Jugend-Sinfonieorchester Ahrensburg / Sönke Grohmann

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

Harvestehuder Sinfonieorchester Hamburg

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

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.

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.

Sinfonieorchester der Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig, Matthias Foremny Dirigent

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Kirill Gerstein / Omer Meir Wellber

Omer Meir Wellber’s conducting is »a miracle of transparency and rigour« according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The Israeli conductor has held a number of posts, including chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and he will be assuming the position of general music director at the Hamburg State Opera in 2025. Those who’d like to see the globetrotter in action in the Hanseatic city before then now have their chance. The unconventional conductor – who once inserted a techno interlude into an acclaimed Verdi production at the Bavarian State Opera – gave his debut with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in 2019. And he is now back on the conductor’s stand here for the third time. As an introduction to the programme, Wellber has chosen a work that was originally conceived as incidental music for a play: Gabriel Fauré’s »Pelléas et Mélisande«. Shortly after composing it, Fauré revised his opulent music for Maeterlinck’s Symbolist fairy-tale to create an independent orchestral work. The suite featuring the famous »Sicilienne« is followed by Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, which »was written in the spirit of Mozart’s and Saint-Saënsʼs concertos,« as the composer himself emphasised. That, however, does not mean that Ravel neglected his own tonal language – he opens the concerto with a spirited lash of the whip and Spanish sounds. Jazz harmonies and rhythms then increasingly come to the foreground. The soloist tasked with performing this virtuosic score is the American pianist Kirill Gerstein – a popular guest with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra for many years now. The concert comes to a close with Franz Schubert’s Third Symphony. Schubert composed the masterpiece in just a few days when he was only 18 years old. With that level of productivity, it is no surprise that the composer, despite his early death at the age of 31, still managed to leave behind an impressive oeuvre. The theatre critic Eduard Hanslick described Schubert’s Symphony No. 3 as »a work of youth and of youth’s gleefully raucous zeal «.