Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Juraj Valčuha

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Juraj Valčuha

Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of the Little Mermaid is world-famous: In the depths of the sea, the mermaid swaps her fish tail for legs with the sea witch so that she can emerge into the human world. This costs her her voice. During a storm, she rescues a prince. However, he ends up marrying someone else and she, the creature of nature, has to perish as foam on the waves. Alexander Zemlinsky has captured her tragic fate in impressive, dazzling orchestral colours. Sergei Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 is also a work full of passion and is one of the composer's most popular works. He played the New York premiere in 1909 himself and gave it the nickname ‘Concerto for Elephants’, as elephants are considered to be extremely sensitive animals. It requires both enormous technical skill and a very sensitive interpretation of the lyrical passages. In them, the composer pays homage to his Russian homeland, from which he was to flee eight years later, never to return.

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Juraj Valčuha

Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale of the Little Mermaid is world-famous: In the depths of the sea, the mermaid swaps her fish tail for legs with the sea witch so that she can emerge into the human world. This costs her her voice. During a storm, she rescues a prince. However, he ends up marrying someone else and she, the creature of nature, has to perish as foam on the waves. Alexander Zemlinsky has captured her tragic fate in impressive, dazzling orchestral colours. Sergei Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 is also a work full of passion and one of the composer's most popular works. He played the New York premiere in 1909 himself and gave it the nickname ‘Concerto for Elephants’, as elephants are considered to be extremely sensitive animals. It requires both enormous technical skill and a very sensitive interpretation of the lyrical passages. In them, the composer pays homage to his Russian homeland, from which he was to flee eight years later, never to return.

Juraj Valčuha dirigiert Werke von Ljadow, Rachmaninow und Prokofjew

Juraj Valčuha dirigiert Werke von Ljadow, Rachmaninow und Prokofjew

Musikfest Berlin: Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Joana Mallwitz

For the second time in a row, the Konzerthausorchester and chief conductor Joana Mallwitz will be guests at the Musikfest. The solo parts in both works on the programme will be sung by the French-Cypriot soprano Sarah Aristidou, who has made a name for herself particularly in the field of contemporary music. In 1971, composer Luigi Nono met with artists and politicians in Chile, including Luciano Cruz Aguayo, one of the leaders of the Revolutionary Left. Back in Italy, he learnt of the young man's accidental death. Nono then composed a kind of ‘secular requiem’ for the activist, which was intended not only to convey grief but also the motivation to continue his social struggle. To this end, the composer set a memorial poem by Julio Huasi to Luciano, which was also given the title ‘Como una ola de fuerza y luz’ (Like a wave of strength and light). Among Mahler's symphonies, No. 4 is comparatively straightforward in terms of instrumentation and length. There is ‘much laughter’ in it, the composer assured us in a letter after its completion in 1901. However, the feeling that hilarity and horror exist side by side and that the idyll is not to be trusted creeps in as soon as the retuned solo violin plays in the second movement. And if you listen very carefully to the text of the ambiguous Wunderhorn song ‘Das himmlische Leben’, you will learn that, at least for the ox and lamb, heaven in the land of milk and honey is not full of violins, as a German saying goes.

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Joana Mallwitz

Joana Mallwitz leads the Konzerthausorchester Berlin into her second season as Chief Conductor with a programme of dance music, which for her is ‘perfect’ for the opening of the season. What's more, our new Artist in Residence Sheku Kanneh-Mason is making his first appearance - with Antonín Dvorak's Cello Concerto, which ‘adds a particularly festive element thanks to its familiarity and elegance,’ says our chief conductor. ‘Apart from that, it goes very well with John Adams’ ‘The Chairman Dances’ and Sergei Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances: We have three composers from three eras who went to America and dealt with issues of exile, flight and home. While abroad, they incorporated musical elements from their homeland into their works.’ We are very much looking forward to starting a 2024/25 season with you that is as full of musical energy and excitement as this opening!

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Joana Mallwitz

What does the faun do in the afternoon? He plays the flute! And in such a dreamy and colourful way that you would never have expected the shaggy hybrid of human and billy goat. He owes this image correction to Claude Debussy - and the flautists one of their most beautiful orchestral solos. The pianistic brilliance and perfect interplay of our former Artists in Residence Lucas and Arthur Jussen impressed Joey Roukens so much that he began to write a double concerto for the brothers, ‘in which the two soloists sound not so much as two separate soloists, but as one super pianist on one super grand piano, so to speak. This means that there are many unison passages: Both pianos play exactly the same notes. In any case, the unison is an element that appears frequently in my work, perhaps a legacy of the ‘Dutch musical tradition’.’ According to the Amsterdam-based composer, he was also influenced by Italian baroque toccatas. The brilliantly orchestrated Concerto for Orchestra from 1943, in whose five movements Bela Bartók combines Western musical tradition with Hungarian folk music, completes a varied concert evening as the main work, which takes the Konzerthausorchester under the direction of Joana Mallwitz from Impressionism through classical modernism to the 21st century.

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Joana Mallwitz

What does the faun do in the afternoon? He plays the flute! And in such a dreamy and colourful way that you would never have expected the shaggy hybrid of human and billy goat. He owes this image correction to Claude Debussy - and the flautists one of their most beautiful orchestral solos. The pianistic brilliance and perfect interplay of our former Artists in Residence Lucas and Arthur Jussen impressed Joey Roukens so much that he began to write a double concerto for the brothers, ‘in which the two soloists sound not so much as two separate soloists, but as one super pianist on one super grand piano, so to speak. This means that there are many unison passages: Both pianos play exactly the same notes. In any case, the unison is an element that appears frequently in my work, perhaps a legacy of the ‘Dutch musical tradition’.’ According to the Amsterdam-based composer, he was also influenced by Italian baroque toccatas. The brilliantly orchestrated Concerto for Orchestra from 1943, in whose five movements Bela Bartók combines Western musical tradition with Hungarian folk music, completes a varied concert evening as the main work, which takes the Konzerthausorchester under the direction of Joana Mallwitz from Impressionism through classical modernism to the 21st century.

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Iván Fischer

Of light and shadow: The 19-year-old Franz Schubert's third symphony in D major, which is cheerful and at times like a folk song, was written for a private circle in 1815 and probably premiered there, is followed by Anton Bruckner's tragic last work, his unfinished ninth in D minor. He worked on the finale of this symphony, which continues the weighty tradition of its eight predecessors, until his death in 1896. He fervently hoped to be able to finish the last movement and even spoke of it to his doctor. Because the apartment was sealed too late after his death, all kinds of authorized and unauthorized persons immediately pounced on the existing manuscript pages. Its creator, however, had finally realized that his strength and time would not be enough to complete it. He therefore decreed that his “Te Deum”, completed twelve years earlier, should be played instead of the fourth movement. However, the symphony is often simply performed unfinished. Incidentally, Iván Fischer and the Konzerthausorchester already played Bruckner's monumental Ninth in 2013.

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Iván Fischer

Of light and shadow: The 19-year-old Franz Schubert's third symphony in D major, which is cheerful and at times like a folk song, was written for a private circle in 1815 and probably premiered there, is followed by Anton Bruckner's tragic last work, his unfinished ninth in D minor. He worked on the finale of this symphony, which continues the weighty tradition of its eight predecessors, until his death in 1896. He fervently hoped to be able to finish the last movement and even spoke of it to his doctor. Because the apartment was sealed too late after his death, all kinds of authorized and unauthorized persons immediately pounced on the existing manuscript pages. Its creator, however, had finally realized that his strength and time would not be enough to complete it. He therefore decreed that his “Te Deum”, completed twelve years earlier, should be played instead of the fourth movement. However, the symphony is often simply performed unfinished. Incidentally, Iván Fischer and the Konzerthausorchester already played Bruckner's monumental Ninth in 2013.