Lea Desandre / Thomas Dunford / Song Recital

Sabine Devieilhe / Song Recital

French singer Sabine Devieilhe is currently on a roll. The Opéra National de Paris, the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, the festival in Aix-en-Provence, the Bavarian State Opera, the Salzburg Festival – everyone is clamouring for her clear-as-a-bell soprano. She recently impressed in the Elbphilharmonie as Micaëla in Georges Bizet’s opera »Carmen«. Fortunately, she is not only addicted to opera, but also to song. Together with her long-time piano partner Mathieu Pordoy, she sings her way through a whole cosmos of loving lullabies by Franz Schubert, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss and Edvard Grieg at the Elbphilharmonie. In the second half of the concert, she juxtaposes Strauss’ »Mädchenblumen« about four female characters with the female perspective of Lili Boulanger’s songs. With works by Germaine Tailleferre and Cécile Chaminade, Devieilhe brings two other French female composers to the stage who otherwise often lag behind the voices of their male colleagues. Of course, the chanson icon Édith Piaf and her »Hymne à l’amour« should not be missing in such a frenzy of love.

Katharina Konradi / Catriona Morison / Song Recital

France calls the German art song »Le lied«. This resonates respect for this world-famous phenomenon, but also a lot of autonomy at the same time. The French art song is actually very self-confidently called »mélodie«. With Katharina Konradi and Catriona Morison, two equally top-class singers present a programme which delightfully contrasts Schumann and Brahms’ songs with their French contemporaries. Katharina Konradi is best known to the Hamburg audience from the local State Opera, where you could already have experienced her as an ensemble member in numerous leading roles. Catriona Morison’s award-winning mezzo-soprano impresses with its »warm-earthy timbre and excellent clarity«, as the FAZ wrote about one of her song recitals. The political and military conflicts between Germany and France in the 19th century did not stop even when it came to art – many French composers wanted to audibly break away from their neighbours. However, this does not mean that people had closed their ears to sounds beyond the border. France’s most important song composer, Gabriel Fauré, loved the classical song form just as much as Brahms. Ernest Chausson gravitated more to Richard Wagner’s free recitative. As repertoire gems, the singer duo have brought along songs by a sister duo: the opera diva Maria Malibran died at just 28 years old and, in addition to umpteen thousands of fans, also left behind a handful of songs. Her sister Pauline Viardot-García, conversely, became very old – and is one of France’s composers absolutely worth rediscovering!

Camilla Nylund / Helmut Deutsch / Song Recital

Camilla Nylund’s dramatic soprano has all it takes for the grand operas by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. But the Finn, who was recently hailed at the Elbphilharmonie for her »American Songbook« project, can also sing a couple of smaller numbers. This is particularly exciting when, with Helmut Deutsch, one of the most sought-after accompanists of all is at the piano. Alban Berg’s »Sieben frühe Lieder« (Seven Early Songs) are real gems and sound romantic in their own particular way – and tremendously sensitive. You can hear a lot of Gustav Mahler here! Especially as a composition pupil of Arnold Schönberg, the very young composer also makes forays to the limits of tonality here, however. Once older, he stubbornly held back many of his songs, but chose to release these seven. Obviously, he was particularly fond of them. With their warm, scintillating tenderness, which intensifies to a frenzy, they open up completely new horizons. There is perhaps no help for anyone who does not get goosebumps when the roses burst open in Theodor Storm’s »Nachtigall« (Nightingale)…

Mahler Festival: Song recital Alma Mahler and friends

For four days, the Recital Hall is dedicated to Mahler's most beautiful songs. A special recital is dedicated to his wife Alma, combining pieces by her with those by friends. Perhaps today's most important Lieder accompanist, pianist Julius Drake, flanks his favourite vocalists during all these concerts. Today you will hear French soprano Axelle Fanyo, a 'true storyteller' according to Forum Opéra. She shares the stage with one of the greatest Dutch talents, baritone Raoul Steffani.Austrian Alma Maria Schindler was introduced to her future husband, Gustav Mahler, by her composition teacher Zemlinsky. Under Mahler's name, she would become known - but never primarily as a composer. Mahler did not want his wife to write any more music, and Alma herself also had doubts about her work. Although most of it has been lost, her late-romantic, often melancholic songs are still widely performed. Here today in the Recital Hall, they alternate with pieces by friends and acquaintances. Axelle Fanyo and Raoul Steffani perform songs by Ernst Krenek, Mahler's son-in-law. You will also hear works by Berg, Korngold and Stravinsky.

Beethoven: Missa solemnis / Thomas Hengelbrock

Ludwig van Beethoven’s »Missa solemnis« is a superlative work. The technical and physical demands on the orchestra and choir as well as the conductors, who must be experienced in both fields, are tremendous – which almost predestines Thomas Hengelbrock, and his intimately familiar Balthasar Neumann Choir and Orchestra he established, for this performance. The performers are assisted by an acoustically powerful line-up of top-class soloists. »From the heart – may it return to the heart« noted Beethoven about the score of his »Missa solemnis« and considered it »the most successful of his creations«. It is the most personal confrontation with his faith and translates an understanding of God shaped by enlightenment and humanism into music. Not by chance, for instance, did it emerge at the same time as his famous Symphony No. 9 with its »Ode to Joy« – and, like this, is a plea to humanity.

Balthasar Neumann Choir & Orchestra / Thomas Hengelbrock

Coincidence or fate? No other work in music history allows this question to be discussed as emotionally as Mozart’s unfinished Requiem. Mozart died at the age of just 35 while composing the requiem mass – what sounds like the stuff of a great tragedy is a reality. But despite all the legends, one thing remains above all: Mozart’s music, which is probably one of the most moving settings of the liturgical requiem text. The wrath of God, human grief, fear and hope – Thomas Hengelbrock and his ensembles are exactly the right cast to bring all the emotions of the music to the stage. Hengelbrock precedes the famous dirge with the early Bach cantata »Christ lag in Todesbanden«. The composer was probably applying for his first organist’s post with this cantata and proves that he had mastered all the rules of the art. Following the old form of the choral cantata, the choir takes centre stage and sings movingly and powerfully about the resurrection of Jesus at Easter. In the version from 1724, Bach added a cornett and three trombones to the orchestra, providing even more goosebump-inducing moments. Death and resurrection – these central themes of Christianity are perfectly suited to the time around the last Sunday before Advent (Sunday in commemoration of the dead) at the end of November. On period instruments and with their characteristic tonal fusion between choir and orchestra, the Balthasar Neumann Choir and Orchestra, complemented by outstanding vocal soloists for Mozart’s Requiem, trace the spirituality of the overwhelming music.

Gluck: Iphigénie en Tauride / Thomas Hengelbrock

Christoph Willibald Gluck wanted his operatic music to be entirely focused on the gripping depiction of the plot. In the process, he revolutionised the overly long, extravagant baroque models. He set the ancient subject matter of »Iphigénie en Tauride« – a bloodthirsty family tragedy – to music, with finely rendered character studies that portray in gripping ways their personal inner conflicts in beautiful arias. It is an ideal template for Thomas Hengelbrock and his ensembles, who have long been a fixture in European musical life with their synthesis of historically informed interpretations and high-energy music-making. He has invited one of the most moving soprano voices of our time to Hamburg for the starring role in this opera-themed concert: Gaëlle Arquez, who last dazzled as Carmen in the Elbphilharmonie. The plot offers her and the other singers ample opportunity to perform across the full range of emotions. King Agamemnon was once prepared to sacrifice his daughter Iphigénie to the goddess Diana to win the war against Troy. In return, his wife Clytemnestra kills him on his return and their son Orest avenges his father by killing his mother. Diana, however, rescued Iphigénie at the last moment and took her to the island of Tauris as her priestess. This is where Orest comes to escape from the goddesses of revenge who torment him. Iphigénie, who is supposed to sacrifice all strangers on the island to Diana, recognises her brother and, overwhelmed with forgiveness, brings the spiral of violence to an end.

POSTPONED: Gluck: Iphigénie en Tauride / Thomas Hengelbrock

For organisational reasons, this concert will have to be postponed by one season, until 3 May 2025. Ticket buyers will be informed by e-mail. Under the following link you can request a refund of your ticket price: Information on tickets refunds Thomas Hengelbrock has long been one of the leading lights of the European music scene with his synthesis of historic performing practice and energetic music-making. For the lead role in his concert performance of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s captivating opera »Iphigénie en Tauride«, he has invited one of today’s most moving soprano voices to come to Hamburg: Carolina López Moreno. Gluck turned against the virtuoso excesses of Baroque opera with pared-down works concentrating on an absorbing depiction of the plot. He used the classical story of »Iphigénie en Tauride« for finely-drawn character studies that call for a high level of differentiation from all members of the cast. An ideal piece for Hengelbrock to work his magic on. Together with his top-class Balthasar Neumann ensembles and an excellent soloists’ line-up, he makes the audience’s hearts beat faster with superb playing and singing, and intense drama.

Concert de midi et demi avec Ye XIN, Spyros THOMAS, Jianyu SONG

Very British: Lea Desandre, Thomas Dunford and the Jupiter ensemble

They are one of the Early Music dream teams: mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre, lutenist Thomas Dunford and his French Ensemble Jupiter. What distinguishes them is their singular ability to perform Baroque works with so much energy and vitality that they sound newly-composed. In the final concert of the series Original Sounds, they will highlight two very different British composers: Henry Purcell, famous for his enthralling music for the stage, and John Dowland, best known for his intimate songs and instrumental works. Both shared a remarkable capacity for capturing emotions in music.