Keywords: Symphony Concert
| Giedre Šlekyte | Conductor |
| Johan Dalene | Violin |
| Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin |
| “heliosis” for orchestra | Hannah Eisendle |
| Concerto for violin and orchestra (“Globe Skimmer Surfing the Somali Jet”) | Tebogo Monnakgotia |
| Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major, op. 38 (“Spring Symphony”) | Robert Schumann |
These events are similar in terms of concept, place, musicians or the program.
Omer Meir Wellber’s conducting is »a miracle of transparency and rigour« according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The Israeli conductor has held a number of posts, including chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and he will be assuming the position of general music director at the Hamburg State Opera in 2025. Those who’d like to see the globetrotter in action in the Hanseatic city before then now have their chance. The unconventional conductor – who once inserted a techno interlude into an acclaimed Verdi production at the Bavarian State Opera – gave his debut with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in 2019. And he is now back on the conductor’s stand here for the third time. As an introduction to the programme, Wellber has chosen a work that was originally conceived as incidental music for a play: Gabriel Fauré’s »Pelléas et Mélisande«. Shortly after composing it, Fauré revised his opulent music for Maeterlinck’s Symbolist fairy-tale to create an independent orchestral work. The suite featuring the famous »Sicilienne« is followed by Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, which »was written in the spirit of Mozart’s and Saint-Saënsʼs concertos,« as the composer himself emphasised. That, however, does not mean that Ravel neglected his own tonal language – he opens the concerto with a spirited lash of the whip and Spanish sounds. Jazz harmonies and rhythms then increasingly come to the foreground. The soloist tasked with performing this virtuosic score is the American pianist Kirill Gerstein – a popular guest with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra for many years now. The concert comes to a close with Franz Schubert’s Third Symphony. Schubert composed the masterpiece in just a few days when he was only 18 years old. With that level of productivity, it is no surprise that the composer, despite his early death at the age of 31, still managed to leave behind an impressive oeuvre. The theatre critic Eduard Hanslick described Schubert’s Symphony No. 3 as »a work of youth and of youth’s gleefully raucous zeal «.
The Haydn-Orchester Hamburg is regarded as one of northern Germany’s top amateur orchestras. Founded in 1977, Rida Murtada has occupied the position of musical director since 2003. The orchestra performs biannually at the Laeiszhalle.
Omer Meir Wellber’s conducting is »a miracle of transparency and rigour« according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The Israeli conductor has held a number of posts, including chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and he will be assuming the position of general music director at the Hamburg State Opera in 2025. Those who’d like to see the globetrotter in action in the Hanseatic city before then now have their chance. The unconventional conductor – who once inserted a techno interlude into an acclaimed Verdi production at the Bavarian State Opera – gave his debut with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in 2019. And he is now back on the conductor’s stand here for the third time. As an introduction to the programme, Wellber has chosen a work that was originally conceived as incidental music for a play: Gabriel Fauré’s »Pelléas et Mélisande«. Shortly after composing it, Fauré revised his opulent music for Maeterlinck’s Symbolist fairy-tale to create an independent orchestral work. The suite featuring the famous »Sicilienne« is followed by Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, which »was written in the spirit of Mozart’s and Saint-Saënsʼs concertos,« as the composer himself emphasised. That, however, does not mean that Ravel neglected his own tonal language – he opens the concerto with a spirited lash of the whip and Spanish sounds. Jazz harmonies and rhythms then increasingly come to the foreground. The soloist tasked with performing this virtuosic score is the American pianist Kirill Gerstein – a popular guest with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra for many years now. The concert comes to a close with Franz Schubert’s Third Symphony. Schubert composed the masterpiece in just a few days when he was only 18 years old. With that level of productivity, it is no surprise that the composer, despite his early death at the age of 31, still managed to leave behind an impressive oeuvre. The theatre critic Eduard Hanslick described Schubert’s Symphony No. 3 as »a work of youth and of youth’s gleefully raucous zeal «.
When Igor Levit takes his seat at the keyboard, one thing is for sure: you’ll hear the pieces on the programme as never before. The German-Russian pianist makes his very own mark, often as unexpected as it is brilliant, on every work he plays, whisking even veteran repertoire warhorses into the here and now. In this concert Levit is accompanied by the Berliner Barock Solisten in music by two composers who can be described without exaggeration as pinnacles of music history: Johann Sebastian Bach and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. The most famous of the Bach sons made a no less illustrious career for himself than his father, and was admired by fellow composers like Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn. In this cleverly thought-out programme, Levit and the Berlin ensemble create a father-son dialogue along entirely modern lines.
Percussion as a solo instrument is still a newcomer to the traditional classical repertoire – and at the same time it is a cosmos entirely its own, shimmering in a thousand colours. The young musician Alexej Gerassimez from Essen, Germany, brings this cosmos impressively to life. The award-winning percussionist is a true all-rounder, switching genres effortlessly with an equal command of jazz grooves and of the complex rhythms of contemporary music. A perfect candidate for Finnish composer Kalevi Aho’s sparkling percussion concerto, which was first performed in 2012. Aho called the work »Sieidi«, the Sami word for a sacred rock or mountain. After the interval, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra climbs an orchestral summit in the shape of Dvořák’s »New World« Symphony. Since its New York premiere in 1893, the composer’s Ninth has been an absolute audience favourite.
»Peace, peace on Earth!« Arnold Schönberg’s message in his choral work »Friede auf Erden« is unequivocal. But it’s also an illusion: the composer was not the only one to admit as much after he had completed the score. Recent events in the political arena make this plain to us all. But the improbability of achieving peace on earth makes it all the more important to repeat these words as often as possible. And this prompted Alan Gilbert to choose this Late Romantic work to open the Hamburg International Music Festival 2024. »War and Peace« is the motto this time, taken from Leo Tolstoy’s famous and timeless novel. The opening concert with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra sees the return to the Elbphilharmonie of star baritone Thomas Hampson to sing Kurt Weill’s »Walt Whitman Songs«, which he wrote in American exile in 1941, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Whitman – whom Weill regarded as the USA’s first original poetic talent – wrote the song texts, some defiant, some moving, during the American Civil War. The concert comes to an end with Charles Ives’s Fourth Symphony, described by Alan Gilbert as the »big bang of modern American music«. With this 1925 work, the great pioneer of musical collages made his boldest dreams come true: how many different tempos, keys and rhythms can be played at the same time without total chaos resulting? Ives’s exciting score supplies a spectacular answer to this question. Performing the symphony is a great challenge for any orchestra – so great that the composer never lived to hear the four-movement piece played in its entirety. Now Alan Gilbert and his musicians join forces with the Prague Philharmonic Choir in this musical adventure.
Top musicians from the most important European orchestras and outstanding chamber ensembles united in an elite orchestra: Orchestra Leonore, founded and directed by Daniele Giorgi. The programme includes Brahms and Mendelssohn as well as the First Cello Concerto by Camille Saint-Saëns, with international soloist Natalie Clein.
»Peace, peace on Earth!« Arnold Schoenberg’s message in his choral work »Friede auf Erden« is unequivocal. But it’s also an illusion: the composer was not the only one to admit as much after he had completed the score. Recent events in the political arena make this plain to us all. But the improbability of achieving peace on earth makes it all the more important to repeat these words as often as possible. And this prompted Alan Gilbert to choose this Late Romantic work to open the Hamburg International Music Festival 2024. »War and Peace« is the motto this time, taken from Leo Tolstoy’s famous and timeless novel. The opening concert with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra sees the return to the Elbphilharmonie of star baritone Thomas Hampson to sing Kurt Weill’s »Walt Whitman Songs«, which he wrote in American exile in 1941, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Whitman – whom Weill regarded as the USA’s first original poetic talent – wrote the song texts, some defiant, some moving, during the American Civil War. The concert comes to an end with Charles Ives’s Fourth Symphony, described by Alan Gilbert as the »big bang of modern American music«. With this 1925 work, the great pioneer of musical collages made his boldest dreams come true: how many different tempos, keys and rhythms can be played at the same time without total chaos resulting? Ives’s exciting score supplies a spectacular answer to this question. Performing the symphony is a great challenge for any orchestra – so great that the composer never lived to hear the four-movement piece played in its entirety. Now Alan Gilbert and his musicians join forces with the Prague Philharmonic Choir in this musical adventure.
Three very different musical characters meet in this British visit: a young Frenchwoman, an American classic and Sergei Rachmaninov, the »last Romantic« in music history. What an opportunity for the new chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra Sir Antonio Pappano and the Dutch violinist Janine Jansen to exhibit their versatility! Imagine what might have become of Lili Boulanger, who composed »Of a Spring Morning« in 1918 at the age of 25? She sadly died soon thereafter so we will never know. But one thing is certain: she was one of the greatest talents of her generation. One man who did make the leap from promising hopeful to one of his country’s leading composers was Samuel Barber, whose Violin Concerto, Op. 14, premiered in 1941, enjoys enduring popularity. Speaking of popularity: Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony is in a league of its own. The third movement of the work, which was premiered in Saint Petersburg in 1908, has melted the hearts of generations of concertgoers.
Star trumpeter Alison Balsom deliberately reduced her concert workload in recent years in order to concentrate on the projects close to her heart. So it was a stroke of luck that the British musician couldn’t say no when one of today’s top orchestras asked her if she would play the solo part in the trumpet concerto that Wynton Marsalis composed in 2022. The American Wynton Marsalis is one of the few artists to make a name for himself both in jazz and in classical music as a top trumpeter, not to mention his commitment to jazz in the cultural world and his support for the rights of African American musicians. After the interval, the London Symphony Orchestra transplants us to Britain with the Fifth Symphony by Ralph Vaughan Williams: written in the dark war years up to 1943, this is a score of truly luminous beauty.
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