Brass Ensemble of the Concertgebouw Orchestra

The power of brass, the might of the manuals

Although the organ is traditionally associated with sacred music and grand concerts, it can also be a fascinating complement to less typical chamber settings. The untypical combinations in this year’s organ concert series provide unique sounds and new, unexpected combinations. The result? We become more open to new interpretational possibilities and free experimenting. The programme of the concert, including pieces by Petr Eben, Otto Hoser, Thierry Escaich and Craig Phillips, shows how well the organ can sound paired with brass instruments and percussion. Hear it for yourselves: a fascinating richness of new possibilities! [Alexandra Kozowicz] Concert duration: approximately 50 minutes

Communal Concert of the Academies of the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the BRSO

For years Mariss Jansons was the principal conductor of both the BRSO and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra. If gifted young musicians from two academies now assemble in Munich for a concert, they do so in memory of this great conductor, who left an indelible imprint on both orchestras. Jansons had a firm commitment to talented young orchestral musicians, and the idea of the academy continues in his spirit, helping graduates to find their way into professional orchestras. Now, for the first time since their initial exchange of 2019, the two academies reunite in a concert that straddles the boundaries of Germany and the Netherlands. Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, George Benjamin’s modernist take on Purcell and Richard Strauss’s Suite from Der Bürger als Edelmann give these young musicians ample opportunity to display their prowess under the baton of Daniel Harding.

Kurt Elling & Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw - Swinging Holidays

It goes without saying that The Concertgebouw and jazz & pop music make a perfect combination. The stages of both the Main Hall and the Recital Hall have borne witness to nearly the whole of jazz history. Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald have both performed here, as have Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong. Famous pop stars and bands that have graced the stage of the Main Hall include Frank Zappa, the Doors and the Eagles, to name but a few. Legendary concerts, in the present as well as the past.

The Naghash Ensemble Songs of Exile

In the 15th century, Armenian priest and poet Mkrtich Naghash wrote about his exile experiences. Armenian-American John Hodian set these poems to music and founded the Naghash Ensemble. The ensemble includes three singers, a duduk, an oud player, and a percussionist. Inspired by old Armenian church and folk music, minimal music, and jazz, Hodian leads the ensemble from the piano.

Guest performance Swinging Brass at the Turn of the Year

Organ matinee Richard Gowers and the Berlin Philharmonic Brass Ensemble

Our organ series starts with one of the most interesting organists of our time: Richard Gowers, still only 29 old, discovered his passion for music as a choirboy at King’s College, Cambridge. Trained in Cambridge, London and Stuttgart, he has travelled internationally as a soloist and has also been Director of Music at St Georgeʼs, Hanover Square in London since 2023. Together with the brass section of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he will perform an opulent, late-romantic programme, including the passionate love scene from Richard Strauss’ opera Feuersnot and Franz Liszt’s heroic final tribute to his friend Chopin, Funérailles.

Klaus Mäkelä conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Mahler

When Gustav Mahler came to Amsterdam to conduct the Dutch premiere of his First Symphony in 1903, a close collaboration started – so began the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s much-vaunted Mahler tradition. Klaus Mäkelä steps into that tradition with respect and self-confidence. He previously gave stunning interpretations of the Sixth and the Third, now it is time for the First, which he calls Mahler's 'pastoral’ symphony: ‘I’ve always been attracted to its imaginative beauty, and its freshness. The expression is extremely clear, and it contains all the elements of his later work.’Klaus Mäkelä opens the concert with Verklärte Nacht by Mahler's contemporary Arnold Schoenberg, who was born 150 years ago in Vienna. The late-romantic work is based on a poem by Richard Dehmel about a woman who confesses to her loved one that she is carrying someone else’s child. The music closely follows the conversation and draws the listener into an intimate emotional journey leading from fear and guilt to pure happiness.

Karina Canellakis conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra: Wagner & Sibelius

Richard Wagner championed the larger than life. In Tristan und Isolde, he aims his telescope at a young couple in love. Their passion is too great for this earthly world, resulting in extremely sensual music. The passion embodied by Sibelius’s only Violin Concerto is more restrained. It is not a typically virtuoso work, but rather a dream journey through a mysterious orchestral landscape. The refined and sensitive violinist Augustin Hadelich is our guide in this performance.Karina Canellakis has saved the rapturous climax for the very end. Le poème de l’extase is one of the most extraordinary works composed by the already exceptional Aleksandr Scriabin, for whom music served as ‘a bridge to the beyond’. This work explores a spiritual world that others can only dream of – but Scriabin places the listener right at the very centre of it all, with the orchestra producing a kaleidoscope of dazzling colour.

Karina Canellakis conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra: Wagner & Sibelius

Richard Wagner championed the larger than life. In Tristan und Isolde, he aims his telescope at a young couple in love. Their passion is too great for this earthly world, resulting in extremely sensual music. The passion embodied by Sibelius’s only Violin Concerto is more restrained. It is not a typically virtuoso work, but rather a dream journey through a mysterious orchestral landscape. The refined and sensitive violinist Augustin Hadelich is our guide in this performance.Karina Canellakis has saved the rapturous climax for the very end. Le poème de l’extase is one of the most extraordinary works composed by the already exceptional Aleksandr Scriabin, for whom music served as ‘a bridge to the beyond’. This work explores a spiritual world that others can only dream of – but Scriabin places the listener right at the very centre of it all, with the orchestra producing a kaleidoscope of dazzling colour.