Guest at Kissinger Sommer

Guest at Kissinger Sommer

KISSINGER SOMMER

Kissinger Sommer

Kissinger Sommer

Guest at Stadttheater Fürth

Guest at Markgräfliches Opernhaus Bayreuth

Bayreuth Music

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 Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

In this concert, our honorary conductor guides us through a programme that brings to mind Goethe: »A thousand and a thousand thoughts rise and sink within me. My soul is like an everlasting firework without rest.« Beethoven could certainly have said the same thing about his hot-tempered disposition and extreme mood swings. His violin concerto was composed in 1806 – but he wrote down his many ideas for it so late that the premiere violinist had to play this rather difficult piece almost from sight. It is characterised by a spirit that is certainly reminiscent of the proverb that nowadays goes by the motto »Himmelhoch jauchzend, zu Tode betrübt« (»rejoicing to the skies, saddened to death«). A masterpiece from the history of music, for which we welcome as soloist María Dueñas, an »Andalusian violin miracle«: it is said of the young virtuoso that she elicits »a soulful and at times a fiery sound« from her instrument. Beethoven‘s groundbreaking compositions were both a curse and a blessing for the following generations – including Brahms, who confided to a friend: »You have no idea how it makes all of us feel to hear such a giant marching behind you all the time.« But on the other hand, Beethoven was also seen as his great role model. Nevertheless, it took Brahms a very long time to complete his first symphony: he spent 14 years crafting it, with interruptions from 1862 to 1876. And then, after this fierce symphonic struggle, there was finally lots of balm for his soul: Hans von Bülow was so enthusiastic about the First that he exuberantly described it as »Beethoven‘s Tenth«. The work is a stroke of genius: from the fateful conflict in the opening to the emotional triumph in the final movement – and all in all an enchanting journey of discovery with many interwoven insights.