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.

Joseph Bastian | Brass ensemble

Guest performance Swinging Brass at the Turn of the Year

30 Years of Mnozil Brass

It is now 30 years since a few cheeky music students with the ambition of a career as orchestral musicians gave in to the temptations of pub music at the Mnozil Inn in Vienna and thus made their unplanned way into the entertainment business. They left the noble world of classical music behind them and travelled the globe with brass show tunes and hits. Success came quickly and the inevitable happened: the decades flew by and students eventually became professors themselves. But the fire of blown music never goes out! It still burns brightly in their hearts in 2023, just like back then, in the small Viennese pub. And that’s why Mnozil Brass is once again setting out for new shores and presenting the ultimate brass birthday in the form of an anniversary show: »Jubelei! – 30 Years of Mnozil Brass. Happy Birthday to Us!«

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.

“Polished Brass” – orchestra academies invite

Concertgebouw Orchestra: Bruckner & Schubert

Andrew Manze strikes a passionate blow for Bruckner’s Second Symphony. ‘From the yearning, desolate opening to the self-assured, triumphant ending, the Second Symphony is a gem that has for too long been inexplicably overlooked, even by many Bruckner lovers’, the conductor says. Up to now, only five conductors have led the Concertgebouw Orchestra in this work – its last performance was conducted by Riccardo Chailly in 1992. Now Andrew Manze is taking up the gauntlet.After moving to Vienna, Bruckner set to work on his Second Symphony, a work in which we can hear him finding his own voice. In addition to the long-drawn-out opening theme, folk dances and quotations from his own oeuvre, the influence of the Viennese Classics is clearly audible – that of Beethoven in particular, but Wagner and Schubert as well. Andrew Manze pairs Bruckner’s Second with the most serious of Schubert’s first six symphonies, the Fourth.

Concertgebouw Orchestra: Bruckner & Schubert

Andrew Manze strikes a passionate blow for Bruckner’s Second Symphony. ‘From the yearning, desolate opening to the self-assured, triumphant ending, the Second Symphony is a gem that has for too long been inexplicably overlooked, even by many Bruckner lovers’, the conductor says. Up to now, only five conductors have led the Concertgebouw Orchestra in this work – its last performance was conducted by Riccardo Chailly in 1992. Now Andrew Manze is taking up the gauntlet.After moving to Vienna, Bruckner set to work on his Second Symphony, a work in which we can hear him finding his own voice. In addition to the long-drawn-out opening theme, folk dances and quotations from his own oeuvre, the influence of the Viennese Classics is clearly audible – that of Beethoven in particular, but Wagner and Schubert as well. Andrew Manze pairs Bruckner’s Second with the most serious of Schubert’s first six symphonies, the Fourth.

Concertgebouw Orchestra Essentials: Sibelius

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.Grand, epic, mysterious: Jean Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony is an enigma. ‘It was as if God the Father was throwing pieces of mosaic from the edge of heaven and asking me to figure out what the pattern was,’ wrote Sibelius of composing the symphony, inspired by the vast natural landscapes of Finland. The Fifth is sombre in character, the composer having suffered from deep depression. But the sun gradually broke through, and the music culminates in a radiant and sublime ending.Sibelius’s symphonies fit Santtu-Matias Rouvali like a glove, and he has been a welcome guest with the Concertgebouw Orchestra since his first appearance in 2020. Like a passionate sculptor, the Finnish conductor moulds the orchestra in changeable shapes and colours – just what Sibelius’s epic music calls for.Essentials starts at 9 p.m. with an imaginative introduction to the programme (in Dutch).