Heavenwards

Sinfonischer Kehraus

A top-notch festival, packed into one single day – Renaissance music meets outstanding compositions of the 20th century in this three-part concert season finale: Giovanni Gabrieli’s sounds mirror the golden splendour of St Mark’s Basilica, Richard Strauss creates a charming and witty jester by the name of Till Eulenspiegel. Iconic works by Ravel, Debussy and Gershwin combine Parisian elegance with sizzling Broadway beats. Sergei Prokofiev and Helmut Lachenmann use retrospection for a glance into the future, and world-famous soloists such as Jean-Guihen Queyras, Kirill Gerstein, and the Quatuor Diotima – Artist in Residence of the season – exude fire and brilliance under the baton of Oskar Jockel.

Sinfonischer Kehraus

A top-notch festival, packed into one single day – Renaissance music meets outstanding compositions of the 20th century in this three-part concert season finale: Giovanni Gabrieli’s sounds mirror the golden splendour of St Mark’s Basilica, Richard Strauss creates a charming and witty jester by the name of Till Eulenspiegel. Iconic works by Ravel, Debussy and Gershwin combine Parisian elegance with sizzling Broadway beats. Sergei Prokofiev and Helmut Lachenmann use retrospection for a glance into the future, and world-famous soloists such as Jean-Guihen Queyras, Kirill Gerstein, and the Quatuor Diotima – Artist in Residence of the season – exude fire and brilliance under the baton of Oskar Jockel.

Sinfonischer Kehraus

A top-notch festival, packed into one single day – Renaissance music meets outstanding compositions of the 20th century in this three-part concert season finale: Giovanni Gabrieli’s sounds mirror the golden splendour of St Mark’s Basilica, Richard Strauss creates a charming and witty jester by the name of Till Eulenspiegel. Iconic works by Ravel, Debussy and Gershwin combine Parisian elegance with sizzling Broadway beats. Sergei Prokofiev and Helmut Lachenmann use retrospection for a glance into the future, and world-famous soloists such as Jean-Guihen Queyras, Kirill Gerstein, and the Quatuor Diotima – Artist in Residence of the season – exude fire and brilliance under the baton of Oskar Jockel.

Chamber concert: Viennese winter

NOSPR / Bayona / New Year's Concert

There are concerts which should be found in everyone’s calendar, particularly at the time of year when we replace our calendars with entirely new ones. Some of those are the meetings with music on New Year’s Day. Even though their repertoire is rarely surprising, this is exactly where their charm lies. Beginning another year, we want to surrender to insouciant fun and hopes of a glorious new time to come. Simultaneously, despite the time flying, we want to keep certain things the way they are.It is such an atmosphere that we are unfailingly introduced to with the most famous waltzes and polkas by members of the talented Strauss family, as well as tunes from operettas by Franz von Suppé, Franz Lehár and Bedřich Smetana. Of course, we have all heard The Blue Danube and Radetzky March, hundreds of times – but should this be of any significance? Once a year, let us once more luxuriate in the well-known melodies we have already heard so many times, just for the sake of the pleasure itself. A comfortable chair in the best concert hall in the world, the NOSPR and Nestor Bayona on stage, and danceable rhythms and melodies sparkling with joy in the air. What more could one wish for!Szymon MaliszewskiConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 110 minutes

Chamber concert: Dialogue of religions

Chamber concert: Between East and West

Chamber concert: Classic Vienna

Into the Distance

26 years old, and just married to a woman who is an avowed Fennoman (a Finland enthusiast), young Jean Sibelius starts composing his first tone poem. Rather than following a specific musical road map, his En saga is more of a fairy tale of mystic landscapes. It shows vast surfaces of sound, subdued melancholy, and here and there, cheerful trolls pop up for a perky little dance. Incidentally, the first sketches to this piece were made in Austria, where Sibelius, the composer with the Swedish accent, spent his time in Viennese coffee houses, reading the Finnish national epic, the Kalewala. »I never felt more Finnish than in Vienna, Italy and Paris.« In Kaija Saariaho’s case, the musical approach to the five poems by her compatriot Pentti Saarikoski had little to do with Finnish national romanticism but more with the urge to explore the art of composing. Saariaho, who passed away in 2023, had originally set the work for soprano and piano, and the Gürzenich Orchestra now examines the orchestral version. In the very first poem, The Face of Nature, the composer’s musical language builds bridges to Jean Sibelius, while Sumun läpi – Through the mist – explores impenetrable, mysterious worlds of sound. The soloist in this performance is a longtime artistic companion of Saariaho, the singer Anu Komsi. Whoever tries to spot British sounding melodies in Dvořák’s »English« symphony, his 8th, will most certainly be disappointed. The Czech composer merely switched to a British publisher for this buoyant work, hence the misleading title. The symphony is bold, and vigorously joyful. It has an introspective beginning, but after less than a minute, the atmosphere takes a turn for the jubilant, culminating in a finale with festive, beaming fanfares. Antonín Dvořák is on the fast lane to success: »You want to know what I do? My head is full – if only one could write everything down immediately! […] The ease exceeds all expectations and the melodies just keep coming.

Into the Distance

26 years old, and just married to a woman who is an avowed Fennoman (a Finland enthusiast), young Jean Sibelius starts composing his first tone poem. Rather than following a specific musical road map, his En saga is more of a fairy tale of mystic landscapes. It shows vast surfaces of sound, subdued melancholy, and here and there, cheerful trolls pop up for a perky little dance. Incidentally, the first sketches to this piece were made in Austria, where Sibelius, the composer with the Swedish accent, spent his time in Viennese coffee houses, reading the Finnish national epic, the Kalewala. »I never felt more Finnish than in Vienna, Italy and Paris.« In Kaija Saariaho’s case, the musical approach to the five poems by her compatriot Pentti Saarikoski had little to do with Finnish national romanticism but more with the urge to explore the art of composing. Saariaho, who passed away in 2023, had originally set the work for soprano and piano, and the Gürzenich Orchestra now examines the orchestral version. In the very first poem, The Face of Nature, the composer’s musical language builds bridges to Jean Sibelius, while Sumun läpi – Through the mist – explores impenetrable, mysterious worlds of sound. The soloist in this performance is a longtime artistic companion of Saariaho, the singer Anu Komsi. Whoever tries to spot British sounding melodies in Dvořák’s »English« symphony, his 8th, will most certainly be disappointed. The Czech composer merely switched to a British publisher for this buoyant work, hence the misleading title. The symphony is bold, and vigorously joyful. It has an introspective beginning, but after less than a minute, the atmosphere takes a turn for the jubilant, culminating in a finale with festive, beaming fanfares. Antonín Dvořák is on the fast lane to success: »You want to know what I do? My head is full – if only one could write everything down immediately! […] The ease exceeds all expectations and the melodies just keep coming.