Harri Stojka – A Song for My Daddy

Film: My Life as a Courgette

The film »Ma vie de Courgette« (My Life as a Courgette) about little Icare begins in the dreariness of a failed family. It turns into an impressive story about a child’s ability to create substitute families. It is not least the light-hearted soundtrack by Sophie Hunger that gives the film its life-affirming atmosphere. Swiss animation filmmaker Claude Barras is known for his affectionate characterisation using stop-motion techniques. For »My Life as a Courgette«, he adapted a novel by Gilles Paris; the screenplay was written by French director Céline Sciamma. The orphanage drama about the power of childhood friendship premiered in Cannes in 2016 and was showered with awards. In her soundtrack, Sophie Hunger combines her love of rock music and sound experiments to create an atmospheric framework that perfectly accompanies the film. Sophie Hunger wrote her first film score for »The Friend« by Swiss director Micha Lewinski back in 2008. She has since worked on various soundtracks and was honoured with the »Des Notes et des Toiles« prize at the French festival and the German Television Award.

Film: My Life as a Courgette

The film »Ma vie de Courgette« (My Life as a Courgette) about little Icare begins in the dreariness of a failed family. It turns into an impressive story about a child’s ability to create substitute families. It is not least the light-hearted soundtrack by Sophie Hunger that gives the film its life-affirming atmosphere. Swiss animation filmmaker Claude Barras is known for his affectionate characterisation using stop-motion techniques. For »My Life as a Courgette«, he adapted a novel by Gilles Paris; the screenplay was written by French director Céline Sciamma. The orphanage drama about the power of childhood friendship premiered in Cannes in 2016 and was showered with awards. In her soundtrack, Sophie Hunger combines her love of rock music and sound experiments to create an atmospheric framework that perfectly accompanies the film. Sophie Hunger wrote her first film score for »The Friend« by Swiss director Micha Lewinski back in 2008. She has since worked on various soundtracks and was honoured with the »Des Notes et des Toiles« prize at the French festival and the German Television Award.

My Melodies

Helmut Lachenmann's music for eight horns seeks new ways of listening, not new sounds. Christian Mason's composition sees the orchestra as a giant resonating instrument. In between, Lachenmann's first major piano work. Lachenmann's "My Melodies" goes beyond the classical soloist and any notion of melody. He aims to make perception tangible through unconventional use of familiar instruments and tones. The hr-Sinfonieorchester, along with two Lachenmann experts, perform this extraordinary concert.

MUSIC FOR A FUTURE WITHOUT GUARANTEES

How to deal with the uncertainty of the future? Together with the audience, singer Zola Mennenöh and composer Max Andrzejewski set out in search of musical answers. Inspired by the artist and researcher Lisa Nyberg, they use poetic song lyrics and chamber music with influences from new music and jazz to encourage openness, curiosity and hope in dealing with uncertainty. ‘Our times demand that we learn new skills,’ write Mennenöh and Andrzejewski - including ’actions that involve our body and our feelings and thus awaken self-efficacy and creative power.’ In contact with the audience, the result is a concert evening with chamber music, improvisation and spoken word that transcends formats and genres. The event will be held in English.

For a birthday only the best

NOSPR / Bleuse / Mossakowski / A concerto for a thousand pipes

The Belgian creator, pedagogue and organ virtuoso, Joseph Jongen, describes his 1926 composition as follows: „The Symphonie c oncertante is not an organ concerto, but rather an orchestral work in which the organ is another orchestra that takes the leading role it rightly deserves. There is no thematic or rhythmic connection between the four movements of this extensive work; the focus is set on the stylistic unity of the different movements.” His friend, Eugène Ysaÿe, also pointed out the richness of the sounds of the organ, which creates an impression of coming into contact with “a second orchestra”. Nevertheless, the beginnings of what became one of the most interesting works in the 20th-century organ repertoire (also recorded by Karol Mossakowski) were not easy: commissioned by Rodman Wanamaker, the owner of a famous department store in Philadelphia, the piece needed to wait two years to be premiered, due to a series of unfortunate events including the death of Jongen’s father.Dramatic in its expression, Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7. in D minor was also a result of a commission, this time one from Royal Philharmonic Society in London which had just awarded him with honorary membership. During the 1885 premiere of the work, Dvořák stood at the conductor’s podium himself. The event was described by leading musical magazines and a critic writing for the „Athenaeum” daily noted the following: “We are inclined on a first hearing to place this new symphony even above those of Brahms, which it equals in masterly treatment and exquisite instrumentation while it surpasses them in spontaneity of invention.”Agnieszka Nowok-ZychConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 60 minutes

The Jewish Song

Finnish-Swedish Moses Pergament (1893–1977) was a prominent and well-known figure in the music scene, active both as a composer and as a music critic for Svenska Dagbladet, but sadly now largely forgotten. He was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Helsinki but moved to Stockholm in his twenties.The Jewish Song was composed towards the end of the Second World War, while the Holocaust was still ongoing and becoming increasingly revealed. The texts are taken from two of Ragnar Josephson's poetry collections from the early 1900s: Kedjan (”The Chain”) and Jewish Poems. There, Pergament found ”the feelings of a true Jew. Not a contemptible nationalism, but a liberating sense of solidarity, even in the greatest suffering”. The work has been called a choral symphony, but in his biography of Pergament (2016), Carl-Gunnar Åhlén argues that symphonic song cycle would be a better description.This is masterful, overwhelming, and emotionally impactful music that over the years has sadly been neglected. The only recording available is from 1974 – with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, soloists, and choir conducted by James DePreist. It was also the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra that premiered The Jewish Song in its entirety in 1947, after various planned performances had been delayed for years, probably due to political anxiety – even after the defeat of Nazi Germany.Here, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir are led by Tobias Ringborg, and as soloists, we hear singers Agneta Eichenholz and the Norwegian Kjetil Støa.

The Jewish Song

Finnish-Swedish Moses Pergament (1893–1977) was a prominent and well-known figure in the music scene, active both as a composer and as a music critic for Svenska Dagbladet, but sadly now largely forgotten. He was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Helsinki but moved to Stockholm in his twenties.The Jewish Song was composed towards the end of the Second World War, while the Holocaust was still ongoing and becoming increasingly revealed. The texts are taken from two of Ragnar Josephson's poetry collections from the early 1900s: Kedjan (”The Chain”) and Jewish Poems. There, Pergament found ”the feelings of a true Jew. Not a contemptible nationalism, but a liberating sense of solidarity, even in the greatest suffering”. The work has been called a choral symphony, but in his biography of Pergament (2016), Carl-Gunnar Åhlén argues that symphonic song cycle would be a better description.This is masterful, overwhelming, and emotionally impactful music that over the years has sadly been neglected. The only recording available is from 1974 – with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, soloists, and choir conducted by James DePreist. It was also the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra that premiered The Jewish Song in its entirety in 1947, after various planned performances had been delayed for years, probably due to political anxiety – even after the defeat of Nazi Germany.Here, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir are led by Tobias Ringborg, and as soloists, we hear singers Agneta Eichenholz and the Norwegian Kjetil Støa.

My Leonard Cohen

After sold-out shows at the Sydney Opera House and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Stewart D’Arrietta and his band are now coming back to Germany to celebrate the music, poems and stories of the legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. With his emotional lyrics and melancholy voice, one of the most influential artists of our time has inspired an audience of millions.

My Bloody Valentine

From a recital by an Aphrodite on the eve of Valentine’s Day, one might expect a classic ode to romantic love, but singer Aphrodite Patoulidou has something else in mind.