Marek Janowski

Marek Janowski

“All good music must have a sense of direction,” Marek Janowski once said. This is what he considers “the most important guiding principle for all composers.” The composer who posed the greatest challenge throughout Janowski’s life was Beethoven. The maestro initially navigates a classical terrain in Beethoven’s First Symphony, while Bruckner’s Third Symphony contains harmonic disturbances and jarring rhythms, as well as quotes from Wagner. In the opening, marked “Misterioso,” the distinctive trumpet theme emerges from the gently undulating strings. The work’s originality certainly comes to the fore in the finale, when a polka (played by the strings) is boldly layered over a chorale (played by the winds). This demands restrained ecstasy from the musicians of the BRSO – and the experienced Beethoven and Bruckner interpreter Janowski provides the best guidance.

Gewandhausorchester, Marek Janowski Dirigent

Gewandhausorchester, Marek Janowski Dirigent

GEISTREICH Der Name trügt: Die Geister dieser Ouvertüre sind nicht beherrschbar. Mit der Wucht des ganzen Orchesters braust der mächtige Teamgeist auf, Feuergeister entflammen Streicherfuror, aus der Flöte säuseln Feingeister, ein Schöngeist betört mit Oboentönen, dem Fagott entweichen Flattergeister, ein Waldgeist wohnt im Horn, der Berggeist droht mit Blech, und ein paar Kleingeister verführen mit Klarinetten-Charme. Carl Maria von Weber, der den Mächten des Orchesters gebietet wie kaum ein Zeitgenosse, animiert selbst in der Pauke einen schlummernden Poltergeist zum aufmüpfigen Solo. Er weiß, dass die 1811 als Relikt eines Rübezahl-Opernplans freigelassenen Geistwesen nicht wieder einzufangen sind, und preist sein Orchesterstück das kraftvollste und klarste was ich geschrieben habe. Wen diese Musik begeistert, den lässt ihr Melodienspuk tage- und nächtelang nicht mehr los. GEISTERGEGENWART 14 Jahre alt ist Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, als er 1823 in Berlin das Konzert für Klavier und Violine aus dem Ärmel schüttelt. Es gehört zu einer Fünfergruppe früher Geniestreiche, die Mendelssohn für sich, seine ebenso talentierte Schwester und enge Freunde wie den sieben Jahre älteren Geigenlehrer Eduard Rietz aufs Papier wirft. Mit ihm bestreitet Mendelssohn die erste Aufführung am 25. Mai 1823 im Rahmen einer privaten Sonntagsmusik und die öffentliche Premiere im Königlichen Schauspielhaus zu Berlin kurz darauf. Felix’ gespenstisch virtuoses Klavierspiel beschwört alle guten Geister des Barock und der Klassik herauf.

Marek Janowski and Augustin Hadelich

In Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, the Berliner Philharmoniker can explore the full spectrum of music-making, from intimacy in chamber music passages to its characteristically powerful tutti sound. Like Bruckner’s work, Mendelssohn’s violin concerto also emerged from the Romantic period – yet it inhabits a completely different sound world, filled with light and radiance. Conductor Marek Janowski is particularly highly regarded for his work in this repertoire. Augustin Hadelich, celebrated for his wonderfully lyrical sound at his debut three years ago, returns to the Berliner Philharmoniker as soloist.

Marek Janowski and Augustin Hadelich

In Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, the Berliner Philharmoniker can explore the full spectrum of music-making, from intimacy in chamber music passages to its characteristically powerful tutti sound. Like Bruckner’s work, Mendelssohn’s violin concerto also emerged from the Romantic period – yet it inhabits a completely different sound world, filled with light and radiance. Conductor Marek Janowski is particularly highly regarded for his work in this repertoire. Augustin Hadelich, celebrated for his wonderfully lyrical sound at his debut three years ago, returns to the Berliner Philharmoniker as soloist.

Marek Janowski and Augustin Hadelich

In Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, the Berliner Philharmoniker can explore the full spectrum of music-making, from intimacy in chamber music passages to its characteristically powerful tutti sound. Like Bruckner’s work, Mendelssohn’s violin concerto also emerged from the Romantic period – yet it inhabits a completely different sound world, filled with light and radiance. Conductor Marek Janowski is particularly highly regarded for his work in this repertoire. Augustin Hadelich, celebrated for his wonderfully lyrical sound at his debut three years ago, returns to the Berliner Philharmoniker as soloist.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Jean-Yves Thibaudet / Marek Janowski

A luminary of the German Romantic symphonic repertoire meets a master of elegant French piano playing: Marek Janowski returns to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra to perform Robert Schumann’s Fourth Symphony and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5 with Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Jean-Yves Thibaudet / Marek Janowski

A luminary of the German Romantic symphonic repertoire meets a master of elegant French piano playing: Marek Janowski returns to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra to perform Robert Schumann’s Fourth Symphony and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5 with Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist.

NOSPR / Alsop / Sumino / Inauguration of the season 2024/2025

We invite you to a live broadcast of the concert on Polish Radio 2.Samuel Barber began composing the Symphony No. 1 in1935, at the age of twenty-five. At the end of 1942 and at the beginning of 1943, he made significant amendments to the score, eventually to dedicate it to Gian Carlo Menotti – his university friend and later life partner. Commenting on this symphonic debut, he admitted that the intention behind it was a polemical dialogue with the classical tradition: „The form of my Symphony in One Movement is a synthetic treatment of the four-movement classical symphony. It is based on three themes of the initial Allegro non troppo, which retain throughout the work their fundamental character.”The concept of the Concertino by the twenty-nine-year-old Władysław Szpilman– that of a single-movement “small concerto” – is similarly untypical. His first and only composition for piano with orchestra was created in the Warsaw ghetto in 1940. Hence the “compactness” of the form. The graceful character, references to jazz and subtle allusions to Chopin permeate the melodies and harmonic language of the Concertino, showing Szpilman as akin to Prometheus, one who brings light into the darkest places of human despair and sorrow.In the case of the forty-year-old Johannes Brahms, one could call his Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a, a “protodebut”. The story of how long Brahms, filled with doubt, was preparing for his Symphony No. 1 (1876), is one of the most frequently discussed aspects of his biography. The 1873 Variations are a significant step in this process. They constitute a prototype of the symphonic idea and texture, and simultaneously a tribute and a token of admiration for the author of TheCreation of the World. „He was quite someone!” was how Brahms wrote about Haydn a year before his own death. “Oh, how pitiful are we against someone like him!”With his Rhapsody in Blue (1924), today, Gershwin is an iconic figure, standing like the Colossus of Rhodes, towering over the borderline between two orders – those of classical music and jazz. However, when the twenty-six-year-old was entering the conservative realm of American concert halls with his slightly nonchalant Broadway gait, he was crossing a line no one had ignored in such an ostentatious manner before. Paul Whiteman organised the Experiment in Modern Music concert in order to prove that the relatively new form of music called jazz deserved being recognised as a serious and sophisticated form of art. The Rhapsody proved that being first and brave is worth the risk!Andrzej SułekConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 90 minutes

NOSPR / Arming / Fung / Lullabies and symphonic fantasies

This year, two hundred years from the premiere of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, it is worth remembering the Name Day Overture. Initially, it was intended to contain a choir part with the text of Schiller’s Ode to Joy. The final result turned out to be different, yet no less interesting. All the more so, since the background for the piece is to be found in the name day of Emperor Francis I and II and its dedication is one for Prince Antoni Radziwiłł. It is quite a different story with Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D major. It is a popular piece, permanently present in the repertoire, though probably less frequently played than the Concerto in C major. Equally technically challenging and equally virtuosic, but more dreamy and melancholic, its narrative flowing lightly at a leisurely pace. Haydn’s melodies are easy to remember and not easy to forget, just like the theme from a Polish folk song quoted by Panufnik in his Lullaby, a virtuosic piece using quartertones. „A gem of talent, technique and taste” – that was how Stefan Kisielewski marvelled at the composition. Martinů’s Symphony No. 6, which the composer himself called Symphonic Fantasies,might seem both moving and surprising. It brings together modern oniric sounds and distinct neoclassical elements. „It is a work without form, and yet something holds it together, though I do not know what it is,” Martinů admitted openly. One may seek this “something” on one’s own, letting oneself be captivated by this music created by a Czech master who is still to find recognition in Poland.Piotr MatwiejczukConcert duration (intermission included): approximately 90 minutes