Guest performance at the MOZART@AUGSBURG Festival

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 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 performance at the Mozartfest Würzburg

»Music is love‘s soul, for it is the touching of the divine with the human.« These were the thoughts of Bettina von Arnim – and in our concert conducted by Andrew Manze we indulge in such deep soundscapes as Respighi‘s »Concerto Gregoriano« from 1921: it conjures up a religiously solemn world of the middle ages – inspired by his preoccupation with the honorable church modes and meditative melodies of Gregorian chant, which had seized him »like an addiction« at the time. The violin concerto is therefore largely a lyrical-contemplative composition and quotes the Easter sequence »victimae paschali laudes« in the middle movement – but in the end it soars hymn-like with echoes of the famous »Salve Regina« chant like a fervent profession of faith. One critic characterised the violin part as that of »a cantor in an ancient religious ceremony, with the orchestra personifying the choir of the believers«. With us, Frank Peter Zimmermann will assume the role of solo choir leader with his Stradivarius. What follows is a journey into the Bruckner cosmos: his creative work was inseparably intertwined with religious sentiments, which earned him the nickname »Musician of God«. Before he had dared to approach symphonies, he had already made a name for himself as an eminent organist and church composer. After several dissatisfactory attempts, he composed his first definitive symphony in Linz in 1865/66 – which, however, he reworked in Vienna in 1891 on the basis of the experience he had gathered thereafter: it captivates the listener with its natural originality, grandiose themes and climax after climax – and in addition offers deep insights into Bruckner‘s state of mind in the heartfelt Adagio.

Guest performance At the Opera

Guest performance at the stARTfestival in Wuppertal

»Music is love‘s soul, for it is the touching of the divine with the human.« These were the thoughts of Bettina von Arnim – and in our concert conducted by Andrew Manze we indulge in such deep soundscapes as Respighi‘s »Concerto Gregoriano« from 1921: it conjures up a religiously solemn world of the middle ages – inspired by his preoccupation with the honorable church modes and meditative melodies of Gregorian chant, which had seized him »like an addiction« at the time. The violin concerto is therefore largely a lyrical-contemplative composition and quotes the Easter sequence »victimae paschali laudes« in the middle movement – but in the end it soars hymn-like with echoes of the famous »Salve Regina« chant like a fervent profession of faith. One critic characterised the violin part as that of »a cantor in an ancient religious ceremony, with the orchestra personifying the choir of the believers«. With us, Frank Peter Zimmermann will assume the role of solo choir leader with his Stradivarius. What follows is a journey into the Bruckner cosmos: his creative work was inseparably intertwined with religious sentiments, which earned him the nickname »Musician of God«. Before he had dared to approach symphonies, he had already made a name for himself as an eminent organist and church composer. After several dissatisfactory attempts, he composed his first definitive symphony in Linz in 1865/66 – which, however, he reworked in Vienna in 1891 on the basis of the experience he had gathered thereafter: it captivates the listener with its natural originality, grandiose themes and climax after climax – and in addition offers deep insights into Bruckner‘s state of mind in the heartfelt Adagio.

Festival at the Funkhaus in Nalepastraße

As part of the events marking the 100th anniversary of the orchestra, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin had planned a festival at its former location, the Funkhaus in Oberschöneweide, from 14 to 16 June 2024.Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to reach a signed agreement with the owner of the building regarding its use. A successful realisation of the festival is therefore not guaranteed at the present time. It is therefore with great regret that the festival has to be cancelled. The events scheduled for this weekend will be rescheduled at a later date if possible.

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«.

Guest at the Isarphilharmonie

»O Beethoven! You are the greatest and best friend of those who suffer, of those who struggle. When the misery of the whole world overpowers us, you move close to us, as you did to a grieving mother, sitting wordlessly at the piano offering comfort to the weeping.« In these words, a contemporary described the effect Beethoven‘s music can have on troubled souls. We play his B-flat major concerto, which earned »the undivided approval of the audience« already in 1795: it has many lively passages – but the heart of the piece is the Adagio, in which an emotional dialogue between solo instrument and orchestra unfolds. We are delighted that the legendary pianist Mitsuko Uchida will once again join us for one of Beethoven‘s famous concertos. Before that, the overture from Cherubini‘s opera »Medea«, first performed in 1797, will be played – a soul drama revolving around a Greek tragedian figure whose ruptured emotional world between love and hate is the main subject. The composition does have lyrical interludes, but is otherwise characterised by unbridled passion. Stravinsky‘s »Le Sacre du printemps« also impressively shows the maelstrom that music can develop and thereby intensively touch the soul: It is a pagan story about the »yearly cycle of forces that are reborn and fall back into the womb of nature« – represented by blessings of the earth, ritual dances and an offering to the gods. At its premiere as a ballet, the composition caused a genuine scandal, but after its first concert performance, the music was quickly recognised for its magic – it captivates with a primal rhythmic power that, according to Stravinsky, »seizes every sensitive spirit«.