CLASSICAL MUSIC AT THE CASTLE

Fancy some classical music?!

Who's up for classical music? For the third time, the Philharmonie opens its doors to young people when the Gürzenich Orchestra invites them to »Concert & Kölsch«. Two symphonies, one spectacle: Prokofiev and Glazunov, two Russian masters, meet: Prokofiev's 5th Symphony, composed in 1944 in the midst of the chaos of war, sounds heroic, emotional and full of energy. He paints impressive orchestral pictures - sometimes lyrical, sometimes gloomy, sometimes overwhelming. You are in for a real goosebump moment! Glazunov's Symphony No. 5 begins mysteriously, unfolds into a playful scherzo and culminates in a radiant finale that simply sounds monumental. A real highlight of Romantic music! No wonder this piece is celebrated as a masterpiece. This time, Lorenzo Viotti is on the podium - a young, charismatic conductor who turns late Romantic music into pure sound magic. A concert for everyone who loves epic music and is in the mood for an unforgettable live experience! After the concert, you can round off the evening with DJ sounds by Loush and relaxed conversation in the foyer. Free drink included!

Guest performance at the Elbphilharmonie

“Complete at last the glorious work!” Something akin to these words from Haydn’s “Creation” surely went through the minds of many musicians and concertgoers when they first set foot in the Elbphilharmonie. We have been regular guests at this stunning concert hall ever since it opened in 2017. This season, our orchestra will perform here on two consecutive nights, playing some of the core repertoire featured on our recent internationally acclaimed recordings – superb symphonies by two musician friends who inspired one another: Johannes Brahms, who was born in Hamburg, and Antonín Dvořák, a native of our Bohemian home.

Guest performance at the Elbphilharmonie

“Complete at last the glorious work!” Something akin to these words from Haydn’s “Creation” surely went through the minds of many musicians and concertgoers when they first set foot in the Elbphilharmonie. We have been regular guests at this stunning concert hall ever since it opened in 2017. This season, our orchestra will perform here on two consecutive nights, playing some of the core repertoire featured on our recent internationally acclaimed recordings – superb symphonies by two musician friends who inspired one another: Johannes Brahms, who was born in Hamburg, and Antonín Dvořák, a native of our Bohemian home.

Guest at the Philharmonie Köln

Ludwig van Beethoven: genius, freethinker and troubled soul – as well as a master of coping with crises through music. In 1809, he lamented: »We have experienced a rather crowded misery. The entire course of events has affected my body and soul. What a destructive, desolate life around me! Nothing but drums, cannons, all kinds of human misery!« At that time, he was greatly distressed by the current situation, as Vienna was occupied by Napoleon's troops. Food shortages, the black market and inflation were making life difficult for the people. Beethoven often sought shelter in the cellar – and put pillows over his head to avoid hearing the noise. But despite these unfavourable conditions, he wrote his great Fifth Piano Concerto: a gigantic work that gives the impression as if he wanted to drown out the chaos of war with the power and splendour of his music. For long segments, it spreads a belligerent sound – but with the Adagio, a very contemplative movement is interwoven: Beethoven is said to have been thinking of the »chants of devout pilgrims«. These fragmented states of mind are already pervasive in his Fifth Symphony, which was premiered a year earlier and can certainly be understood as a statement on the political fate of Europe at that time. With its famous obsessive motif, the work is at first full of anxiety and emotional complexity over long stretches. But an astounding inner force is able to find its way out of the initial darkness and into the ever brightening light. Like Beethoven wrote in one of his conversation books, which he used because of his deafness and in which he also collected essential ideas: »With music I have transformed my suffering into hope«.

Guest at the Beethovenfest Bonn

»This must be love!« These words were heard at the joyous announcement that the journey with Jakub Hrůša will continue for several more wonderful years. And he sums it up perfectly, because our Chief Conductor is completely happy with his »friendly and harmonious home«: he loves the city Bamberg, the amicable atmosphere in the orchestra and the whole team behind the scenes, the magnificent hall and the enthusiastic audiences – who return his love in such a way that the concerts with him have been constantly sold out for years. And since fate has been particularly kind to this close relationship since 2016, Jakub Hrůša has fittingly included the Beethoven symphony on the programme for our season opener, with its world-famous tones revolving around the much-invoked Fatum – and about which it was said early on that it is a »living image of great passion«. This symphonic blockbuster is combined with favourites from the heart of our Chief Conductor: With compositions from his and our Bohemian homeland, which he regularly familiarises us with on our journey together. And in doing so, we are always moving on to lesser-known repertoire. Dvořák's Violin Concerto, for example, is not heard very often, even though it is in no way inferior in quality to the great Romantic concertos of his colleagues: it is »original, full of cantilenas and written for accomplished violinists« – including Isabelle Faust, whose wish it was to play the solo part with us one day. However, before that, we should first congratulate this year's birthday boy, Smetana: With his fascinating tone poem »Wallenstein's Camp«, which for Jakub Hrůša is a »fantastic opener« for concerts – which makes the piece a perfect opening for the new season themed »What we love«.

New Year at the Philharmonie

She’s got it, that certain something stars are made of: Anna Prohaska. Recalcitrant look, cheeky wisecracks, an avowed metal fan, yet at the same time thoughtful, deep. »I love being on stage,« she says, and she evidently finds the right tone for each and every musical style, even in operas with »rather convoluted language«. With her luminous soprano, she will rejoice in Mozart’s motet ›Exsultate, jubilate‹, taking it to soaring heights. Hallelujah!

Guest performance Masterpieces of Popular Classical and Romantic Music

Guest performance at the Wiener Musikverein

"Women, you angels of the earth! Heaven's loveliest creation! You are the sole ray that illuminates our lives." (Alphonse de Lamartine) We start with the meaning-laden Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony, inspired in 1901 by his blossoming love for his future wife Alma. A musical marriage proposal with strings and harp, it is a beguilingly beautiful work, albeit shot through with hauntingly world-weary and nostalgic tones. Like many great composers, Richard Strauss had a strong woman at his side – the singer Pauline, for whom he composed many of his vocal works. His lush "Four Last Songs" strike a tone of farewell. These settings of texts by Hesse and Eichendorff were written in 1948, when Strauss’ world had been shattered by the war and he was growing “weary of wandering”, to quote the final line of the last song. While profound grief can often stifle creativity, it sometimes can also awaken new creative energies – as proven by our programme’s emotional final piece, a "work of superhuman strength" written by Josef Suk, who had close personal ties with Dvořák. He became not only the latter’s master student, but also his friend and son-in-law as well, falling in love with Dvořák’s daughter Otylka. But this happiness was abruptly destroyed by Dvořák’s demise in 1904 and the tragically early death of Otylka a mere fourteen months later. Suk wrote the moving symphony "Asrael" to overcome this trauma and in memory of his loved ones, saying: "Such misfortune either destroys a person or brings all the forces lying dormant in them to the surface. Music saved me."

Guest at the Alte Oper Frankfurt

»You must offer something good to the body so that the soul wants to live in it.« This quote became famous through Winston Churchill – but it originally originated from a Spanish mystic of the 16th century. Fittingly, we play an exciting violin concerto entitled »Corpo Elettrico« from Italian composer Luca Francesconi, born in 1956. The piece revolves around magical metamorphoses of energy processes: It all starts harmlessly at first, but as it progresses, the violin part, which at some point resembles a machine and becomes very explosive, sounds like a guitar solo by Jimi Hendrix. A tour de force with electronics and megaphones as well as an unbelievable pull – written for Patricia Kopatchinskaja in 2020, who continuously shakes up the classical music business with her uncompromising artistic attitude and once said: »When I play, I have to have something to say. It has to come from my whole body and soul.« The sound fireworks keep going after this – with Beethoven‘s most passionate symphony. His Seventh was given numerous programmatic interpretations in literature, which definitely associated material delights: they range from a wedding celebration and a knight‘s festival to the depiction of an »ancient wine feast«, with the finale heard as a »drinking binge«. Beethoven completed the symphony in 1812 – the year in which he also wrote his desperate letter to the »immortal beloved«, which for him meant the final renunciation of personal happiness in love. Nevertheless, he accomplished an optimistic work with his Seventh, because it was clear to him: »Music should strike fire from the human soul«.

SOLD OUT: Residence at the Elbphilharmonie

After last season‘s two-concert guest performance at the river Elbe in Hamburg, our orchestra is looking forward to a veritable »residency« with three programmes in the great hall of the Elbphilharmonie – by the way, already our concerts nos. 6 to 8 in this iconic landmark. Ludwig van Beethoven‘s symphonies are the link between the three programmes, each of which aims to retrace the influence of his music on the composers of the Romantic and Modern eras. This is most apparent in Richard Strauss‘s tone poem »Ein Heldenleben«, whose relationship to Beethoven‘s »Eroica« is not only evident in the title, but can also be heard musically as one listens through the work. Strauss himself wrote to his father during the composing process, ironically referring to the »Eroica«, that he was now working on a larger tone poem entitled »Heldenleben« (»Heroic Life«) »to remedy an urgent need, without a funeral march, but still in E-flat major, with lots of horns, which for once are aimed towards heroism«. Beethoven‘s 7th Symphony was soon described as the »apotheosis of dance«, particularly for its wild, dance-like finale. Stravinsky spoke highly of the »constructive power of order« in Beethoven‘s works and once said that he should be revered only for his music: »In the supreme quality of his tone material, not in the nature of his ideas, lies his true greatness«. In »Sacre du Printemps«, Stravinsky elevates the idea of dance to the archaic, the monstrous, and the juxtaposition of the two compositions, tying ritual, dance and movement into symphonic frames, is particularly attractive. Finally, in Hamburg we combine Beethoven's 5th Symphony with his 5th Piano Concerto – two model works by the composer, which in their respective genres both exerted the greatest influence on many of his successors. Our soloist Lukas Sternath in 2022 created a sensation at the International ARD Music Competition – in addition to the 1st prize, he was awarded seven special prizes, including the audience prize and the award for the best interpretation of the commissioned composition.