CHINEKE! ORCHESTRA IN BERLIN

Concert in Berlin

Guest performance Venedig in Berlin

Staatskapelle Berlin: Gastspiel in Wien

Staatskapelle Berlin: Gastspiel in Wien

Bechstein Young Professionals in Berlin

Piano students from the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) and the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music visited C. Bechstein.

Das SWR Experimentalstudio beim Kontakte-Festival in Berlin

Summer in Lesmona – Grand Orchestra Concert

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.

Concertgebouw Orchestra Essentials: Symphonie Fantastique (introduction in Dutch)

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.Hector Berlioz’ passions ran high. Indeed, he turned his obsessive infatuation into a musical vision, the artist descending into a series of increasingly hallucinatory dreams, culminating in a maniacal nightmare. Sound strange? The work would become a huge success, and has remained so for 200 years. The Symphonie Fantastique is not only groundbreaking, but also irresistible. Sir Antonio Pappano is the perfect conductor for such theatrical music.Essentials starts at 9 p.m. with an imaginative introduction to the programme (in Dutch).

Andrew Manze leads the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Bruckner's Second

Bruckner’s Second Symphony is very different in tone from the extroverted First, a fact which is apparent right from the opening, when the high strings cautiously lay out a carpet of sound for the plaintive melody in the cellos. Unusual in this work are the silences (or Pausen in German) that regularly occur, which resulted in the Second jokingly being called the ‘Pausen’ Symphony. ‘Well,’ Bruckner is said to have answered, ‘when I have something important to say, I must take a deep breath first!’ The extraordinarily beautiful slow movement has a religious feel to it, with a secondary theme which is often described as mystical, a quotation from Bruckner’s own Mass in f-minor, and an enigmatic passage which anticipates his Ninth Symphony.Up to now, only five conductors have led the Concertgebouw Orchestra in this work – its last performance was under the direction of Riccardo Chailly in 1992. Now Andrew Manze is taking up the gauntlet. Originally an early music specialist, Manze applies his insights to music from all periods with great ease.