Alina Ibragimova plays Prokofiev

Krzysztof Urbański, Alina Ibragimova

»I’m happy about every listener, regardless whether they are musically trained or not. Concert halls are not museums and everyone can love music. I feel like an entertainer. And people notice that.« Krzysztof Urbański once said this in an interview – and he really is a charming entertainer on the conductor’s podium. No surprise, as the friendly Pole first wanted to be a dancer and then a football player as a kid before discovering his passion for conducting. He has been mixing up the classical music scene with his distinctive style for many years now. He particularly loves his guest performances with us and we are happy that he will be holding the baton again – in an emotionally charged programme that he has meticulously prepared as he always does. He has a strong affection for Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, with which the composer silenced his critics for a short time in 1937 – a typically ambiguous work with which he wanted to portray the »becoming of the personality«, in other words »the individual human being with all his feelings and doubts«. Before that, things are no less turbulent: with Alina Ibragimova as soloist, Sibelius’ brilliant violin concerto is performed. According to the composer’s wife, he was »on fire the whole time« during its composition. And you can hear this in the piece with its majestic melodies and sparkling action – including in the finale, which a critic humorously called a »polonaise for polar bears«, while Sibelius described it as a »danse macabre«. A programme that is perfectly suited to the temperament of Krzysztof Urbański, who once said: »I simply can’t do anything about this energy that slumbers inside of me. I just do what I feel.«

Krzysztof Urbański, Alina Ibragimova

»I’m happy about every listener, regardless whether they are musically trained or not. Concert halls are not museums and everyone can love music. I feel like an entertainer. And people notice that.« Krzysztof Urbański once said this in an interview – and he really is a charming entertainer on the conductor’s podium. No surprise, as the friendly Pole first wanted to be a dancer and then a football player as a kid before discovering his passion for conducting. He has been mixing up the classical music scene with his distinctive style for many years now. He particularly loves his guest performances with us and we are happy that he will be holding the baton again – in an emotionally charged programme that he has meticulously prepared as he always does. He has a strong affection for Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, with which the composer silenced his critics for a short time in 1937 – a typically ambiguous work with which he wanted to portray the »becoming of the personality«, in other words »the individual human being with all his feelings and doubts«. Before that, things are no less turbulent: with Alina Ibragimova as soloist, Sibelius’ brilliant violin concerto is performed. According to the composer’s wife, he was »on fire the whole time« during its composition. And you can hear this in the piece with its majestic melodies and sparkling action – including in the finale, which a critic humorously called a »polonaise for polar bears«, while Sibelius described it as a »danse macabre«. A programme that is perfectly suited to the temperament of Krzysztof Urbański, who once said: »I simply can’t do anything about this energy that slumbers inside of me. I just do what I feel.«

Vladimir Jurowski & Alina Ibragimova

Vadim Gluzman plays Prokofiev

»Passion is a state of the soul.« Salvator Dali once said this – and Tchaikovsky can arguably be regarded as the embodiment of this state: He was an emotional man through and through, who often struggled with not being what society expected him to be. Even his nanny called him a »porcelain child«. His states of mind left traces, especially in his most individual symphony, which was premiered in 1893 shortly before his unexpected death. He said he had »put his whole soul into the "Pathétique«: The work outlines different stages of his life with passionate melodies as well as an orgy of bass notes – and concludes with a heartbreaking Adagio. Prokofiev, too, was regularly subject to severe hostility and left his Russian homeland after the October Revolution of 1917 – but was never really pleased with having to live in what he saw as an alien »mental climate«. Shortly before he returned, he wrote the Second Violin Concerto in 1935 during his »nomadic existence«: although it is peppered with sarcastic humour, it follows the great Romantic tradition: one biographer characterised »the almost cliché-like enchanting« gesture of the solo violin in the Andante as »soulfulness« – in which Vadim Gluzman will wallow. A contemporary example of an artist who had to leave his beloved fatherland is the eminent composer Valentin Silvestrov: he fled Ukraine for Berlin. At the beginning of our concert, we will play his »Evening Serenade« from 2002 under the baton of Juraj Valčuha – a very melancholic piece which, thanks to its contemplative limbo, seems like a memory of beautiful and fulfilling hours of times gone by.

Vadim Gluzman plays Prokofiev

»Passion is a state of the soul.« Salvator Dali once said this – and Tchaikovsky can arguably be regarded as the embodiment of this state: He was an emotional man through and through, who often struggled with not being what society expected him to be. Even his nanny called him a »porcelain child«. His states of mind left traces, especially in his most individual symphony, which was premiered in 1893 shortly before his unexpected death. He said he had »put his whole soul into the "Pathétique«: The work outlines different stages of his life with passionate melodies as well as an orgy of bass notes – and concludes with a heartbreaking Adagio. Prokofiev, too, was regularly subject to severe hostility and left his Russian homeland after the October Revolution of 1917 – but was never really pleased with having to live in what he saw as an alien »mental climate«. Shortly before he returned, he wrote the Second Violin Concerto in 1935 during his »nomadic existence«: although it is peppered with sarcastic humour, it follows the great Romantic tradition: one biographer characterised »the almost cliché-like enchanting« gesture of the solo violin in the Andante as »soulfulness« – in which Vadim Gluzman will wallow. A contemporary example of an artist who had to leave his beloved fatherland is the eminent composer Valentin Silvestrov: he fled Ukraine for Berlin. At the beginning of our concert, we will play his »Evening Serenade« from 2002 under the baton of Juraj Valčuha – a very melancholic piece which, thanks to its contemplative limbo, seems like a memory of beautiful and fulfilling hours of times gone by.

Guest performance in Fürth: Vadim Gluzman plays Prokofiev

»Passion is a state of the soul.« Salvator Dali once said this – and Tchaikovsky can arguably be regarded as the embodiment of this state: He was an emotional man through and through, who often struggled with not being what society expected him to be. Even his nanny called him a »porcelain child«. His states of mind left traces, especially in his most individual symphony, which was premiered in 1893 shortly before his unexpected death. He said he had »put his whole soul into the "Pathétique«: The work outlines different stages of his life with passionate melodies as well as an orgy of bass notes – and concludes with a heartbreaking Adagio. Prokofiev, too, was regularly subject to severe hostility and left his Russian homeland after the October Revolution of 1917 – but was never really pleased with having to live in what he saw as an alien »mental climate«. Shortly before he returned, he wrote the Second Violin Concerto in 1935 during his »nomadic existence«: although it is peppered with sarcastic humour, it follows the great Romantic tradition: one biographer characterised »the almost cliché-like enchanting« gesture of the solo violin in the Andante as »soulfulness« – in which Vadim Gluzman will wallow. A contemporary example of an artist who had to leave his beloved fatherland is the eminent composer Valentin Silvestrov: he fled Ukraine for Berlin. At the beginning of our concert, we will play his »Evening Serenade« from 2002 under the baton of Juraj Valčuha – a very melancholic piece which, thanks to its contemplative limbo, seems like a memory of beautiful and fulfilling hours of times gone by.