado

Not many conductors manage this: to be as much in demand with the Freiburger Barockorchester as with the Bayreuth Festival or the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; to have the right touch for early music as well as for Romantic and contemporary music, and for concert music as well as for opera. The Spaniard Pablo Heras-Casado is a stylistic all-rounder and presents another »conquest« in his repertoire during his return to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra: Excerpts from Richard Wagner’s »Götterdämmerung«. In addition, the no less versatile star violist and NDR Artist in Residence 2024/25 Antoine Tamestit performs Sofia Gubaidulina’s Viola Concerto, which has more or less become a »modern classic«.