ins Licht

Mit Götz Alsmann ins Konzert

Götz Alsmann, a unique entertainer, delights audiences on radio and television. The music scholar presents famous works from the current Essen Philharmonic's program. With charm and humor, Alsmann shows that knowledge increases enjoyment, without needing to be a scholar to enjoy classical music.

Mit Götz Alsmann ins Konzert

Götz Alsmann, a unique entertainer, delights audiences on radio and television. The music scholar presents famous works from the current Essen Philharmonic's program. With charm and humor, Alsmann shows that knowledge increases enjoyment, without needing to be a scholar to enjoy classical music.

Mit Bach ins neue Jahr

The Cologne Chamber Orchestra traditionally welcomes the new year with music by Johann Sebastian Bach, featuring his Orchestral Suite and Brandenburg Concerto No. 2. Bach's Double Concerto spotlights Baroque instruments like the oboe, while his E-Major Violin Concerto, once forgotten, now challenges and delights. Violinist Veronika Eberle, known for her soulful playing, describes Bach's music as a house—once you understand its structure, you can move freely within it.

Twinkle Concert XL / treznoK – rückwärts ins Konzert

What happens when people make music together? Do their instruments have a soul? The dancer and choreographer Antje Pfundtner exposes the mysterious rituals of a concert together with seven musicians from Ensemble Resonanz – with movement, music and plenty of humour. »Twinkle Concerts« is the series of children’s concerts at the Elbphilharmonie that brings the most successful productions from all over Europe to Hamburg. At times funny and playful, at others thoughtful and reflective, the series introduces children to the world of music in a special and unique way. In addition, the popular Elfi Baby Concerts for expectant mothers and parents with babies up to one year of age continue to take place at the Elbphilharmonie and in many Hamburg districts.

Twinkle Concert XL / treznoK – rückwärts ins Konzert

What happens when people make music together? Do their instruments have a soul? The dancer and choreographer Antje Pfundtner exposes the mysterious rituals of a concert together with seven musicians from Ensemble Resonanz – with movement, music and plenty of humour. »Twinkle Concerts« is the series of children’s concerts at the Elbphilharmonie that brings the most successful productions from all over Europe to Hamburg. At times funny and playful, at others thoughtful and reflective, the series introduces children to the world of music in a special and unique way. In addition, the popular Elfi Baby Concerts for expectant mothers and parents with babies up to one year of age continue to take place at the Elbphilharmonie and in many Hamburg districts.

Spirited Away (Werke aus "Chihiros Reise ins Zauberland")

Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra / Nils Mönkemeyer / Kent Nagano

The Russian composer Vladimir Tarnopolski is certainly no stranger to contemporary music. His works have been performed at many major festivals over recent decades. He has received various prizes and released many of his works on CD. As a professor of composition at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, he has also passed on his knowledge to a whole generation of young composers. »Im Dunkel vor der Dämmerung« (»In the Dark before Dawn«) is the title of a new work commissioned by the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra and premiered in this concert. »Sinfonia Eroica« was the title Ludwig van Beethoven gave his third symphony in 1804, a »heroic symphony composed to celebrate the memory of a great man«. Whether or not this »great man« was to be little Napoleon? At first it was, in all likelihood. But Beethoven probably decided to leave out any corresponding dedication, since the Corsican’s personal coronation as emperor was, in the composer’s eyes, a bitter betrayal of the republican ideas of the French Enlightenment. Was Beethoven himself perhaps the hero? An innovator in the context of music history? Whatever the answer, he certainly breaks new ground with his »Eroica«.

Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra / Nils Mönkemeyer / Kent Nagano

The Russian composer Vladimir Tarnopolski is certainly no stranger to contemporary music. His works have been performed at many major festivals over recent decades. He has received various prizes and released many of his works on CD. As a professor of composition at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, he has also passed on his knowledge to a whole generation of young composers. »Im Dunkel vor der Dämmerung« (»In the Dark before Dawn«) is the title of a new work commissioned by the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra and premiered in this concert. »Sinfonia Eroica« was the title Ludwig van Beethoven gave his third symphony in 1804, a »heroic symphony composed to celebrate the memory of a great man«. Whether or not this »great man« was to be little Napoleon? At first it was, in all likelihood. But Beethoven probably decided to leave out any corresponding dedication, since the Corsican’s personal coronation as emperor was, in the composer’s eyes, a bitter betrayal of the republican ideas of the French Enlightenment. Was Beethoven himself perhaps the hero? An innovator in the context of music history? Whatever the answer, he certainly breaks new ground with his »Eroica«.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Stefan Asbury

Born in Teheran, Sara Abazari is one of today’s leading voices in her country’s contemporary music. Her two latest compositions, which were recently premiered in the Berlin Philharmonie and the Konzerthaus, are directly connected with the movement »Woman, Life, Freedom« and the prominent role of women in Iran. »in solidum« is a piece that was premiered in its first version in autumn 2023; the new, large-scale orchestral work by the composer, who studied in Cologne and Vienna, is now being performed by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. With Galina Ustwolskaja (1919-2006), the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra preesents one of the 20th century’s most uncompromising composers after the interval. Ms Ustwolskaja gained a reputation for her visionary and always highly unusual combinations of instruments: »Dies irae« is scored for eight double basses, piano and a large, resonant wooden block, which the percussionist beats with enigmatic hammer blows. Performances of the work produce the picture, precisely calculated by the composer, of an archaic ritual that evokes a set of metaphors between death, protest and apotheosis: this is a »breakthrough piece«, a musical onslaught on all conventional boundaries, and indisputably Ustwolskaja’s most famous work. The evening opens with Edgar Varèse’s virtuoso piece »Intégrales« for wind instruments and percussion, one of the founding documents of 20th century music. Written for the avant-garde »International Composers’ Guild«, which was founded in 1921 by Carlos Salzedo and Varèse himself, »Intégrales« was given its first performance in March 1925 in New York’s Aeolian Hall.