Célimène Daudet brings her album Haïti mon amour—an ode to her mother’s homeland—to the stage with a unique concert, blending musical pieces with poetry and weaving resonance with photographs by Corentin Fohlen.
Keywords: Concert avec images, Early Music
| Célimène Daudet | Piano |
| Corentin Folhen | Photographies |
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These events are similar in terms of concept, place, musicians or the program.
Many phases in her extensive oeuvre betray Sofia Gubaidulina’s fascination with the sound of a large string section playing the low registers. She has written several pieces for cello ensemble, and the double bass also plays a prominent role in a number of her works. So the idea seemed to suggest itself of devoting a concert to this special preference of the now 92-year-old composer, who lives near Hamburg, thus producing a special »Portrait of Sofia Gubaidulina«. The centrepiece of the evening’s programme is the five-movement Concerto for Bassoon and low strings, written in Russia in 1975, the year of Shostakovich’s death. The rarely-heard work is one of the compositions that display the influence of this towering figure of Soviet music on Gubaidulina’s »middle style«. It is also well-known that Shostakovich encouraged and sponsored her as a young composer. The concerto’s fascination lies in the exceptionally varied and virtuoso sounds of by the low register, as well as the direct appeal of the solo part, taken here by the NDR’s solo bassoonist David Spranger. The concerto is flanked by two pieces scored for a larger cello ensemble. 2002’s »Mirage« with its light fantasies is a fine example of the nature mysticism to be found in Gubaidulina’s late works. »Am Rande des Abgrunds«, written at about the same time, is one of her most frequently-performed compositions, and surprises the listener with its use of two rich-sounding waterphones. Sofia Gubaidulina has a long-standing connection with the NDR. Among the memorable products of their cooperation are many performances put on by the NDR Chor (now known as the NDR Vokalensemble) – particularly the big first performances of the St John’s Passion and the Easter Oratorio in St. Michael’s Church, Hamburg, in March 2002.
Adventurous, inquisitive, independent, and principled in his approach – Pascal Dusapin has retained these qualities to this day, which explains why he is one of the most important composers of his generation. For his artfully crafted cycle of seven “orchestral solos,” he pondered for almost two decades the “question of the pure line” – which, according to the composer, is attained only in the sixth solo, entitled Reverso. Uncut concludes the collection of seven solos, and, with its iridescent prisms of color, is inspired by the legacy of Messiaen and Boulez. Conductor Ariane Matiakh will also include the Scenes from Penthesilea on the programme – a dramatic suite with three central roles interpreted by one singer, who in this concert will be the wonderful Christel Loetzsch. Another highlight is Dusapin’s Violin Concerto, characterized by sophisticated timbral changes, and performed by Renaud Capuçon.
One of András Schiff’s maxims is: »It’s important to be able to listen.« This principle applies especially to chamber music, which has always been a matter close to his heart. Because it is precisely this togetherness, and this listening and responding to each other, that are for him the most beautiful form of making music. Schiff now delivers precisely those kinds of moments of musical bliss with close musical friends such as the tenor Julian Prégardien and the cellist Julia Hagen. For the programme, Schiff has selected Romantic works by his favourite composers. These include Franz Schubert the prince of song and Robert Schumann, whose 1840 »Eichendorff« lieder cycle is on the programme. The programme also features Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 2, which was premiered in Leipzig in 1852, and the Piano Quartet No. 1 by Schumann’s friend Brahms, which was premiered in Hamburg in 1861.
In this programme the Ensemble Modern introduces the large-scale ensemble works of the American composer Ruth Crawford Seeger that are full of the delight in experimentation and the courage to pursue untrodden paths that characterised the 1920s. The futher pieces of this portrait concert also shed light on the present day, with the world premiere of a composition by the young American Katherine Balch and Tania León’s Ritmicas from 2019 – demonstrating where Seeger’s ideas continue to have a direct or indirect effect.
A matinée of chamber music – but in this case a special event: in a strictly choreographed concert design, the Ensemble Modern traces the numerous experimental forms that composer Ruth Crawford Seeger employed in her brief career in the interwar years, from dissonant counterpoint to serial techniques. The third part of this portrait series presents the US composer’s chamber works.
When Igor Levit takes his seat at the keyboard, one thing is for sure: you’ll hear the pieces on the programme as never before. The German-Russian pianist makes his very own mark, often as unexpected as it is brilliant, on every work he plays, whisking even veteran repertoire warhorses into the here and now. In this concert Levit is accompanied by the Berliner Barock Solisten in music by two composers who can be described without exaggeration as pinnacles of music history: Johann Sebastian Bach and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. The most famous of the Bach sons made a no less illustrious career for himself than his father, and was admired by fellow composers like Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn. In this cleverly thought-out programme, Levit and the Berlin ensemble create a father-son dialogue along entirely modern lines.
It takes some confidence to dedicate a sacred work personally to the Pope. But Claudio Monteverdi was keen to reach as large an audience as possible when he published his »Vespro della Beata Vergine« in 1610. With the work, he sought to express all the facets of his compositional prowess, and the »Vespers for the Blessed Virgin« remains one of the greatest works of sacred music to this day. In 13 movements, Monteverdi demonstrates his mastery and his ability to integrate all the contrasting stylistic influences of his time into one diverse whole. The six-strong Flemish instrumental ensemble Les Cornets Noirs specialises in the music of Monteverdi’s time. Together with the singers of the Delectus Cantionum ensemble, they present a historically informed and musically expressive performance of this legendary work.
What traces do wars leave on the music of the time? The Hathor Consort, a viol ensemble of to which harp, organ and cornett are added, joins forces with soprano Dorothee Mields to look for echoes of the Thirty Years’ War in the works of composers who witnessed this catastrophic period in European history. With his »Trostgedichten in Widerwertigkeit deß Kriegs«, the poet Martin Opitz wrote an influential treatise of edification in the midst of this fierce conflict that claimed the lives of around a third of the population. The composers of the age attempted to process the deep trauma of violence, hunger and utter defencelessness through their music. This programme brings together four musical witnesses of the time:Heinrich Schütz, Samuel Scheidt, Andreas Hammerschmidt and Heinrich Albert. The acclaimed Hathor Consort focuses mainly on Renaissance and Baroque music, but it regularly combines this with music from other cultures as well as with contemporary works. Dorothee Mields likewise focuses entirely on Early Music, and her clear and intimate soprano is regarded as one of today’s top voices in the field of historic performing practice.
Jakub Józef Orliński bridges the gap between the past and the present effortlessly: with a warm, radiant voice and rousing enthusiasm, the countertenor, who has already won the OPUS KLASSIK award three times, transports his audience to centuries long past. And yet he is not an artist who loses himself in the past – on the contrary. Orliński’s sparkling charm and his sympathetically sober view of things like success and career are as unpretentious as they are contemporary. In this ProArte concert, you can look forward to his excursion into the musically incredibly rich world of the Italian Baroque.
Who doesn’t know the Eurovision anthem with the opening bars of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s »Te Deum«! The renowned Monteverdi Choir Hamburg, together with soloists and the lautten compagney Berlin under the direction of Antonius Adamske, presents the entire work in its original historical sound – with timpani and trumpets.
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