Harvestehuder Sinfonieorchester Hamburg

Harvestehuder Sinfonieorchester

The Harvestehuder Sinfonieorchester has been an integral part of Hamburg’s musical life since 1966. Twice a year, its performances in the Laeiszhalle prove that amateur ensembles can also give concerts on a professional level. Each member is required to have outstanding instrumental ability and extensive orchestral experience before they can contribute to musical projects. In more than 130 concerts, the 90-strong ensemble has, under selected conductors, performed works by more than 80 composers, including Hamburg premieres of works by contemporary composers.

Ford-Sinfonieorchester

Ford-Sinfonieorchester

SAP Sinfonieorchester / Ray Chen

Since its founding in 1997, the SAP Symphony Orchestra has evolved into a cultural and beneficial beacon of SAP SE known far beyond the Rhine-Neckar region. In addition to classical orchestral music, the ensemble has also devoted itself intensively to film music and symphonic rock arranged especially for the orchestra. The portfolio is rounded off by children’s concerts, in which even the youngest are introduced to the beauty of music. Highlights of the collaboration with international artists were the concerts with Rolando Villazon in 2012, with star pianist Lang Lang in 2022 and with Anastacia in 2024. This will now be followed by a collaboration with another exceptional artist – Ray Chen. Violinist and online personality, Ray Chen redefines what it means to be a classical musician in the 21st century. With a global reach that enhances and inspires a new classical audience, Ray Chen’s remarkable musicianship transmits to millions around the world, reflected through his engagements both online and with the foremost orchestras and concert halls around the world. Beyond the performing arts, his work has also contributed to philanthropy, popular culture and educational technology.

Jugend-Sinfonieorchester Ahrensburg / Sönke Grohmann

The »Somerset Rhapsody« by Gustav Holst is an atmospheric and picturesque composition in which Holst was inspired by the idyllic English county of Somerset as well as many English folk songs. Delicate and tranquil melodies at the beginning evoke a sense of rural beauty, from which the full splendour of Somerset emerges: Large hills, meandering rivers and peaceful villages are just a few images that the composer musically conveys to the listener with his melodies over the course of his work. Belá Bartók’s Viola Concerto is considered one of the most important works for viola and orchestra, and not only in the 20th century. Several versions of this concerto can be found today, which is due to the fact that the composer was unable to complete this work during his lifetime. His pupil Tibor Serly completed the fragments handed down by Bartók into a concerto. The Bartók/Serly version is a three-movement work. It begins with a serious Moderato, followed by a fairly short, slow second movement and a finale in third place, which was composed in an Allegro vivace. Bartók’s compositional style is not based on song-like, motivic melodies as was common in the Romantic period. Instead, the composer creates his themes with a semitone whole-tone scale, which he uses to shape the concerto for viola and orchestra. The demanding solo part is played by 19-year-old Johannes Loschelder from the ranks of the Jugend Sinfonieorchester Ahrensburg. The Hamburg composer Johannes Brahms took his time with the publication of his First Symphony. He took around 20 years to complete it, putting himself too far in the shadow of the great symphony composer Ludwig van Beethoven. The four-movement work contains a densely woven introduction that introduces the dark and tense themes of the Symphony in C minor. Brahms’ symphonic style is characterised by singing melodies and instrumental solos, for example in the lyrical second movement. This contrasts with the rhythmic and dance-like character of the third movement, for which an exuberant cantilena in the clarinet at the beginning forms the basis. The final movement rounds off his 1st Symphony in C minor brilliantly: here too, Brahms opens the movement with a sombre and tense introduction, then plays an »alphorn melody« in joyful C major before moving on to the main movement, whose main theme is familiar to many thanks to the Hamburg Journal, for example. The themes are developed by Brahms and lead to a coda that rounds off this work impressively.

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Vladimir Jurowski

Sinfonieorchester Eppendorf / Emiliano Ramniceanu / Thilo Jaques

With this year’s concert in the Grand Hall of Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle, the Eppendorf Sinfonieorchester joins in slightly belatedly with the celebrations to mark Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday. The programme features his Third Symphony in D minor under the baton of Hamburg conductor Thilo Jaques. The matinée will begin with the Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The Eppendorf Symphony Orchestra is delighted to be working with the fantastic pianist Emiliano Ramniceanu again after the great success of Edvard Grieg’s piano concerto.

WDR Sinfonie­orchester "mein Fleisch"

Nicolaus A. Huber will celebrate his 85th birthday on December 15, 2024. The NOW! Festival sends him birthday greetings in advance. Huber, a native of Lower Bavaria, left a huge mark on Essen as a composition professor at the Folkwang University from 1974 to 2004. His former student, Gordon Kampe, composed a commissioned work for two voices and orchestra. Johannes Maria Staud's new percussion concerto and two Huber classics will be performed. In 2017, he composed "...der arabischen 4", and with "laissez vibrer", he composed the first solo for 18 tubular bells, reminiscent of his childhood.

Landesjugendorchester Hamburg

The Landesjugendorchester Hamburg (LJO Hamburg) is a select orchestra of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and has been an integral part of the young music scene for over 55 years. The patron of the ensemble is the First Mayor, Dr Peter Tschentscher. In its summer concert, the LJO Hamburg will perform for the first time with guest conductor Bar Avni.

Landesjugendorchester Hamburg

The Landesjugendorchester Hamburg (LJO Hamburg) has been an integral part of the young music scene for over 55 years as the select orchestra of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. The patron of the ensemble is the First Mayor, Dr Peter Tschentscher. In its working phases, the symphony orchestra devotes itself to major works of orchestral literature as well as programmes with smaller ensembles or contemporary works. This year’s autumn concert under the direction of Johannes Witt will feature the work »Aufbruch«, composed in 1986 by Detlev Glanert especially for the LJO Hamburg (then still the Hamburg Youth Orchestra). Glanert, who is now in demand all over the world and was himself a member of the youth orchestra at the time, composed the piece practically to fit the orchestra at the time. The Hamburger Abendblatt described the work after the premiere with the words: »Glanert’s stylistically ›forward‹ music is full of eruptive and lyrical ideas, organically developed in context and skilfully orchestrated.« Directly afterwards, the programme features Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony, a blockbuster that the Russian composer composed in 1937 under pressure from the Stalin regime. Shortly beforehand, he had fallen out of favour with his opera Lady Mcbeth of Mtsensk« due to his overly progressive compositional technique and now had to adapt outwardly. Whether grotesque ländler, furiously noisy march or mournful themes – Shostakovich created a parody of the triumphalism of the time, which the audience at the premiere certai»nly recognised, while the party leaders celebrated the return of the prodigal son with this symphony. A fallacy, as can also be seen from the musical quotations used in the symphony. Although Shostakovich was deeply connected to the Russian people and their culture, his progressive ideas under Stalinism meant that he himself always had to fear for his life and that of his family – he subtly expressed his demand for humanity and dignity through his music. The LJO Hamburg is organised by the Landesmusikrat in der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg e. V. and is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Media.