Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet

Wind Quintet

SIMON SHAHEEN QUINTET

Benjamin Lackner Quintet

»A sensation in quiet tones«, »A work full of poetry and tenderness«, »Some can see the new Keith Jarrett in him«: there is truly no shortage of praise for the latest creation by pianist Benjamin Lackner. He is on stage here with four equally illustrious companions. The worldwide favourable reviews apply to Lackner’s album »Last Decade« (2022), his first for the label ECM. Born in Berlin in 1976 and having spent 13 years living in the US, its success suddenly catapulted the artist into the premier league of jazz musicians with (also) German roots. At the same time, it is already his ninth album that is sparking so much enthusiasm. Lackner had already been releasing his music on records for 20 years. Early on in his career, the singing of his lines attracted attention: what he played sounded deliberate and anything but verbose. Piano guru Brad Mehldau taught Lackner privately for a while. Mehldau’s embellishing is unmistakable. »Last Decade«, however, appears as the redemption of the old motto by Goethe »Mensch, werde wesentlich« [Human, become true to your essence]. No sound too much, condensed emotion in a few, meticulously placed notes. With Mathias Eick (trumpet), Manu Katché (drums) and Jérôme Regard (bass), world-class artists also assisted Lackner. This spring, ECM return to the studio in the south of France. The material that Lackner intends to bring on his autumn concert tour will be recorded there. Of the original quartet, Mathias Eick has stayed with him, but the new band is rounded off as a quintet with a second top wind player: the American saxophonist Mark Turner, already on the Elbphilharmonie’s wish list for a long time, joins in. Bassist Harish Raghavan has been constantly playing with Lackner for several years.. The Frenchman Matthieu Chazarenc has been associated with Lackner since their early New York trio days and is his chosen drummer for this line-up.

CHAMBER CONCERT: Brass Quintet

Featuring works by Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Kevin McKee, Leonard Bernstein and others.From our brass quintet’s music cabinet! Compositions for brass chamber ensemble were a rarity in Bach and Handel's day. It was not until the late 19th century that the brass band emerged, becoming particularly popular in America. This new trend meant that the previously neglected brass players were finally able to shine in works written especially for them. Our quintet has unearthed a range of exciting arrangements and breathtaking originals for this entertaining chamber concert – featuring roses without thorns, trees that fall in love, and horses made of steel!

Chamber concert: Piano quintet

This programme is inspired by a world of romantic feelings: Brahms had been tinkering with the composition of a quintet since 1862 – at a time when he was continually fragile due to failures and said despondently: »When you go on 30 and feel weak like I do, you like to lock yourself up and look at the walls in your sadness«. Nevertheless, he became self-confident, exercised, learned Latin and felt, »I'm growing!« Moreover, the Hamburg-born composer moved to his adopted home of Vienna, where he lived near the Prater and could drink his wine »where Beethoven used to drink it«. In 1864, he finally finished the piano quintet, about which his soulmate Clara Schumann raved: »I feel after the work as if I had read a great tragic story.« The remarkable composition captivates with a plethora of original thoughts that are artfully developed – it is also filled with a profound seriousness in long parts. Elgar‘s moving piano quintet also bears witness to a similar state of mind: it was composed in 1918/19 at a time when his life was overshadowed by worries, illnesses, fears and the loss of loved ones in the wake of the horrors of war. Despite his great fame in London, the highly sensitive composer retreated to the countryside to find a break from the world's noise – to which he soon had nothing more to say in music: he wrote only a few works, such as the piano quintet. Even though it sounds at times belligerently agitated, a gloomy mood and a sheer overwhelming nostalgia spreads again and again as a witness to his broken soul – after all, he noted at the time: »Everything comforting and hopeful in my life is irretrievably over«.

Chamber concert: String quintet

Attention: Change of programme and line-up

Ensemble Tamuz: Schubert's String Quintet

The Sunday Morning Concert brings you wonderful and much-loved compositions, performed by top musicians from the Netherlands and abroad. Enjoy the most beautiful music in the morning! You can make your Sunday complete by enjoying a delicious post-concert lunch in restaurant LIER.The Royal Concertgebouw is one of the best concert halls in the world, famous for its exceptional acoustics and varied programme. Attend a concert and have an experience you will never forget. Come and enjoy inspiring music in the beautiful surroundings of the Main Hall or the intimate Recital Hall.

JazzKLUB / Wonderfully swinging / Kresten Osgood Quintet

It is difficult to overestimate Kresten Osgood’s significance for the Danish scene. There is nothing he would not play, no challenge he would not accept. And even when he wants to pay tribute to the jazz tradition in the iconic formula of a quintet with the trumpet and the saxophone, he does it on his own terms – alongside the immortal standards by Monk and Dolphy, he reaches for contemporary musicians (such as Kirk Knuffke), ones who have not found a wide recognition (such as Elmo Hope and Randy Weston) and those who have found some, but only in their own country (such as the Austrian Harry Pepl or the Danish Leo Mathisen). For reasons unknown, returns to jazz classics are best done by musicians who have tried their hand at numerous avant-garde ventures. Osgood’s quintet performs the wonderfully swinging pieces in a slightly frolicsome manner, as it would have been put years ago, or totally chilled out, as it would be put today. They smile, find joy in their playing and never miss any chance to have fun with the material to be performed. Tomasz Gregorczyk Concert duration: approximately 90 minutes

Roberto Fonseca

Roberto Fonseca is a Cuban pianist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and bandleader. Havana-born, he has released many solo albums, collaborated across genres, been nominated for a Grammy Award and toured the world several times over. An artist of prowess and ideas, with a questing jazz sensibility and deep roots in the Afro-Cuban tradition, Fonseca continues to astound. ‘The most exciting pianist in Cuba,” avowed Britain’s Guardian newspaper. “Does something new with the old, without ever denying its origins, and opens himself to the world,” insisted France’s Le Figaro. “Makes all possibilities seem possible, and the moment feel perfect, intensely true,” declared the New York Times. Fonseca grew up in San Miguel del Padrón in the unassuming Barrio Obrero on the southeastern outskirts of Havana. His father, Roberto Fonseca Senior, played the drums. His mother, Mercedes Cortes Alfaro, was a dancer at the legendary Tropicana Club and is renowned within Cuba as a singer of boleros. He has been composing his own music since adolescence. His technique is as percussive and muscular as it is agile and delicate. His tastes were always eclectic: hard rock, for its energy and basslines. American jazz, taught at school, consumed in between, with Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and Oscar Peterson on rotation. Funk and soul. Music made in Africa and Brazil. Reggaeton, electronica, hip-hop. Classical music: “Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Grieg, Bartok,” says Fonseca. And always, the music of Cuba – that vibrant, tenacious, creatively fecund Caribbean island. Fonseca’s deep AfroCuban roots underpin a sound that builds bridges between ancient and modern and takes Cuban music – all music – forward, embracing challenges, breaking chains, showing what can be. Inspiring young musicians in Cuba, for whom Fonseca’s cross-genre adventures and international success are a benchmark. The international spotlight shone bright in 2001 when Fonseca joined that famed ensemble of elderly maestros, the Buena Vista Social Club, taking over the piano chair from the ailing Ruben Gonzalez (1919 – 2003) then touring the globe with singer Ibrahim Ferrer (1927 – 2005) then with BVSC alumni including diva Omara Portuondo. He has also played and cooperated with Raul Midon, Mayra Andrade and Fatoumata Diawara.Tastemakers eyed him, recognising the potential in his playing smarts and bright ideas, his intrinsic Cubanness and ineffable sense of cool. The concert at the NOSPR is a must-see event for all world music lovers. An unforgettable journey through the Latin world, in the pulse of Buena Vista with various influences from other genres.

Możdżer Danielsson Fresco BEAMO

The Możdżer Danielsson Fresco trio is back with their new album “Beamo”. This news have electrified the fans. The new album contains everything that has worked perfectly so far and for what the audience loves this band - space, beautiful melodies, noble reticence, but in fact, the trio has opened a completely new chapter with this recording as they present completely new, revolutionary content in a gentle and accessible way. What we deal with here is tonality bending by use of three different types of tuning. The tone is set by Leszek Możdżer's three simultaneously used grand pianos (A = 440 Hz, A = 432 Hz, and a decaphonic tuning), which imposes innovative aesthetics this way, but Lars Danielsson finds himself excellently in this new sound environment and weaves around distinct tonalities in a master manner, combining them into a single unit with the powerful sound of his double bass. Quitting the tonal temperament system seems to open up new areas for Danielsson in which hecan activate his imagination and implement completely new ideas. Zohar Fresco, being at his peak, gives the whole a powerful pulsation in which meticulously and finely implemented rhythmic details glisten. They are, in fact, a world of their own which deserves a separate analysis. This album dazzles, surprises, makes one wonder, and opens up a completely new sound space. The whole thing sounds mysteriously and intriguing, but very familiar at the same time. Nothing like this has ever been in music before.TICKETSConcert duration: approximately 70 minutes