Good Friday Concert: tenebrae

Choir Concert: Figure humaine

The 2024 Hamburg International Music Festival is dedicated to Sofia Gubaidulina, one of the leading composers of the modern age. She was awarded the Praemium Imperiale art prize in 1998, and the Polar Music Prize in 2002. The work of the Russian-Tatar composer, who has been living near Hamburg for decades, is almost always inspired by poetry. She draws on a diverse range of sources, from the ancient Egyptians to contemporary poets. In 1997, Gubaidulina set one of the earliest pieces of Italian literature – Saint Francis of Assisi’s 13th century »Canticle of the Sun«, a song of praise for the creation – to music, for the unusual combination of cello, choir and percussion. Chorwerk Ruhr, one of Germany’s best choirs, is coming to Hamburg to perform the piece, and the solo part is played by the French star cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras. Francis Poulenc’s 1943 choral work »Figure humaine« follows in the second half of the concert. The polyphonic cantata, which is based on a poem by Paul Éluard, is pervaded by human tragedies of violence and hate, and opens into an ode to freedom.

New Friday with KammarensembleN

Since its inception in 1984, KammarensembleN has been one of the most important ensembles for contemporary music. Its members are distinguished instrumentalists, and the ensemble has performed at several major festivals for contemporary music, such as Ultima in Oslo, Gaudeamus Festival in Amsterdam, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and ISCM World Music Days in Stockholm and Hong Kong.Many composers have written directly for the ensemble, resulting in well over a hundred premieres over the years. Together with directors, lighting designers, and video artists, KammarensembleN has carried out a series of acclaimed concert series in Stockholm. The ensemble has also undertaken several tours and recorded several critically acclaimed CDs.For the anniversary concert, they take on Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen's Schnee – ten canons for nine instruments. It is music with crystalline clarity and evocative rhythms. The ten canons are presented in pairs, something Abrahamsen likens to seeing two versions in different colours of a painting with the same motif. For his sophisticated music, Abrahamsen has been awarded both the Nordic Council Music Prize and the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. He has also been a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music since 2017.***New Friday is the series for anyone who is curious and interested in exploring the new music of our era. Come early, stay late – the bar will be open before and after the concert with drinks and appetizers.

New Friday with double ensembles

At this concert, we meet two saxophone quartets: Quasar Quatuor de Saxophones from Montreal and the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet. Both have been exploring contemporary music for decades and have toured worldwide. The quartets have also, individually, been responsible for commissioning and premiering numerous new pieces of music.There will also be a premiere tonight, featuring music for eight saxophones by Gordon Williamson, a Canadian composer based in Germany. Spanish composer José Evangelista was active in Montreal until his death in 2023, and his music often involves melodies layered on top of each other or echoing themselves.Swedish Tomner was recently acclaimed for her chamber opera Avskärmad (Shielded), in which she utilized AI technology. Here we hear Palindrome for saxophone quartet. Swedish composer Jenny Hettne often collaborates closely with the musicians. Her piece Swirls and Shades was written for both saxophone quartets performing tonight, and premiered in Montreal in 2019. The collaborative project is supported by Statens Kulturråd, Region Stockholm, Helge Ax:son Johnsons Stiftelse, Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.***New Friday is the series for anyone who is curious and interested in exploring the new music of our era. Come early, stay late – the bar will be open before and after the concert with drinks and appetizers.

Free Lunchtime Concert: Composer in Residence

For many years now, Lunchtime Concerts have been held in the Main Hall and the Recital Hall. The concerts range from public rehearsals by the Concertgebouworkest, to chamber music performances by young up-and-coming artists.For Lunchtime Concerts you will require a free ticket, which you can buy online. Doors to the concert hall open about 30 minutes before the Lunchtime Concert starts.We offer a broad range of music: the majority of concerts include classical music, but you can sometimes hear more modern repertoire. The concert programme is announced one week in advance on our website. The concerts last thirty minutes and are free of charge. Visitors are advised that these concerts are suitable for children from six years old.

New Year's Concert 2025 - Netherlands Wind Ensemble

New Year's Concert 2025 - Netherlands Wind Ensemble

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Ingo Metzmacher

Ingo Metzmacher is one of the great explorers among conductors. He tirelessly explores new and little-known areas of the repertoire. His curiosity already characterised him during his time as General Music Director in Hamburg between 1997 and 2005. And this also characterises the vocal symphonic programme with which he returns to the podium of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in November. One day before his 67th birthday, Metzmacher conducts two rarely performed works by two jubilarians from the Romantic and modern eras with a round birthday in 2024 – and fills the stage in the Grand Hall with an opulent line-up that, alongside the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, includes the MDR-Rundfunkchor and nine vocal soloists.

NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover / Anja Petersen / Pierre Bleuse

As part of the »Elbphilharmonie Visions« festival, the NDR Radiophilharmonie and conductor Pierre Bleuse present a work by Italian composer Clara Iannotta, who continues to explore the boundaries between noise and composition, as well as Arnulf Herrmann’s »Tour de Trance« for soprano and orchestra. As at the latter’s world premiere, the solo part will be performed by opera singer Anja Petersen.

Bang on a Can All-Stars / Trio Mediaeval

Even for the state of the art, there are legends – such as the Bang on a Can All-Stars, who are always in search of very up-to-date, exciting music, regardless of genre categories. Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk and Ornette Coleman are just a few of the artists who have already collaborated with the New York collective. For their Elbphilharmonie debut, the musicians have chosen a work by founding member and Pulitzer prizewinner Julia Wolfe, which traces the myth surrounding the American folk hero John Henry as an oratorio between minimal music and country. There are hundreds of versions of this story, passed down by word of mouth and already cast in music many times whether by Johnny Cash, Van Morrison or Bruce Springsteen: at the end of the 19th century, a worker is supposed to have competed against a new kind of steam-driven hammer in railway construction with his muscle strength and won – to pay with his life as a result. Julia Wolfe has composed a meta myth with »Steel Hammer«: »The work is inspired by my love of legends and the music of the Appalachian Mountains. I fragmented the many different and somewhat contradictory versions of the ballad and wove it into a completely new format. The music often circles around individual words or phrases to tell the ultimate story and its different paths.« The Appalachian dulcimer (a kind of zither) joins the usual line-up of Bang on a Can with clarinet, a lot of percussion, guitars, piano, cello and double bass and provides for the American country sound. Trio Mediæval, a top-class a-cappella ensemble from Norway, completes the overall sound with its clear soprano and alto voices, which Julia Wolfe particularly appreciates for their great wealth of experience in the vocal tradition of their homeland.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / NDR Vokalensemble / Matthias Brandt / Jonathan Stockhammer

Luigi Nono always saw himself as a political person and composer. But rather than composing musical manifestos against social injustice, he believed in the power of music to educate and enlighten. As in 1956, when he – in his large-scale cantata »Il canto sospeso« – translated farewell letters by members of the resistance that had been sentenced to death into a stirring and highly poetic tonal language. The German-American conductor and Nono specialist Jonathan Stockhammer now presents this »suspended song« in the Grand Hall. Luigi Nono’s musical credo was to »awaken the ear, the eyes, human thought« with his works. This aspiration is reflected in the »Canto sospeso«, which was premiered in Cologne in 1956 and which – with its orchestra parts, a-cappella chorales and arias – also underlines Nono’s affinity for Italian madrigal and operatic art. Yet in its musical recollection, this »song« exudes a blazing presence.