Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts Mozart and Shostakovich

Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts Mozart and Shostakovich

There are some instruments that are particularly good at touching the innermost – among them is the clarinet. As early as 1784, a journalist raved: »Whoever plays the clarinet soulfully seems to declare his love to the whole world, to the heavenly beings themselves«. Mozart had quickly understood that gripping music was possible with the then newly invented woodwind instrument – and so in 1791, shortly before his untimely death, he composed his famous Clarinet Concerto. Especially in the Adagio, the chanting tone becomes fully effective: in a magical way, the clarinet »sings« of love, joy, beauty and perhaps even of the premonition of the end of life – the dedicatee Anton Stadler is said to have remarked: »Let him sing once more, even if it be his swan song«. Before our solo clarinettist Christoph Müller takes over the soulful performance for this hauntingly beautiful work, we play a piece from the Finnish homeland of our guest conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste: »Hit & Run« was penned by Sauli Zinovjev, born in 1988, who is causing a stir with his emotional orchestral works and was recently a guest in Bamberg for a year on a Villa Concordia scholarship. We conclude with a journey into the cosmos of Shostakovich, who also wanted to reflect current feelings and thoughts with his music – and said: »When I learn that someone is being tortured, I feel the pain myself.« We play his touching Eighth Symphony, with which he did not deliver the heroic work his fatherland wanted in the middle of the war in 1943, but cast the suffering of his soul in mostly gloomy sounds – a conductor friend said that Shostakovich thereby set »the horror of the life of an intellectual at that time« into music.

Orchestre de Paris / Jukka-Pekka Saraste

In response to the Brahmsian drama, marked by mystery and wildness, we have one of Sibelius's most optimistic compositions. And between the two, these last songs, which are not just those of Strauss's, but a “farewell” to Romantic song.

Orchestre de Paris / Jukka-Pekka Saraste

In response to the Brahmsian drama, marked by mystery and wildness, we have one of Sibelius's most optimistic compositions. And between the two, these last songs, which are not just those of Strauss's, but a “farewell” to Romantic song.

Jukka-Pekka Saraste dirigiert Werke von Haydn und Schostakowitsch

Jukka-Pekka Saraste dirigiert Werke von Haydn und Schostakowitsch

Jukka-Pekka Saraste Marianne Beate Kielland Oslo Filharmoniske Kor Gustav Mahler

“A symphony is like a world - it must contain everything,” Gustav Mahler said to his colleague Jean Sibelius in 1907. None of Mahler’s symphonies is closer to this ideal than Symphony No. 3, which, with its six movements and a total duration of about a hundred minutes, is Mahler’s longest. In 1895, he expressed the same idea to Natalie Bauer-Lechner during the work with Symphony No. 3: “... for me, «symphony» means constructing a world with all the technical means at one’s disposal. The eternally new and changing content determines its own form.”Mahler changed a lot in the symphony up until its premiere in 1902—among other things, the movement titles, which he eventually removed completely. But the working titles have been a joy for posterity since they give an insight into Mahler’s sources of inspiration for the music. “Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In” was the name he gave the first movement. The working titles suggest ascent:What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me.What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me.What the Man Tells Me.What the Angels Tell Me.What Love Tells Me. The first movement lasts half an hour and is almost like a symphony in itself. The second and third movements are shorter and lighter in form. In the fourth movement the soloist sings lyrics from Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra. In the fight movement, the soloist is accompanied by a “choir of angels” (women’s choir and boy’s choir). The last movement is a slow Adagio where Mahler’s world is gathered in a peaceful ending.

Hrůša conducts Beethoven and Shostakovich

The Year 1905: Shostakovich’s monumental symphony meets Beethoven at his brightest. Unchained energy from conductor Jakub Hrůša, pianist Jonathan Biss and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Giovanni Antonini conducts Mozart and Haydn

Few people are as passionate about the music of Joseph Haydn as Giovanni Antonini. He is currently in the process of recording all 107 of the composer’s symphonies – with a fresh, arresting approach. In this concert, we hear two symphonies of captivating originality and inspiration. Also on the programme are the cantata Arianna a Naxos, a touching emotional drama of an abandoned woman featuring Egyptian soprano Fatma Said, and Mozart’s little-known incidental music Thamos, King in Egypt, which is impressive in its dramatic power.

Giovanni Antonini conducts Mozart and Haydn

Few people are as passionate about the music of Joseph Haydn as Giovanni Antonini. He is currently in the process of recording all 107 of the composer’s symphonies – with a fresh, arresting approach. In this concert, we hear two symphonies of captivating originality and inspiration. Also on the programme are the cantata Arianna a Naxos, a touching emotional drama of an abandoned woman featuring Egyptian soprano Fatma Said, and Mozart’s little-known incidental music Thamos, King in Egypt, which is impressive in its dramatic power.